Un soir que je respirais le parfum des fleurs Au bord de la rivière, Le vent m'apporta la chanson d'une flûte lointaine. Pour lui répondre, je coupai une branche de saule, Et la chanson de ma flûte berça la nuit charmée. Depuis ce soir-là, tous les jours, À l'heure où la campagne s'endort, Les oiseaux entendent répondre [à leur chant, Celui d'un oiseau inconnu]1 Dont ils comprennent cependant le langage.
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Ponce and Wertheim: "deux oiseaux/ Inconnus"
Text Authorship:
- by Franz Toussaint (1879 - 1955), "Les deux flûtes" [an adaptation] [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Chinese (中文) by Li-Tai-Po (701 - 762), "春夜洛城闻笛"
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by René Bernier (1905 - 1984), "Dialogue dans la nuit", copyright © 1985 [ voice and piano ], from Poèmes exotiques, no. 2, Brussels: Ed. Bizet (réduction de l'orchestre) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Therèse Brenet (b. 1935), "Les 2 flûtes", copyright © 2008 [ baritone, flute and piano ], from Poème de Jade, no. `7, Editions de la Fabrique Musique [sung text not yet checked]
- by Marius-François Gaillard (1900 - 1973), "Les Deux flûtes", published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Quatre mélodies chinoises, no. 1, Paris : Choudens [sung text not yet checked]
- by Pierre Paubon (1910 - 1995), "Les deux flûte", published 1949 [ voice, flute and piano ], from Sept mélodies, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Manuel M. Ponce (1883 - 1948), "Les deux flûtes", 1932, first performed 1934 [ voice and piano ], from Cinco poemas chinos, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Rosalie Marie Wertheim (1888 - 1949), "Les deux flûtes", 1939 [ soprano, flute and harp or piano ], from Trois Chansons pour soprano, flûte et harpe, no. 2, confirmed with a CD booklet [sung text checked 1 time]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Dutch (Nederlands), a translation by Jules Schürmann (1873 - 1927) , from Chineesche verzen, first published 1916 ; composed by M. C. C. Reynvaan.
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Judith Gautier (1845 - 1917) , "La flûte mystérieuse", appears in Le livre de jade, 1867 edition, in 7. Les poëtes, no. 4, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867 ; composed by Gabriel-André Fabre.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Hans Bethge (1876 - 1946) , "Die geheimnisvolle Flöte", appears in Die chinesische Flöte [an adaptation] ; composed by Hans Altmann, Gottfried von Einem, Maria Herz, Artur Immisch, Sigurd von Koch, Léonard Pieter Joseph Michielsen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Julius Röntgen, James Martin Simon, Emil Sjögren, Ernst Toch, Rudolf Wagner-Régeny, Anton von Webern, Egon Joseph Wellesz.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Max Fleischer (1880 - 1941) , "Geheimnisvolles Zwiegespräch zweier Flöten", appears in Der Porzellanpavillon: Nachdichtungen Chinesischer Lyrik von Max Fleisher, first published 1927 ; composed by Philipp Schoeller.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2010-08-29
Line count: 10
Word count: 70