Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Song Cycle, Shéhérazade
I. Asie
II. La Flûte enchantée
III. L'Indifférent
“A poem should be…a point of departure for a song, or a melody,” said Tristan Klingsor. “Perhaps that is why I have had the good fortune to please musicians.” Klingsor was the Wagnerian pseudonym of Arthur Justin Léon Leclère (1874-1966), a poet, painter, art critic and friend of Ravel. In 1903 he completed a collection of 100 poems called Schéhérazade, after Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral suite of the same name. “The Orient was in the air,” he said, “through Bakst, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Doctor Mardrus, who translated the Thousand and One Nights. The symbolists had transposed their feelings by presenting them through a veil of legendary fiction. I thought of presenting mine through a Persian veil. A Persia of fantasy, of course. The well-chosen word would suffice, the happy resonance, the touch of color.”
Ravel was moved to set three of Klingsor's poems as a song cycle titled Shéhérazade. In 1898 he had written an Overture to a planned opera based on the Thousand and One Nights, also titled Shéhérazade. The opera was never finished, indeed never really begun, but some materials from the Overture found their way into the song cycle.
The first performance of the song cycle was given on May 17, 1904, the final concert of the season for the Société Nationale. Alfred Cortot conducted, with soprano Jane Hatto of the Paris Opéra as soloist. The music was well received. Louis Laloy in the Revue Musicale praised the “finesse” and “exquisite lightness of touch” in the work. Vincent d'Indy said it was the best Ravel composition to date.
“The influence of Debussy is fairly obvious,” Ravel admitted. “Here again I yielded to the profound attraction which the East has always held for me since my childhood.” The longest of the three songs is the first, a kind of catalogue of exotic delights from Asia. The text is separated by brief orchestral interludes. The middle song, “La Flûte enchantée” (The Magic Flute) has woodwind solos reminiscent of Ravel's ballet Daphnis and Chloë (1912). Ravel once suggested that the final song, “L'Indifférent” (The Indifferent One), was the key to his personality.
The score calls for piccolo, 3 flutes, 2 oboes, ENglish horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, tambourine, side drum, bass drum, cymbals, gong, glockenspiel, celesta, 2 harps and strings.
Text of Shéhérazade
I. Asie (Asia)
Asie, Asie, Asie
Vieux pays merveilleux des contes de nourrice
Où dort la fantaisie comme une impératrice
En sa forêt emplie de mystère.
Asie, je voudrais m'en aller avec la goëlette
Qui se berce ce soir dans le port
Mystérieuse et solitaire
Et qui déploie enfin ses voiles violettes
Comme un immense oiseau de nuit dans le ciel d'or.
(Asia, Asia, Asia,
Old wonderland of fairy-tales
Where fantasy sleeps like an empress
In her forest of mystery.
Asia, I'd like to sail with the ship
That rocks in port tonight,
Mysterious and solitary,
That finally will unfold her purple sails
Like a great night bird in the golden sky.)
Je voudrais m'en aller vers des îles de fleurs
En écoutant chanter la mer perverse
Sur un vieux rhythme ensorceleur.
Je voudrais voir Damas et les villes de Perse
Avec les minarets légers dans l'air.
(I'd like to go to the islands of flowers,
Listening to the wayward sea sing
To an old bewitching rhythm.
I'd like to see Damascus and the cities of Persia
With their fragile minarets in the air.)
Je voudrais voir de beaux turbans de soie
Sur des visages noirs aux dents claires;
Je voudrais voir des yeux sombres d'amour
Et des prunelles brillantes de joie
En des peaux jaunes comme des oranges;
Je voudrais voir des vêtements de velours
Et des habits à longues franges.
(I'd like to see beautiful silk turbans
On black faces with gleaming teeth;
I'd like to see dark loving eyes,
Pupils sparkling with joy,
Against skins yellow as oranges;
I'd like to see velvet garments
And long-fringed robes.)
Je voudrais voir des calumets entre des bouches
Tout entourées de barbe blanche;
Je voudrais voir d'âpres marchands aux regards louches,
Et des cadis, et des vizirs
Qui du seul mouvements de leur doigt qui se penche
Accordent vie ou mort au gré de leur désir.
(I'd like to see pipes between lips
That are framed by white beards;
I'd like to see eager merchants with shifty looks,
And cadis, and vizirs
Who, with only the crook of their finger,
Grant life or death, just as they please.)
Je voudrais voir la Perse, et l'Inde, et puis la Chine,
Les mandarins ventrus sous les ombrelles,
Et les princesses aux mains fines
Et les lettrés qui se querellent
Sur la poésie et sur la beauté;
Je voudrais m'attarder au palais enchanté
Et comme un voyageur étranger
Contempler à loisir des paysages peints
Sur des étoffes en des cadres de sapin
Avec un personnage au milieu d'un verger;
Je voudrais voir des assassins souriants
Du bourreau qui coupe un cou d'innocent
Avec son grand sabre courbé d'Orient.
(I'd like to see Persia, and India, and then China,
Stout mandarins under parasols
And the princesses with their delicate hands,
And the scholars arguing
About poetry and beauty.
I'd like to linger at the enchanted palace,
And like a traveler from abroad
Contemplate at leisure landscapes painted
On fabric in pine-wood frames
With figures in orchards.
I'd like to see assassins smile
As the executioner chops off an innocent's neck
With his great curved oriental scimitar.)
Je voudrais voir des pauvres et des reines;
Je voudrais voir des roses et du sang;
Je voudrais voir mourir d'amour ou bien de haine.
(I'd like to see beggars poor and queens;
I'd like to see roses and blood;
I'd like to see death from love or from hate.)
Et puis m'en revenir plus tard
Narrer mon aventure aux curieux de rêves
En élevant comme Sinbad ma vieille tasse arabe
De temps en temps jusqu'à mes lèvres
Pour interrompre le conte avec art...
(And then later return
To tell of my adventure to those intrigued by dreams,
Raising like Sindbad my old Arabian cup
To my lips every now and then
To interrupt the tale with art...)
II. La Flûte enchantée (The Magic Flute)
L'ombre est douce et mon maître dort
Coiffé d'un bonnet conique de soie
Et son long nez jaune en sa barbe blanche.
(The dark is soft and my master sleeps,
Wearing a cone-shaped silken cap
And his long, yellow nose sunk in his white beard.)
Mais moi, je suis éveillée encor
Et j'écoute au dehors
Une chanson de flûte où s'épanche
Tour à tour la tristesse ou la joie.
Un air tour à tour langoureux ou frivole
Que mon amoureux chéri joue,
Et quand je m'approche de la croisée
Il me semble que chaque note s'envole
De la flûte vers ma joue
Comme un mystérieux baiser.
(But I am still awake
And I hear outside
The song of a flute pouring out
By turns sadness or joy--
An air by turns languid and flighty,
Played by my dear sweetheart,
And when I draw near the window
Each note seems to me to take flight
From the flute to my cheek
Like a mysterious kiss.)
III. L'Indifférent (The Indifferent One)
Tes yeux sont doux comme ceux d'une fille,
Jeune étranger,
Et la courbe fine
De ton beau visage de duvet ombragé
Est plus séduisante encor de ligne.
(Your eyes are soft as a girl's,
Young stranger,
And the fine curve
Of your handsome face, shaded with down,
Is even more seductive in profile.)
Ta lèvre chante sur le pas de ma porte
Une langue inconnue et charmante
Comme une musique fausse.
Entre!
Et que mon vin te réconforte…
(Your lips sing at my doorstep
A charming unknown language
Like music out of tune...
Come in! And let my wine refresh you…)
Mais non, tu passes
Et de mon seuil je te vois t'éloigner
Me faisant un dernier geste avec grâce
Et la hanche légèrement ployée
Par ta démarche féminine et lasse…
(But no, you pass by
And I see you move past my threshold,
Making me a parting graceful salute,
Your hips lightly undulating
By your girlish, lethargic gait…)
