43869456

Camille Mauclair, Ernest Chausson and the "Trois Lieder"
Author(s): Rosemary Yeoland

Source: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, Vol. 47, No. 1 (June
2016), pp. 109-122
Published by: Croatian Musicological Society
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^ ,u J4U R Yeoland: I iraSM 47 (2016) 1: 109-122
Camille Mauclair, ^ Ernest ,u Chausson and J4U the Trois Lieder '
Rosemary Yeoland
University of Tasmania
European Languages
and Studies
Humanities Department
Churchill Avenue
HOBARTTAS 7005
Camille Mauclair, Australia
E-mail: rosemary. yeoland@
Ernest Chausson utas.edu.au
and the Trois Lieder U DC: 784 MAUCLAIR, C. /

CHAUSSON, E.
Original Scholarly Paper
Izvorni znanstveni rad
Received: May 4, 2015
Primljeno: 4. svibnja 2015.
Accepted: April 2, 2016
Prihvaceno: 2. travnja 2016.
Abstract - Rsum
A popular practice in
France at the end of the
nineteenth century was the
A practice that became popular in fin-de-sicle I
creation of mlodies by
French composers. Ernest
France was the creation of mlodies by French I
Chausson was one such
composers which they set to the words of poems by composer who excelled in
various French poets. This song form is a genre in this area. Having a fervent
interest in all the arts, he
which there is a deliberate and close relationship was particularly attracted by
between text and melody, expressed with concision the symbolist movement in
and clarity. Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) was one poetry. In 1896, Chausson
selected three poems to set
such composer and in 1896, during one of his most to music from the repertoire
intensely creative periods, he wrote the accompany- of the poet, Camille
Mauclair, resulting in the
ing music to three of Camille Mauclair' s poems, composer's opus 27. This
resulting in the composer's opus 27, Trois Lieder. article briefly outlines the
periods when Chausson
These piano pieces, to this day, have remained concentrated on mlodie
amongst the most popular of Chausson' s songs and writing, the importance
Mauclair placed on musi-
are readily available on disc. cally in his poems and then
The aim of this paper is to trace the relationship illustrates the effectiveness
between these two artists which led to such a of Chausson's music in
capturing the essence of
collaboration and then to examine the Heder
three very different poems,
(mlodies)1 in some detail. Les Heures, Ballade and
Les Couronnes.
Keywords: Camille
Mauclair Ernest
1 Camille Mauclair referred to the French mlodie as le lied Chausson Trois Lieder
franais. See Camille MAUCLAIR, Le 'Lied' franais contemporain,
19th-century France
Musica, 7, no.74, 1908, 163. symbolist movement
109
IRASM 47 (2016) 1: 109-122 | SaUC|a,r, Ernest Chausson and the Trois Lieder
Ernest Chausson was born in Paris to a wealthy family. His father, Prosper
was a building contractor who participated in Georges-Eugne Haussmann' s
renovation of Paris. Ernest, being the only surviving son, led a protected child-
hood and was educated by a private tutor who instilled in him an interest in the
arts, an interest also stimulated by the ambiance of the salons organised by his
godmother, Mme Berthe de Rayssac. Whilst encouraged by his father to obtain a
law degree, Chausson' s love of the arts drew him to make a decision between
choosing a literary, painting or musical career as he showed promise in all three
areas. From a literary point of view, he could read and write German fluently, had
written a novel, subsequently destroyed and knew certain poems by heart which
he loved to recite. He was also talented in painting and over his lifetime would
accumulate paintings by Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Gaugin and Vuillard amongst
others in his beautifully decorated apartment.2
He decided to settle on a musical career and in 1878, at the age of twenty-
three, he began taking private piano lessons with Jules Massenet and from 1879,
attended both Massenet's and Csar Franck's classes at the Paris Conservatoire.
By late 1880, Chausson decided to work exclusively with Csar Franck believi
that he required the disciplined approach of Franck when composing sympho
and chamber works. After only three years of systematic musical studies, h
began his composing career. The influence of both Massenet and Franck wou
infiltrate Chausson' s works and he would later constantly struggle against imi
ing Richard Wagner's style as he had also become an ardent Wagnerian fan. Fr
1879, the young French composer had made several visits to Munich and Bayreu
to hear the German composer's lyrical dramas such as Der Ring des Nibelungen
Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde.
Following his marriage to the accomplished pianist, Jeanne Escudier in 188
Ernest Chausson received many of the major artists in his own salon at 22 bou
vard de Courcelles. These included Albert Besnard, Eugene Carrire, Odilon Red
Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin who rep
sented the painters and sculptors; Stphane Mallarm, Henri de Rgnier, And
Gide, Colette, Camille Mauclair, Henri Gauthier-Villars were among the poets
and writers. Composers were the most numerous: Csar Franck, Emman
Chabrier, Henri Duparc, Vincent d'lndy, Gabriel Faur, Camille Chevillar
Charles Koechlin, Albric Magnard, Guy Ropartz, Gustave Samazeuilh, Raymo
2 C. MAUCLAIR, Souvenirs sur Ernest Chausson, La Vogue, vol. Ill, August 15, 1899, 74:
maison tait une merveille de got et d'art [...]. C'tait un muse o les Odilon Redon et les D
voisinaient avec les Besnard, les Puvis et les Carrire. (His house was a marvel of taste and art [.
was a museum where [works of] Odilon Redon, Degas were placed side by side with those of Besn
Puvis and Carrire).
110
nnCamille
Camille K. K. , , c cErnest
Mauclair, Chausson
Ernest Chausson and ^ and ^ the
the Trois Trois
Lieder ' *Yela"d: Lieder I IRASM 47 (2016) 1: 109-122
Bonheur, Sylvio Lazzari and Erik Satie; performers included Eugne Ysae,
Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot.3
From this list, it can be seen that Chausson was in contact with a broad cross-
section of the Parisian artistic milieu and would have been acutely aware of the
trends occurring in the different areas. In 1882, he joined the Socit Nationale de
Musique , the aim of which was to promote music by French composers, its motto
being Ars gallica. Chausson became secretary of this association in 1886, and he
took the role very seriously, encouraging the performances of young musicians'
works often to the detriment of having his own compositions played.
If one examines a catalogue of Ernest Chausson' s works, it is evident that he
had a penchant for melodies . There are two distinct periods when he concentrated
on this form of music, his first set of songs being written in the period prior to
1889 and the second set from 1893 onwards. For the first set, there is no doubt that
Chausson's literary inclinations led him to choose poems from established poets
such as Leconte de Lisle, Armand Silvestre, Thophile Gautier, Paul Verlaine and
Villiers de lTsle-Adam for his musical settings yet he was also the first to borrow
poems from young poets of the day.4
It was in this area of Chausson's compositions that Jules Massenet's influence
was most evident. As Massenet paid attention to the nuances and poetic content f
the literary text, so too did Chausson who would create a phrase structure, melodic
line and rhythm directly related to the text on which he was working. In the words
of the musicologist, Isabelle Brtaudeau, he [wove] an extremely profound and
privileged relationship with poetry.5 This feature will be examined in more detail
with reference to the poems selected from Camille Mauclair' s repertoire.
Song production and short works, however, did not ensure respect from the
fin-de sicle Parisian musical world and to be considered a serious composer,
Chausson believed it necessary to produce more substantial, larger works.
Already considered a dilettante6 by many because of his aristocratic position,
the composer was encouraged by his brother-in-law, painter, Henry Lerolle, to
work on a symphony and this was commenced in 1889. Such a new direction of
composition was not easily undertaken by the composer as indicated in letters he
wrote to Lerolle: I have been working like a slave and I am stuck on one measure!
[...] I play over incessantly what I have written, always hoping that a good
3 See Pierre BARICELLI and Leo WEINSTEIN, Ernest Chausson: The Composer's Life and Works
(Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955), 34-35.
4 G. JE AN- AUBRY, A French composer: Ernest Chausson, The Musical Times, November 1, 1918,
vol. 59, no. 909, 500.
5 Isabelle BRTAUDEAU, Les Mlodies de Chausson (Arles, France: Actes Sud, 1999), 51. II nou
avec la posie une relation privilgie, extrmement profonde.
6 P. BARICELLI and L. WEINSTEIN, op.cit., 40: (According to) Charles Gamier of the Revue d
l'Evolution : [...] They are amateurs who consider music as an agreeable pastime.
111
IRASM 47 (2016) 1: 109-122 | ^^uclair, Ernest Chausson and the Trois Lieder
inspiration will enable me to get by the fatal measure.7 Highly self-critical,

Chausson appeared to blame his songs for his composing difficulties at that point
in time, for in a letter to his friend, Pierre Poujaud in 1889, he wrote: In my lucid
moments I try to recognise my malady. And I have found it, all of a sudden. It
comes from my songs. Ah! I detest them now and I hope never to write any again.
[...] Oh no! that is not the kind of music I would like to write.8 Despite his
misgivings, the Symphony in B-flat major was completed in 1890 and performed at
the Socit Nationale on April 18, 1891, with Chausson conducting. Also written in
this period was the Concert in D major for piano , violin and string quartet, performed
by Eugne Ysae in Brussells in 1892. The latter work, in particular, was very well
received and Chausson was thrilled.
Perhaps now satisfied that his symphony and chamber music had obtain
recognition, Ernest Chausson turned once more to writing melodies. At this t
he was particularly attracted to the symbolist movement in poetry, attending
mardi evening gatherings at the poet, Stphane Mallarm's apartment, rue d
Rome.9 That which appealed to him was both the concept of symbols within
work and the musicality which the symbolists infused into their poems. The
of musicality had arisen from the Wagnerian concept of the fusion of the ar
(Gesamtkunstwerk). Richard Wagner had believed that the different arts could
combined together - music, word, dcor - in such a way that they would exer
synergistic effect on the audience lifting them to a higher metaphysical plane
thus sought to produce this in his musical dramas.10
The symbolist writers and poets, impressed by this idea, set out to emul
Wagner by attempting to capture a musicality in their prose and poetry - a fusion
of the arts - believing that their works would thus exert an enhanced effect
their readers and listeners.
Paul Verlaine had also foreshadowed the importance of musicality in poetic

works in his Art potique written in 1874 which commences with the line De la
musique avant toute chose (Music before all else) and then later in the same
poem:
7 See op. cit., 42-43.

8 Letter from Ernest Chausson to Pierre Poujaud, 1899, quoted in op.cit., 45.
y In 1885, the symbolist poets along with Stephane Mallarme, included Rene Ghil, Stuart Merrill,
Charles Morice, Teodor de Wyzewa, Pierre Quillard, Ephraim Mikhael, Paul Verlaine, Jules Laforgue,
Jean Moras, Emile Verhaeren, Gustave Kahn, Albert Mockel, Maurice Maeterlinck and Henri de
Rgnier. Camille Mauclair joined the gathering at rue de Rome in 1891. At that later stage, participants at
the mardi meetings included Pierre Lous, Andr Gide, Paul Valry, Henri de Rgnier, Ferdinand
Hrold, Andr Fontainas, Albert Mockel, Francis Viel-Griffin, Stuart Merrill, Edouard Dujardin, Alfred
Poizat, Edmond Bonniot, Thodore Duret, Odile Redon, Whistler, Stefan George, Georges Brands,
Byvanck, Marcel Schwb, Paul Claudel, Emile Verhaeren, Maurice Maeterlinck, Charles Morice, Pierre
Quillard, Flix Fnon, Louis Le Cardonnel, Jean Moras, Claude Debussy and Oscar Wilde.
10 See Rosemary YEOLAND, La contribution littraire de Camille Mauclair au domaine musical
parisien (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008), 27.
112
R Yeo'and: IRAS M 47 (2016) y ' 1: 109-122
Camille Mauclair, Ernest Chausson and the Trois Lieder ' IRAS M 47 (2016) y '
De la musique encore et toujours! (Music again and forever!

Que ton vers soit la chose envole let your verse be the thing that flies)
The means by which the symbolists infused musicality into their works was
described by one of the symbolist poets, Gustave Kahn: We sustain our rhyme as
such by assonances and we place complete rhymes within the verse itself corre-
sponding to other internal rhymes, everywhere where the rhythm invites us to
place them, the rhythm which is faithful to the sense and not the symmetry.11
Such a poetic structure did not correspond to the usual French alexandrine line of
twelve syllables, with major stresses on the sixth and last syllable but was much
freer and in many cases led to vers libre (free verse).
As mentioned, amongst the poets present at Mallarm's mardis was the young
Camille Mauclair (1872-1944) and it is possibly at these gatherings that he and
Ernest Chausson first met each other. Camille Mauclair was born in Paris in 1872
as Camille Laurent Celestin Faust12 and adopted the nom de plume, Mauclair13 f
his career as a writer, poet, biographer and literary, music and art critic. Early i
his career, in 1895, he had written a collection of poems Sonatines d'automne. As
indicated in the preface to these poems; It is only a question here of making
little music ... A man playing little sonatas to himself in the nonchalance o
Autumn.14 His second collection Le sang parle was not written until 190415 and
third collection motions chantes was published in 1926.16
Prior to 1897, Mauclair was a fervent supporter of the symbolist movement
and he examined the ideas inspiring symbolist thought in a collection of essay
Eleusis : causeries sur la cit intrieure (Eleusis: discussions on the internal city).1
Did Chausson and Mauclair share their thoughts about symbolism and musicalit
at Mallarm's apartment? Was it at that point in time that the composer became
aware of Mauclair' s poems? A friendship certainly developed between the two
11 Kahn, Gustave, quoted by Frdric DELOFFRE, Le vers franais (Paris: Socit d'ditio
d'Enseignement Suprieur, 1973), 173: Nous soutenons notre rime telle quelle par des assonance
nous plaons des rimes compltes l'intrieur d'un vers correspondant d'autre rimes intrieures
partout o la rythmique nous convie les placer, la rythmique fidle au sens et non la symtrie.
12 Camille Mauclair's parents were from Lorraine, his father being Franois Xavier Faust and h
mother Eugnie Agathe Rosalie Konstatt.
13 Possibly a play on the words mots clairs meaning clear or precise words.
14 C. MAUCLAIR, Sonatines d'automne (Paris: Perrin and Co., 1895), viii: il n'est ici question qu
de faire un peu de musique [. . .] un homme se joue de petites sonates lui-mme, dans la nonchalan
de l'automne.
15 C. MAUCLAIR, Le sang parle (Paris: Maison du livre, 1904).
16 C. MAUCLAIR, Emotions chantes. Pomes distributed to only a few litterateurs and poet
Original manuscript autographed, n.54, October, 1926 [N.A.F. 4 Ye 20321.
17 C. MAUCLAIR, Eleusis: causeries sur la cit intrieure (Paris: Perrin, 1894).
113
IRASM 47 (2016) 1, 109-122 | auclar, Ernest Chausson and the Trois Lieder
men as attested by the article18 that Mauclair wrote following Chausson's untimely
death and the gesture of dedicating his novel, Le soleil des morts 19 to the composer.
Le soleil des morts was written when Camille Mauclair broke ties with the
symbolist milieu in 1897. Unlike many in this group, Mauclair was obliged to
a living and did so by contributing to various reviews and newspapers of the
He was thus more exposed to events in the world around him and bec
increasingly influenced by the social and political activities that were occurri
Wishing to be more independent in his writings and convinced that his role a
artist should be educative, he moved away from the Parisian scene to liv
St-Leu-La-Foret, in Seine et Oise where he proceeded to adopt a more psychological
sociological approach to his novels. He also expanded his writings as a critic, essayis
historian and biographer and whilst he did not have a formal musical background,
was a fervent mlomane10 and came to write several essays and texts on music.21
Musicality both in his prose and poetry was always important to Camill
Mauclair, when choosing le mot juste22 and this is well illustrated by his comm
I have often suffered the torture of leaving my own art to follow the siren [mus
of trying to invent [. . .] a musicality in the diction to supplement the brief tonal
of the syllables.23 In relation to poetry, he developed the pursuit of musical
even further: the unique difference between prose and verse is that [in the l
there is] the insistence that the sound of words prevails over their sense.24
verse could easily be set to music resulting in the French version of Heder, us
referred to as mlodies. Mauclair, in his article 'Le Lied franais contempora
comments that the musicians [understand] that more flexible and musical poe
could provide precious resources of expression.25 It is highly probable
Mauclair shared his views on the French lied with Ernest Chausson stressing
18 C. MAUCLAIR, Souvenirs sur Ernest Chausson, La Vogue, 1899, 7-9, 73-82.

19 C. MAUCLAIR, Le soleil des morts (Genve: Ressources, 1979), 8: J'avais ddi [Le soleil des mo
Ernest Chausson, le pur musician trop tt disparu, dont l'amiti m'tait si douce alors. Au de
annes mon amiti lui conserve cette ddicace. (I had dedicated [Sun of the Dead ] to Ernest Chau
the pure musician, who departed from life too early and whose friendship I valued so greatly at the
Beyond the years, I dedicate this new edition to him again in the name of our friendship).
20 Music lover.
21 See for example: Schumann first edition (Paris: H.Laurens, 1906), La Religion de la musique first
edition (Paris: Fischbacher,) 1909, Histoire de la musique europenne de 1850 1914 (Paris: Fischbacher,
1914), Les hros de l'orchestre (Paris: Fischbacher, [n.d.l), (1921).
22 The right word.
23 C. MAUCLAIR, La religion de la musique (Paris: Fischbacher, 1924), 44: J'ai su cette torture
exceptionelle d'essayer de sortir de mon art pour suivre la sirne, d'inventer [...] toute une musicalit
de la diction pour essayer de suppler la brivet tonale des syllables.
24 Ibid., 223: L'unique difference de la prose et du verse est dans l'insistance faire prvaloir le
son des mots sur leur sens.
25 C. MAUCLAIR, Le Lied franais contemporain, Musica, 7, no. 74, Nov 1908, 163: Les musiciens
comprirent que la posie assouplie et musicalis pourrait apporter de prcieuses ressourc
d'expression.
114
... ^Ye!a"d: I IRASM 47 (2016) y ' 1: 109-122
Camille Mauclair, Ernest ... Chausson and the Trois Lieder ' y '
importance that it was a composite mixture in which the poem and the music
of equal importance.26
In all events, Chausson selected three poems from Mauclair's repertoire to
to music: Les Heures and Les Couronnes were taken from the earlier Sonatines
d'automne and Ballade from Le Sang parle. The mlodie for Ballade was the first to b
written, and this occurred in Paris, March, 1896, whilst the other two were written
at Bas-Bel-Air in September of the same year. Thus the claim by Mauclair,27 t
Chausson asked him to produce a poem, namely Les Heures overnight to whic
the composer quickly wrote a mlodie, may not be correct as the selection of
ems, in which this poem was included, was already published in 1895.
Ernest Chausson arranged his opus 27 opening with Les Heures , followed b
Ballade and concluding with Les Couronnes.
Les Heures
Les ples heures, sous la lune

En chantant, jusqu' mourir,
Avec un triste sourire
Vont, une une
Sur un lac baign de lune

O, avec un sombre sourire,
Elles tendent, une une,
Les mains qui mnent mourir.
Et certains, blmes sous la lune
Aux yeux d'iris sans sourire,
Sachant que l'heure est de mourir
Donnent leurs mains, une une,
Et tous s'en vont dans l'ombre et dans la lune
Pour s'alanguir et puis mourir,
Avec les Heures, une une,
Les Heures au ple sourire.28
26 Ibid., 163: Le lied est une composition mixte dans laquelle le pome et la musique ont une
importance gale.
27 C. MAUCLAIR, La religion de la musique (Paris: Fischbacher, 1924), 73: Vous devriez m'crire
un lied sur des rimes rptes. Venez ce soir, je vous jouerai du Franck [...]. Je fis ce pome en
rentrant chez moi, puis aprs diner, j'allai passer la soire chez mon ami [...] Il se mit au piano, et il a
improvisa cette musique. (You must write me a lied with repeated rhymes. Come back tonight, I
will play you some [music of] Franck [...] I did this poem on returning home, then after dinner, I
went to spend the evening with my friend [...] he sat at the piano and improvised this music). It is of
course possible that this meeting may have occurred prior to 1895 and that Chausson perfected his
mlodie for publication in 1896.
28 The Hours. The pale hours under the moon/ Go singing till they die/ With a sad smile/ They go,
one by one/ On a lake bathed in moonlight/ Where, with a sombre smile/ They extend, one by one/ Their
115
IRASM 47 (2016) 1: 109-122 | ^Suclair, Ernest Chausson and the Trois Lieder
Camille Mauclais poem is one of acceptance of death in which symbolically

the hours with human characteristics, stretch out their hands across a moonlit
lake, and with a sad, pale smile, slowly pass away. The poet uses the repetition of
four words at the end of each line in each verse, producing a sense of bells tolling
away the hours: une/lune and mourir/ sourire. There is also a sombre echo sounding
throughout the poem with the use of the drawn out syllabic sounds (in Italics
here): chant ant, vont , sombre, tendent, s ans, sach ant, donnent, l'ombre, d ans.
The mood of the poem is captured by Chausson' s accompanying music which
also echoes the persistent eerie tolling. He achieves this with the use of some 170
syncopated A's (the dominant of D minor). The whole piece is to be played lent et
resign (slowly, with resignation), fading away to a mere vibration at the conclusion
of the mlodie. According to Bergeron, Chausson7 s use of continuous off-beats pro-
vides a sense of freedom in the metre so that the notated metre of 4/4 seems arbi-
trary. The result is that the melody becomes more speech like, capturing the same
kind of accent as observed in Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis.29
L*a! #1 rtslgn jour
fre- i i i i r i i f|
L%9 pi-! m, ott la lu _ uev
There are a couple of points in the music where it accentuates

words. At bar 5, when the vocal line reaches the low note of E flat, the
word vont rings out conspicuously as it coincides for the first time wit
beat, creating an effect like the sounding of a gong.30
jJJi Lihyjii
Vont un u . . a
(J pn%
-rT fil
hands that lead to death/ And certain ones, wan in the moonlight/ With unsmiling iris ey
that it is time to die/ Give their hands, one by one/ And all go together into the shadows a
To grow listless and then to die/ With the Hours, one by one/ The Hours, with their pale
29 Katherine BERGERON, Voice Lessons, French Mlodie in the Belle Epoque (Ox
University Press, 2010), 181.
30 Ibid., 181.
116
~ * , n .ou Yela"d: I IRASM 47 (2016) 1:109-122
~ Camille * Mauclair, , n Ernest .ou Chausson and the Trois Lieder '
A similar effect is produced at bar 14 when the down beat corresponds with
the word donne nt. There is also an eerie effect produced at bar 17 with a fleeting F
sharp in the bass to correspond with the word lune.
Camille Mauclair was particularly impressed with Chausson' s interpretation
of this poem, calling it a model of musical translation with its feeling, rhythm
and syllabic chant.31 He also appreciated the overall effect of the mlodie com-
posed by Chausson. How his music has prolonged my poor word! How he has
enriched this humble little cry with all his genius.32
Ballade
Quand les anges se sont perdus

Qui s'en venaient sur la mer,
Les oiseaux les ont attendus
En criant perdus
Dans le vent amer.
Quand les vaisseaux se sont perdus

Qui s'en venaient sur la mer,
Les oiseaux les ont attendus
Puis s'en sont alls dans le vent amer.
S'en sont alls jusqu'aux chaumires

Qui dorment au bord de la mer,
Et ils ont dit qu'taient perdus
Les anges attendus.
S'en sont alls aux clochers des glises
Qui chantent selon la brise,
Et ils ont dit qu'taient perdus
Les vaisseaux attendus.
Et la nuit les enfants tranges

Ont vu les ailes des anges
Comme des vaisseaux flotter au ciel,
Ont vu des voiles comme des ailes
Planer vers les toiles
Et mlant les ailes, les voiles,
Et les navires et les anges,
Ils ont pri, les enfants frles,
Dans une ignorance blanche.33
31 C. MAUCLAIR, La religion de musique (Paris: Fischbacher, 1924), 74: C'est [...] un modle
d'identit du sentiment, du rythme, du chant syllabique, avec leur traduction musicale.
32 Ibid., 74: Comme sa musique a prolong mes pauvres mots! Comme il a enrichi de tout son
gnie cette humble petite plainte.
33 Ballad. When the angels lost their way/ Coming across the sea/ The birds awaited them/ With
lost cries/ In the bitter wind/ When the vessels became lost/ Coming across the sea/ The birds awaited
117
IRASM 47 (2016)
* ' I*Camille
' 1: 109-122 I Camille
Mauclair, Ye', la.n.d:
. . c Ernest . . and
Chausson c Ernest
. the .., TChausson and .. .the
Trois . Lieder . .. T Trois . Lieder . . .
In Ballade , Camille Mauclair has created a sense of ethereality as angels,

vessels and birds disappear in the bitter, sea wind. Did they head skyward as the
bells of the churches toll the loss of the boats and innocent children dream visions
of angels' wings and sails floating towards the stars? The oceanic wind seems to
blow through the poem, the effect being created by the use of lighter sounding
syllables at the end of several verse lines: perdws, attendes, perdws plus the sound
of 's' in glises, brise. The atmosphere is not the sombre mood of Les Heures but is
more wistful and dreamlike.
Ernest Chausson has chosen a strict rhythm of 6/4 for this mlodie which
throughout the piece, imitates the rocking motion of a boat at sea. The key signa
ture is A major, providing a contrast to the sombre setting of Les Heures, yet there
is a constant changing of harmonies which gives a slight sense of uneasiness to th
mlodie' s ambiance.
^ r j J j -M
gaa&d 1*9 an . gej m vont
8^ y1 "p"5
The eternal waiting is also emphasised by Chausson' s use of dotted minims or

semibreves to correspond with the word attendes at bars 6/7, 16/17, 31 and 41.
Loa oi.so&ux Im oat tt.tia.4aa
Towards the end of the piec

cate arpeggio filigree which r
by the little children.
them/ And then left in the bitter win

said that the angels awaited/ Were lost
breeze/ And they said that the vessels
angels wings/ Like vessels floating i
And blending wings, sails/ And ships
118
R Yeoland: I iraSM 47 (2016) 1: 109-122
Camille Mauclair, Ernest Chausson and the Trois Lieder '
This musical evocation of reverie sets the scene for the third piece in opus 27
which is Les Couronnes :
Les Couronnes
C'est la fillette aux yeux cerns

Avec son air tonn
Et ses trois frles couronnes.
L'une de fraiche pimprenelle

L'autre de vigne en dentelle
Dans la troisime une rose d'automne.
La pimprenelle est pour son me,

La vigne est pour l'amuser,
La rose qui voudra l'aimer.
Beau chevalier! Beau chevalier !
Mais il ne passe plus personne.

Et la fillette aux yeux cerns
A laiss tomber les couronnes.34
It has been suggested that this poem of Mauclais was inspired by Maurice
Maeterlinck's play Pellas et Mlisande35 in which Golaud (beau chevalier) encounters
34 The Coronets. Tis a young girl with dark-shadowed eyes/ With her astonished air/ And her
three fragile coronets/ One is of fresh burnet/ Another of lacy vine/ In the third an autumn rose/ The
burnet is for her soul/ The vine is to amuse her/ The rose for the one who would love her/ Handsome
knight! Handsome knight!/ But no-one further passes by/ And the young girl with dark shadowed
eyes/ Let fall the coronets to the ground.
35 Claude Debussy's opera of the same name was not performed until 30 April 1902, although it
is possible that he played the piano version of the music to his friends within the symbolist circle.
Chausson had been worried about Debussy's influence on his work. He wrote to Henri Lerolle,
November 28, 1893: [Debussy] is grieving that I refuse to hear his Pellas et Mlisande. Certainly this
hearing has made me fearful. I am sure in advance his music will please me too much. See Ralph Scott
GROVER, Ernest Chausson, The Man and his Music (Lewinsburg: Bucknell University Press, 1980), 100.
119
IRASM 47 (2016) 1: 109-122 Camn^Mauclair, Ernest Chausson and the Trois Lieder
a beautiful maiden (Mlisande) in the forest. Mlisande has lost her crown in a
fountain and from the very start of the story an unsolved mystery is established.
Why does the princess plead that Golaud should not retrieve it? Mauclair was
certainly very familiar with the play36 and its inherent mystic and symbolic quali-
ties. Likewise, there is a mythical and mystical aura to the young girl in Mauclair7 s
poem. The reader is left wondering as questions remain unanswered. What does
the young girl feel? Is she relieved, indifferent or sad that no knight has passed by?
The short, three-lined verses in the poem create an essence of delicate fragility
and this is emphasised by the light open syllables that lilt upwards at the end of
phrases: cerns, tonns, amuser, aim er, chevalier.
Chausson has echoed this simplicity in the choice of a minimalist modal folk
song style. He achieves this with the use of the seventh chords on I, II and VI of the
scale. There is also tonal ambiguity as the music shifts backwards and forwards
from minor to major keys adding to the diaphanous atmosphere of the piece.
There is a dramatic climax, with a sforzando at bar 22 to correspond with the

word rose which is followed by chromatic harmony to announce the awaited
knight ( beau chevalier). When the words Beau chevalier occur for the second time at
bar 29, the last syllable is emphasised by an extended minim establishing the
importance of the mystery knight within the tale.
^ che -va. lie ri ^ ^ ^ ^

^
!Sfc3lS5 ^
36 Camille Mauclair had been one of the main instigators in having Maeterlinck's play produced
in Paris. He joined forces with Aurlie Lugn-Poe to stage the play at the Thtre des Bouffes-Parisiens
on 17 May 1893.
120
Camille- -,, ,,Mauclair,
Camille Ernest Ernest
Chausson and the
Chausson Trois
and the *Ye!a"d:
Trois Lieder ' Lieder I IRASM 47 (2016) 1:109-122
At bar 34, which corresponds to the start of the last verse of Mauclair' s poem,
the music returns to minimalist economy and fades away gently to end in the
minor key of C.
From this brief discussion of the three pieces in opus 27, it can be seen how
closely Ernest Chausson wove his mlodies to match the text of Camille Mauclais
poems and that his subtle minimalist style emphasised the symbolist essence of
the poet's work. Having worked so closely together, Mauclair must have been
shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Chausson as a result of a bicycle
accident three years later. In the eulogy written by Mauclair, 'Souvenirs sur Ernest
Chausson'37, he speaks of a libretto that Chausson had requested that he write
with respect to a new lyrical drama the composer had planned. Sadly a continua-
tion of their combined talents could not ensue.
37 C. MAUCLAIR, Souvenirs sur Ernest Chausson, La Vogue, 1899, 7-9, 76: Nous emes [quelques
entretiens] au sujet d'un livre de drame lyrique qu'il m'avait demand, qu'il songeait interprter, et
que la mort, rejette dans le nant des projets. (We had [several discussions] on the subject of a libretto
for a lyrical drama that he'd asked of me and that he wished to interpret, and death threw such projects
into oblivion).
121
IRASM 47* (2016) * ' 1:
' I Camille 109-122
Mauclair, , Ir-
Camille * , r- Ernest
Ernest Chausson and the Chausson T . , ,ww
T Trois . Lieder
Saetak
Camille Mauclair, Ernest Chausson i Trois Lieder
Stvaranje mlodies ili Heder u francuskom stilu bila je popularna praksa skladatelja u
Francuskoj krajem 19. stoljea. Vrei izbor iz velike koliine francuskog pjesnitva sklada
telji su birali stil, ritam i tonalitet koji bi to je mogue vjernije odgovarali pjesmovnoj atmos
feri.
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) bio je jedan od takvih skladatelja koji se u tome isticao.
Rodena u bogatoj parikoj obitelji, Chaussona je otac nagovarao na studij prava, ali ga je
njegova arka ljubav spram umjetnosti usmjerila prema glazbenoj karijeri. Uz mnoge skla-
datelje u parikoj umjetnikoj sredini njegovi su prijatelji bili pjesnici, pisci i slikari kao
Stphane Mallarm, Henri de Rgnier, Andr Gide, Edouard Manet i Auguste Renoir.
Chausson je bio posebno privuen idejom simbolizma u pjesnitvu i redovito je posjecivao
okupljanja utorkom u stanu pjesnika Stphanea Mallarma.
U godini 1896. mladi autor i pjesnik Camille Mauclair (1872-1944) takoder je sudjelo-
vao u tim okupljanjima. U to je vrijeme Mauclair bio gorljivi zagovornik simbolistikog pokre-
ta i njegove su pjesme iz tog razdoblja proete muzikalnou, a stihovi su strukturirani na
takav nin da ih se moe lako uglazbiti. Chausson se odluio skladati mlodies na tri
pjesme iz Mauclaireova repertoara, to je rezultiralo njegovim opusom br. 27.
U ovom lnku autorica pikazuje u glavnim crtama razdoblja kada je vrlo samokritini
Chausson bio koncentriran na pisanje mlodies. Nadalje, iznosi se kratko objanjenje sim-
bolistickog pjesnitva i upozorava na vnost koju je Mauclair pridavao muzikalnosti u
svojim pjesmama. Na posljetku se detaljno zagleda u mlodies iz op. 27 kako bi se ilustri-
rala uinkovitost Chaussonove glazbe u zahvaanju bti triju vrlo razliitih pjesama - Les
Heures, Ballade i Les Couronnes.
122

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Camille Mauclair, Ernest Chausson and the "Trois Lieder"

Author(s): Rosemary Yeoland

and the Trois Lieder U DC: 784 MAUCLAIR, C. /

inspiration will enable me to get by the fatal measure.7 Highly self-critical,

Paul Verlaine had also foreshadowed the importance of musicality in poetic

7 See op. cit., 42-43.

De la musique encore et toujours! (Music again and forever!

18 C. MAUCLAIR, Souvenirs sur Ernest Chausson, La Vogue, 1899, 7-9, 73-82.

Les ples heures, sous la lune

Sur un lac baign de lune

Camille Mauclais poem is one of acceptance of death in which symbolically

There are a couple of points in the music where it accentuates

Quand les anges se sont perdus

Quand les vaisseaux se sont perdus

S'en sont alls jusqu'aux chaumires

Et la nuit les enfants tranges

In Ballade , Camille Mauclair has created a sense of ethereality as angels,

The eternal waiting is also emphasised by Chausson' s use of dotted minims or

Loa oi.so&ux Im oat tt.tia.4aa

Towards the end of the piec

them/ And then left in the bitter win

C'est la fillette aux yeux cerns

L'une de fraiche pimprenelle

La pimprenelle est pour son me,

Beau chevalier! Beau chevalier !

Mais il ne passe plus personne.

There is a dramatic climax, with a sforzando at bar 22 to correspond with the

^ che -va. lie ri ^ ^ ^ ^

Camille Mauclair, Ernest Chausson i Trois Lieder

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