Caroline Charrière: Du Livre Pour Toi: Chant et Piano

Du Livre pour toi [From “The Book for You”] The singer Brigitte Balleys, who commissioned this cycle, gave the first performance at the Concert-Portrait Series organized by the Women’s Music Forum in Bern (Switzerland) in January 2003. After numerous readings of the one hundred poems of the “Livre pour toi” [The Book for You] by Marguerite Burnat-Provins (1872-1952) published by Editions de l’Aire, Vevey, Switzerland, I selected ten that trace the curve of a nascent love and its slow decline, in spite of the traces of hope which appear in the last song. Later, I subsequently added “Ecouter et ne rien entendre” [Listening and hearing nothing] and “Tu m’as dit: Viens...” [You said come to me...] acting on the request of Brigitte Balleys and pianist Eric Cerantola, who wanted a longer cycle. I added titles to each song. The original poems in the book are simply indicated here by roman numbers. I tried to retranscribe all the facets of that love, from the shyness and trembling in its early stages to the full blown passion, lightness, softness, jealousy, despair, supplication, and finally, of a certain sadness. Caroline Charrière, december 2009, Fribourg, Switzerland