L'invitation au voyage
by Henri Duparc
SSATB - Sheet Music

SSATB chorus, piano - Grade 3

SKU: CA.928200

Composed by Henri Duparc. Arranged by Denis Rouger. Carus digital: Notenausgabe als PDF. Full Score. Composed 1880. Duration 5 minutes. Carus Verlag #928200. Published by Carus Verlag (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).