Ex. 14-10: Green

No. 5 from Debussy's Ariettes oubliées (Forgotten Songs, L. 60), a cycle of six songs composed in 1886–87, setting poems by Paul Verlaine. The cycle was dedicated to the soprano Mary Garden. Another song from this same cycle is also in this app. (Ex. 9-7: C'est l'Extase Langoureuse by Claude Debussy)

The poem is a love song. An eager young lover arrives out of breath, still wet with the morning dew. He brings fruits, flowers, leaves, and green branches — and offers his heart, which beats only for her. He asks to rest his head on his beloved's breast.

Even though the poem is in French, its title is the English word "Green." Verlaine wrote this group of poems while living in England, and gave them English titles — "Green," "Spleen," and others. Debussy also set the next poem in the group, "Spleen," as No. 6 of his cycle.

In 1904 Debussy himself played the piano for Mary Garden — the singer the cycle is dedicated to — as she recorded "Green." These are the only sound recordings Debussy ever made.

The same poem was also set by Fauré as No. 3 of his Cinq mélodies "de Venise" (Op. 58). (Ex. 12-8: Green by Gabriel Fauré)

From the album Chanson d'Amour by Sabine Devieilhe and Alexandre Tharaud (2020)
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