Complainte sur certains ennuis

Little bittersweet song in E major (I'm not exaggerating) (text in French subtitled)

Hi @Krisp!

The octave major 3rd's in the piano that permeate your piece remind me of some Rachmaninoff piece for two pianos or perhaps Debussy!  I've actually written a song titled "Ennui" about the corona-virus pandemic/lockdown and your song reminded me that it's actually a French word!  LoL  I think this might just be one of the most simple and because of that, accessible songs of yours you've ever written!  The song is really charming and I can imagine it in a film.  The string writing is also very affecting in combination with the piano and the voice.  Well done and thanks for sharing!

I'm loving your voice and singing!
It does feel sad, like someone is sighing? but I don't understand your text I have to admit it goes over me...
is it a love song?

also the way you produced it is incredible!

Oh, thank you again,

Yes, it's a disillusioned love song.

The poet regrets that the loved one is ultimately not attentive to him other than by frivolous play.

He generalizes and his words might seem bitter to us towards women if he did not mock himself.

It's all the art of Jules Laforgues, to know how to tell us both the sublime and the ridiculous, the irony and the metaphysical aspiration...

He is a great poet too unknown in France, who died at the age of 27 of tuberculosis in 1887.

On 2/22/2025 at 4:05 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Hi @Krisp!

The octave major 3rd's in the piano that permeate your piece remind me of some Rachmaninoff piece for two pianos or perhaps Debussy!  I've actually written a song titled "Ennui" about the corona-virus pandemic/lockdown and your song reminded me that it's actually a French word!  LoL  I think this might just be one of the most simple and because of that, accessible songs of yours you've ever written!  The song is really charming and I can imagine it in a film.  The string writing is also very affecting in combination with the piano and the voice.  Well done and thanks for sharing!

 

You're right, I wanted here a French song spirit, maybe the beginning of the century.And musically, I wanted to try to install this contemplative climate. The means are therefore very scarce on purpose.
It's really nice that you talk about Rachmaninov because I recently had the immense privilege of singing again with the choir for whom I work the fabulous vespers. It's so beautiful, inevitably it leaves its borrowing...

Hi @Krisp!

Oh what! I didn’t review this one?!

I love the first sentence when there are only E notes and harmonies filled by piano, sounds like one Schubert song I forgot the name. (Oh I remember it now, it’s Die Stadt in his Schwanegesang! Even though it’s a bittersweet, it’s probably the warmest thing I have heard from you, other than your Drape de Nuit. It almost sounds like the famous Schubert’s Linden Tree with the same E major, but of course with the orchestration the mood is different. I don’ know why, the high string accompaniment sounds very hopeful for me even though the protagonist is singing his pain. A wonderful work with your wonderful singing! Thx for sharing!

Henry

On 3/27/2025 at 10:28 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi @Krisp!

Oh what! I didn’t review this one?!

I love the first sentence when there are only E notes and harmonies filled by piano, sounds like one Schubert song I forgot the name. (Oh I remember it now, it’s Die Stadt in his Schwanegesang! Even though it’s a bittersweet, it’s probably the warmest thing I have heard from you, other than your Drape de Nuit. It almost sounds like the famous Schubert’s Linden Tree with the same E major, but of course with the orchestration the mood is different. I don’ know why, the high string accompaniment sounds very hopeful for me even though the protagonist is singing his pain. A wonderful work with your wonderful singing! Thx for sharing!

Henry

 

Back from Hong Kong, a jetlag in sight, I discover your message!

Thank you Henry, for your always so fine and enthusiastic comments. It's a great pleasure to read.

Schubert is indeed always somewhere in my ulterior motives, without necessarily realizing it (it can however be voluntary as in a previous piece where I quote Der Lindenbaum, in "Jeux", in the coda).

Here, I admit that I didn't have a Lied in mind in particular, but you're right, as soon as we try to sing a little love and sadness, Schubert is not far away.

It is also quite possible that the author of the poem Jules Laforgue, heard Lieder, when he was a French reader for a German empress, in his Berlin castle.

We even know that he meets a very renowned young Belgian pianist, with whom he befriends. There is no doubt that Schubert was heard by him in these circumstances.

You are also right about the look let's say hopeful during strings. It is also to go with the idea present in the poem of a bitterness, but of the contemplation always amazed before "these beings there" who remain despite these defects and this superficiality (according to the poet of course), which remain in his eyes, despite everything, despite his doubts, his smallness, so adorable...

(And as I understand what he means... But it's a very very subjective opinion)...