Ex. 14-11: La Fiancée du soldat

"La Fiancée du soldat" (The Soldier's Fiancée) is a song Chaminade composed in 1887, to a poem by Charles Grandmougin. It is No. 6 of her first book of songs (Mélodies, Premier recueil), published in Paris by Enoch. In the poem, the man a young woman is going to marry has gone away to serve as a soldier. Around her, nature is happy — blackbirds chatter by the clear water, and the sun laughs in the sky — but she sings her sorrow to the woods and fields.

Grandmougin was a poet and playwright whose words many French composers set to music. He wrote the text of Chaminade's large dramatic symphony Les Amazones (1888), and the poems of Fauré's song cycle Poème d'un jour. He also wrote librettos for Massenet and César Franck.

Chaminade's father did not think a girl from a well-off family should become a professional musician, and would not let her study at the Paris Conservatoire. She studied privately instead, and made her debut as a pianist in 1877.

Chaminade's music became very popular in the United States. In 1893 this song was published in New York by Schirmer as "The Soldier's Betrothed," in an English translation by Theodore Baker. American fans formed "Chaminade Clubs" to play and study her music, and some lasted for decades.

From the album Chaminade: Saisons d'amour by Katharina Kammerloher and Johann Blanchard (2023)
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