Quatre Ballades Françaises

It was to her teacher Henri Busser, professor of counterpoint at the Conservatoire de Paris, that young composer and organist Henriette Roget (1910-1992) dedicated, in 1934, the Four French Ballads , composed to the poetry of Paul Fort (1872-1960). Nicknamed “the northern cicada” by Mistral, this friend of Verlaine, Mallarmé and Apollinaire began his career as a symbolist playwright at the Théâtre des Arts before deciding to focus exclusively on poetry. His French Ballads mingled popular feeling, creative fantasy and rhythmic elasticity – an alliance that would inspire musicians as diverse as Honegger, Caplet and Brassens. Roget detested works of bravura and bombastic grandiloquence; Paul Fort ’s verse provided fertile material for her inclination toward sincerity, spontaneity and unembellished lyricism. In “ Le Bonheur ”, “ Il nous faut aimer sur terre ”, “ Si le bon dieu l’avait voulu ” and “ Le Diable dans la nuit ”, the music translates the beating of hearts and the vibrations of light with a delicacy and a naturalness that brush the very depths of the soul. Through each of these pure crystals, a precious gift shines: the art of suggestion. I. Le Bonheur II. Il nous faut aimer sur terre III. Si le bon dieu l’avait voulu IV. Le Diable dans la nuit