Works
poet
: Verlaine, Paul
instrumentation: vocal quartet ♦ Chanson d’automne is the first text by Paul Verlaine that Diepenbrock set to music. Over the years eight more were to follow, which shows that of the modern French poets, Diepenbrock felt most attract…
instrumentation: mezzo soprano (or contralto) and piano // soprano and piano ♦ Écoutez la chanson bien douce (Hear the Sweetest Song) was the first French text Diepenbrock set to music. When he was working on it at the beginning of January 1898, he had problems ‘translating’ the…
instrumentation: soprano and piano // mezzo-soprano and piano ♦ Diepenbrock composed Clair de lune (Moonshine) in September 1898. The song was inspired by Fauré’s setting, which he called “very beautiful” in a letter to Charles Smulders. He continued: “The strikin…
instrumentation: high voice and piano ♦ For most of Diepenbrock’s songs the reason or incentive for composing them is documented. But that’s not the case with La lune blanche (The White Moon). It is not mentioned anywhere in his surviving c…
instrumentation: soprano and orchestra ♦ Diepenbrock’s Écoutez la chanson bien douce (Hear the Sweetest Song, RC 40) for voice and piano dates from January 1898. He initially wrote the song for mezzo-soprano in D major, but that same month h…
instrumentation: soprano and orchestra ♦ Diepenbrock composed Clair de lune (Moonshine, RC 43) in September 1898, inspired by Fauré’s beautiful setting and the suggestive power of the poem. In November 1907 he orchestrated this song, which w…
instrumentation: mezzo-soprano (or baritone) and piano ♦ Puisque l’aube grandit (Since Dawn Awoke) is the fourth song Diepenbrock wrote on a text by Paul Verlaine. The poem is from the collection La bonne chanson (The Good Song) that had been given to Diepe…
instrumentation: solo voice and piano ♦ The day after completing his song on a text by Verlaine Puisque l’aube grandit (Since Dawn Awoke, RC 97) on 19 July 1909, Diepenbrock made a start with a setting of Sérénade – also by Verlaine – on p.…
instrumentation: mezzo soprano and piano ♦ The first sketch of Diepenbrock’s setting of Verlaine’s Mandoline (Mandolin) dates from 7 June 1909. On p. 16 of sketchbook C-10 the contours of the opening melody of the voice, in the key of D major,…
instrumentation: mezzo soprano and piano ♦ En sourdine (Muted) for mezzo-soprano and piano on a text by Paul Verlaine occupies a unique place in Diepenbrock’s oeuvre as it is a fairly strict copy of an existing model: the eponymous song by Deb…
