Etats (baryton & piano)

A new poetry from the same Laforgue

I can post the poem here, which is a beautiful black diamond (an automatic translation but quite close to the meaning)

As always at Laforgue, irony, tenderness, idleness of an impossible platonic love

We know that he loved a young Englishwoman with no return, and I think it was she who inspired him his most beautiful pages, here in the evening of his short life.

Thank you for your reviews and comments!

Ah! tonight, my heart feels sick, my heart is with the Moon!

O veils of silence, spread out your still lagoons;

O rooftops, terraces, basins, loosened necklaces

Of pearls, tombs, lilies, grieving cats — give praise

To the Moon, our Mistress to all, in her glory:

She is the Host! and silence is her ciborium!

Ah! how good it feels, oh! so good and sweet, in the halo

Of mourning around this finest diamond’s glow!

O Moon, you may find me a bit romantic,

But tell me — now and then, wouldn’t it be frantic

To think — just between us, and only if you please —

That I could be your Columbus, on my knees?

Well, let’s not speak of that; let’s chant the midnight rite,

Preserved in alcohol, steeped in your delights.

Slowing down towards us, O weary City,

Fibrous cell with broken organs, withered pity!

Remember the centaurs, the cities now erased,

Palmyra, and the snub-nosed sphinxes of Thebes the chaste;

And what Gomorrah, beneath your Lethe lake,

Hides catacombs in honor of barren Astarte’s sake!

And how mankind, with his “I love you” clichés,

Is much too anthropomorphic in his ways,

And knows only how to muddle through his days

With hellos and goodbyes while twisting love his way.

— Ah! As I was saying, and more than once or twice,

That my heart is sick — my heart is with the Moon, precise.

 

Hi Jean @Krisp!

I again misread Baryton as that poorly eliminated string instrument Baryton which Haydn wrote 123 Trios on lol.

I really love that D minor setting with dissonance. I especially love in 0:48 when you paint "Ciborium" with a beautiful but wierd E major chord, then moves immediately to a weird augmented chord E-G#-C, and then with "mourning" move to F minor! And when you ask "could I be your columbus" it's mixed with both hope and despair so the music fluctates between F major and minor, just like Schubert's Lied though yours is more sudden.

Now in 1:56 when you are recollecting your thoughts it starts with a barer A minor but again fall into dissonance through dreaming the false Idea. I absolutely love the 2:50 chord and that whole passage. The ending E minor passage is so well sung especially for "muddy" when your voice becomes muddy. I love how you end unprecisely with the word "precise" to give an irony there.

Thx for sharing your great work here!

Henry

5 hours ago, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi Jean @Krisp!

I again misread Baryton as that poorly eliminated string instrument Baryton which Haydn wrote 123 Trios on lol.

I really love that D minor setting with dissonance. I especially love in 0:48 when you paint "Ciborium" with a beautiful but wierd E major chord, then moves immediately to a weird augmented chord E-G#-C, and then with "mourning" move to F minor! And when you ask "could I be your columbus" it's mixed with both hope and despair so the music fluctates between F major and minor, just like Schubert's Lied though yours is more sudden.

Now in 1:56 when you are recollecting your thoughts it starts with a barer A minor but again fall into dissonance through dreaming the false Idea. I absolutely love the 2:50 chord and that whole passage. The ending E minor passage is so well sung especially for "muddy" when your voice becomes muddy. I love how you end unprecisely with the word "precise" to give an irony there.

Thx for sharing your great work here!

Henry

 

Thank you, Henry, for your careful listening.
Yes, you’ve pinpointed exactly what I’ve tried to do — and what lies at the heart of my exploration through these Laforgue settings:
to stay on the edge. On the edge of tonal harmony, of expected progressions, of almost conventional paths — but always trying to veer off, to wander.
The same applies to expression: sometimes as simple as possible, sometimes ambiguous, sometimes hidden.
I’m trying to find that forest’s edge where Laforgue leads us with his poetry, into his moonlit twilights and his lost loves — which I know all too well.
You mention Schubert — of course, and your ear is sharp. I couldn’t deny it. Once you enter these borderlands, how could you not have Schubert in mind?

Again, thank you, Henry — your sensitive listening is a true gift that brings light to my moonlit paths.