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Les Fleurs du Mal (2005) |
mezzo-soprano and piano – 16'
The first version of this set of six Baudelaire settings was made for mezzo-soprano and harp in late 2003. Even at that time, I realised that these songs could be adapted for voice and piano. The languid yet often acrimonious and dolorous nature of the Baudelaire texts suggested (at first) the almost fragile minimalism that writing for the harp in this context demanded.
Consequently, this new version is scarcely altered from the original, with the exception of occasional added accompanimental passages for left hand and some doublings where the colours of the voice seemed to demand it.
In what is already an extensive repertoire of works for voices, I have seldom set texts other than my own. But Baudelaire has (for me) a powerful sense of the ‘visual’ in his writings in general – in Les Fleurs du Mal especially – and since much of my music is interpenetrated (and cross-related) with the sense of seeing as well as hearing, I have taken action with these texts both as a composer and a visual artist.
By their very nature, performances of these six songs should allow quite a pause between each of them – a silent period of pensiveness and consideration both for what has already sounded and what is to sound next.
Edward Cowie, 2005.