Reflets

These two lines alone, “Et la lune luit dans mon cœur, plongé dans les sources du rêve” (And the moon shines in my heart, plunged in the wellsprings of dream), were no doubt enough to spark Lili Boulanger’s desire to set this poem, emblematic of Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolism in the primacy it gives to the “reflets profonds des choses” (deep reflections of things). Composed shortly after Attente, this second song on a poem from Serres chaudes heralds La Princesse Maleine, a lyric drama for which Lili Boulanger would make sketches as early as 1912.

An arpeggiated accompaniment in steady eighth notes supports the first stanza: a transparent modal harmony in F-sharp Aeolian, through which each altered note brings a new meaning − the major sixth for the soul, C-natural for fear, then G and F-natural for fear once more, the voice coming to rest on a dark low C-sharp. The end of this stanza is remarkable: the piano breaks off for a moment so that the key words, “dans les sources du rêve” (in the wellsprings of dream), stand out against the silence. A similar effect appears at the end of the second stanza, the piano freezing on a high C-natural in octaves and leaving the voice free to deliver “pleurent encore au fond des eaux” (still weep deep in the waters). This moving device recalls Claude Debussy’s aesthetic in Pelléas et Mélisande. The third stanza brings a new mood, the piano playing on word painting: “les fleurs s’effeuillent” (the flowers shed their petals), then “le reflet du firmament” (the reflection of the firmament), setting the extreme brightness of D Lydian against the more veiled resonances of a B-flat minor harmony with an added Dorian sixth. The ending is just as remarkable for the way it underlines “Pour descendre éternellement dans l’eau du songe” (To sink forever into the water of dream) with deep chords of great intensity, followed by an iridescent evocation of the moon in a final shimmer, the soprano voice gently cresting on a high F-sharp.

© Ricordi 1919
© Schirmer 1979
© Durand 2000

There is a version for voice and orchestra; the manuscript, in Nadia Boulanger’s hand, is unpublished. Lili Boulanger’s four songs for voice and piano were published as a collection under different titles: Quatre chants pour voix et piano by Schirmer and Quatre mélodies pour chant et piano by Éditions Durand. The order of the songs differs.

© Anthony Girard