An Attentive Interpretation Study of Claude Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis

for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano, Including Jake Heggie’s Arrangement of Trois

Chansons de Bilitis for Mezzo-Soprano and String Quartet

D.M.A. Document

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Musical

Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Élise DesChamps

Graduate Program in Music

The Ohio State University

2019

D.M.A. Document Committee

Dr. Scott McCoy, Advisor

Professor Edward Bak

Professor Alan Green

i

Copyright by

Élise DesChamps

2019

ii

Abstract

This document is an outgrowth of my strong desire to gain a deeper understanding of

Debussy’s musical style, as well as Jake Heggie’s, and to create a new connection in the existing literature. A recent arrangement of Trois chansons de Bilitis by Jake Heggie creates a vehicle which allows this study to connect the two geniuses. The first chapter is an introduction on the subject, followed by two chapters on Debussy’s, and Louÿs’ lives, where simple yet thorough biographies are established. The fourth chapter is focusing on the collaboration between Debussy and Louÿs, and the birth of Bilitis. Chapter five is an interpretation guide exposing compositional elements including, but not limited to, diction, primary sources, harmony, melody, rhythm, text, and formal structure, including topics most pertinent to performance practice. Chapter six is dedicated to Jake Heggie.

The final pages of the document include a full musical score, Eugène Fromont’s first edition, with interpretation markings, suggested breaths, complete International Phonetic

Alphabet, and an English translation. Also included is a lexicon, and, with Jake Heggie’s kind permission, a sample page of his arrangement of Debussy’s song cycle, published by

Bent Pen Music. This document is intended to aid artists in the preparation of an informed performance of Trois chansons de Bilitis, the song cycle with piano or string quartet.

iii

Dedication

À ma fille Viviane.

iv

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank the chair of my committee, my advisor, teacher, and mentor, Dr. Scott McCoy. Since the beginning of this incredible journey at

The Ohio State University, you supported, challenged, and guided my development as a singer, teacher, and person.

Secondly, I would like to thank The Ohio State University faculty members of my committee, Dr. Robin Rice, Professor Alan Green, Professor Edward Bak, and Dr.

Lawrence Tomassini.

Furthermore, I thank my close collaborators, pianist Edward Bak, Dr. C. Patrick

Woliver, Professor Alan Green, and The Ohio State University Music and Dance Library

Staff, Margaret (“Gretchen”) Atkinson and Jarod Ogier, Eileen Davis, Julia Johnson

Fisher, Daniel Gallagher, Leland Greene, Dr. Kelly Hale, Rebecca Harrah, Jake Heggie,

Roland Laroche, Joseph Mueller, Lorraine Prieur, Hélène M. Stevens, my sisters, my family, my students, and my friends. I would also like to thank my dear friends Kyle and

Rebecca Ketelsen for their generous, consistent love and support, and for being the inspiration behind this document; I caught on fire during Pélléas et Mélisande at The

Metropolitan Opera.

Finally, thank you to my beloved husband, Brian, and my beautiful daughter,

Viviane, who supported every step, every breath, every heartbeat associated with this degree with tremendous love, support, and incredible patience.

v

Vita

1991...... B.M. Cello, Conservatoire de Music de Montréal

1994...... B.A. Music History, Conservatoire de Music de Montréal

1997...... M.M. Voice Performance, Indiana University

1998...... Winner, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Jeunes Artists Série

2007-2019...... Adjunct Lecturer, Capital University

2008...... Young American Artist Program, Cincinnati Opera

2014-2019...... Artist-in-Residence, Bay View Music Festival

2016...... Winner, The Ohio State University DMA Concerto Competition

2016-2019...... Graduate Teaching Associate, School of Music, The Ohio State University

2017-2018...... Margaret Speaks Graduate Voice Scholarship, The Ohio State University

2017-2018...... CDW Scholarship, The Ohio State University

2017-2018...... Honor Society Phi Kappa Phi

2019...... Golden Key International Honour Society

2019...... National Association of Teachers of Singing

2019...... Visiting Assistant Professor at The University of Iowa

Field of Study

Major Field: Music vi

Table of Contents

Abstract ...... iii Dedication ...... iv Acknowledgments ...... v Vita ...... vi Table of Contents ...... vii Chapter 1. An Introduction to Trois chansons de Bilitis ...... 1 Chapter 2. Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918) ...... 7 Chapter 3. Pierre-Félix Louis (1870-1925) ...... 15 Chapter 4. The Connivances of Debussy and Louÿs, or The Birth of Bilitis ...... 20 Chapter 5. Interpretation Guide ...... 23 Chapter 6. John Stephen Heggie (b.1961) ...... 37 Conclusion ...... 46 Bibliography ...... 47 Preface for Appendix A ...... 50 Appendix A. Annotated Musical Score ...... 55 Appendix B. Page 5 of Jake Heggie’s Arrangement of Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis ...... 67 Appendix C. Lexicon ...... 68

vii

Chapter 1. An Introduction to Trois chansons de Bilitis

Trois chansons de Bilitis, a song cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano, composed by Claude Debussy in 1897, on poetry by Pierre Louÿs, was arranged for mezzo-soprano and string quartet in 2017 by American composer Jake Heggie. I started to work on

Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis in 2016 with Dr. Scott McCoy and performed the song cycle on two Doctoral recitals (one of mine, and one of a pianist friend), and at Bay

View Music Festival. In the summer of 2017, I performed “This Journey” from the opera

Dead Man Walking, by Jake Heggie on text by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, and The

Deepest Desire: Four Meditations on Love (2002), a song cycle for mezzo-soprano, flute, and piano, which brought the opportunity to meet and coach with the composer in the

Fall of 2017. In 2018, I performed My True Love Hath My Heart (1996), Paper Wings

(1997), “A Lucky Child” from A Statue of Venus (2005), and will perform The Deepest

Desire: Four Meditations on Love again this summer and the song cycle Camille

Claudel: Into the Fire (2012) later this year. My latest performance of Jake Heggie material was his string quartet arrangement of Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis in

April 2019. One can say that I am a recent advocate of Heggie; every vocal piece that I have encountered from his catalogue has felt like it was written for me, and I am compelled to discover more. Jake Heggie understands the mezzo-soprano voice and writes to perfection, having great singers as models, such as Joyce DiDonato and

Frederica von Stade. He said:

1

The lyric mezzo-soprano is just so real. There is such a real sense of humanity and character in that voice. When it gets into those really high regions it’s strained, and that is real, too, but there is also something very earthy about it. I love the way a lyric mezzo can ‘fly-off’ too, but also how it can be very grounded. Mezzos also have a strong middle voice that expresses the text clearly. In a soprano voice, you don’t get very clear text in the middle.1

In the past year, Debussy and Heggie held active parts in my repertoire, intertwining with my vocal study, and borrowing from Louÿs’ poetry in “La chevelure,” ainsi que deux lauriers n’ont souvent qu’une racine [like two laurels that often have only one root], they have fused. I have chosen Trois chansons de Bilitis to be the “root” of my document, with the aim to discover the branches shared by the two geniuses. This document discusses Debussy’s, Louÿs’, and Heggie’s simple yet thorough biographies, introduces France as a foundation of Debussy’s musical language, examines the collaboration between Debussy and Louÿs, and the genesis of Bilitis, is followed by an interpretation guide exposing compositional elements including, but not limited to, diction, primary sources, melody, rhythm, text, and formal structure, including topics most pertinent to performance practice, and ends with a full musical score, in first edition now in public domain, containing interpretation markings, corrections, suggested breaths, complete International Phonetic Alphabet, and English translation, as well as a lexicon of important terms.

Often referred to or addressed as Les chansons de Bilitis, or even simply

Chansons de Bilitis, Claude Debussy’s song cycle, for clarification and exactitude, will

1 Carolyn E. Redman, “Songs to the Moon: A Song Cycle by Jake Heggie from Poems by Vachel Lindsay” (D.M.A. diss., The Ohio State University, 2004), 14. 2 loyally be called Trois chansons de Bilitis throughout this document. This will be done primarily for accuracy, but also to distinctively separate this cycle from Debussy’s incidental music entitled Chansons de Bilitis (1900), later arranged with reconstructed celesta part, but unpublished by Pierre Boulez (1954),2 and again later by Arthur Hoérée

(1971).3 Additional works based on the original literary source, some listed in

Thompson’s A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Composers, others in Grove Music

Online, will not be the topics of discussion in this document, for instance Maurice

Delage’s Trois chansons de Bilitis (1926),4 an orchestral arrangement of Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis, Georges Dandelot’s Chansons de Bilitis for voice and pianoforte

(1929),5 Dane Rudhyar’s Trois chansons de Bilitis for Mezzo-Soprano and Harp (1918, later orchestrated in 1981),6 Charles Koechlin’s Cinq chansons de Bilitis for Voice and

Piano (1898–1908),7 and a lost composition by Mordecai Seter, Chansons de Bilitis op.3 for Soprano and Pianoforte (1933).8

Furthermore, the practice of always including the Trois, the minimum number to create a cycle, at the top of the title is significant because it is representative of the tryptic

2 G.W. Hopkins, “Boulez, Pierre,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed January 25, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 3 François Lesure, and Roy Howat, “Debussy, (Achille-) Claude,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed 9 February, 2019. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 4 Jann Pasler, “Delage, Maurice,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed January 25, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 5 Jacques Tchamkerten, “Dandelot, Georges,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed January 25, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 6 C. Oja, “Rudhyar, Dane,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed January 25, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 7 Robert Orledge, “Koechlin, Charles,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed January 25, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 8 Ronit Seter, “Seter, Mordecai,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed January 25, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 3 musical form, and of the décor adopted by Debussy framed with three-measure phrases and many triplets both in the vocal and piano parts. Perhaps intended by the composer, it is described by Susan Youens in Grove Music Online as his “favoured” number.9

Rightly, various compositions by Debussy are delineated by a ternary form, such as:

Trois mélodies (1891, 1901), Fêtes galantes (1891, 1904), Trois scènes au crépuscule

(1892–3), Images (1894), Trois nocturnes (1894–6), Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans (1898), La mer (1903-5), Trois chansons de France (1904), Trois ballades de

Villon (1910), Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (1913), and En blanc et noir (1915). Only one other vocal work, a transcription and arrangement of Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis will be included in this document: Debussy’s composition Heggie’s arrangement of Trois chansons de Bilitis for Mezzo-Soprano and String Quartet (2017).10

Claude Debussy’s sound palette and musical world were not remote in my musical education, as many piano préludes,11 performances of Pélléas et Mélisande, and symphonic works were heard, studied, rehearsed, and performed beginning at an early stage as a cellist. Although fascinated, a constant and upheld attitude prevented me from singing any work by Debussy; he remained somehow unreachable. Later, in my career, as a trained Cenerentola, a stubborn Carmen, a naïve Cherubino, and a foreign Iolanthe, I felt inspired to become a Bilitis, though the task appeared challenging, and the belief emerged that another “type” of singer seemed more suitable to perform this music and

9 Susan Youens, “Song cycle,” in Grove Music Online (Oxford University Press, 2001-), accessed January 25, 2019, http://www.oxford.musiconline.com. 10 Jake Heggie, “Trois Chansons de Bilitis by Claude Debussy (arr. 2017),” Jake Heggie: Composer and Pianist, 2019, accessed February 8, 2019, https://jakeheggie.com. 11 Jean-Paul Sévilla. Debussy: Les 24 préludes. Illustrations Lorraine Prieur. Lille, France: Jean-Paul Sévilla Tous Droits Réservés. https://www.thebookedition.com/fr/debussy-les-24-preludes-p-344692.html. 4 style. Perhaps one could name Dr. Scott McCoy as the person directly responsible for this document since he placed the score in my hands. As my mentor and advisor, he also, as a pianist, accompanied numerous rehearsals and studio runs, always expressed direct, undeniably useful, and truthful remarks on interpretation and vocal technique, and never wavered in his goal of reaching better sounds, clearer articulation, and purer stylistic transparency.

The discovery of this score drives the interested singer on an adventurous journey toward performance, the recital or the jury, bringing along invaluable discoveries on vocal sensations, perceptions, and desires.

Green State University presented, with Keynote Lecture through The Edwin H.

Simmons Creative Minds Series, a different perspective on creativity from modern-day opera composer Jake Heggie. The lecture took place on Bowling Green State University campus October 22-24, 2017, engaging with all of the arts units. The in-state trip from

Columbus was easy to make, and after studying a few arias and songs by Jake Heggie in the summer of 2017, my attendance was compulsory. Six public sessions entitled

“Keynote Lecture,” “Adapting Books and Poetry into Opera and Art Songs,” “Choral

Arrangements of Whitman and Auden,” “Student-Composed MicroOpera Workshop,”

“Student-Composed Art Song Workshop,” and “Voice Master Class” featuring the compositions of Jake Heggie were presented during the residency. Also, a precious opportunity was added: a two-hour private coaching with the composer, which focused

5 on his work The Deepest Desire (2002, and orchestrated in 2005),12 a song cycle that appeared as the final piece on my final Doctorate of Musical Arts recital, a trio for mezzo-soprano, piano, and flute (Edward Bak, piano and Daniel Gallagher, flute). The residency and coaching brought revelation; meeting Jake Heggie impacted and influenced many musical decisions that followed, and stimulated my interpretative world.

Fusing, comparing, and discovering the ties between two pianist-composers, and their affinities for Bilitis became a passion. The commitment of this document is to give an interpretive guide to Trois chansons de Bilitis by Claude Debussy, as well as Jake

Heggie’s adaptation of the original work for mezzo-soprano and string quartet.

A sample page of Jake Heggie’s arrangement of Claude Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis published by Bent Pen Music is located in Appendix B, and is available with the kind permission of the composer via email.13

12 Jake Heggie, “The Deepest Desire,” Jake Heggie: Composer and Pianist, 2019, accessed April 12, 2019, https://jakeheggie.com. 13 Jake Heggie, Personal Email, May 1st, 2019. 6

Chapter 2. Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

In a Grove Music Online article on Claude Debussy, published in print and available online in 2001, François Lesure and Roy Howat refer to Debussy as one of the most important musicians of his time, and reveal several aspects of the French composer’s life and musical style. For the single-mindedness of this document, Claude

Debussy’s biographical journey will consist of a diminutive timeline; addressing subjects surrounding birth, childhood, musical education, and other pertinent events, all leading to the creation of Trois chansons de Bilitis. In accompaniment, the nicknames Claude de

Bussy, Claude de Bilitis, Monsieur Croche, and Claude Debussy: Musician Français will appear as pertinent headlines within this chapter.14

Claude de Bussy (The name of the composer’s grandfather)

The first son of Manuel-Achille Debussy and Victorine Joséphine Sophie

Manoury, Achille-Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-

Laye. In “The Family and Childhood of Debussy” from The Musical Quarterly, Marcel

Dietschy and Edward Lockspeiser wrote a comprehensive genealogic tree of the Debussy

Family, from both paternal and maternal hemispheres, and there, through Debussy’s

14 François Lesure and Roy Howat. “Debussy, (Achille-) Claude.” Grove Music Online. Accessed on 12 Apr. 2019. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 7 relatives, Clémentine de Bussy was described as “affectionate and generous in nature, extremely fond of children”;15 as the godmother of three of the Manuel Debussy children,

Clémentine played a pivotal role in the composer’s early music education. The young

Debussy took his first piano lessons with Jean Cerutti, an Italian musician, in Southern

France, where the family was refuging, safely removed from the conflicts surrounding the

Franco-Prussian War. Upon their Paris return, Debussy, with the help of Paul Verlaine’s mother-in-law, Antoinette Mauté, trained for an audition at the Paris Conservatory, to which he was accepted in 1872. At the conservatory, he studied piano with Antoine

Marmontel, and solfège with Albert Lavignac. From 1874 to 1877, Debussy, having achieved limited success as a young pianist, not reaching a premier prix de piano, described by Vallas as a “relative” failure, une sorte de tare in the conservatory walls, and a “cruel disappointment” for the family,16 shifted his education to harmony with

Émile Durand, and piano accompaniment with August Bazille. Vallas also shared two unique testimonies on Debussy’s pianistic abilities from French conservatory contemporary companions Garbriel Perné and Paul Vidal. Perné said:

Il fonçait littéralement sur le clavier et forçait tous les effects. Il semblait pris de rage contre l’instrument, le brusquant avec des gestes impulsifs, souffrant bruyamment en exécutant les traits difficiles.17 [He literally rushed on the keyboard and forced all effects, banging impulsively, loudly through the difficult measures.]18

15 Marcel Dietschy, and Edward Lockspeiser. “The Family and Childhood of Debussy.” The Musical Quarterly 46, no. 3 (1960): 3018, http://www.jstor.org/stable/740659. 16 Marcel Dietschy, and Edward Lockspeiser. “The Family and Childhood of Debussy.” The Musical Quarterly 46, no. 3 (1960): 301-14, http://www.jstor.org/stable/740659. 15 Léon Vallas. Achille-Claude Debussy (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1944), 6. 18 “Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.” 8

Paul Vidal shared a similar estimation of Debussy’s coarse piano approach, saying:

Son jeu, très intéressant, n’était pas pianistiquement sans défauts; il éxécutait le trille avec difficulté, mais par contre, il avait une main gauche d’une habileté et d’une capacité d’extension extraordinaires.19 [His playing, very interesting, was not without technical faults; he executed the trill with difficulties, but also, he had a very flexible capable left hand, capable of extraordinary extensions.]

And, followed with a praise regarding Debussy’s accompaniment skills:

Ses dons de pianiste apparurent au cours des années suivantes, dans la classe d’accompagnement de Bazille, où il se distingua grandement.20 [His gifts as a pianist appeared during the following years, in the accompaniment classes of Bazille, where he distinguished himself greatly.]

The classes of Bazille provided more evidence of Debussy finding his gusto as a collaborative pianist, and he reached a premier prix. Debussy joined Ernest Guiraud’s composition class, and worked in the studio of Victorine Moreau-Sainti, where he met his first love, singer Marie Vasnier, a soprano with great agility and high tessitura,21 in

1881.22 Debussy’s first mélodies are dated 1879, and by 1883, Vasnier inspired him to compose more mélodies, and his catalogue contains more than ninety. Inspired by his contemporary poets and friends, Debussy creates with the poetry of Banville, Bourget,

Mallarmé, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Villon, and Louÿs, an “enchanting gallery” of mélodies.23

19 Léon Vallas. Achille-Claude Debussy (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1944), 6. 20 Ibid. 21 Charles Koechlin, “La jeunesse de Debussy: quelques anciennes mélodies inédites de Debussy,” Revue Musicale vol. 7, 115 (1926, May 01), 117, http://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest- com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/docview/740760369?accountid=9783. 22 Claude Debussy, Debussy Letters, Selected and Edited by François Lesure and Roger Nichols. Translated by Roger Nichols (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987), XXV. 23 Edward Lockspeiser, Debussy (New-York: McCraw-Hill Book Company, 1972), 118. 9

It is his Gladiateur that first obtained a runner-up qualification at the Grand Prix de Rome in 1883, then, in the following year, his new cantata L’enfant prodigue won him the Grand prix; Claude Debussy was making his mark as a composer.

Claude de Bilitis

In the decade directly following the prestige of winning the Grand Prix de Rome, and the required study abroad, Debussy embraced Parisian cafés, artistic gatherings,

French symbolists and their contemporary philosophies, such as Paul Dukas, Robert

Godet, and Raymond Bonheur, and visits to Bayreuth. There, a strong symbolist movement reflected a “need for individuality,” described by Stéphane Mallarmé in his

Oeuvres complètes:

“Dans une société sans stabilité, sans unité, il ne peut se créer d’art stable, d’art définitif. De cette organization sociale inachevée, qui explique en même temps l’inquiétude des esprits, naît l’inexpliqué besoin d’individualité dont les manifestations littéraires présentes sont le reflet direct.24 [In a society without stability, without unity, it cannot create stable art, or definitive art. From this unfinished social organization, which at the same time explains the anxiety of the spirits, develops the unexplained need for individuality whose literary manifestations present are the direct reflection.]

Stefan Jarocinski also gave an insight into the aims of the symbolist movement:

Les symbolistes ont la conviction que tous les éléments du monde sont reliés entre eux: quelle que soit la corde que l’on touche dans une sphère de la vie, elle trouvera une resonance dans toutes les autres sphères.25 [The symbolists have the conviction that all the elements of the world are

24 Stéphane Mallarmé, Oeuvres complètes, (Paris: Pléiade, 1945), 866-7. 25 Stefan Jarocinski. Debussy, impressionnisme et symbolism (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1970), 55. 10

interconnected: whatever string one touches in a sphere of life, it will find a resonance in all the other spheres.]

When discussing the philosophy of the symbolists, Maurice Denis offered a direct clarification:

Le triomphe de l’esprit de synthèse sur l’esprit d’analyse, de l’imagination sur la sensation, de l’homme sur la nature.26 [The triumph of the spirit of synthesis over the spirit of analysis, of imagination over sensation, of man over nature.]

These active philosophies emerging in Paris, were part of a large creative movement, from which Debussy found inspiration, and just like a symbolist, he approached a different amalgamation for the essence of his work; his creative vision won over any affected emotion, his speech-like and intimate declamatory paired with profound harmonic textures and colors, and created of a new acoustic world resulting in pure masterpieces.

Parallel to his vie de Bohème, a boisterous personal life erupted, and a series of stormy events was the talk of the Parisian town covered in newspaper headlines describing Debussy’s personal relationship disagreements, his new lovers (and their attempted suicides), and break-ups. Nonetheless, despite his difficult feminine affairs,

Debussy always returned to his music, his real stimulus, which was in full bloom: a personal musical style galloping toward a particular vision, an intimate harmonious style reaching a unique sound scape, and approaching a spectacular sense of sound. Debussy, pen in hand and muse at the heart of his imagination, wrote over ninety mélodies, from

25 Maurice Denis, Catalogue de l’exposition consacrée Henri-Edmond Cross: Oeuvres de la dernière période (Paris: M.M. Bernheim Jeune, 1910), 985, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015036948829;view=1up;seq=505. 11 the early Ballade à la lune (1879) and Madrid, princesse des Espagnes (1879) to his last mélodie, composed on his own poetry, Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison

(1915),27 sketched with perfect harmonic texture, where text and music fuse as one, enriching the French vocal library with a rich crop of vocal masterpieces.

In a Musical Quarterly article published a few months after the death of Debussy,

G. Jean-Aubry discussed his various meetings with Debussy,28 and granted us with a physical description of the composer, who, for the curious, according to Jean-Aubry, was showing signs of fatigue in his forties, “yet he retained his somewhat Asiatic appearance.” Jean-Aubry commented on his black curly hair resting on a large forehead with narrowed eyes, and remarked on “the largest ears” he has ever seen.

Monsieur Croche

Debussy used the pseudonym “Monsieur Croche” [Mr. Eighth-note or Mr.

Crooked], and contributed articles on music to various journals, such as Revue Blanche,

Gil Blas, Musica, Mercure de France, La Revue Bleue, Figaro, Comœdia, and Paris-

Journal. Debussy gathered extracts of his articles for the publication of a book, but given the complications of the war, the book was published after the war ended, and after his death, in 1921. As a columnist, he shared and cultivated his direct opinion on many of his

27 François Lesure and Roy Howat. “Debussy, (Achille-) Claude.” Grove Music Online, accessed on April 12, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 28 G. Jean-Aubry, “Claude Debussy,” The Musical Quarterly Vol. IV, Issue 4, (October 1918): 542- 54, https://doi-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/10.1093/mq/IV.4.542. 12 contemporaries.29 In this book, whenever his alter ego speaks, Debussy refers to him as a third party.

Debussy was often described as a symbolist, or as an impressionist, and sometimes as a mix of both. Since his compositions were now more frequently played at concerts, the term debussysme came into vogue. This was used both as a compliment and as a term of abuse, and the term became his own.

During a visit to Britain at the end of February 1909, the first signs of illness manifested themselves. Debussy was diagnosed with rectal cancer, which later took his life at the age of 55.

Claude Debussy: Musicien Français30

Given the events of World War I and other historical circumstances, Debussy feared that French literary resources would disappear. Indeed, the war depressed Debussy into a state of creative sterility. The summer of 1915 saw a last productive burst, which included one mélodie: Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison [Christmas carol for homeless children.] Debussy wrote the poetry and the music for this last mélodie: a devastating poem featuring orphans who have lost everything during the attacks on

France. A doux et triste [soft and sad] movement represents the children and is accompanied at the piano by a léger et rythmé [light and precise rhythmically] fast current, which is perhaps insinuating of the children, caught in the war, running away

29 Claude Debussy. Monsieur Croche: The Dilettante Hater. Translated by B. N. Langdon Davies and Foreword by Lawrence Gilman (USA: The Viking Press, 1928), VI. 30 Claude Debussy. Six sonates pour divers instruments (Paris: Durand, 1916), title page. 13 from danger. A portrayal of the innocence of children is also used by Debussy in Pélléas et Mélisande with the character of Yniold, child of Golaud, and Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison, written in the heart of the German occupation in France, uses the vulnerability of children as a cry of sorrow and grief for France.

André Hodeir in La musique depuis Debussy explains that Debussy was only understood after his death:

La signification profonde de l’oeuvre de Debussy, son sense historique ne se sont révélés que vers la fin de la guerre. Alors le “peintre flou,” “l’impressioniste,” le “pointilliste,” “Claude de France” s’effacèrent, tandis que surgissait la vraie figure du destructeur de la rhétorique, du précurseur des conceptions formelles contemporaines; de celui, enfin, qui a réaffirmé le pouvoir du son pur, du son en soi.31 [The profound signification of Debussy’s work and his historical meaning were only revealed after the end of the war. Then, the “blurry painter,” the “impressionist,” “the pointillist,” “Claude of France” went away, while the real face of the destructor of the rhetoric, of the precursor of contemporary formal conceptions; of the man, at last, who reaffirmed the power of sound, of sound in itself.]

French composer Henri Barraud, an eloquent and distinguished composer and musicologist, described Debussy in La France et la musique occidentale:

Par la force de son génie, par l’importance de son message, par son rayonnement dans le monde, Debussy s’affirme donc comme la plus grande figure de la musique au crépuscule du XIXe siècle et à l’aurore du XXe siècle.32 [By the strength of his genius, by the importance of his message, by his influence in the world, Debussy asserts himself as the greatest music figure in the twilight of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century.]

31 André Hodeir. La musique depuis Debussy (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1961), 7. 32 Henry Barraud, La France et la musique occidentale (Paris: Gallimard, 1956), 127. 14

Chapter 3. Pierre-Félix Louis (1870-1925)

Pierre Louÿs, born Pierre-Félix Louis (the author changed the spelling of his family name by replacing the “i” with “ÿ”), on December 12, 1870, on Basse street in

Dizy, France. He was the son of a lawyer, Pierre-Philippe Louis (1812-1889), and of

Claire-Céline Maldan (1832-1879), and he died in Paris on June 4th, 1925. Louÿs’ grave is located at Montparnasse cemetery in the Raffet alley of the 26th division.33

Pierre Louÿs worked surrounded by large bookcases full of rare books and precious bookbinding; he thought and lived primarily at night,34 slept during the day, and smoked hundreds of cigarettes, which were rare and expensive at the time.35 His work, all written by the age of twenty-three was born from nocturnal dreams, telling stories of passion and love of women, perverse, feeric, or courtesans.36 He believed that sexuality was the chief engine of thought.37 His musical education was as complete as his literary culture. Fascinated by Greece and the things of the past, Louÿs spoke a dozen languages, dead or current, including Hebrew and Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-European language of

India.

33 R. Cardinne-Petit, Pierre Louÿs inconnu (Paris: Éditions de l’Élan, 1948), 13. 34 Ibid., 24. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid., 83. 37 Ibid., 8. 15

In the 1990 critical edition of Pierre Louÿs’ Les chansons de Bilitis edited by

Jean-Paul Goujon most specifics can be found vis-à-vis the genesis of Les chansons de

Bilitis and its editions.38

Born from the imagination of Louÿs, Les chansons de Bilitis, a book of erotic prose poems, in semi-free verse, was first published at the poet’s own expense in 1894 printed by Paul Schmidt, and shown officially by Edmond Bailly at Librairie de l’art indépendant.39 The title-page of the original edition read Les chansons de Bilitis.

Traduites du grec pour la première fois par P. L. [The Songs of Bilitis. Translated from the Greek for the First Time, by P. L.]40 The French chansons were introduced as translations of Greek poems freshly discovered from a tomb of the sixth century B.C, and, as part of a literary trick, Louÿs credited the “findings” of Bilitis to a fabricated

German scholar, a lecturer of archaeology and philology with the name professor G.

Heim, which, ingeniously, is “G.Heim” or “Geheim” in German, which translates as

“secret”; an easy twist for a poet speaking numerous languages. In the first edition dated

1895, Louÿs dedicated the poems to André Gide: “À André Gide / M.b.A. / Champel, 11 juillet 1894”, and revealed part of the mysterious charade. André Gide had shared his sexual exploits with Louÿs; the love stories of Gide and his young Algerian mistress named Meryem-bent-Ali (M.b.A.). Aroused from the erotic tales, Louÿs traveled to find the young girl, a young Algerian, who became a primary source of inspiration, and after

38 Pierre Louÿs, Les Chansons de Bilitis, Pervigilium Mortis: avec divers textes inédits, Edited and Annotated by Jean-Paul Goujon (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), 237-333. 39 Jean-Paul Goujon. Pierre Louÿs: Une vie secrete (1870-1925) (Paris: Editions Seghers, 1988), 139. 40 Léopold Delisle. Catalogue général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1897), 985. 16 meeting Meryem in Constantine and Biskra, Louÿs restarted his poems with “a marvel of grace, of delicacy, and of antique poetry” at heart, as he wrote to his brother Georges

Louis:

(Meryem-bent-Ali) un nom d’oiseau. Née en 1878 à Ouled-Djella, a été la première maîtresse de Gide (...) a été cause que j’ai recommencé entièrement Bilitis d’après elle, à partir du jour où je l’ai vue (...) Elle était une merveille de grace, de délicatesse, et de poésie antique.41 [(Meryem- bent-Ali) a bird's name. Born in 1878 in Ouled-Djella, was the first mistress of Gide (...) has been the reason I have restarted Bilitis based on her, from the first day I saw her (...) She was a marvel of grace, delicacy, and ancient poetry.]

In a letter to Debussy dated July 31, 1894, Louÿs describes the young sixteen- year-old Meryem as having “les moeurs les plus dépravées” (“the most depraved morals”), and he also commented on a warm summer sun, a beaming light, and women looking like Bilitis, at least all the young ones.42

Debussy wrote to Louÿs, asking permission to set one of his eighty-six Chansons de Bilitis to music,43 showing a special interest in the poem “La syrinx”. Titled “La syrinx” and numbered twenty in the original edition of the literary work, it became “La flûte” and numbered twenty-nine44 in the second edition, and finally, retitled “La flûte de

Pan” by Debussy. The first song was a commission from the journal L’Image. In reply to

Debussy’s request, Louÿs suggested, instead of the “La flûte de Pan,” his new unpublished poem “La chevelure,”45 a recent addition to the Bilitis poems, inspired by

41 Pierre Louÿs. Les chansons de Bilitis: Pervigilium Mortis, avec divers textes inédits (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), 258. 42 Ibid., 259. 43 R. Cardinne-Petit, Pierre Louÿs inconnu (Paris: Éditions de l’Élan, 1948), 113. 44 Pierre Louÿs. Les chansons de Bilitis (Paris: Albin Michel, 1932), 60. 45 Ibid., 61. 17

Marie de Régnier,46 and with his letter, he immediately sent a manuscript copy of the poem to Debussy. Debussy, pleased with the new poem, completed “La flûte de Pan” on

June 22, and “La chevelure” on July 5. “La chevelure” was the chosen-one for L’Image, which printed the song under the title Chanson de Bilitis in its October 1897, issue n.11, which contains incidental differences from the first edition. By December 1897, Debussy had decided to set a third Bilitis poem, “Le tombeau des Naïades,” and he completed the song by March 1898.47 Upon the first hearing of the two mélodies, Louÿs was delighted with the settings.

Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis, published by Fromont in August 1899, are derived from “Bucoliques en Pamphylie” [Bucolic in Pamphylia] part one of the collection containing forty-six chansons, and respectively numbered 30, 31, and 46 in the second edition. The première, on March 17, 1900, was sung by Blanche Marot, an artist from the opéra-comique, accompanied by the composer himself, at the Société nationale de musique.48 In a letter, dated October 16th, 1898, Debussy wrote to Louÿs:

Veux-tu me dire ce que deviendraient ajouter mes trois petites musiques à l’audition pure et simple de ton texte? Rien du tout; mon vieux, je te dirai même que cela disperserait maladroitement l’émotion des auditeurs. À quoi bon, vraiment, accorder la voix de Bilitis, soit en majeur, soit en mineur, puisqu’elle à la voix la plus persuasive au monde? – Tu me diras: Pourquoi fais-tu de la musique? Ça, vieux loup, c’est d’autre chose... C’est pour d’autres décors...49 [Would you tell me what would my three little pieces add to the pure and simple hearing of your text? Nothing at all; my old man, I would even tell you that it would clumsily disperse the emotion of the listeners. What good is it, really, to voice Bilitis, either in major or minor, since she has the most persuasive voice in the world? – You’ll tell me: Why

46 Henri Borgeaud, ed., Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904) (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1945), 94. 47 Ibid. 48 Léon Vallas, Claude Debussy et son temps (Paris: F. Alcan, 1932), 155. 49 Ibid. 18

do you make music? That, old wolf, it is a different story... It is for other sets...]

Apparently, a certain Mr. Eugène Ledrain, critic, was one of the victims caught by the mystification of Louÿs’ Chansons de Bilitis, and became the joke of a generation of critics, upon his statement on having read the original text in Greek somewhere.50

Ledrain believed the story around the finding of the original songs, engraved in black amphibolite, and described in details by Louÿs:

Son tombeau a été retrouvé par M. G. Heim à Palaeo-Limisso, sur les bords d’une route antique, non loin des ruines d’Amathonte... Tombeau était souterrain. Le caveau spacieux et bas, paves de dailles de calcaire, avait quatre murs recouverts par des plaques d’amphibolite noire, où étaient gravées en capitals primitives toutes les chansons.”51 [Her tomb was found by M. G. Heim in Palaeo-Limisso, on the shores of an ancient road, not far from the ruins of Amathonte... Tomb was underground. The spacious and low vault, paves of limestones, had four walls covered by black amphibolite plaques, where all the songs were engraved in primitive letters.]

Bilitis is “la gloire”52 de Pierre Louÿs, and it brought to the poetic world an exclusive sensuality and new form of French poetry.

50 R. Cardinne-Petit, Pierre Louÿs inconnu (Paris: Éditions de l’Élan, 1948), 113. 51 Pierre Louÿs. Les chansons de Bilitis (Paris: Albin Michel, 1932), 17-8. 52 R. Cardinne-Petit, Pierre Louÿs inconnu (Paris: Éditions de l’Élan, 1948), 156. 19

Chapter 4. The Connivances of Debussy and Louÿs, or The Birth of Bilitis

When the two artists originally met is not precisely known, though G. Jean-

Aubry53 suggests that Louÿs met Debussy in a beuglant, a café with live music, in

Montmartre where Debussy played.54 Nonetheless, they had most likely heard of one another in the early 1890’s, as both artists’ works, Louÿs’ Astarté, his first omnibus of poetries, and Debussy’s mélodies on the poetry of Baudelaire, were simultaneously seen at the librairie de l’art indépendant, a library in support of the symbolist movement of the time, which also served as a publisher.55 Henri Borgeaud’s book of correspondence dated from 1893 to 1904 is a remarkable primary source of information on the relationship between the two men, and their complicity that led to Trois chansons de

Bilitis. Borgeaud’s Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904), an extensive, accurate and precise cumulation of the letters exchanged between the two men, traces the eleven-year timeline of the friendship, which was interrupted by the separation of Debussy and his first wife, a circumstance that terminated the amity.

In 1895, at the librairie de l’art indépendent, Pierre Louÿs anonymously published Les chansons de Bilitis, traduites du grec pour la première fois par P. L.

53 Henri Borgeaud, ed., Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904) (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1945), 7. 54 André Lebey. Disques et Péllicules (Paris: Librairie Valois, 1929), 213. 55 Henri Borgeaud, ed., Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904) (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1945), 6. 20

Debussy, on the other hand, consumed by his current compositions: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and a first version of Pélléas et Mélisande, stays focused on his muse and writes to Louÿs:

Bilitis est dans toutes les mains... Pélléas et Mélisande sont mes seuls petits amis en ce moment; d’ailleurs commençons-nous peut-être à trop nous connaître et ne racontons-nous plus que des histoires don’t nous savons parfaitement le dénouement; puis, finir une oeuvre, n’est-ce pas un peu comme la mort de quelqu’un qu’on aime?...Un accord de neuvième...Les bémols sont bleus...56 [Bilitis is in everyone’s hands... Pélléas and Mélisande are my only little friends right now; in fact, maybe we are starting to be a little too close and telling each other more than just stories that we know perfectly the outcome; then, a finished work, isn’t it a bit like the death of someone you love?... A ninth chord... The flats are blue...]

Not a single word was shared until May 1897 about Bilitis, when Claude Debussy writes:

Maintenant L’Image (la revue de Floury) me demande de la musique. J’ai très envie d’en faire une sur une des Chansons de Bilitis, entre autres cell qui porte le numéro 20.57 [Now L’Image (magazine of Floury) is asking me for music. I am very tempted to compose one on your songs of Bilitis, specifically number 20.]

Number 20, “La syrinx,” became Debussy’s first movement of Trois chansons de

Bilitis: “La flûte de Pan,” but it was “La chevelure” which was featured in L’Image on

October 1897. Louÿs was forward with his contentment with Debussy’s settings, he wrote:

Ce que tu as fait sur mes Bilitis est adorablement bien: tu ne peux pas sentir le plaisir que j’en ai.58 [What you have done with my Bilitis is adorably nice: you cannot know the pleasure they gave me.]

56 Henri Borgeaud, ed., Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904) (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1945), 41-2. 57 Ibid, 19. 58 Ibid, 7. 21

Trois chansons de Bilitis was first published by Fromont in 1899, a French firm of music publishers founded in Paris about 1885 by Eugène Fromont, as mentioned in an article by Nigel Simeone in Grove Music Online.59 In 1891, Georges Hartmann joined in partnership with the Fromont firm, which continued to publish important works by

Debussy, such as the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1895), Nocturnes (1900), and the vocal score of Pélléas et Mélisande (1902), dedicated to Hartmann, as mentioned in

Simeone’s article. The premiere was performed by Blanche Marot, on March 17, 1900, accompanied by Debussy, at the Société national de musique at Pleyel Hall.60

59 Nigel Simeone, “Fromont,” Grove Music Online, accessed on February 9, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 60 Jane F. Fulcher. Debussy and His Word (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 121. 22

Chapter 5. Interpretation Guide

Learning the skill of French singing diction, even for native speakers, requires similar training of how to sing in the English, German, and Russian languages. One or another foreign language might come easier at first, but they all call for practice, study, and consultation. In reality, learning French singing diction was for me almost more challenging than the other languages, because of the preexisting knowledge of spoken pronunciation, and the challenge was akin to trying to stop a bad habit. Thomas Grubb described the difference between general diction and singing diction:

The study of singing diction has many of the same aspects as general diction study, but it is differentiated from the latter by the added aspect of learning how to sing in an intelligible and vocally comfortable way the sounds of any given language.61

Although copies of the score can be found online through public domain web sites, such as the International Music Score Library Project/IMSLP Petrucci Music

Library, the present interpretation guide recommends consulting James R. Briscoe’s critical edition Songs of Claude Debussy. Volume II: Medium Voice as the preferred score for study. This edition is based on two types of primary sources: the autograph manuscripts and first editions supervised by Debussy himself. Primary sources consulted in this edition are available in his “Notes and Translations” section, which include the original text, an English translation, notes on primary sources, musical incipits, numbered

61 Thomas Grubb, Singing in French: A Manual of French Diction and French Vocal Repertoire (New York: Schirmer Books, 1979), 2. 23 notes referring to the sources, and the noting of significant variants among sources and editions. All these primary sources were consulted directly at the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris. Briscoe’s edition of “La flûte de Pan” was based on critical evaluation of an undated manuscript (1007), an incomplete draft dated June 22, 1897 (20636), and the first edition.62 Briscoe’s “La chevelure” was based on critical evaluation of one manuscript

(1007), a first edition, and a first appearance in the revue L’Image, no.11, dated October,

1897, p.339. Briscoe’s “Le tombeau des Naïades” was based on critical evaluation of only the first edition; an autograph of this song rests in a private collection, dated August

23, 1898, and is not accessible. All mélodies from Briscoe’s score are presented in their original keys.

The palette of sounds contained in the French language offers a unique and sublime rainbow of colors and shades in our vocal literature. The knowledge of the art of

French diction for singers has been carried and passed by many devoted linguists, singers, and vocal coaches. One of the main issues the subject of diction faces is the contrast in the type of diction required by various repertoires. French singing diction is different, for example, from the French declamation appropriate in poetry such as Le lac by Alphonse de Lamartine or in the theatre of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano. Last Spring, I had this conversation in an interview with Eileen Davis, and she shared:

The rhythm of poetry is so different from daily speech. Spoken language follows a certain rhythm that is not necessarily reflected in the rhythm of the music assigned to it.63

62 Claude Debussy, Trois chansons de Bilitis (Paris: Fromont, 1899), 1-13. 63 Eileen Davis, Personal Interview (February 9, 2018). 24

The finesse of the language paired with the art of singing is part of the balance necessitated in Trois chansons de Bilitis, a genre of quasi-spoken French mélodies. It is understood that more work is required for a non-French speaker, but like any other artist in any other language and style, dedicated work and passion brings great success.

Numerous diction manuals come to the rescue, and are available on library shelves, such as David Adams’s A Handbook of Diction for Singers: Italian, German, French, in which

French is introduced last, after chapters on Italian and German diction, and is defined as

“the least phonetic”64 of the three languages, contains the International Phonetic Alphabet and a list of aspects of the French language that need to be mastered.65 Richard Cox’s The

Singer’s Manual of German and French Diction, where French consonants, vowels, and an Alphabetical review of French phonetics can be studied. Eileen Davis’ Singing in

French, included three accompanying compact disks with French examples, exercises, and seven studied songs pronounced and sung by the author in collaboration with pianist

Edward Bak, and recorded by John Bolzenius. And finally, Thomas Grubb’s Singing in

French: A Manual of French Diction and French Vocal Repertoire is a book designed for both the classroom and the private studio. Grubb’s manual provides vocal exercises, musical excerpts, and writing exercises to achieve the task. An accompanied 33 ½ RPM plastic record is included with this book, to which I had the pleasure to listen on my treasured turntable. The recording is an excellent companion to the manual, adding another resource for the curious singer. Some of the vowels sound highly placed and

64 David Adams, A Handbook of Diction for Singers: Italian, German, French (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 115. 65 David Adams, A Handbook of Diction for Singers: Italian, German, French (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 115. 25 forward at times, and were perceived as a bit exaggerated, which in my opinion is a plus.

A large portion of this text is given to the pronunciation of the French language relating to singing French mélodies and French operatic arias.

The International Phonetic Alphabet is used throughout Grubb’s manual, which helps in recognizing, studying, and refining the sounds in a language. The IPA system, always in brackets, highlights thirty-six sounds: fifteen vowel-sounds (tongue, lip, mixed, and nasal vowels), eighteen consonant-sounds, and three semi-consonant sounds. He organizes consonants into plosives, fricatives, and nasals consonants, as well as the lateral, flipped, rolled, and uvular “r”. The two main subjects of the book are juxtaposed in the book’s introduction: the French and the English speaker. The comparison labels

French as a forward and “highly placed language” and English, especially American

English, as “median, somewhat contained and occasionally dropping in its placement.”

The French lips are described as more active, the tongue is cast as a “legato character,” and the sounds are identified in an “upper teeth-to-nose area” of the face. Grubb also remarks on the accentuated flow of the French language:

To a foreign ear, the absence of both a strong tonic accent, and the heavy stressing of a syllable in the word at the expense of others, likens French to the patter of a typewriter. The Frenchman’s voice seems to rise and descend in a highly predictable, monotonous melody devoid of cadences and resolutions.66

The goal in French diction is to phonate French sounds with great accuracy, spectacular vocal colors, and without vocal rigor.

66 Thomas Grubb, Singing in French: A Manual of French Diction and French Vocal Repertoire (New York: Schirmer Books, 1979), 3. 26

A good translation and a word-to-word understanding of the text will strongly enhance and stimulate the singer’s interpretation. Additionally, it is of great importance to stay away from the English translations for actual performances, as suggested by

Karen Gless:

At present it is an accepted performance practice to sing most all songs in the native language of the composer; however, perhaps this custom will not be adhered to in the future as stringently as it is today.67

In a world without frontiers and with great diversity, this interpretation guide strongly suggests to avoid translations of Louÿs’ Bilitis, so securely connected with

Debussy’s musical language. Perform the cycle the way it was intended, and rather lecture and inform your audience prior to a performance, find and connect the existing missing links, and create bridges. An IPA transliteration and a poetic translation appear under the original text in the Preface for Appendix A, as well as in the score found in

Appendix A.

Léon Vallas points out the difficulty in executing, translating, and studying the score, he calls for a singer with excellent vocal technique and control:

Les interprètes, chanteurs surtout, n’étaient pas tentés par la présentation malaisée de pages d’exécution difficile exigeant, de qui veut bien les traduire, une étude attentive, une technique très souple, une veritable maîtrise.68 [The interpreters, especially singers, were not tempted by the difficult presentation of demanding pages, to translate it, carefully study, with a very flexible technique, a true mastery.]

67 Karen Gless, “A Study of the Trois Chansons de Bilitis by Claude Debussy” (M.M. Essay, Kent State University, 1976), 15. 68 Léon Vallas, Claude Debussy et son temps (Paris: F. Alcan, 1932), 155. 27

The poetry in the world of Louÿs transports us in a magical world, and the interpreter should know details regarding the story of Bilitis, and be familiar with the meaning of the words in the poems, such as “Hyacinthies,” “syrinx,” “nymphes,” and

“satyre.” The Greek mythology themes with antique lyrism introduce colorful stories, and it is with those tales that Louÿs, through copious notes of names of women, gestures, and descriptions of different terms created an erotic art, of which sketches can be found in his Notes pour Bilitis (1913), annotated by the author.69 Definitions and settings of the text are found in Appendix B.

In search of answers or clues on how to analyze Debussy’s Trois chansons de

Bilitis, I came across William H. Daly’s comment:

Debussy’s music does not lend itself well to any process of analysis. It has little regularity of form, and the musician who looks for the accustomed clues and guideposts of more or less formal composition will be grievously disappointed.70

The poetry of Louÿs, on one hand, is often said to be in a free form, but realigning the poetry in various length of phrases gives us a different perspective. It can be reorganized in modified French Alexandrines, a poetic meter of twelve syllables with a medial cæsura [break], described by Roger Nichols as “three more or less respectable

Alexandrines,”71 as seen in the first six bars of “La flûte de Pan.” Debussy, for his part, did not share his architectural “secrets,”72 and no drafts survived of the songs, so we can only suggest that he perhaps followed Louÿs’ punctuation in his sketching of the piece.

69 Jean-Paul Goujon. Pierre Louÿs: Une vie secrete (1870-1925) (Paris: Edition Seghers, 1988), 138. 70 William H. Daly, Debussy; A Study in Modern Music (Edinburgh: Methven Simpson, 1908), 29. 71 Roger Nichols, “The Prosaic Debussy,” in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Trezise (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 97. 72 Ibid. 28

The example below pictures an increasing movement of three octosyllabic patterns and a twenty (8-8-8-8-8-4), a single rhyme (12-12), while the accompaniment is rather calm, staying in a pattern of three-bar phrases (ABC-ABD). In his musical form, Debussy framed all three songs with piano interludes and postludes, starting and ending each mélodie with calm musical scenes. Throughout the cycle, the singer moves with syllabic count increasing or decreasing, pairing with the action of the story.

Pour le jour des Hyacinthies, 8 syllables

Il m’a donné une syrinx 8 syllables

Faite de roseaux bien taillés, 8 syllables

Unis avec la blanche cire 8 syllables

Qui est douce | à mes lèvres 8 syllables

Comme le miel. 4 syllables

Perhaps what is observed here is a treatment of one of the successors of the

Alexandrine, the vers libéré [free verse], which follows some of the basic rules, but also took further liberties, such as the omission of the cæsura, and the absence of alternating rhymes. Debussy takes the liberty to fuse douce to à in measure 6, creating an even vocal line, a legato, supporting the narrative style of the movement. Debussy shared:

Les vrais vers ont un rhytme propre qui est plutôt gênant pour nous. Tenez, dernièrement, j’ai mis en musique, je ne sais pourquoi, trois ballades de Villon... Si, je sais pourquoi: parce que j’en avais envie depuis longtemps. Eh bien, c’est très difficile de suivre bien, de “plaquer” les rhytmes tout en gardant une inspiration. Si on fait de la fabrication, si on se contente d’un travail de juxtaposition, évidemment ce n’est pas difficile, mais alors ce n’est pas la peine. Les vers classiques ont une vie propre.73 [Real prosody

73 Henri Borgeaud, ed., Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904) (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1945), 198. 29

has a clean rhythm that is rather difficult for us. Here, lately, I put in music, I do not know why, Three Ballads of Villon... Yes, I know why: because I've longed for it. Well, it’s very difficult to follow well, to “tackle” the rhythms while keeping an inspiration. If we just copy, if we are only content with a work of juxtaposition, obviously that it is not difficult, but then it is not worthwhile. Classic prosody has a life of its own.]

In Borgeaud’s correspondence, Louÿs complains that a composer, without asking the rights for his poems, used a few of his Chansons de Bilitis, and changed the word conserver [retain] for garder [keep], which, according to Louÿs, did not change the meaning of the phrase, but rather many details surrounding the prosody. He commented in Musica on March 1911:

Les phrases se déroulent en nous, en musicales périodes, et nous souffrons quand on les modifie. Claude Debussy, par contre, a réussi à merveille à joinder l’harmonie de sa phrase musicale à la phrase des écrivains dont il a pris le texte. C’est là le rêve.74 [Our poetry lives within us, like musical periods, and we suffer when they are modified. Claude Debussy, on the other hand, succeeded to join the harmony of his musical phrase to the phrase of the writers whose text he borrowed. That’s the dream.]

Rhythmically, the cascades of intermingling triplets and duplets, quadruplets and sextuplets show Debussy’s ability to serve the French declamation, and with great flexibility and variation he stays away from a stiff musical form, and as Nichols mentions, “no bars contain the same vocal rhythm.”75 It is essential to study the score with great rhythmical precision and to clearly differentiate the various rhythmic patterns with great exactitude. Everything is written specifically in Debussy’s score, and one must make sure to read it faithfully.

74 Ibid., 199. 75 Roger Nichols, “The Prosaic Debussy,” in The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Trezise (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 97. 30

The dynamics are, as in any other mélodies or works, of great importance in the compositions of Claude Debussy, and one must conquer the art of the pianissimo, of which, in moments, Debussy becomes the “magician.”76 Often, the singer is invited to create a delicate presque-rien [almost-nothing],77 as in “La flûte de Pan,” measure 9, on the comment regarding his flute playing: Il en joue après moi si doucement que je l’entends à peine [He plays after me so softly that I can barely hear him]. Indeed, the art of the pianissimo reigns throughout the song cycle.

In Borgeaud’s correspondence, pictures of the manuscripts of the first and second song are featured between page 160 and 161. From the manuscript of “La flûte de Pan” we can observe that a retenu is missing from most editions, not Briscoe’s, in the vocal line beginning on faite de Roseaux bien taillé [made of well-cut reeds], and ending on the fermata.

Also, one must consider, the timbre of the treatment of the low register, a part of the voice close to words in inflection and declamation, and within that lower frequency the singer must be more intimate, perhaps sensual. Similar to Mélisande in range, timbre, suggestive mannerism, and insinuating colors, Bilitis’ range remains within comfortable limits, although the balance through the registers can be a daunting task. An ultimate union of the voice and the piano is a goal, and the voice will require fuller singing when performing Jake Heggie’s arrangement. The string quartet reveals a unique atmosphere, and transports the original art form into an enriched theatrical performance.

76 Vladimir Jankélévitch, La vie et la mort dans la musique de Debussy (Neuchatel: Éditions de la Baconnière, 1968), 121. 77 Ibid., 114. 31

Consulting Pierre Bernac’s standard work The Interpretation of French Song, gives the interpreter resourceful information. In chapter 10, dedicated to Claude Debussy and thirty-four of his mélodies, Bernac gives, for each selected song, French texts, side by side with English translations by Winifred Radford, with a few noted pronunciation marks, musical incipits, and suggestions for performance and interpretation.78 Bernac’s language is direct and concise, and his indisputable expertise as a French singer, musician and Poulenc’s collaborator is felt in each musical recommendation.

Some of Trois chansons de Bilitis’ challenges are clearly discussed by Bernac in his first paragraphs starting with “La flûte de Pan,” such as the free movements of the flute in the prelude, the responsibility of the singer to “let the piano play its two bars of introduction again, in exactly the same way under the first phrase of the voice,”79 and the need of a pure voice with clear timbre, with great lyricism, and precise declamation for

Bilitis “with nothing passionate in it.”80 Also, a breath is allowed before comme le miel

[like honey], which I take and for which I thank him.

The following considerations will be present in Appendix A: a fully-marked score annotated with recommended interpretation notes, such as, in “La flûte de Pan,” the subito piano in measure 10, the ritenuto clearly marked in measure 16 on bouches, not before, the contrasting mood change when the night comes with singing green frogs, appoggiaturas in a complex four-against-three rhythm, and the last phrase, a speech-like confession over a series of open fifths, progressing faster and faster, without rallentando

78 Pierre Bernac, The Interpretation of French Song (London: Victor Gollancz, 1976), 154. 79 Ibid., 196. 80 Ibid. 32 or rest on any notes, maintaining musical ease. As suggested by Bernac: “the simpler it is, the better it will be,” and it ends in the return of the flute.81

Other valuable advice from an artist who had the privilege to work with Debussy stands out as a primary source. Darius Milhaud, the writer of the preface for Jane

Bathori’s book, comments on the hearing of Trois chansons de Bilitis and her collaborative work with Debussy:

Je crois que la première fois que je t’ai entendue c’était vers 1910. À un des concerts Sechiari au Théatre Réjane, rue Blanche. Tu avais chanté, en t’accompagnant au piano, les chansons de Bilitis. Quelle admirable cantatrice tu étais qui pouvait, tout en chantant avec un style si pur, une diction si claire si discret et tellement intérieur, te jouer des sonorités subtiles, si aristocratiques et avec tant aisance, du piano...82 [I think the first time I heard you was around 1910. At one of the Sechiari concerts at the Théâtre Réjane, Blanche Street. You sang, accompanying yourself at the piano, the songs of Bilitis. What an admirable singer you were who could, while singing with such a pure style, a diction so clear so discreet and so profound, to play subtle sounds, so aristocratic and with so much ease, at the piano...]

Jane Bathori recorded Trois chansons de Bilitis to her own accompaniment in 1929-30, and “La chevelure” can be heard on YouTube.83

“La flûte de Pan” is of great simplicity, naivety, and charm, and paired with

Louÿs’ quasi-playful and quasi-chaste poetry, it represents the young Bilitis. “La chevelure” is a dialogue between Bilitis and the man, who describes his dream: a love story with Bilitis’ tresses of hair on his breasts and becoming his own. A delicate, tender, and intimate atmosphere that ends with Bilitis’ “contentment”84 and a resolution to a

81 Pierre Bernac, The Interpretation of French Song (London: Victor Gollancz, 1976), 197. 82 Jane Bathori, On the Interpretation of the Mélodies of Claude Debussy: Preface by Darius Milhaud (Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon Press, 1998), 17. 83 Ibid. 84 Léon Vallas, Claude Debussy et son temps (Paris: F. Alcan, 1932), 157. 33 perfect cadence, which ties the story together. The last movement, “Le tombeau des

Naïades,” is a winter scene starting with a continuous motion in the right hand, and the sixteenth notes seem to be suggesting a heavy walk in the snow. A new musical texture with arpeggiated chords carries Bilitis up to the vocal climax of the piece when he breaks the ice and looks through the frozen pieces.

Debussy shared his challenge in finding the right singer for his Bilitis, which had to be, to his description, a “young person” inspired by the study of the three songs:

Je ne te parlerai pas d’autres difficultés, toutes matérielles, comme, par exemple, de trouver une jeune personne qui, pour nos esthétiques et pâles figures, se consumerait dans l’étude de ces trois chansons, en se contentant de l’assurance de notre parfaite consideration. Puis, il y a moi, qui suis pris de la fâcheuse manie de semer les fausses notes à pleines mains quand je joue devant plus de deux personnes.85 [I will not talk to you about other difficulties, all material, as, for example, to find a young person who, for our aesthetic and pale figures, was consumed in the study of these three songs, with the assurance of our perfect consideration. Then, there is me, who is taken by the unfortunate mania to play false notes in both hands when I play in front of more than two people.]

Vallas adds to Debussy’s reflection:

Sous leur forme musicale les chansons de Bilitis restent parmi les oeuvres les plus significatives de Debussy. Elles semblent voisines de Pélléas par leur écriture générale, leur harmonie, leur notation de la parole, habilement prosodiée, parfois psalmodiée et aussi par la subtilité de leur atmosphere.86 [In their musical form the songs of Bilitis remain among the most significant works of Debussy. They appear to be neighboring Pelléas by their general writing, their harmony, their notation of text, skillfully written in prose, sometimes in chant and also by the subtlety of their atmosphere.]

85 Ibid., 155. 86 Ibid., 156. 34

In musical innovation, the use of modal scales is found in this cycle, such as the dorian scale in “La flûte de Pan” which begins modal, containing a surprising E-sharp in the initial scale of 5 sharps, we hear the 5th Gregorian mode, with the 4th degree being raised, as well as chromatic scales in the other melodies. The modes, appearing at times in the mélodie while the piano is moving in major or minor, create ambiguity, unique colors, intimate sounds, and give to the voice a sole atmosphere, the subtle language of

Debussy entering the shapes of an impressionist, but also a symbolist, an avant-gardist, modern composer, and also, a nationalist with a thirst for Renaissance and Medieval music. The nineteenth century returned to some Renaissance and Medieval music, and the concerts of the Schola Cantorum, the Chanteurs de St-Gervais, and the Bénédictins de Solesmes became more popular and exposed more Gregorian chants, which Debussy searched “for a better understanding of modality.” 87 In addition, Artis shared that, regarding Vallas, Debussy attended Scola Cantorum, and Koechlin shared the Sunday visits to the Cathedral of Cannes, which Debussy made in order to hear modal music.

Debussy was leaving behind the traditional mélodies of Massenet, and, enriching his palette of sounds, he created new settings for psalms and liturgic chants. On Debussy’s

“revolution,” Claude Rostand shared:

Avec Debussy, c’est la revolution radicale (...) Il a libéré les éléments du language musical de leurs contraintes traditionnelles: dissonances non résolues, octaves et quintes successives, etc. Il a réintroduit l’usage de certaines échelles autres que les deux modes majeur et mineur de la gamme diatonique sur lesquels la musique vivait depuis plusieurs siècles: la gamme par tons entiers, les modes grégoriens disparus depuis la fin du XVIe siècle,

87 Anne-Marie Josephe Artis. “An Analysis of Modal Treatment in Certain Specified Works of Debussy.” Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1967. 35

les modes à cinq sons chinois.88 [With Debussy, it is a radical revolution (...) He freed the elements of the musical language from their traditional constraints: unresolved dissonances, successive octaves and fifths, etc. He reintroduced the use of certain scales other than the two major and minor modes of the diatonic range on which the music had lived for several centuries: the whole-tone scale, the Gregorian modes missing since the end of the sixteenth century, the modes to five Chinese sounds.]

Lesure and Roy Howat commented on Debussy’s unique “musical aesthetic” and his opposition to Richard Wagner:

His harmonic innovations had a profound influence on generations of composers. He made a decisive move away from Wagnerism in his only complete opera Pelléas et Mélisande, and in his works for piano and for orchestra he created new genres and revealed a range of timbre and colour which indicated a highly original musical aesthetic.89

Rostand claimed that Debussy initially was “under Wagner’s spell”:

Debussy, après avoir subi un moment de sortilège de Wagner, aura eu le courage de refuser ce lourd héritage (...) Il aura laissé, enfin, une conception nouvelle du drame musical, et un sens nouveau de l’emploi de la palette orchestral.90 [Debussy, after being under Wagner's spell for a moment, had the courage to refuse this heavy heritage (...) Finally, he will leave a new conception of the musical drama, and a new sense of the use of the orchestral palette.]

Debussy said:

Les poèmes de Wagner, c’est comme sa musique, ça n’est pas un exemple à suivre. Ses livrets ne valent pas mieux que d’autres. C’est pour lui qu’ils valaient mieux. Et c’est le principal.91 [Wagner's poems, it’s like his music, is not an example to follow. His booklets are no better than others. It was for him that they were worth more. And that’s the main thing.]

88 Claude Rostand, La musique française contemporaine (Paris; Presses universitaires de France, 1952), 8. 89 François Lesure and Roy Howat, “Debussy, (Achille-) Claude,” Grove Music Online. Accessed on 12 Apr. 2019. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 90 Claude Rostand, La musique française contemporaine (Paris; Presses universitaires de France, 1952), 9. 91 Henri Borgeaud, ed., Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904) (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1945), 198. 36

Chapter 6. John Stephen Heggie (b.1961)

American composer and pianist Jake Heggie, born John Stephen Heggie, in West

Palm Beach, Florida, on March 31, 1961, is one of the most celebrated opera and song writers of today.92 The family moved to Bexley, Ohio when Heggie was just a child, and he attended Bexley High School where I now live and from where my daughter will graduate in Spring 2020. As a pianist and composer, he visited the American University in Paris, and joined the studio of Johana Harris at the University of California in Los

Angeles. Heggie suffered from a hand injury, and, as a result, he put all of his energy into composing. Jake Heggie’s main focuses are the voice and storytelling and his passion is reflected in his impressive work. Also, Heggie loves the higher tessitura of the mezzo- soprano voice, which gives the mezzo-soprano operatic repertory a gentle boost: his compositions are a musical candy store. Jake Heggie travels around the world for workshops and performances, and has resided in San Francisco since 1993.93

There is no shortfall of writings on Heggie; 80 various literary sources about the composer and his music were observed and spread out from the year 1996 to present.

In these sources, many of Jake Heggie’s operas were mentioned and a total of eleven operas were reviewed, all of which were performed on main stages of major opera

92 Melanie Feilotter, “Heggie, Jake,” in Grove Music Online, accessed 9 February, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com. 93 Ruth C. Friedberg. American Art Sing and American Poetry (Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2012), 396. 37 houses. A twelfth opera is under construction: If I Were You, a new full-length opera with librettist Gene Scheer, which is the first commission in the history of the San Francisco

Opera Merola Program, and is expected for the 2019 season. The others are It’s a

Wonderful Life (2016), Out of Darkness: Two Remain (2016), Great Scott (2015), The

Radio Hour (2014), Moby-Dick (2010), Three Decembers (2008), To Hell and Back

(2006), The End of the Affair (2003; revised 2004-2005), At the Statue of Venus (2005),

Again (2000), and Dead Man Walking (2000).

Also, many songs were found: Iconic Legacies (2015), The Work at Hand (2015),

Camille Claudel (2012), The Breaking Waves (2011), Statuesque (2015), The Deepest

Desire (2002, 2005), Some Times of Day (2004), Winter Roses (2004), The Starry Night

(2001), Of Gods and Cats (2000), Paper Wings (1997, 2000), Before the Storm (1998),

Songs to the Moon (1998), I Shall Not Live in Vain (1995, revised 1998), On the Road to

Christmas (1996), and Three Folks Songs (1995). These song cycles are all written for a mezzo-soprano voice.

Heggie and Debussy

In the lecture at Bowling Green University in the fall of 2017, I heard and recorded Jake Heggie sharing these words:

Where does the music come from? (…) What is this flame in music that is ignited, shared, and passed along, from teacher to student, time and time again? It’s truth, identity, relevance, passion, connection; it is in each one of us waiting, and aching to be awakened. Our precious, important job is to keep the fire burning, to ignite possibility, then distill a sense of

38

responsibility that goes along with this plan. It is the passing of the torch; it is an immense responsibility, and it matters enormously.94

Jake Heggie has clearly and consistently stated the musical influence of Debussy, among other composers, such as Vaughan Williams, Britten, Ravel, and Poulenc, in his creative life, as stated in an article from the L.A. Times: “He’s Got a Song in His Art” by

Mermelstein.95 During the lecture at Bowling Green University in 2017, I heard Jake mention two of his influential composers: Benjamin Britten and Leoš Janáček. And, more recently, he wrote to me:

I first got to know the Debussy songs in the early 1980s when I was a student at UCLA. “La chevelure” completely swept me away and it has remained one of my favorite songs ever since. The combination of the poetry and music is everything an art song is supposed to be. Debussy’s music has always been a big influence on me - and continues to be. Any time I can get close to one of his scores, I’m very happy.

The arrangement of Trois chansons de Bilitis came from mezzo-soprano Joyce

DiDonato. DiDonato was seeking an addition to a performance at London's Wigmore

Hall with the Brentano Quartet, in which Jake Heggie’s Camille Claudel: Into the Fire was scheduled. Jake Heggie continued:

She asked what might work with it - and I thought of the Debussy songs. First, because they are AMAZING songs! Second, because Debussy was a close friend of Claudel. He kept one of her sculptures (La valse) on his mantle. The connection seemed right. I have known and loved the Trois chansons de Bilitis for ages - so it felt very natural to make the arrangement. Also, Debussy’s String Quartet is the musical inspiration for the Claudel songs - so the connection is on a profound level.

94 Jake Heggie, Lecture at Bowling Green State University. Fall 2017. 95 David Mermelstein, “He’s Got a Song in His Art.” L.A. Times (November 10, 1996), accessed April 18, 2019, http://articles.latimes.com/1996-11-10/entertainment/ca-63102_1_artsongs. 39

His response was pleasing to me in so many levels: my initial passion for Camille

Claudel (I had once planned for Camille Claudel to be the subject of this document), the connection between Debussy and Claudel, the relationship between the two Heggie cycles, both composed and arranged for string quartet, and the way he referred to the title using “Trois.”

In creating links between Heggie and Debussy, it is important to mention the similarities in free form, and in the creation of a music to be heard, rather than analyzed.

The following description on the genesis of composition could have been Debussy’s own words, but in this instance, it is Heggie’s:

I think about what kind of musical character best describes the psychological state that would compel the person to say those things. What is the impetus to even say those things? What state of mind are they in? And through all that, somehow music starts to happen, and I just sort of stay out of the way.96

Heggie later added:

The idea happens, then a tune happens and then the texture that is behind the tune. I do whatever I feel is necessary to tell the story in a way that is honest and direct and clear.97

It would stand to reason that the lyrical compositions of Jake Heggie contain elements of Debussy’s music. Both are creators of atmospheric sounds floating faithfully around the story and the character; both are pianists and accompanists choosing to paint the scenery in the piano accompaniment, supporting the voice; both are writing beautifully for the mezzo-soprano voice, and erasing at times the restrictions of musical

96 Carolyn E. Redman, “Songs to the Moon: A Song Cycle by Jake Heggie from Poems by Vachel Lindsay” (D.M.A. diss., The Ohio State University, 2004), 14. 97 Ibid., 16. 40 structure, celebrating a current of rhythm flowing freely through transparent measures, where meter is spontaneous.

Before arranging Trois chansons de Bilitis, Heggie found inspiration in another piece by Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande. The first scene in Act III when Mélisande’s aria is set atop the castle’s tower at night, when she lets go of her long tresses to reach

Pélléas, inspired Heggie’s musical setting of “What the Gray-Winged Fairy Said” from

Songs to the Moon (1998), with poetry by Vachel Lindsay. 98 Mélisande’s aria, a plaintive chant of great musical sensibility and one of the most haunting arias in Pélléas, reaches an extra dimension in atmospheric sound. The simplicity of the text adds to this spectacular musical moment. Debussy wrote:

On a plus souvent mis de la belle musique sur des mauvaises poésies que de mauvaise musique sur des vrais vers.99 [We have more often put beautiful music on bad poems than bad music on real poetry.]

Jake Heggie’s Arrangement

Jake Heggie’s arrangement is a transcription of the original work, but with the addition of the string quartet, he offers a very different experience: the same solo voice, but with a new palette of sounds at his disposal. Coloring possibilities include: bowed and plucked strings, various bowing techniques (bow speed, weight, and point of contact of the bow playing closer to the fingerboard sul tasto or the bridge sul ponticello),

98 Carolyn E. Redman, “Songs to the Moon: A Song Cycle by Jake Heggie from Poems by Vachel Lindsay” (D.M.A. diss., The Ohio State University, 2004), 142. 99 Henri Borgeaud, ed., Correspondance de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs (1893-1904) (Paris: Librairie José Corti, 1945), 198. 41 expressive vibrato (full finger or partial), natural and artificial harmonics (natural harmonics, part of the harmonic series, are produced by gently touching the string with a finger and bowing. Artificial harmonics are produced by one pressed finger combined with a gently touching finger on the same string), glissando, double stops (the playing of two notes at the same time), pizzicato (the right hand plucks, slightly over the finger board), con sordino (with mute), col legno (playing with the wood of the bow rather than the hair), spiccato (strings are struck by the bow, to percussive effect), staccato (short sound), and legato (no accents or breaks). Jake Heggie incorporates natural harmonics played as double stops, glissando, double stops, pizzicato, con sordino, staccato, legato, and vibrato in his arrangement. By doing so, Heggie gives us an innovative musical experience introducing, to my ear as a former professional cellist, the sounds of the quartets by Leoš Janáček and Benjamin Britten, two of his most influential composers, mentioned earlier in this document.

In trying to achieve the proper sound with my quartet, I asked Jake about the use of vibrato, and I was once again pleased with his answer:

Regarding vibrato - my choice is usually “poco vibrato” as I find sometimes things go out of tune without any vibrato at all. Certainly, for some passages it will work very well as a color. But it is up to the quartet and the individuals.100

On April 7th, 2019, I performed Trois chansons de Bilitis for Mezzo-Soprano and

String Quartet by Debussy, arranged by Jake Heggie. The task at hand for this performance was first to recruit four string players, and form a string quartet capable of

100 Jake Heggie. Personal Email. April 17, 2019. 42 reading and rehearsing the three pieces with great exactitude. Upon recruitment, we scheduled two rehearsals, a dress rehearsal, and one performance. I opted for professional string players over students because of availability and the short rehearsal period. The score was purchased at www.billholabmusic.com through Jake Heggie’s website for $30, and upon receiving the original full score and parts, pdfs were created and distributed to the contracted string players for personal preparation prior to the first read; the pdfs consisted of the individual part and full score, as the single parts do not include any information about the other parts or the vocal line. At the first rehearsal with some of the players extremely prepared and others sight reading, the main challenge was moving, and moving together. The texture with the string quartet, as expected, was more complex than with piano, and discovering the beauty of each layer chosen by Heggie in order to awaken specific elements of the sound scape of Bilitis, such as the flute, the frogs, and the night, was pure delight. In order to navigate the first read, as suggested by my viola player, I had to conduct the score through all three melodies. That one must know the score well is an understatement. As expected, when using professionals, the second rehearsal was a lot smoother, and the orchestrated Trois chansons de Bilitis was being formed. From each individual, rhythmical, intervallic, dynamic, clarity grew. New French terminology questions emerged, and the vision of getting closer to the bottom of the score became vivid; true delight was felt from all. The professionals took care of all bowing, were alert to breaths and words, and one violinist had even brought a translation of

Louÿs’ poetry. Being able to share the story and reveal all the various rooms is a must, as

43 a well-prepared, informed singer will be responsible for the material aspect of putting the piece together.

In order to perform Debussy’s piece successfully with string quartet, the artist will need to be able to sing freely and stylistically communicate, while conducting the ensemble, at least for the first rehearsals, and certainly leading during the performance.

This is the main challenge of this piece. Depending on the musical strengths and skills of the individual singer, the Heggie arrangement of the piece will offer a wide range of challenges. It is a very different thing to approach music as difficult as this with a single pianist who most likely brings history and familiarity with the piece, compared with a quartet of musicians who will require, at least initially, to be led through the intricacies of

Debussy and Louÿs. It must also be recognized that one must consider carefully their situation with regard to the quartet. If production costs are left to the singer, careful planning of an efficient rehearsal schedule is a must in order to accomplish this great task.

It is suggested to also use Briscoe’s critical edition in collaboration with Bent Pen

Music’s. Some additions to Heggie’s score are recommended, as there are some discrepancies. For instance, Heggie’s “La flûte de Pan,” in measure 2 , is missing staccati in the string parts, clearly marked in Briscoe’s; measure 5, of the same song, is missing a retenu, and in measure 16, on “bouches,” an important tender touch, there, a pianissimo is missing. If using the vocal score for rehearsal and performance purposes, I would also suggest numbering your measures, as the string quartet is used to navigating by bar

44 numbers to rehearse effectively. I used the full score as reference, knowing the piece from memory, but wanted to experience a full chamber experience.

45

Conclusion

The vocal literature is a bottomless treasure box that no one singer will ever exhaust. Work diligently to the depth of the subject you have in hand; sharpen your skills, collect ideas, research, and do not stop; the artist will then transform what has been discovered into mastery, and the sharing of great art. Then, return to the large well of vocal compositions and find another subject - Let’s get to the bottom of this.

Pierre Louÿs created from his own stratagem, a sensual, quasi-erotic fairy tale of lovers set to poetry, which at a time of friendship, and of the genesis of Pélléas, greatly inspired Debussy. As a result, a masterpiece, a true apogee was added to his catalogue, at a pinnacle stage of his composition: a new musical form. Then, over 120 years later, a new musical dimension is breathed into the cycle by Jake Heggie.

An invitation is sent to all mezzo-sopranos to discover the splendid world of

Debussy through Trois chansons de Bilitis, inspired from Parisian times of symbolists and impressionists; a dive into ancient mythological times and stories with magical characters, chants, and modes, with the direction indicated in “La chevelure” in measure

3 and 4, “très expressif et passionnément concentré” [very expressive and passionately serious], and to embrace Jake Heggie’s treatment of this wonderful cycle (as well as his compositions). Then, similar to Pierre Louÿs, Claude Debussy, and Jake Heggie you will discover open doors to an exquisite freedom of time, dreams, water and ice, and singing as if long tresses drape over bare shoulders, or perhaps cascading down the walls of a tower. Enjoy.

46

Bibliography

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Bathori, Jane. On the Interpretation of the Mélodies of Claude Debussy: Preface by Darius Milhaud. Stuyvesant, New York: Pendragon Press, 1998.

Barraud, Henry. La France et la musique occidentale. Paris: Gallimard, 1956.

Bernac, Pierre. The Interpretation of French Song. London: Victor Gollancz, 1976.

Borgeaud, Henri. Correspondence de Claude Debussy et Pierre Louÿs: (1893-1904) / recueillie et annotée par Henri Borgeaud, avec une introduction de G. Jean- Aubry. Paris: J. Corti, 1945.

Briscoe, James R. Songs of Claude Debussy. Volume II: Medium Voice. Milwaukee: Leonard, 1993.

Candé, Roland de. Histoire universelle de la musique. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1978.

Cardinne-Petit, R. Pierre Louÿs inconnu. Paris: Éditions de l’Élan, 1948.

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Daly, William H. Debussy; A Study in Modern Music. Edinburgh: Methven Simpson, 1908.

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______. Personal Interview. Columbus, Ohio, February 9, 2018.

Debussy, Claude. Trois chansons de Bilitis. Paris: Fromont, 1899.

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Debussy, Claude. Six sonates pour divers instruments. Paris: Durand, 1916.

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Debussy, Claude. Debussy Letters. Selected and Edited by François Lesure and Roger Nichols. Translated by Roger Nichols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987.

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Dietschy, Marcel, and Edward Lockspeiser. “The Family and Childhood of Debussy.” The Musical Quarterly 46, no. 3 (1960): 301-14. http://www.jstor.org/stable/740659.

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Heggie, Jake. Trois Chansons de Bilitis for Mezzo-Soprano and String Quartet. San Francisco, California: Bent Pen Music: 2017.

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Jean-Aubry, G. “Claude Debussy.” The Musical Quarterly vol. IV, issue 4, (October 1918): 135-160.

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Preface for Appendix A

James R. Briscoe’s critical edition Songs of Claude Debussy. Volume II: Medium

Voice, referred earlier as the preferred score for study,101 was not used for Appendix A, since it is under copyright protection, and because of the timeline of this document.

Instead, for the purpose of this Appendix, I opted for annotating Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis using the first edition, published by Fromont, and available through the International Music Score Library Project/IMSLP Petrucci Music Library,102 which is now in the public domain. The first edition, an open canvas for annotations discovered during this study, contains numbered measures, a full International Phonetic Alphabet, an

English translation at the bottom of the pages, suggested tempi, meters, and tonalities and modes located at the beginning of each song, French musical terms are translated throughout the cycle, breaths marked with “ ) ” above the vocal line, the text is accompanied by French liaisons, some cæsuras are marked “ | ” in the prosody, and some syllables are also marked off “ / ” and should not be heard, the addition of barring on triplets for clarity and precision, and corrected notes are circled.

For clarity and convenience, the original poetry, an IPA transliteration, and an

English translation, found in Appendix A, will also be included here:

Trois chansons de Bilitis [Three Songs of Bilitis] [tɾwa ʃ ɑ̃ s õ də bilitis]

101 James R. Briscoe. Songs of Claude Debussy. Volume II: Medium Voice (Milwaukee: Leonard, 1993), 96-107. 102 https://imslp.org/wiki/3_Chansons_de_Bilitis_(Debussy%2C_Claude). 50

1. “La flûte de Pan” [Pan’s Flute] [la flyt de pɑ̃]

Pour le jours des Hyacinthies, [puɾ lə ʒuɾ dɛ zia sɛ ̃ ti ] For the day of Hyacinthus,

Il m’a donné une syrinx faites de roseaux bien taillés, [il ma dɔ ne ynə siɾɛks̃ fɛ tə də ɾo zo bjɛ ̃ ta je] He has given me a pipe made of well-cut reeds,

Unis avec la blanche cire, qui est douce à mes lèvres comme le miel. [yni zavɛkla blɑ̃ ʃə siɾə ki ɛ du sa mɛ lɛvɾə kɔ mə lə mjɛl] Bound with white wax that is sweet to my lips like honey.

Il m’apprend à jouer, assise sur ses genoux; mais je suis un peu tremblante. [il ma prɑ̃ ta ʒue asi zə syɾ sɛ ʒə nu mɛ ʒə sɥi zœ̃ pø trɑ̃ blɑ̃ tə] He teaches me to play, sitting on his knees; but I tremble a little.

Il en joue après moi, si doucement que je l’entends à peine. [i lɑ̃ ʒu apɾɛ mwa si du sə mɑ̃ kə ʒə lɑ̃ tɑ̃ za pɛnə] He plays it after me, so softly that I can barely hear him.

Nous n’avons rien à nous dire, tant nous sommes près l’un de l’autre; [nu na võ ɾiɛ ̃ na nu di ɾə tɑ̃ nu sɔ mə pɾɛ lœ̃ də lo tɾə] We have nothing to say, so close are we from one another;

Mais nos chansons veulent se répondre, [mɛ no ʃɑ̃ sõ vœ lə sə ɾepõ dɾə] But our songs wish to respond,

Et tour à tour nos bouches s’unissent sur la flûte. [e tu ɾa tuɾ no bu ʃə sy ni sə syɾ la flytə] And one after the other our mouths unite on the flute.

Il est tard, voici le chant des grenouilles vertes qui commence avec la nuit. [i lɛ taɾ vwasi lə ʃɑ̃ dɛ gɾə nu jə vɛɾ tə ki kɔ mɑ̃ sa vɛk la nɥi] It is late; here is the song of the green frogs that begins at nightfall.

Ma mère ne croira jamais que je suis restée si lontemps à chercher ma ceinture perdue. [ma mɛɾə nə kɾwɑɾa ʒamɛ kə ʒə sɥi ɾɛ ste si lõ tɑ̃ a ʃɛɾ ʃe ma sɛ ̃ ty ɾə pɛɾ d̴y] My mother will never believe that I have stayed so long to look for my lost girdle.

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2. “La chevelure” [The Tresses of Hair] [la ʃəvəluɾə]

Il m’a dit: “Cette nuit, j’ai rêvé. J’avais ta chevelure autour de mon cou. [il ma di sɛ tə nɥi ʒe ɾɛ ve ʒa vɛ ta ʃə və ly ɾo tuɾ də mõ ku] He says to me: “Tonight I dreamed, I had the tresses of your hair around my neck.

J’avais tes cheveux comme un collier noir autour de ma nuque et sur ma poitrine. [ʒa vɛ tɛ ʃə vø kɔ mœ̃ kɔ lje nwa ɾotuɾ də ma nyk e syɾ ma pwatɾinə] I had your hair like a black necklace around my neck and on my chest.

Je les caressais; et c’étaient les miens; [ʒəlɛ kaɾɛ sɛ e se tɛ lɛ mjɛ]̃ I caressed it, and it was my own;

Et nous étions liés pour toujours ainsi, [e nu ze tjõ lje puɾ tu ʒuɾ ɛ ̃ si] And we were connected forever thus,

Par la même chevelure la bouche sur la bouche, [paɾ la mɛmə ʃəvəlyɾə la buʃə syɾ la buʃə] By the same tresses mouth upon mouth,

Ainsi que deux lauriers n’ont souvent qu’une racine. [ɛ ̃ si kə dø lɔ ɾie nɔ̃ su vɑ̃ kynə ɾasinə] like two laurels that often have only one root.

Et peu à peu, il m’a semblé, tant nos membres étaient confondus, [e pø a pø il ma s ɑ̃ ble tɑ̃ no mɑ̃ bɾə ze tɛ kõ fõ dy] And little by little, it seemed to me, so intermingled were our limbs,

Que je devenais toi-même ou que tu entrais en moi comme mon songe.” [kə ʒə də və nɛ twa mɛmə u kə ty ɑ̃ tɾɛ zɑ̃ mwa kɔ mə mõ sõ ʒə] That I became you or you entered into me like my dream.”

Quand il eut achevé, Il mit doucement ses mains sur mes épaules, [kɑ̃ til y ta ʃə ve il mi du sə mɑ̃ sɛ mɛ ̃ syɾ mɛ zepo lə] When he was done, he put his hands gently on my shoulders,

Et il me regarda d’un regard si tendre, que je baissai les yeux avec un frisson. [e il mə ɾəgaɾda dœ̃ ɾəgaɾ si tɑ̃ dɾə kə ʒə be se lɛ zjø avɛk œ̃ fɾi sõ] And he looked at me with such a tender look, that I lowered my eyes with a shiver.

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3. “Le tombeau des Naïades” [The Tomb of the Naiads] [lə tõbo dɛ najadə]

Le long du bois couvert de givre, je marchais; [lə lõ dy bwa ku vɛɾ də ʒi vɾə ʒə maɾ ʃɛ] Along the wood covered with frost, I walked;

Mes cheveux devant ma bouche se fleurissaient de petits glaçons, [mɛ ʃə vø də vɑ̃ ma bu ʃə sə flœ ɾi sɛ də pə ti gla sõ] My hair in front of my mouth was making little icicles,

Et mes sandales étaient lourdes de neige fangeuse et tassée. [e mɛ sɑ̃ dalə zetɛ luɾ də də nɛʒə fɑ̃ ʒœ ze ta se] and my sandals were heavy with muddy, packed snow.

Il me dit: “Que cherches-tu?” –“Je suis la trace du satyre. [ilmə di kə ʃɛɾ ʃə ty ʒə sɥi la tɾasə dy satiɾə] He said to me: “What are you looking for?” –“I follow the track of the satyr.

Ses petits pas fourchus alternent comme des trous dans un manteau blanc.” [sɛ pəti pa fuɾ ʃy zal tɛɾ nə kɔ mə dɛ tɾu dɑ̃ zœ̃ mɑ̃ to blɑ̃] His little cloven hoof marks alternate like holes in a white mantle.”

Il me dit: “les satyres sont morts. Les satyres et les nymphes aussi. [il mə di lɛ sa tiɾə sõ mɔɾ lɛ sa tiɾə ze lɛ nɛ ̃ fə zo si] He said to me: “The satyrs are dead. The satyrs and the nymphs too.

Depuis trente ans, il n’a pas fait un hiver aussi terrible. [dəpɥi tɾɑ̃ tɑ̃ il na pɑ fɛ tœ̃ ni vɛɾ o si tɛɾiblə] For thirty years there has not been such terrible winter.

La trace que tu vois est celle du bouc. Mais restons ici, où est leur tombeau.” [la tɾasə kə ty vwa ɛ sɛ lə dœ̃ buk mɛ ɾɛ stõ zisi u ɛ lœɾ tõ bo] The track that you see is that of a buck. But let us stay here, where their tomb is.”

Et avec le fer de sa houe il cassa la glace de la source [e avɛk lə fɛɾ də sa u il kɑ sa la glasə də la suɾs] And with the iron of his spade he broke the ice of the spring

Où jadis riaient les naïades. Il prenait de grands morceaux froids, [u ʒadis ɾi ɛ lɛ najadə il pɾə nɛ də gɾɑ̃ mɔɾ so fɾwa] Where formerly the naiads had laughed. He took some large cold pieces,

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Et les soulevant vers le ciel pâle, il regardait au travers. [e lɛ su lə vɑ̃ vɛɾ lə sjɛl pɑlə il ɾəgaɾdɛ to tɾa vɛɾ] And lifting them towards the pale sky, He looked through them.

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Appendix A. Annotated Musical Score

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Appendix B. Page 5 of Jake Heggie’s Arrangement of Debussy’s Trois chansons de Bilitis

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Appendix C. Lexicon

Bouc: male goat. Ceinture: belt, girdle. Fangeux: muddy, filthy. Fer: iron, steel tip. Fourchu: cloven, cleft. Frisson: shiver. Givre: frost, ice. Hyacinthies: The Hyacinthus are Spartan religious festivities of a least eleven days,103 organized in Amyclées, an ancient Greek city, every year, in May; the celebrations are in honor of Apollo, who accidently killed Hyacinthe during a disc contest. On his grave would have flowered an iris, which is a metaphor for the revival of vegetation. Grenouille: frog. Naïades: In Greek mythology, the Naiads are female spirits, or nymphs, presiding over bodies of fresh water, such as springs, fountains, wells, and streams. Nymphes: In Greek mythology, Nymphs were supernatural beings associated with many other minor female deities that are often associated with the air, seas or water, or particular locations or landforms. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are more generally regarded as divine spirits who animate or maintain Nature for the environments where they live, and are usually depicted as beautiful, young graceful maidens. Divided into various broad subgroups, such as Aurai (winds), Hesperides (evening and sunsets), Nereides (seas), Naïades (rivers and streams), and Dryades (trees and forests.) Pan: In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of the nymphs. He has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is also recognized as the god of fields, groves, wooded glens and often affiliated with sex; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. Roseaux: reeds; various plants from moist soils of fairly large size, with hollow and rigid stem, more or less woody. Satyre: In Greek mythology, a satyr is a male spirit with ears and a tail like those of a horse, as well as a permanent erection. Satyrs, always shown

103 Pierre Louÿs. Les chansons de Bilitis: Pervigilium Mortis, avec divers textes inédits (Paris: Gallimard, 1990), 269.

68 naked, were known as lovers of wine, music, dancing, and women. They were assumed to live in woodlands, mountains, or pastures. Syrinx: In classical Greek mythology, a Syrinx was a nymph known for her chastity. Pursued by the amorous god Pan, she ran to a river and asked for help from the river nymphs. In answer, she was transformed into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the god’s frustrated breath blew across them. Pan cut the reeds to make his first set of pan pipes, which were thenceforth known as syrinx.

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