A few years ago I did a setting of the Apollinaire poem "Le Suicidé" in the Russian translation used by Shostakovich in his 14th symphony. I then decided to add another two of his poems to make a set. There is certainly an influence of the Russian master (and indeed Tri Lilii starts with the same notes) but in general the treatment of these poems is very different and is largely choral in nature. Attentives I is scored for strings whereas Tri Lilii is for woodwind. In the short Attentives II, percussion dominates.
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David, I found the music uniformly excellent but could not make out the words, and had even to guess at the order of the poems in the rendering from your descriptions of the scoring. Evidently the order is Attentives I, Attentives II, and finally Trois grands lys. Which translation did you use? Were they all in the Russian used by DSCH? (I only know the poems in the original French - I have the Haitink recording.)
There were places that the music is so quiet that I had trouble hearing it over the constant drone of my air conditioning unit (it's pushing 30ºC outside again today). I shall have to listen again when it's quieter, and also when I have the actual texts used in front of me..
Yes -- the Russian is the same used by DSCH (the transliteration is in fact quite phonetic so it wasn't too hard to put into Wordbuilder but of course you can only make out part of the text with that software at best). As for the order, did you not know that if you click on the little sheet of paper in Reelcrafter for the track, it gives a brief description with movement order and timings? My own recording is the Barshai but In fact the fine Haitink version was the first I got to know.
Anyway, I'm glad the music appealed -- so far the feedback seems quite positive.
Yes, I'm aware of that Reelcrafter feature but oddly, I don't see that little paper icon in my browser on your Latest page - though I do on your chamber and orchestral works pages. I just assumed you hadn't added any details there, sorry - must be something with my browser (Firefox). Ok, I will look up the Russian texts online when next I listen to your Apollinaire settings. As to Shostakovich's 14th, in fact I believe the Haitink is the only version I've ever heard except maybe on the radio, or many years ago at Michigan's audio room, without the texts.
that's very odd -- the paper icon does show on the Latest Works page here without any problem on Firefox. But the piece is also listed under Vocal works so maybe try that if you're still having problems -- not that there's anything much to read as I'm assuming anyone interested in this can easily dig out the Shosty text online (where I got it) even if they don't have a recording.
That might work. I'm quite sure that I didn't see the paper icon in your Latest Works section - I knew what to look for and looked for it, it was not there. Not sure why my Firefox refuses to display the icon on that page specifically.
I guess it doesn't really matter - I'm sure I can find the Russian texts online now and should have no trouble following along now that I know the order.