Nouvelle chanson sur un vieil air | S'il est un charmant gazon

by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

S'il est un charmant gazon

Language: French (Français)

Available translation(s): CHI ENG ENG ITA

S'il est un charmant gazon
  Que le ciel arrose,
Où brille en toute saison
  Quelque fleur éclose,
Où l'on cueille à pleine main
Lys, chèvrefeuille et jasmin,
J'en veux faire le chemin
  Où ton pied se pose !

S'il est un sein bien aimant
  Dont l'honneur dispose !
Dont le ferme dévoûement
  N'ait rien de morose,
Si toujours ce noble sein
Bat pour un digne dessein,
J'en veux faire le coussin
  Où ton front se pose !

S'il est un rêve d'amour,
  Parfumé de rose,
Où l'on trouve chaque jour
  Quelque douce chose,
Un rêve que Dieu bénit,
Où l'âme à l'âme s'unit,
Oh ! j'en veux faire le nid
  Où ton cœur se pose !

F. Liszt sets stanzas 1, 3 in (at least) one setting - see below for more information
F. Liszt sets stanzas 1, 3 in (at least) one setting - see below for more information
F. d'Erlanger sets stanzas 1, 3
C. Widor sets stanzas 1, 3

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View text with footnotes

Confirmed with Poésies de Victor Hugo: Odes & Ballades, Les Orientales, Les Feuilles d'Automne, Les Chants du Crépuscule, Les Voix Intérieures, Les Rayons & Les Ombres, Paris, Hetzel, 1880, p. 67.

Authorship:

by Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885), title 1: "S'il est un charmant gazon", title 2: "Nouvelle chanson sur un vieil air", appears in Les Chants du Crépuscule, no. 22, first published 1834 [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 Giulio Alary (1814 - 1891), "Le chemin, le coussin et le nid" [ medium voice and piano ], from 20 Mélodies, Vol. II, no. 9, Paris, Éd. Durand & Schoenewerk [sung text not yet checked]
by Joseph Henry Altès (1826 - 1895), "Nouvelle chanson", op. 26 no. 3, published [1865?] [ voice and piano or orchestra ], from 15 Mélodies, no. 3, Paris, Éd. Simon Richault [sung text not yet checked]
by Jules Arnoud (1847 - 1890), "Nouvelle chanson" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Frédéric Binet (1862 - 1918), "S'il est un rêve d’amour !" [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. Durand & Fils [sung text not yet checked]
by Louis Diémer (1843 - 1919), "Chanson" [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by (François-Clément) Théodore Dubois (1837 - 1924), "Nouvelle chanson sur un vieil air", 1870-1880 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Frédéric d'Erlanger, Baron, dit Regnal (1868 - 1943), "S'il est un charmant gazon", published 1895, stanzas 1,3 [ voice and piano ], from Album of Six Songs, no. 5, London: Willcocks & Co., also set in English [sung text checked 1 time]
by Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), "Rêve d'amour", op. 5 no. 2 (1862?), first performed 1874 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by César Franck (1822 - 1890), "S'il est un charmant gazon", FWV. 78 (1847), rev. 1855-7 [ female voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jan Karol Gall (1856 - 1912), "Chanson d'Amour", op. 14 no. 1, published 1891 [ voice and piano ], Krakau, Krzyżanowski, also set in Polish (Polski) [sung text not yet checked]
by Lucien Hillemacher (1860 - 1909) and by Paul Hillemacher (1852 - 1933), "Chanson" [ medium voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies, 1er volume, no. 5, Paris, Éd. Alphonse Leduc [sung text not yet checked]
by Eugène Hutoy (1844 - 1889), "S'il est un charmant gazon", published 1885 [ high voice and piano ], Liège (Belgique), Veuve L. Muraille [sung text not yet checked]
by Henry Ketten (1848 - 1883), "J'en veux faire le chemin", published [1878] [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel & Cie. [sung text not yet checked]
by Léon Charles François Kreutzer (1817 - 1868), "Nouvelle Chanson" [ high voice and piano ], from 26 mélodies pour chant et piano, no. 10, Éd. Richault [sung text not yet checked]
by Anatole Lionnet (1832 - 1896), "Rêve d'amour", published <<1888 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Édition Lemoine et Fils [sung text not yet checked]
by Franz (Ferenc) Liszt (1811 - 1886), "S'il est un charmant gazon", S. 284 no. 1 (1844), published 1844, stanzas 1,3 [ voice and piano ], Berlin, Schlesinger, also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
by Franz (Ferenc) Liszt (1811 - 1886), "S'il est un charmant gazon", S. 284 no. 2 (1849-59), published 1859, stanzas 1,3 [ tenor and piano ], also set in German (Deutsch) [sung text checked 1 time]
by Georges Eugène Marty (1860 - 1908), "Chanson", published [1886], first performed 1890 [ medium voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 1, Éd. Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
by Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912), "Nouvelle chanson sur un vieil air", 1869 [sung text not yet checked]
by Georges Mathias (1826 - 1910), "Chanson de Victor Hugo", published 1888 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text not yet checked]
by Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin (1862 - 1901), "Une vieille chanson ", published 1891 [ medium voice and piano ], The Boston Music Company, also set in English [sung text not yet checked]
by Léon Pillaut (1833 - 1903), "Nouvelle chanson", <<1866 [ high voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. Choudens [sung text not yet checked]
by Marc de Ranse (1881 - 1951), "S'il est un charmant gazon" [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Jean Robert (1874 - 1943), "Chanson", 1892, published 1925 [ high voice and piano ], from Huit Mélodies, no. 5, Aire-sur-l'Adour (Landes), Éd. H. Labastie [sung text not yet checked]
by Alexis Jean Hubert Rostand (1844 - 1919), "Chanson" [ medium voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies, no. 1, Paris, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel et Fils [sung text not yet checked]
by Gabriel de Saint-Quentin (1846 - 1926), "S'il est un charmant gazon" [ medium voice and piano ], from Dix mélodies célèbres, no. 1, Paris, Éd. Fromont [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921), "S'il est un charmant gazon", 1915, published 1915 [ high voice and piano ], Éd. Durand; second version; an undated MS possibly from 1870 exists with the title "Chanson", presumably the first version [sung text checked 1 time]
by Paul Vidal (1863 - 1931), "S'il est un charmant gazon", published 1892 [ voice and piano ], from Dix mélodies, no. 4, Paris, A. Leduc [sung text checked 1 time]
by Anselm Vinée (1847 - 1921), "Nouvelle Chanson sur un vieil air", op. 4 no. 3, published [1893] [ voice and piano ], from Sept Mélodies sur des vers de Victor Hugo, no. 3, Éd. Durdilly [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Marie Jean Albert Widor (1844 - 1937), "S'il est un charmant gazon", op. 37 no. 2, stanzas 1,3 [ high voice and piano ], from Quarante mélodies, no. 14, Éd. J. Hamelle [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in English, a translation by Francis Charles Philips (1849 - 1921) ; composed by Frédéric d'Erlanger, Baron, dit Regnal.
Also set in English, a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Ethelbert Woodbridge Nevin.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Peter Cornelius (1824 - 1874) ; composed by Franz Liszt.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Peter Martin Cornelius Rübner.
Also set in Polish (Polski), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Jan Karol Gall.
Also set in Russian (Русский), a translation by Olga Platonovna Weiss (1865 - 1935) ; composed by Arseny Nikolayevich Koreshchenko.

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English [singable] (Charles Fonteyn Manney) , "If I knew a meadow fair", first published 1911

Researcher for this text: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 116