Classical Music | Choral Music

Recorded on 08/19/2016, uploaded on 04/27/2016

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

The author and poet Jules Renard often mocked the characters in his own work, treating them in a particularly sarcastic, even cruel manner. This is particularly the case in his Histoiries naturelles, a collection of poems based on the 44-volume zoological treatise by the 18^th-century French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon. In this work, Renard elevates the animals by making them archetypes of human personalities, and in doing so rather animalize men. Published in 1895, it became quite popular, and eleven years later Maurice Ravel selected five of Renard’s poems to set to music under the same title. Ravel’s settings are witty and humorous, certainly taking their cue from the lighthearted nature of the poems themselves, and which was seemingly lost on the audience at its premiere performance in 1907. Nonetheless, the charm of Ravel’s picturesque settings has nonetheless made Histoires naturelles a favorite among the composer’s vocal music.

Leading the song cycle is “Le paon”, or “The Peacock.” The elegant and spectacular plumage of the bird is depicted in the song’s majestic and grandiose manner. Yet, there is an underlying hint of loneliness, coaxing the listener to feel sorry for the bird, despite its haughty manner. Each day he waits for his fiancée. Each day she does not come. So sure of himself and his beauty, he maintains his proud and stately demeanor, thinking that it is inevitable that she will eventually come. He climbs the rooftop and calls for her. The other birds, tired of his show, pay him no heed. Receiving no answer, he retreats, confident that his wedding will be the next day. Atop this pathetic accompaniment rendered by the piano, Ravel treats Renard’s text as if the voice must only recite the words to musical tones. The natural and fluid rhythm of the poetry is unhindered by Ravel’s melodic line and followed meticulously by the accompaniment.        Joseph DuBose

Le paon (The Peacock)

He will surely get married today.

It should have been yesterday.

In gala attire he was ready.

He was only waiting for his fiancée.

She has not come.

She cannot be long.

Glorious, he walks

with the air of an Indian prince

carrying with him the customary rich gifts.

Love heightens the brilliance of his colors

and his crest trembles like a lyre.

The fiancée does not come.

He climbs to the top of the roof

and looks toward the sun.

He throws his diabolical cry: Léon! Léon!

So he calls his fiancée.

He sees nothing coming and no one answers.

The fowls who are accustomed to him

do not even raise their heads.

They are tired of admiring him.

He descends again to the courtyard,

so sure of his beauty

that he his incapable of resentment.

His marriage will take place tomorrow.

And not knowing what to do

for the rest of the day,

he turns toward the porch.

He climbs the steps

as though they were the steps of a temple,

with an official tread.

He lifts his tail-feather robe,

heavy with all the eyes

that could not leave it.

He repeats once more the ceremony.

Translated by Stephen Lancaster

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.