Deux Poèmes de Lord Byron (Tailleferre)

"Deux Poèmes de Lord Byron" (in English "Two Poems of Lord Byron") are the only known songs set to an English text by Germaine Tailleferre and date from 1934. Although Tailleferre's manuscript has disappeared, a photocopy was found in the papers of the Italian mezzo-soprano and musicologist Patricia Adkins-Chiti, who provided a copy which served as the source for their publication in 2003 by the French publisher Musik Fabrik. [Notes to the published version, 2003 Musik Fabrik. ]

These two songs were premièred in Paris on December 14, 1934 by the Soprano Anita Réal with the composer at the piano on a programme which also contained the version for two pianos of her "Concerto for two pianos, chorus, saxophone quartet and Orchestra". [Georges Hacquard "Germaine Tailleferre : La Dame des Six", Harmatten 1997, p.115 ] It has been suggested in Robert Shapiro's "Germaine Tailleferre: a Biblio-biography" (Greenwood Press 1994) that these settings were intended for a theatrical production, but no evidence has been found to prove this supposition.

The texts by Byron are "In moments to delight devoted" subtitled "From the Portuguese: "Tu Mi Chamas" and "Remembrance" from Hours of Idleness. The work lasts about five minutes.

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