L'Arlésienne Suites
Encyclopedia
The incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

 to Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...

's play L'Arlésienne (usually translated as 'The Girl from Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....

') was composed by Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...

 for the first performance of the play on 1 October 1872 at the Vaudeville Theatre (now known as the Paramount Theatre). It consists of 27 numbers (some only a few bars) for voice, chorus, and small orchestra, ranging from short solos to longer entr'acte
Entr'acte
' is French for "between the acts" . It can mean a pause between two parts of a stage production, synonymous to an intermission, but it more often indicates a piece of music performed between acts of a theatrical production...

s. Bizet himself played the harmonium backstage at the premiere performance.

Bizet wrote several folk-like themes for the music but also incorporated three existing tunes from a folk-music collection published by Vidal of Aix in 1864: the Marcho dei Rei, the Danse dei Chivau-Frus, and Er dou Guet. The score achieves powerful dramatic ends with the most economic of means. Still, it received poor reviews in the wake of the premiere and is not much performed nowadays in its original form. The play itself was not successful, closing after only 21 performances. It had been staged as a last-minute replacement for another play, which had been banned by the censors, and the audience was less than favourably disposed to the new play.

The incidental music has survived and flourished, however, in the form of two suites for orchestra.

Musical numbers

(1) Overture – the March of the Kings; L’Innocent’s theme; Frédéri’s theme.

ACT 1

TABLEAU 1: The farm at Le Castelet
In the first mélodrame (No 2) Francet Mamaï, Frédéri’s grandfather, tells the shepherd Balthazar and Frédéri’s young brother (called ‘l’Innocent’) of Fredéri’s passion for a girl from Arles, while l’Innocent, whose theme dominates this and the next two numbers, tries to talk to the shepherd about a fable about a wolf attacking a goat.

The next mélodrame (3) links the first and second scenes of the play, as the old shepherd, Balthazar, continues telling the wolf story to l’Innocent. The third mélodrame (4) accompanies an exchange between Vivette, Rose Mamaï’s god-daughter, and Balthazar, where the shepherd says he thinks something is stirring in l’Innocent’s mind.

In scene VIII, after a gay offstage chorus, a mélodrame (5), introduces the theme of Mitifio, a cow-herd; he has come to reveal that the Arlésienne has been another’s mistress for two years. In the mélodrame and final chorus (6), Frédéri is about to go off to Arles, but Francet tells him what Mitifio said. The chorus bursts in with a reprise of (5) as Frédéri’s theme accompanies his collapse by the well.

ACT 2

TABLEAU 2: Alongside the pond of Vaccarès in the Camargue
(7) sets the scene, a Pastorale with offstage chorus and accompaniment. In Mélodrame (8) Balthazar and l’Innocent enter in Scene III (using the latter’s theme), and (9) marks the exit of Rose. The next mélodrame (10) accompanies the discovery of Fréderi in the shepherd’s hut, angry because everyone is spying on him. As wordless offstage chorus sing, Balthazar leaves, having failed to make Frédéri destroy the letters from the Arlésienne which he reads night and day. Mélodrame (12) is only six bars; l’Innocent cannot recall the story he wants to tell his brother. In the next mélodrame (13), (Er dou guet) described as a ‘berceuse’, l’Innocent falls asleep while telling his story. A nine-bar mélodrame (14) evokes Rose’s desperation at Fréderi’s frame of mind.

TABLEAU 3: The kitchen at Castelet

The next music depicts Vivette, the local girl who wants to marry Frédéri, preparing her parcels to take on the Rhone ferry (15). After men prepare to go out shooting game Rose and the others fear that Frédéri might kill himself.
At the end of the act (16) when Frédéri decides that Vivette can help him forget his obsession, Balthazar and rose express their relief.

This is followed by the Intermezzo (17), used in the Second Suite.

ACT 3

TABLEAU 4: The Castelet farm courtyard

A 6/8 Andantino Mélodrame (19) marks the entrance of Mère Renaud in Scene III, and in the following Adagio (the Adagietto in the first Suite) Balthazar and Renaud reminisce about old times. As all move off to eat, there is a reprise of the Andantino. Another Andantino follows the exit of Frédéri and Vivette as they declare their love (20). The farandole (21) (Danse dei Chivau-Frus) which begins quietly and builds to a climax sees Frédéri respond with fury to Mitifio who has come to tell Balthazar that he will run off with the girl from Arles (22).

TABLEAU 5: The Cocoonery

The farandole is heard then the March of the Kings is sung by the chorus, after which the two are combined (23); there is reprise for chorus of the March of the Kings (24). In (25) l’Innocent ‘awakens’ showing he understands his brother’s problem. In mélodrame (26) Rose is momentarily reassured as the clock strikes three, while the Final is a powerful tutti version of Frédéri’s theme (27) which brings down the curtain.

Orchestration

2 flutes, oboe (also cor anglais), clarinet, 2 bassoons, one E flat alto saxophone, 2 horns, timpani, tambourin (tambourin provencal not tambourine), 7 violins, one viola, 5 cellos, 2 double basses, piano, and an offstage harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...

 to accompany the choruses.

Background

Despite the poor reviews of the incidental music, Bizet arranged his work into a suite of four movements. Now known as L'Arlésienne Suite No. 1, the suite used a full symphony orchestra but without the chorus. The first performance was at a Pasdeloup
Pasdeloup Orchestra
The Pasdeloup Orchestra is the oldest symphony orchestra in France.-History:Founded in 1861 by Jules Pasdeloup with the name Concerts Populaires, it is the oldest orchestra still in existence in Paris...

 concert on 10 November 1872.

Movements

  • I. Prélude
    Prelude (music)
    A prelude is a short piece of music, the form of which may vary from piece to piece. The prelude can be thought of as a preface. It may stand on its own or introduce another work...

    , Allegro deciso (the March of the Kings)
  • II. Minuet
    Minuet
    A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...

    , Allegro giocoso (The ending of this movement is slightly expanded from the version in the incidental music.)
  • III. Adagietto (In the incidental music, this number is preceded and followed by a melodrama that, in the suite, forms the central section of the concluding Carillon. For this purpose it is transposed up a semitone
    Semitone
    A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically....

    .)
  • IV. Carillon
    Carillon
    A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...

    , Allegro moderato  (Expanded as indicated above.)

Comments

The suite opens with a strong, energetic theme, which is based on the Christmas carol
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...

 "March of the Kings", played by the violins. (This tune had also been used two centuries earlier in Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...

's Marche de Turenne.) Afterwards, the theme is repeated by various sections. After reaching a climax, the theme fades away. It is followed by the theme associated with L'Innocent (the brother of Frédéri, the hero). The Prélude concludes with the theme associated with Frédéri himself. The second movement, resembles a minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...

, while the third is more emotional and muted. The last movement, Carillon
Carillon
A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...

, features a repeating Bell-tone pattern on the Horns, mimicking a peal of church bells.

Background

L'Arlésienne Suite No. 2, also written for full orchestra, was arranged and published in 1879, four years after Bizet's death, by Ernest Guiraud
Ernest Guiraud
Ernest Guiraud was a French composer and music teacher born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is best known for writing the traditional orchestral recitatives used for Bizet's opera Carmen and for Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann .- Biography :Guiraud began his schooling in Louisiana under the...

, using Bizet's original themes (although not all of them were from the L'Arlésienne incidental music). The second suite is generally credited to Bizet since he wrote the themes and the basic orchestration.

Comments

The second suite begins with an introduction by the wind
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...

 section, followed by the melody in the strings. The melodies are repeated by various sections throughout the first movement. In the suite, the opening section returns and concludes the piece. In the original version, the "central" section, which was a wordless chorus sung by women, ends the piece. The second movement features utilization of low tones and begins with the wind section. Guiraud adds twelve additional bars to the concluding section. The menuet, which is not from L'Arlésienne, but from Bizet's 1866 opera The Fair Maid of Perth
La jolie fille de Perth
La jolie fille de Perth is an opera in four acts by Georges Bizet , from a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Jules Adenis, after the novel by Sir Walter Scott...

, features solos by harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, and, later, saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 (this replacing the vocal parts of the original); it is the most subdued and emotional movement. The finale, the farandole
Farandole
The farandole is an open-chain community dance popular in the County of Nice, France. The farandole bears similarities to the gavotte, jig, and tarantella...

, incorporates the theme of the March of the Kings once again. This is an expanded combination of numbers 22-24 of the original incidental music, in which the farandole appears first on its own. It is afterwards briefly combined with the march.

Recordings

The suites have been recorded many times. There are at least two recordings of the complete incidental music for the play, one conducted by Albert Wolff and another by Michel Plasson
Michel Plasson
Michel Plasson is a French conductor.Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. He studied briefly in the United States, including time with Charles Münch...

 (who has also recorded both suites). Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski is a French conductor of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque works. His mother is American, and his father was Alexandre Minkowski, a Polish-French professor of pediatrics and one of the founders of neonatology...

 has made a more recent nearly-complete recording on the Naive label.

A film
L'Arlésienne (film)
L'Arlésienne has been the title of two notable film versions of Alphonse Daudet's play of the same name. The first was an early talking film made in 1930 starring Blanche Montel and José Noguero; the second was made in 1942 starring the French actor Raimu and a young Louis Jourdan...

 was made in 1941 with Raimu
Raimu
Raimu was the stage name for the French actor Jules Auguste Muraire .-Biography:Born in Toulon in the Var département, he made his stage debut there in 1899. After coming to the attention of the then great music hall star Félix Mayol who was also from Toulon, in 1908 he was given a chance to work...

 as Marc, Gaby Morlay
Gaby Morlay
Gaby Morlay was a French film actress. She played Queen Victoria in the 1939 historical film Entente cordiale.-Selected filmography:* When Love Is Over * Le Scandale * Nuits de feu...

 as Rose Mamaï, Giselle Pascal
Giselle Pascal
-Selected filmography:* Last Refuge * Mademoiselle Has Fun * The Chocolate Girl * Endless Horizons * Royal Affairs in Versailles * If Paris Were Told to Us...

 as Vivette and Louis Jourdan as Frédéri; Paul Paray
Paul Paray
Paul Paray was a French conductor, organist and composer. He is best remembered in the United States for being the resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for more than a decade. He married Yolande Falck on 25 August 1944.-Biography:Paray's father, Auguste, was a sculptor and organist...

 conducted Bizet’s score.

Notable uses

Music from the L'Arlésienne suites was played extensively in "Hammer Into Anvil
Hammer Into Anvil
"Hammer into Anvil" is an episode of the 1960s television program The Prisoner. It is one of the minority of episodes that do not deal with Number Six attempting to escape or the Village authorities attempting to coerce him into revealing information....

", an episode of The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...

.

The Carillon is used on Playhouse Disney's Little Einsteins
Little Einsteins
Little Einsteins is an animated television series on Disney Junior. The educational preschool series was developed for television by Douglas Wood who created the concept and characters, and a subsequent team headed by Emmy Award-winning director Olexa Hewryk and Dora the Explorer co-creator Eric...

.

The Carillon was used in a very successful media campaign in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, launched in the late 1980s by the local importers of Finlandia Vodka
Finlandia Vodka
Finlandia Vodka is produced from Finnish-grown six-row barley and pure glacier water.The barley is distilled into a grain spirit using a continuous multi-pressure distillation system at Altia Corporation's distillery in Finnish village of Koskenkorva...

. It featured French-born photographer Guy Paizy playing the role of a sophisticated, womanizing classical orchestra conductor. The campaign is still remembered in the island nation, almost two decades after its inception.

Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

n dictator Enver Hoxha
Enver Hoxha
Enver Halil Hoxha was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary andthe leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...

 adopted the First Suite's Prelude as a military march during his reign.

The Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Trans-Siberian Orchestra is an American progressive metal band founded in 1993 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill, who brought together Jon Oliva and Al Pitrelli and keyboardist and co-producer Robert Kinkel to form the core of the creative team. Since then, TSO sold nearly 8...

 uses the theme of the Farandole for their song "The March of the Kings/Hark the Herald Angel".

The Japanese group Mihimaru GT
Mihimaru GT
Mihimaru GT is an urban and pop group signed to Universal Music Japan and managed by Tearbridge Productions, a subsidiary of Stardust Promotion and Avex.- History :...

 uses the theme of the Farandole for their song "Theme of mihimaLIVE 2".

Jazz musician  Bob James
Bob James (musician)
Robert McElhiney James is a jazz keyboardist, arranger and producer.-Biography:During the 1970s, Bob James played a major role in establishing the smooth jazz genre. "Angela", the instrumental theme from the sitcom Taxi, is probably Bob James' most well-known work to date...

 arranged and recorded a jazz version of Farandole on his album Two
Two (Bob James album)
-Reception:This album is the second of a series of jazz-funk classics . Released in 1975, this album charted at number two on the Jazz Album Charts...

(1975).

French choreographer Roland Petit created a ballet L'Arlésienne in 1974 which has been performed throughout the world, based on Daudet's short story and set against a landscape by Van Gogh.

A rock version of the piece appears in the Catherine (video game)
Catherine (video game)
is a horror puzzle-platformer adventure game developed by Atlus Persona Team and published by Atlus for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is Atlus' first internally-developed game for seventh-generation consoles in high definition, and is described as an "adult-oriented" title by the game's...

 by Atlus
Atlus
is a Japanese computer and video game developer, publisher, and distributor based in Tokyo, Japan, best known for developing the console role-playing game franchise Megami Tensei. The first Megami Tensei was a Nintendo Entertainment System video game published by Namco based on a trilogy of...

.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK