The Transcriber s Art # Richard Yates Poème d Amour # and #, Jules Massenet I have tried to say ith music hat you say ith ords I think and feel in music and I should like to think and feel same things as you Maurice Ravel, quoted by Jules Renard, 907 Music began ith human voice, and despite passage of millennia e have devised no instrument to match it Acoustically it embodies a continuously modulated timbre and an infinite variety of articulation Its connection to our feelings and thoughts is direct and immediate rar than mediated by akard, mechanical interfaces e call instruments While e guitarists may comfort ourselves ith description of our little orchestra, disparity in expressive resources beteen voice and any instrument is humbling When one adds to this unique ability of voice to convey ords, it is not surprising that transcription of vocal orks to guitar is difficult And yet re are some aspects of vocal music that commend it for transcription The typical pitch range of a song is narroer than most instruments and so it suits solo guitar s need to encompass both melody and accompaniment Songs are usually of shorter duration and moderate tempo, and have an overall scale that matches guitar ell While re certainly are exceptions, in general, priority given to vocal melody precludes undue complexity in accompaniment and suggests that simplifications to it can be made ithout detriment to hole Thus transcription of songs simultaneously presents attractive, congenial features and daunting challenges Mélodie The French art songs that developed beginning in mid 9th century came to be called mélodies They are contrasted ith German Lied in that y have, in Debussy s ords, clarity of expression, precision and concentration of form They are typically more subtle and restrained in expression, valuing refinement over excessive display Mélodies also sho a close and carefully constructed relationship beteen lyrics and melody This artistic melding of rhythm in ords and melody is termed prosody Nearly all French composers of period rote mélodies, but deserving particular mention are Ravel, Debussy, Fauré and composer of to songs in this issue of Soundboard Jules Massenet (8 9) Massenet is best knon for his vocal music, hich includes a couple dozen operas and more than 50 songs Poème d Amour is one of eight song cycles composed by Massenet It includes six songs set to poems by Paul Robiquet, a prominent historian, political essayist and philosopher Massenet s attention to lyrics is a topic deserving a dissertation by itself, and indeed one as ritten by Eunhee Chae at University of North Texas in 000 In terms of composer s treatment of prosody, Jules Massenet distinguishes himself in his melodies, rote Chae His musical prosody reveals idiosyncratic styles, hich establish a balance beteen poetry and music The melody and rhythm in his mélodies sho his originality at a high level, focusing on prosody of phonetic, syntactic and semantic features
Translation and Word Painting With Massenet s songs e are confronted ith an additional obstacle lyrics are in French Alain Reiher, a guitar composer and native French speaker, provided me ith a literal English translation I n adusted lyrics to match prosody of original hile maintaining meaning In Massenet s musical score phrase lengths, meters, rhythmic figures and individual note durations carefully match those of lyrics Notice that in second song measures ith / and / time signatures are used to match different lengths of phrases in poem There is also considerable use of ord painting to forge an even tighter unity of ords and music In ord painting composer aims to make a close connection beteen specific ords and melody notes or harmony Of many subtle touches of ord painting in this song cycle I have selected to as examples: In measure 8 of first song, hen cypresses boed ir crons, tempo slos, harmonic density increases, and texture thickens over a descending bass line The image of maestic trees boing is unmistakable At measure 8 of second song, ord mad is set to a dense, dissonant and remote C sharp dominant seventh chord here expected chord as C maor The chord Massenet used is indeed a little mad Examining musical score in close context ith lyrics as necessary throughout process of making solo guitar transcription Transcription But, if a song is so intimately entined ith its lyrics ho is a transcriber for solo guitar to convey all this to performer? If lyrics are an essential feature, ho can e carry m over into an instrumental piece? The first impulse to ust ignore problem, fit melody and accompaniment to guitar,and hope it can stand by itself is not satisfying And not many classical guitarists ould ant a vocoder installed, so direct expression of lyrics is impossible! But lyrics can still play an important ro albeit an indirect one The first step is to become thoroughly familiar ith ay lyrics and music interact to reinforce each or Certainly performance of piece can benefit from such study as examples I cite, but ho is transcriber to present this? One solution is to include lyrics in verse form The player can n see hat song is about and grasp general feeling tone My collection of Thomas Morley s Canzonets (yatesguitarcom/gfa/morleypdf) used this approach, but that examp ith its contrapuntal textures and frequent repetition of ords and phrases did not have meticulous prosody and ord painting that Massenet uses to such onderful effect The only ay to communicate all necessary information is to include lyrics under staff, as in original song The performance on solo guitar can thus be fully informed by lyrics, and so, for this issue s transcriptions, I have taken unusual step of presenting score in this ay Please note that I am not recommending that publishers of transcribed songs adopt this format, but for this article I think it helps illustrate importance and essential influence of lyrics on guitar transcription and, especial performance Parentical although it as not my original intention, you might also use this score ith a singer to perform it as an accompanied song If you have absorbed hat you ant from versions printed here, but prefer scores ithout lyrics and page turns, you can donload scores from my ebsite at yatesguitarcom/gfa/massenetpdf
Fingering Although level of difficulty of se transcriptions is quite moderate, re are a fe places here fingering can use some explanation In measure 8 of first song, you ill find it helpful to leave finger on F sharp from chord that ends measure 7 It is n firmly on first string as a guide finger for shift up chord on second eighth beat Also in first song, at measure finger on G is most conveniently placed early ith last note of previous measure This secures stretch and barré of measure The fingering of third halfnote beat of measure 6 of second song seems unusual, but is much preferred to a more natural fingering (using, and fingers) because it makes an orise tricky shift to next chord quite easy The and fingers can remain in place hile slides back one fret and comes don on B on fifth string Beginning in measure 0 of second song, music divides into three distinct voices The fingerings have been chosen to enable note durations to be sustained for ir full values Take special care to place fingertips vertically to avoid damping adacent, sounding strings The chord change from measure to measure of second song has a stretch that risks buzzing top note I hedge risk a bit by sitching finger onto second string E on last eighth note of measure This fingering secures shift quite ell Although it does stop E premature it is not noticeable because E is fifth of chord and because it is strongly present in overtone series of bass note A Please send any comments or suggestions to: Richard Yates richard@yatesguitarcom yatesguitarcom
Poème d Amour Transcribed for guitar by Richard Yates 8 6 Mouvt modéré avec un sentiment intime et simple p # Je I me have suis plaint complained Jules Massenet (8 9) aux to tour tur te tle rel doves les, and 5 Les tour tur # te rel les ont gé mi, Et la ca tle doves all moaned to me And ca res res se ses V de of leurs ir ai ings les have 9 # m a con so lé comme un a mi J ai con té ma dou con soled me ell ust like a friend I have told my des leur pair au to chê oak ne, trees Œ # # Le chêne, The oak au trees cur on dur, hard fut hearts tou ere ché Les cy près ont touched The cy pres ses com have pris ma pei knon my sor ne, ro, 7 # J # J # Et And vers toards moi me leur y # cresc poco rall # front s est boed # pen ir a tempo # p n # ché Le zé phyr, eff leu rant mon â me, crons The soft bree zes did brush my soul,
8 9 Bien Ve tris ry te ment sad ly a y J I mur mu ré: Mais qui m a gué ri? his pered this: But ho has cured me? 0 C est Tas la fem o V 0 un peu retenu me! Quand e pleu rais, man! Whene er I ept, 0 6 # elle She dim # 0# a al pleu so ré! ept U # # 6 =D # c Calme, recuelli, mais sans lenteur g p La The nuit, night, sans no doute, doubt, é tait bel as much love # U c İI g le ciel sky bleu, blue, J eus I m tort rong d ad to mir ad er mire a vec el next to her 6 # # c Œ # # F # # # Œ # L oeu vre de Dieu C é tait dans les nids de ver du ork of God There ere in nests filled ith green re ery
9 # Ó # # # # # Trop Too de ma c # g n n chansons! L é toi le bril ny songs! The star shone n f lait bright # n n # and pu pure re, # en animant peu à peu Sur on les ga zons! Oui, c est ta fau te, soft lans! Yes, it is your fault, # cresc Ô O nuit still IV # se rei ne, se rene night, # IV Si Her VI # IV # ## # f son love beau ly cou, neck, Son her front pale pa vi n n ses yeux sage, her ro n de yal 7 # n decresc reine eyes 5 M ont ren ren der du me VI # # # fou mad Ó # n rall π La The nuit, nuit, sans no doute, doubt, 0 # n n é is tait bel much love le ciel sky bleu, blue, La The nuit, sans doute, night, no doubt, é is tait much n # g f bel love IV # n le 0 0 retenez ciel sky c bleu! blue! decresc g Œ p g