A Triptych Within: Cyclic Facets in the Opening Three “Ariettes oubliés” Poems within Debussy’s Larger, Eponymous Song Set
Scholars of Debussy have cited potentials for narrative connectivity in select song sets, such as Yoens on Fêtes Galantes II (1988), Rolf on the Recueil Vasnier (1997), Grayson on the Chansons de Bilitis (2001), and more recently, Gibbons, also on Bilitis (2008). Gibbons goes so far as to refer to Bilitis as a “cycle.”
Interestingly, among Debussy’s published song sets, only three feature poetry from a single collection whose original order is maintained. Two of those are indeed Fêtes Galantes II and Chansons de Bilitis. A third, and the first to be composed, is the Ariettes oubliées. Debussy draws, in order, from three different poetic collections within Verlaine’s Romances sans paroles. Drawing from Romance’s initial eponymous collection, “Ariettes oubliées,” Debussy strategically chose three poems—“C’est l’extase,” “Il pleur dans mon cœur,” and “L’ombre des arbes”—that trace the arch of the rise and fall of a doomed romantic relationship. Literary scholar Daniel Bergez (1982) notes the nine-poem collection undoubtedly mirrors Verlaine’s state of troubled self-doubt experienced during his affair with Rimbaud. Debussy, who began studying piano with Verlaine’s mother-in-law as the affair reached a peak of controversy, was acutely aware of that connection. And given the unraveling of his own troubled extramarital affair with Marie Vasnier as he composed them, Debussy likely set these first three Ariettes with strong empathy for his chosen texts. Rolf (1988) suggests direct connections between these three “Ariettes” and Vasnier. Additionally, each epigraph from Debussy’s chosen three poems exclusively relate back to Rimbaud in ways the other six “Ariettes oubliées” poems do not.
These literary and biographical facts, combined with highly significant intertextual musical connections in realms of motives’ melodic and accentual profiles, key relationships, metric-phrasing similarities, and harmonic progression, offer a rare moment in Debussy’s mélodie oeuvre where narrativity and musically-cyclic facets are highly wedded.
Scholars of Debussy have cited potentials for narrative connectivity in select song sets, such as Yoens on Fêtes Galantes II (1988), Rolf on the Recueil Vasnier (1997), Grayson on the Chansons de Bilitis (2001), and more recently, Gibbons, also on Bilitis (2008). Gibbons goes so far as to refer to Bilitis as a “cycle.”
Interestingly, among Debussy’s published song sets, only three feature poetry from a single collection whose original order is maintained. Two of those are indeed Fêtes Galantes II and Chansons de Bilitis. A third, and the first to be composed, is the Ariettes oubliées. Debussy draws, in order, from three different poetic collections within Verlaine’s Romances sans paroles. Drawing from Romance’s initial eponymous collection, “Ariettes oubliées,” Debussy strategically chose three poems—“C’est l’extase,” “Il pleur dans mon cœur,” and “L’ombre des arbes”—that trace the arch of the rise and fall of a doomed romantic relationship. Literary scholar Daniel Bergez (1982) notes the nine-poem collection undoubtedly mirrors Verlaine’s state of troubled self-doubt experienced during his affair with Rimbaud. Debussy, who began studying piano with Verlaine’s mother-in-law as the affair reached a peak of controversy, was acutely aware of that connection. And given the unraveling of his own troubled extramarital affair with Marie Vasnier as he composed them, Debussy likely set these first three Ariettes with strong empathy for his chosen texts. Rolf (1988) suggests direct connections between these three “Ariettes” and Vasnier. Additionally, each epigraph from Debussy’s chosen three poems exclusively relate back to Rimbaud in ways the other six “Ariettes oubliées” poems do not.
These literary and biographical facts, combined with highly significant intertextual musical connections in realms of motives’ melodic and accentual profiles, key relationships, metric-phrasing similarities, and harmonic progression, offer a rare moment in Debussy’s mélodie oeuvre where narrativity and musically-cyclic facets are highly wedded.
