Figure Humaine

SKU: CA.928200

ISBN 9790007300869. Key: C minor / c major. French. Text: Baudelaire, Charles.

Sounds, colors and scents can conjure up places of longing. During the Romantic period, the desire to travel and see other places was seen as an expression of some inner state of mind. In L'invitation au voyage, the boundaries between what is real and imaginary seem to dissolve in the lyrical perception of a journey to the inner self: There we find nothing but order and beauty, splendor, peace, and delight”. This is unattainable perfection as a place of longing, where we are freed from all earthly cares. A never-ending sixteenth-note figure in the piano accompaniment flickers like a shimmering veil over these words, which in their poetry seem to remove us far from our earthly existence. “The world falls asleep in a warm light!

This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art songs demand from a soloist and pianist.

The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ... wo die Zitronen blühn (Carus 83.514).

SKU: CA.952600

ISBN 9790007300968. Key: G major. French. Text: Victor Hugo.

This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.925300

ISBN M-007-24915-1. Key: E minor. Language: French. Text: Verlaine, Paul.

Paul Verlaine spent 555 days in prison because he had shot his fellow poet and companion Arthur Rimbaud with a revolver whilst in a drunken state. This spell in prison evidently fostered his artistic inspiration, so at least it did his literary career some good. The world of French literature even gave Verlaine the unofficial title Prince des Poetes. In the poem Prison the author was able to draw on his very own experiences: the monotony behind bars (expressed musically in Gabriel Faure's setting through the repeated target note of b), the inner rebelling against this monotonous stillness (surprising forte dynamic), and the reproachful self-questioning: Was hast du getan? ... Was hast du mit deiner Jugend getan? [What have you done? ... What have you done with your youth?] (diminishing piano). Denis Rouger, founder and director of the figure humaine chamber choir, has arranged art songs for solo voice and piano for his ensemble, in the process carefully adapting these to the needs and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble. Music edition for the successful CD Kennst du das Land... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.925200

ISBN M-007-24914-4. Key: A major. Language: French. Text: Hugo, Victor.

The exuberant amorousness of a newly-wed couple pulsates in every note of Gabriel Faure's Dans les ruines d'une abbaye (In the ruins of an abbey). In this piece, the reverent silence of prayer no longer prevails, but within the venerable walls various shouts of joy and sparkling laughter are now heard. The old graves have long been overgrown by stinging nettles, and a new dawn of spring and of love fills the air. Napoleonic post-revolutionary France, which drove the author of the poem, Victor Hugo, into exile, is also building a new world on the ruins of olden days. Although the setting by the composer, 40 years younger than the poet, uses the romanticized backdrop of the old abbey, with its 6/8-meter it reflects the uninhibited happiness of the two lovers, who do not look back. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.925600

ISBN M-007-24918-2. Key: D major. German. Text: Morike, Eduard.

Hugo Wolf set a total of 53 songs by Eduard Morike, all in the year 1888. The composer wrote in a letter: Once you have heard this song, it can only inspire one wish - to die. In the artistic-metaphysical milieu of the late 19th century this was regarded as the highest ideal, especially for Hugo Wolf, who believed in the body as a wretched piano case from which the soul can only break free like harmonies dying away. And yet Fussreise (Journey on Foot) begins as a simple, happy, elated song of travel, revolving around the key of D major over an ostinato piano rhythm. Old Adam believes he senses the bliss of paradise in this, but he continues to be caught in the tension between earthly suffering and eternal longing, as the rest of Hugo Wolf's setting clearly shows: it remains a pious hope that a whole life would be such a morning journey bathed in gentle perspiration. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.925500

ISBN M-007-24917-5. Key: G flat major. Language: French. Text: Leconte de Lisle, Charles.

The writer Charles Marie Rene Leconte, born on the French island of La Reunion, published his literary works under the nom de plume Leconte de Lisle (the Count of the island). His poem Nell, a poetic vow of eternal fidelity to the beloved, was written in 1852 and set to music by Gabriel Faure in 1878. Long vocal phrases unfold over continuous sixteenth-note figurations in the piano, which combine emphatic depictions of nature and affirmations of love both in text and music. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.927600

ISBN 9790007296117. French. Text: Gautier, Theophile.

A prevailing melancholy mood is characteristic of Theophile Gautier's (1811-1872) poetry; a melancholy mood which inspired composers such as Hector Berlioz and Gabriel Faure to compose settings. Tristesse (Sadness) is taken from the 1838 collection La Comedie de la Mort (The Comedy of Death). With over 50 poems this is regarded as Gautier's major Romantic work. Although the narrator in the poem is conscious of the joy and zest for life of spring coming into bloom around him, he cannot share this: Helas! j'ai dans le coeur une tristesse affreuse. (Alas, in my heart I bear a terrible grief.). Faure's setting portrays this effect less as a dramatic sigh than a melancholic unworldliness with peaceful piano accompaniment in the minor key. This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist.The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ... Wo die Zitronen bluhn (Carus 83.514).

SKU: CA.925100

ISBN M-007-24913-7. Key: E flat major. Language: French. Text: Lahor, Jean.

The few works which Henri Duparc composed and left to posterity display a deep preoccupation with grief and pain, coupled with a great fear of loneliness. His Chanson triste (Sad Song), composed in 1868 or 1869, was one such work. Duparc treasured it so much that he made an orchestral version of it in 1912. He set texts by contemporary French poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Sully Prudhomme, and Henri Cazalis, who wrote under the pseudonym Jean Lahor. Denis Rouger, founder and director of the figure humaine chamber choir, has arranged art songs for solo voice and piano for his ensemble, in the process carefully adapting these to the needs and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble. Music edition for the successful CD Kennst du das Land... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.952700

ISBN 9790007300982. French. Text: Victor Hugo.

This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD ... wo die Zitronen blühn (Carus 83.514).

SKU: CA.924400

ISBN 9790007244392. Key: B flat major. Language: German. Text: Cornelius, Peter.

Sei mein! was written and composed by Peter Cornelius in 1865 for his future wife Bertha Jung. The composer set the poem in short rhyming lines using the scheme aaabcccb, recounting with loving humor what his beloved means to him. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.924100

ISBN 9790007244361. Language: French. Text: Gounod, Charles.

In Charles Gounod's L'absent, composed in 1873, the absent one asks at night time whether the beloved remembers him in the light of the moon and at the sound of the evening prayer bells. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.924000

ISBN 9790007244354. Language: French. Text: Bourget, Paul.

Claude Debussy's romance L'ame evaporee et souffrante is a setting of Paul Bourget's Romance from the collection Les aveux (1882). The song was first published in 1891 with Les cloches, but had probably been composed earlier in 1885. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.925400

ISBN M-007-24916-8. Key: C sharp minor. Language: French. Text: Prudhomme, Sully.

In Au bord de l'eau (By the water) two lovers sit as in a dream, removed from the real world with all its conflicts. They only take themselves seriously, the surrounding nature lies as beneath a dream-like veil: steadily like the river flowing by, the passing clouds, the babbling brook, time also passes. The poet Sully Prudhomme, the first Nobel prizewinner for literature (1901), ends the poem with the assertion that only love is immortal. With this knowledge, Gabriel Faure's setting turns from a dreamy, deceptive C sharp minor to a more promising C sharp major. These art songs were originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted them to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.231100

ISBN 9790007186203.

The French Choral Collection is a real treasure trove for choirs to explore music from France. The collection contains 45 sacred compositions for mostly four-part mixed choir, all of which were composed in France. In compiling the collection the editor Denis Rouger, Professor of Choral Conducting at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, has drawn on his extensive experience as Cantor at Notre-Dame and Sainte-Madeleine in Paris, as well as on his work with many professional and amateur ensembles in Germany and France. The result is an extremely varied choral collection with works from the Renaissance to the present day. Separate editions are also available. In addition to well-known works by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Gabriel Faure, and Camille Saint-Saens, the collection includes first editions of previously largely unknown works by composers such as Adolphe Adam and Charles-Marie Widor. The choral director's volume includes a CD with recordings of selected works, sung by the figure humaine chamber choir conducted by the editor, which will help with learning and rehearsing the repertoire. Most of the pieces have texts from the Latin liturgy which are also familiar in other countries. Added translations into German, English and French help to understand the original singing texts.

SKU: CA.231105

ISBN 9790007240974.

The French Choral Collection is a real treasure trove for choirs to explore music from France. The collection contains 45 sacred compositions for mostly four-part mixed choir, all of which were composed in France. In compiling the collection the editor Denis Rouger, Professor of Choral Conducting at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart, has drawn on his extensive experience as Music Director at Notre-Dame and Sainte-Madeleine in Paris, as well as on his work with many professional and amateur ensembles in Germany and France.The result is an extremely varied choral collection with works from the Renaissance to the present day. In addition to well-known works by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Gabriel Faure, and Camille Saint-Saens, the collection includes first editions of previously largely unknown works by composers such as Adolphe Adam and Charles-Marie Widor. The choral director's volume includes a CD with recordings of selected works, sung by the figure humaine chamber choir conducted by the editor, which will help with learning and rehearsing the repertoire. Most of the pieces have texts from the Latin liturgy which are also familiar in other countries. Added translations into German, English and French help to understand the original singing texts. Score available separately - see item CA.231100.

SKU: CA.925800

ISBN 9790007249205. Key: A flat major. German. Text: Cornelius, Peter.

Peter Cornelius once described himself as a poet-composer, for he wrote the texts for many of his songs himself. This is the case with In Lust und Schmerzen, the first song of the three Liebeslieder which make up op. 4. Cornelius composed these songs in 1854 in Weimar, where he was living near Franz Liszt whom he greatly admired. Liszt's influence can be discerned in the urgent piano accompaniment and the cumulative chromaticism which Cornelius chose as a means of expressing the emotional content of the text in music, alternating between Lust und Leiden, between Kampf und Ruh. The marking Leidenschaftlich bewegt [passionately agitated] aptly describes the character of the song. This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.926000

ISBN 9790007249229. Key: F major. Language: French. Text: Barbier, Jules.

The three verses of Aimons-nous, separated by piano interludes, are cheerful and amorous, an invitation to everlasting mutual love. The text portrays this almost as a law of nature: rivers and streams combine, the sun embraces the earth, and the birds snuggle close to each other in their nest. Light, rippling syncopations in the piano accompany Gounod's typical catchy melodic writing in the vocal parts. The writer Jules Barbier was Gounod's favored opera librettist (Faust, Romeo et Juliette), but many other 19th century opera composers also set his texts, including Camille Saint-Saens, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Jacques Offenbach. This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.926200

ISBN 9790007249243. Key: E major. Language: French. Text: Bourget, Paul.

Beau soir seems to have inspired musicians to make their own arrangements - for violin, cello, saxophone quartet, or even for five-part chamber choir and piano, as in this version by Denis Rouger. Unlike the instrumental versions, this one retains Paul Bourget's text: the poetic depiction of a sunset on a mild summer evening, on which light and shade merge into one another like the rhythm and harmony in Debussy's setting. It is not an unclouded depiction, but the recognition of our own finiteness. This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).

SKU: CA.926100

ISBN 9790007249236. Key: E major. Language: French. Text: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang / Gallet, Louis.

In Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, the girl Mignon embodies the longing for Italy. In the novel, she sings the song Kennst du das Land, wo die Zitronen bluhn [Do you know the country where the lemon trees flower]. Charles Gounod set a free translation of the text by Louis Gallet in 1871. At the appassionato, melodies heavy with longing over a piano part with flowing triplet figurations express the wanderlust for the country where die Orangen wie Gold glanzen! This art song was originally composed not for chamber choir, but for solo voice and piano. Denis Rouger has carefully adapted it to suit the requirements and expressive possibilities offered by a larger ensemble, without losing the any of the qualities of the original in the process. Each part in the choir has a melodic line drawn from the harmonic and rhythmic framework. In the process, the variety and refinement of the choral language combines with an enormous flexibility in form and expression, as French melodies or German art song demand from a soloist and pianist. The songs have been recorded by the figure humaine chamber choir on the CD Kennst du das Land ... (Carus 83.495).