Cécile Chaminade songs, Part 3

"Bonne Humeur" was published in 1903. The poem is by Amélie de Wailly (Mesureur). An English translation is available here: link. About firm companionship despite obstacles (those are represented by the adverse weather), the song expresses this sense immediately through "Nous marchions," from which the composer takes her cue.

The poem has four verses, using the rhyme scheme 1 1 2 3 3 2. The music for each verse varies, with verse 4 being a varied version of verse 1, thus musically the setting is ABCA'. The point of interest for this blog is in a wedge figure at the end of verse 3. More on that below. Otherwise, Chaminade works with the same ^5-^8 interval as she does in "La fiancée du soldat." Notice at the beginning that the lower element shifts up a step to end the first idea (E4-F#4)—see the arrow—and the upper element moves down a half-step to end the varied repetition (A4-G#4; see the second arrow).

A register change takes the interval to an upper fourth, B4-E5, which turns to a fifth, B4-E4, and then contracts to its original fourth E4-A4.

The wedge is a very prominent and dramatic passage that might have been played for humor (the line in the third bar of the example below has the companion Ninon stamping through mud puddles) but instead is transfigured with octave leaps and long held notes for "elle sourit": "she smiles."

Here are two versions of the voice leading: at (a), a simplification of the piano's chords; at (b), a reduced, registrally compressed four-voice version.

The end of the song could be said to be framed by a descending line—see the scale degree numbers—but the F# substitution for ^2 in the antepenultimate bar (boxed) leaves open an easily imagined E5 and a possible proto-background ^1/^5 as A4-E5 (boxed) in the penultimate bar.

Cécile Chaminade songs, Part 2

"La fiancée du soldat" was included in a two volume edition of songs published by G. Schirmer in New York (1892-93) with translations by several writers. The original French publication was in 1890. This song is in the first volume, which opens with "Ritournelle," still the best known of Chaminade's songs, which were quite popular in her lifetime but by no means to the same extent as her many piano compositions.

The music aptly expresses the woman's alternating moods of happiness and fear with minor/major contrasts between verses, but the expression isn't so simple as that sounds. Note below, for example,  that the shift from minor to major is to the text "Lon lon la, je chante ma peine."  The two segments of the poem, btw, become two verses in the music, each designed as A A ( = repeat) B1 B2 ( = varied repeat of the first phrase of B1). The beginning of the example also shows the importance of the fourth interval C5-F5, and of ^8 (F5) as focal tone.

The second part of B1 consists of a rising line from C5 to F5, followed by the first segment of the descending line from the beginning of B1.

The ending expresses the fourth interval in still another way.

The close of the song—the repetition of B2—varies this ending slightly to draw attention equally to C5 through the chromatic neighbor note Db5.

Cécile Chaminade songs, Part 1

"L'Idéal" was written by the Parnassian poet Sully Prudhomme. Chaminade follows the poem's design in the musical form A1 A2 ( = transposition, varied) B1 B2 A1 A2'. Her mode of expression is both dramatic and emphatic.

In the opening, a chromatic line rises to G4, then moves beyond it to G#4 (over an augmented triad) and A4 as the voice takes up its stolid recitation over ^8 (C4 if tenor, C5 if soprano), ending its phrase on ^9/^2 (D, circled).

The voice in the second phrase transposes its first phrase up a step, changing the ending to close firmly indeed with a ^3-^-2-^1 in C major, while—in an even more determined way (note the marcato accents)—the piano ascends to ^8. Overall then, a wedge figure is created.

In the reprise of the A section, the chromatic keyboard line flows directly out of the PAC that closes B2—see the circled notes below.

In the final phrase A2', both voice and piano reach fortissimo, and the piano overtops the voice (whether soprano or tenor), demanding equal attention to its rising line.

Chaminade, Passacaille, op. 130

Chaminade's Passacaille, op. 130, was published in 1909, shortly after her successful tour to the United States, where the highlight was a performance of her own Concertstück with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Passacaille belongs to a genre of Baroque keyboard nostalgia, to which composers in several countries contributed but which was especially favored in France. Chaminade's Menuet Galant, op. 129, was published at the same time.

By the title, the composer refers loosely to French Baroque keyboard styles, not to the ground-bass variation form. Her op. 130 is in triple meter, as was traditional for the passacaille, and in rondeau form with theme and couplets, though she treats this design loosely, the overall effect being of a ternary form. The first 48 bars are repeated in toto to close the piece.

The opening 16 bars give strong priority to a proto-background ^3/^5, as the unfolded intervals show. Note especially the line from within reaching up to B5 in bars 15-16.

Bars 17-32 are a contrasting B-section, 33-40 a retransition that points toward ^3, which duly arrives in bar 41. The abbreviated reprise then traces a simple rising line twice and does it emphatically into the cadence.

Offenbach, Pomme d'api (1873), no. 7 Romance

If I had been working through La Pomme d'api in topical rather than chronological fashion, I would have started with no. 7, Gustave's strophic romance "Consultez votre coeur," the only number in the operetta that positions a simple rising line in the structural cadence (without the complications of coda expressions). (For a number list and synopsis of the operetta, see the introduction: link.)

There are two strophes, where a partial line descends in the first, and a simple rising line with ^7 emphasized dramatically (with fermata) closes the second.

At (a), the proto-background frame ^8/^5, as F5-C5 (written). At (b), the frame expands outward with G5 as neighbor; at (c) a firm descent in the cadence, but a wedge is also formed with movement from below A4-A#4-B-nat4-C5. At (d), a reprise of (a) for the consequent, and at (e), the frame is flipped to permit a cadence to F4.

In the consequent phrase of the reprise, note the progress toward the cadence. Overall, the effect is that of the "mirror Urlinie," with descent from ^8 and subsequent return.

Offenbach, Pomme d'api (1873), no. 6 Rondeau

Number 6 is in three sections, after a short opening call "A table! A table!"  I wrote about the chanson "Versez, versez" in an earlier post: link. After a brief scena/recitative comes the rondeau "J’en prendrai un, deux, trois," which is the subject of today's post.

The design is vaguely that of a rondeau in the usual sense (that is, recurring theme with intervening contrasting sections). The A section consists of a 16-bar theme (bars 3-19), which has no cadence, after which another 16-bar theme is heard (bars 20-35); this one—we'll call it B—closes with a PAC in the dominant. A third, contrasting section C (bars 36-57) moves immediately to bVI of the dominant, introduces new melodic material (though the text continues in its catalogue fashion) and before very long reaches V (as dominant), where it stays for some time. When A returns (bars 57-72), the theme now closes firmly in the tonic and is followed by a lengthy coda (bars 72-92). After this, B and C are repeated in toto (bars 93-108 and 109-130, respectively), and so is the reprise of A and its coda (bars 130-161).

Here, voice part only, are A (theme1) and B (theme 2).

Here is the reprise of A. Note that the theme has a new second half, and that ends with a very straightforward descent in the cadence.

And here is the extended coda that immediately follows. The ascending octave in the cadence is very similar to the ending of no. 4.

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Note: In no.8, the finale of the operetta, the opening 72 bars of the rondeau are repeated, or ABCA'-coda.

Offenbach, Pomme d'api (1873), no. 5

No. 5 is an extended duo for Catherine and Gustave. It is in five parts:  (1) "C'est un Dimanche" is a  pastorale; (2) "A deux pas du chien savant" is a scena, with an interpolated reprise of the pastorale's opening theme in the middle; (3) "Et je vois l'un près de l'autre" is a solo for Catherine;  (4) "De grace écoule-moi ma bonne!" is another scena; and (5) "Pomme d'Api" is a duo, Allegretto with a presto coda.

Parts 3 & 5 are of interest here.

"Et je vois l'un près de l'autre" balances rising and falling linear figures in such a way that one hears a complex upper-voice design. Note that the theme's period, below, ends with a strongly implied ^3 over the directly expressed ^1.

In the consequent of the final reprise, more emphasis is given to the internal rising line in the cadence and to the original focal tone D5.

In section 5, "Pomme d'Api," a strong rising motive dominates the theme—see the circled notes below. The figure of the cadence bars is almost identical to that in "Et je vois l'un près de l'autre."

As in no. 3, the final consequent phrase is expanded, but not through the same method. This time the consequent is expanded through a deceptive resolution (fourth bar below), and the cadence follows, but the two voice parts—which could easily have closed on ^1/^8—instead hold on ^3 and ^5, respectively.

The presto follows. Its ascending line in the cadence is unmistakable. The orchestra then follows with a "proper" coda.