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by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896)
Translation © by Peter Low
Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Language: French (Français)
Votre âme est un paysage choisi Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques. Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune, Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune, Au calme clair de lune triste et beau, Qui fait rêver les oiseaux [dans]1 les arbres Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau, Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres.
Available sung texts: (what is this?)
• J. Bartlett • C. Debussy • C. Debussy • A. Diepenbrock • G. Fauré • N. Lee • F. Van NimwegenAbout the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with Paul Verlaine, Fêtes galantes, Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1869, pages 1-2. First appeared in the journal La Gazette rimée, February 20, 1867.
Note: All ampersands (&) as appear in the first publication are changed to "et".
1 Diepenbrock: "sous"Text Authorship:
- by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Clair de lune", written 1867, appears in Fêtes galantes, no. 1, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Georges Antoine (1892 - 1918), "Clair de lune", op. 5 no. 1, published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Album de six mélodies, no. 2, Paris, Éd. Maurice Sénart [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Bartlett (b. 1949), "Clair de lune", 1979 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Pierre Braunstein (1888 - 1914), "Clair de lune", published 1921 [ high voice and piano ], in the supplement to Courrier musical, October 1, 1921, in which it was written that the composer "est mort pour la France" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph Canteloube de Malaret (1879 - 1957), "Clair de lune" [sung text not yet checked]
- by René Chansarel (1864 - 1945), "Clair de lune", 1909, published 1911 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. E. Demets [sung text not yet checked]
- by Gustave Charpentier (1860 - 1956), "Sérénade à Watteau", 1896, published 1896 [ soli, chorus, orchestra ], from Poèmes chantés, no. 17, H. Tellier ; Heugel [sung text not yet checked]
- by Georges Chenard-Huché (1864 - 1937), "Votre âme est un paysage choisi", published 1933 [ voice and piano ], Paris, Sénart [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Colas , "Clair de lune", published 1926 [ voice and piano ], from Mélodies pour ténor, no. 2, Paris, Édition B. Roudanez [sung text not yet checked]
- by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Clair de lune", L. 86/(80) no. 3 (1891) [ voice and piano ], from Fêtes Galantes I, no. 3, Hamelle, Fromont ; second version [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Claude Achille Debussy (1862 - 1918), "Clair de lune", alternate title: "Fête galante", L. 45/(32) (1881-2) [ voice and piano ], from Quatre chansons de jeunesse, no. 2, first of two settings; first appeared in Revue musicale, May 1926 ; later published Jobert, 1970 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Colette Delatour (b. 1936) and by Ruth Matarasso , "Clair de lune", 1995 [ medium voice and piano ], from Les miroirs profonds, no. 16, revised 1997 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Alphons Diepenbrock (1862 - 1921), "Clair de lune", 1898, published 1905, orchestrated 1905 [ voice and piano ], Amsterdam, Alsbach [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Gabriel Fauré (1845 - 1924), "Clair de lune", op. 46 no. 2 (1887), published 1888 [ voice and piano or orchestra ], Paris, Hamelle [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Noël Lee (1924 - 2013), "Claire de lune" [ soprano, clarinet and piano ], transcription of Fauré's setting [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Madeleine Lemariey (flourished c1900-1915), "Clair de lune", published 1913 [ voice and piano ], from Six mélodies, no. 5, Paris, Édition Maurice Sénart [sung text not yet checked]
- by Carmela Mackenna Subercaseaux (1879 - 1962), "Clair de lune", 1936 [ voice and piano ], from Deux poèmes de Verlaine, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Georges (Jerzy) Nawrocki , "Clair de lune", 1971-2019 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Émile Nérini (1882 - 1961), "Clair de lune", 1908, published 1929 [ voice and piano ], from Vingt mélodies, no. 5, Gilles, R. [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thomas Pasatieri (b. 1945), "Votre âme", 1980?, published [1980] [ high voice and piano ], from Album Leaves, volume 2 for Voice and Piano, no. 7, Theodore Presser [sung text not yet checked]
- by Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli (1882 - 1949), "Clair de lune", published 1912 [ voice and piano ], from Fêtes galantes, no. 1, Milan, Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
- by Adrien Remacle (1849 - 1916), "Clair de lune", published [1907] [ voice and piano ], from Les fêtes galantes. Esquisses mélodiques sur les poèmes de Paul Verlaine, no. 1, Paris, Hachette [sung text not yet checked]
- by Louis Schopfer (1867 - 1926), "Clair de lune", published 1912 [ medium voice and piano ], from Cinq mélodies, no. 3, Milan, Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
- by Johann Heinrich Samuel "Marcel" Sulzberger (1876 - 1941), "Clair de lune", published c1911 [ voice and piano ], from Lieder nach Texten von Samain und Verlaine, no. 19, Berlin, Ruth [sung text not yet checked]
- by Jósef-Zygmunt Szulc (1875 - 1956), "Clair de lune", op. 83 (Dix mélodies sur des poésies de Verlaine) no. 1, published 1907 [ voice and piano ], Paris, Rouart Lerolle [sung text not yet checked]
- by Anna Teichmüller (1861 - 1940), "Clair de lune" [sung text not yet checked]
- by Édouard Trémisot (1874 - 1952), "Clair de lune", 1895 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Claude Tricot (b. 1926), "Clair de lune" [ soprano and piano ], from Mélodies, recueil 1, no. 5, from Mathilde, 6 poèmes de P. Verlaine. , no. 1, Paris, Éd. Choudens [sung text not yet checked]
- by Frank Van Nimwegen (b. 1961), "Clair de lune", 1995 [ SATB chorus ], from Six images intemporelles, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Alexander Voormolen (1895 - 1980), "Clair de lune", 1916, published 1970, rev. 1969 [ voice and piano ], Amsterdam, Donemus [sung text not yet checked]
- by Judith Lang Zaimont , "Clair de lune", 1974, first performed 1975 [ high voice and piano ], from Chansons nobles et sentimentales, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in Finnish (Suomi), a translation by Yrjö Vilhelm Kaijärvi (1896 - 1971) ; composed by Pauliina Isomäki.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Paul Wiegler (1878 - 1949) ; composed by Artur Immisch.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Stefan Zweig (1881 - 1942) , "Mondschein", appears in Rhythmen: Nachdichtungen ausgewählter Lyrik von Emile Verhaeren, Charles Baudelaire und Paul Verlaine ; composed by Max Kowalski, Georg Trexler, Richard Trunk.
Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- CAT Catalan (Català) (Anna Brull Piñol) , "Clar de Lluna", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CAT Catalan (Català) [singable] (Núria Colomer) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- CHI Chinese (中文) (Yen-Chiang Che) , "月光", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (Peter Low) , no title, copyright © 2000, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (William Faulkner) , "Clair de lune", first published 1920
- GER German (Deutsch) (Nele Gramß) , "Mondlicht", copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Bertram Kottmann) , "Mondlicht", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Pierre Mathé) , "Mondschein", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (José Miguel Llata) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- SPA Spanish (Español) (Elisa Rapado) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 85
Your soul is a chosen landscape
Language: English after the French (Français)
Your soul is a chosen landscape charmed by masquers and revellers playing the lute and dancing and almost sad beneath their fanciful disguises! Even while singing, in a minor key, of victorious love and fortunate living they do not seem to believe in their happiness, and their song mingles with the moonlight, the calm moonlight, sad and beautiful, which sets the birds in the trees dreaming, and makes the fountains sob with ecstasy, the tall slender fountains among the marble statues!
About the headline (FAQ)
Translation of title "Clair de lune" = "Moonlight"
Text Authorship:
- Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2000 by Peter Low, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net
Based on:
- a text in French (Français) by Paul Verlaine (1844 - 1896), "Clair de lune", written 1867, appears in Fêtes galantes, no. 1, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1867
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 81