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These two songs are written on short poems taken from the cycle ‘Le Retour’. Their romantic turn allowed me to try a stylistic renewal. Simple and direct, the first, sombre and contained, unfolds above an inexorable E flat pedal, whereas the second, more cheerful, runs in one-go in a 6/8 rhythm.
To their credit, they paved the way to a more considerable composition, the Cantate de la Prison, which, three years later, found again this intimate and tender expression oscillating between shadow and light, making an effort to escape the former and wait for the latter.
(Louis Durey, from his Catalogue Commenté, translation by Isabelle Battioni)
from notes by Graham Johnson © 2002
>Ces deux mélodies sont écrites sur des courts poèmes extraits du cycle ‘Le Retour’. Leur tournure romantique me permettait de tenter un renouvellement de style. Simples et directes, la première, sombre et contenue, se déroule sur une inexorable pédale de Mi bémol, tandis que la seconde, plus souriante, court d’un seul trait sur un rythme de 6/8.
Elles ont le mérite de préparer la voie à une composition plus développée: la Cantate de la Prison qui, trois ans plus tard, reprendra ce mode d’expression intime et tendre oscillant entre l’ombre et la lumière, s’efforçant d’échapper à la première pour attendre la seconde.
(Louis Durey: in Catalogue Commenté, 1962)
extrait des notes rédigées par Graham Johnson © 2002
Français: Isabelle Battioni