Francis Poulenc was a member of the collection of French composers known as ?Les Six,? a group whose music is seen as a rejection of the overly emotional Romantic period. Poulenc?s music is for the most part tonal and diatonic, but maintains the bright colors and strong rhythms of many of his predecessors like Satie and Stravinsky.
"Banalites" is a song cycle of 5 pieces written in 1940, at the height of the second World War. The cycle is set to texts by Guillaume Apollinaire, as was his first set of songs ?Le Bestiaire,? also found on Virtually Vocal. A long time fan of the poet, Poulenc had been waiting until the time was right to set Sanglots" and "Fagnes de Wallonie? and after rereading "Hôtel" and "Voyage à Paris" in old literary journals he decided the time was right.
Despite the fact that the title Banalites is translated to ?platitudes? or ?trifle things? in English, some of the poems are in fact deeply moving and heavy like ?Sanglots,? while others are indeed light-hearted and trivial like ?Voyages a Paris? and ?Hotel.?
Tant de tristesses plénières
So much sadness overwhelming
Prirent mon coeur aux fagnes désolées
Took over my heart on the moors desolate
Quand las j'ai reposé dans les sapinières
When weary I rested among the fir trees
Le poids des kilomètres pendant que râlait
The weight of the kilometers while there moaned
le vent d'ouest.
The wind of the west.
J'avais quitté le joli bois
I had left the pretty woods
Les écureuils y sont restés
The squirrels they have there remained
Ma pipe essayait de faire des nuages
My pipe tried to make clouds
Au ciel
In the sky
Qui restait pur obstinément.
Which remained clear obstinately.
Je n'ai confié aucun secret sinon une chanson énigmatique
I did not confide any secrete except a song enigmatic
Aux tourbières humides
To the peat-bogs damp
Les bruyères fleurant le miel
The heather fragrant with honey
Attiraient les abeilles
Attracted the bees
Et mes pieds endoloris
And my feet in pain
Foulaient les myrtilles et les airelles
Trod the blueberries and the cranberries
Tendrement mariée
Tenderly wed
Nord
North
La vie s'y tord
There life itself twists
En arbres forts
In trees strong
Et tors.
And gnarled
La vie y mord
Their life bites
La mort
The death
À belles dents
With beautiful teeth
Quand bruit le vent
When howls the wind