Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Camille Saint-Saëns, Third Symphony
- 2 César Franck, Symphony in D Minor
- 3 Édouard Lalo, Symphony in G Minor
- 4 Ernest Chausson, Symphony in B-flat Major
- 5 Vincent d'Indy, Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français
- 6 Vincent d'Indy, Second Symphony
- 7 Paul Dukas, Symphony in C
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
4 - Ernest Chausson, Symphony in B-flat Major
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Camille Saint-Saëns, Third Symphony
- 2 César Franck, Symphony in D Minor
- 3 Édouard Lalo, Symphony in G Minor
- 4 Ernest Chausson, Symphony in B-flat Major
- 5 Vincent d'Indy, Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français
- 6 Vincent d'Indy, Second Symphony
- 7 Paul Dukas, Symphony in C
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Summary
Trumpet Calls
Ernest Chausson debuted as an orchestral composer in 1882 with the symphonic poem Viviane (heavily revised in 1887–88). He based its brief program upon Arthurian legend:
Viviane and Merlin in the Brocéliande Forest—Love scene.
Trumpet calls—King Arthur's men roam the forest in search of the sorcerer.
Merlin recalls his duty; he attempts to escape from Viviane's arms and flee.
The spell is cast—Viviane puts Merlin to sleep and wraps him in flowering hawthorns.
The work's plot recalls that of Liszt's well-known symphonic poem Les Préludes, laid out in a program derived from Alphonse Lamartine's Méditations poétiques:
Is life but a series of preludes to that unknown song whose first, solemn note is intoned by death? Love is the enchanted dawn of all existence, but what fate is there whose first delights of happiness are not interrupted by some storm, whose mortal blast dissolves its beautiful illusions, consuming its altar as though by a fatal stroke of lightning? And what cruelly wounded soul, emerging from the tempest, does not seek to soothe its memories in the sweet calmness of the countryside? Yet man does not resign himself for long to the benevolent warmth of nature that first charmed him, and when the trumpet sounds the alarm, he takes to his post, however perilous the battle that calls him, so that he may recover in combat his entire consciousness of himself and the full possession of his energies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The French Symphony at the Fin de SiècleStyle, Culture, and the Symphonic Tradition, pp. 119 - 151Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013