52

Loyse de Montfort

cantate

fragments

  • 1
    • [Introduction]
    • Récitatif (Gaston) 'Un jour encore, et c’en est fait !' - 7 bars extant
    • Romance (Gaston) 'Reine des cieux, prends sous ton aile' - 84 bars
      • [musical score]
  • [2 Cantabile à trois voix sans accompagnement (Gaston, Loyse, Albert) 'Viens mon ange, ma Loyse']
  • 3 Duo (Loyse, Gaston) 'Gaston, dans ces tristes demeures' - 59 bars extant
    • [musical score]
  • [4 Air et scène (Loyse) 'Ah ! parti ! – Sous ces voûtes sombres']
  • [5 Duo (Loyse, Albert) 'Tremblez, coupable !']
  • 6 Trio final (Loyse, Albert, Gaston, chœur) 'Oui, je reviens, mais avec mon armure' - the final 78 bars extant
    • [musical score]
  • Gaston de Montfort, jeune gentilhomme attaché au parti de Henri de Navarre - ténor
  • Loÿse de Montfort, son épouse - soprano
  • Le Capitaine Albert, commandant militaire du Châtelet pour la ligue - basse
chœur (sopranos I-II, ténors I-II, basses I-II)
2 flûtes, 2 hautbois, 2 clarinettes, 2 bassons, 4 cors, 2 trompettes, 3 trombones, ophicléide, timbales, grosse caisse, cymbales, triangle, cordes

Poem: Émile Deschamps (1791–1871), written for the Institut’s Prix de Rome in 1840. François-Emmanuel-Joseph Bazin’s winning cantata is at F-Pn MS 3170 and MS 3171 and, in published form, at F-Pn D.610. It was staged as a one-act opera at the Opéra on 7-10-1840, having won the Prix de Rome on the 3 October. When staged as an opera Emilien Pacini was credited with having collaborated on the libretto. Deldevez’s 1840 cantata on this text is at F-Pn MS 6928(2).

Composition: 1853–57. These fragments, like those of Ange et Tobie, Le Chevalier enchanté, Herminie and Le Retour de Virginie, were composed as preparatory exercises while Bizet was Halévy’s composition student at the Conservatoire. The pagination of the fragmentary manuscript suggests that Bizet completed the setting in full score. The printed version of the text included no part for chorus.

Autograph score: F-Pn MS 431, gift of Reynaldo Hahn. Three fragments paginated 20–39, 86–95 and 182–89. Full score. At the top of the first page of each fragment someone has identified the MS as ‘fragmens de Loyse de Montfort, cantate’. The surviving fragments are:

1 Part of no. 1, p. 20–39, 18-stave paper. The last page of recitative (7 bars) followed by the Romance, ‘Reine des cieux, prends sous ton aile’, 84 bars.

2 Part of no. 3, Duo, p. 86–95, 20-stave paper. ‘Pour mes jours point d’alarmes’, 3/4, 56 bars, with three bars of the following Allegro 4/4, C major, broken off.

3 Pages 182-189, 20-stave paper. The final duet, with men’s chorus in the wings, ‘Vive Henri Quatre, vive ce roi vaillant !’, Moderato 2/4, E minor, 78 bars. There is no chorus in the printed poem.

Printed text:
Loyse de Montfort. Cantate de Rome. Texte de Emile Deschamps. Institut Royal de FRANCE. Séance publique du 3 octobre 1840. Copies: F-Pn (2 copies)
Bibliography: