Poulenc – Le Bestiaire

This is one of a series of posts about books used as source material for Art Song Central.

Title: Le Bestiaire (ou Cortège d’Orphée)
Composer: Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Publisher: Editions Max Eschig
Copyright: 1920 by Les Editions de La Sirène

Contents:

  1. Le Dromadaire
  2. La Chèvre du Thibet
  3. La Sauterelle
  4. Le Dauphin
  5. L’Ecrevisse
  6. La Carpe

Notes:
This “song cycle” of miniature songs was written early in Poulenc’s career. It is perhaps an extreme case of the disparity between US Copyright law and that of countries which base their copyrights on death dates. Users outside the US should be especially cautious to consult the laws of their own country before downloading these songs.

The edition from which these songs were taken had English words above the staff, and German words below the French. Both the German and English translations were removed for Art Song Central, under the assumption that our users would want to sing the original French, and thus removing a distraction and leaving extra room to write in IPA and/or a literal translation.