Extase

Nadia Boulanger was 14, newly admitted as an auditor to Gabriel Fauré’s composition class, when she wrote this song. Extase is regarded as the first work in her catalog. The setting follows the poem step by step. In a calm, slow tempo, arpeggiated chords evoke a starry night. An arpeggiated figure settles in the middle and then the upper register of the keyboard to evoke “le murmure des flots des mers” (the murmur of the ocean waves). The tempo quickens at the start of the second stanza (“Et les étoiles d’or…,” And the golden stars…) before gradually slowing, the arpeggiated figures tightening to bring about a radiant climax on the last line: “C’est le Seigneur Dieu” (It is the Lord God). And while the harmony had ventured briefly into distant keys, this brilliant conclusion exalts the radiant key of E major.

© Leduc 2020

This song was published in Volume III of the Mélodies pour voix moyenne.

© Anthony Girard