Ex. 11-9: Sérénade Printanière

This is the first of Augusta Holmès's five serenades: one for each season, and a last one "for always." Holmès wrote the words herself. This spring song came out first, on its own, in Paris in 1883, when she was 35. The other four followed in 1884, and the five were then sold together as Les Sérénades. The winter one is Sérénade d'hiver.

In the poem, a lover sings that they will love the other person yesterday, today and tomorrow. Dark winter has gone, April is laughing in the gardens, and their two hearts are joined for ever.

Of the five, this song seems to have been the most popular. It was the only one printed in two keys from the start, for high and low voices. By about 1900 it was also sold for piano alone, and for mandolin and piano. A popular music magazine printed it again in 1914, thirty years later, and singers in Paris had recorded it by about 1906.

From the album Fleurs jetées (1996), sung by Rebecca de Pont Davies with Clare Toomer, piano
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