Ô chant éloigné, suprême lyre,
qui ne se donne qu'à celui qui ardemment
et sans repos supporte et endure
de son effort le long et doux martyre
Ô chant qui naît le dernier pour conclure
l'enfance non terminée, le cœur d'antan.
Au fond de ce que je devrais encor
transformer en ardeur en sang en âme
je sens (que vaguement mon doute réclame)
les mots massifs, les mots profonds en or.

C. Matthews sets lines 1, 5-6
M. Lauridsen sets lines 1-6

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

• by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), no title, appears in Ébauches et Fragments  [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Colin Matthews (b. 1946), "Ô chant éloigné, suprême lyre", 2000, published 2000, first performed 2000, lines 1,5-6 [ voice and string sextet ], from Continuum, no. 4, Faber music, note: The poems by Eugenio Montale [...] are framed by two epigrammic fragments from [..] Rilke  [sung text not yet checked]

The text above (or a part of it) is used in the following settings:

• by Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943), "Chanson éloignée" [ mixed chorus ]
  • View the full text. [sung text checked 1 time]
    

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2023-09-03
Line count: 10
Word count: 71