Debussy:

Unpublished duets



 

I listed three Debussy duets, two unpublished, of which only Églogue seems to be rather elusive. There are many online catalogues of Debussy's works with the following 3 items:

 

L 42

1883


 

Chanson espagnole: Tra la la… nous venions de voir le taureau
duo pour 2 voix égales
Texte non identifié

L 49

1883


 

Églogue: Chanteurs mélodieux, habitants des buissons
duo pour soprano et ténor avec piano
Texte: Leconte de Lisle: Poèmes antiques

L 51

1883-

1886


 

Diane au bois
comédie héroique pour soprano et ténor avec piano
Texte: Théodore de Banville
[travail pour le Prix de Rome puis abandonné]

 

The first two above clearly show the first line of the text. The last two are unpublished, but Diane au bois is well known.

There is an OCR'd text copy of Clause Debussy: his life and works, translated into English (OUP, 1933). At the end, the appendix (in OCR 'French') has a section:

Diverses melodies d!sparu<s, citeVs dans notre ouvragft (chapitre I* r )
...
EGLOGUE } dMo pour soprano et tenor, poesie d<* Lcomt<* d Ligl
...
(Qette liste est forcement incomplete: itn dnnsdes collections yarticuli

which, rendered into actual French, is:

Diverses mélodies disparues, citées dans notre ouvrage (chapitre ?)
...
Églogue : duo pour soprano et ténor, poésie de Lecomte de Lisle
...
(Cette liste est forcément incomplète: [elles sont (?) ] dans des collections particulières

but I couldn't find a reference to this work in the text, nor could I identify the chapter referred to.

There is a Japanese site which lists:

Eglogue (1883) <sop, tnr, p>...Derived from 'ancient poems' by Leconte de lisle. Recently orchestrated by Sylvie Beaudette.

So the eclogue duet certainly exists. The text can be found here, where you will see it is probably more of a dialogue or colloque between Gallus and Cynthia, rather than a true duet (eclogue [fr. églogue]: a short poem, esp. a pastoral dialogue). The reference above to private collections suggests that the work may never have been published. No doubt some scholar will rectify that one day.
 

 

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