OBOETRY – French poetry played in melody: a poetical & vocal approach to French 'mélodie' on oboe

Anna Marieke Zijlstra

This interdisciplinary research presents a contextualisation and musico-literary analysis on the French poem and art song “Colloque sentimental” from Paul Verlaine and Claude Debussy, followed by a full-fledged transcription of this ‘mélodie’ for English horn, expanding the existing oboe repertoire. In the annotation and interpretation of “Colloque sentimental”, a poetical and vocal approach has been applied, aiming to communicate a deeper understanding of the ‘poésie’ and ‘mélodie’ for performance practices. The studying and singing of the song resulted in an experimentation and reflection of playing the ‘mélodie’ on English horn, a process of musically translating the poetry into an instrumental transcription that takes into account the particularities and possibilities of the language and voice as well as these of the instrument in question, with the aim of providing useful material for fellow oboists and those who are interested. For example, it was demonstrated during the research process how the understanding of literary and vocal phrases enhances horizontal and legato phrasing on English horn. Consequently, an important challenge in this case consisted of writing the transcription in a feasible notation that would be playable for any oboist, even without prior knowledge of the French language and poetry, hopefully leading to a poetical and purposeful performance of the piece.

Table of contents

← Conclusion

Introduction

French poetry and melody in context

Sources

Books

Verlaine, Paul. Fêtes galantes. Paris: Alphonse Lemerre (1869).
Debussy, Claude. Fêtes galantes I & II, FL 86 & FL 114 (1904).
Debussy, Claude. 43 songs for voice and piano. New York: International Music Company (1951).
Debussy, Claude. Rapsodie pour saxophone et orchestre. Paris: Éditions Durand (1903). Transcription pour cor anglais et piano (1919).
Fauré, Gabriel. Clair de lune, opus 46 nr. 2 (1888).
Bernac, Pierre. The interpretation of French Song. Norton: The Norton Library (1970).
Vaillant, Alain. La poésie – introduction à l’analyse des textes poétiques. Paris: Armand Colin (2008).
Wenk, Arthur B. Claude Debussy and the poets. London: University of California Press (1976).
François-Sappey, Brigitte. Cantagrel, Gilles. Guide de la mélodie et du lied. Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard (1994).
Tresize, Simon. The Cambridge Companion to Debussy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2003).
Schmitt, M.P. Viala, A. Savoir-lire. Paris: Les Éditions Didier (1982).
Rolf, Marie. “La première ébauche de Colloque sentimental.” Paris: Éditions Fayard (2013). In Regards sur Debussy, ed. Myriam Chimènes and Alexandra Laederich.
Kaminsky, Peter. Listening to Performers’ Writings and Recordings: An Analysis of Debussy’s “Colloque sentimental”. Society for Music Theory (2016). Volume 22, number 3. [Online], 16th of February 2022: [online].

Teachers & specialists

Andrew Wright
Elly Ameling
Gerda van Zelm
Ron Tijhuis
Wim Vos
Kasper de Oude
Hans Erblich
Johanna Calcines
Corrie Minnigh-Geeve
Casper Schipper
Phyllis Ferwerda
Kamelia Miladinova
Laura Balicov
Annelies Schulte-Nordholt

Analysis and annotation

Bibliography

Experimentation and reflection

Transcription and reflection

Conclusion

Bibliography

Tip

Tip