Ex. 10-8: Les berceaux

Composed in 1879 to a poem by Sully Prudhomme from Stances et Poèmes (1865), originally titled Le long du quai les grands vaisseaux. The poem is built on a wordplay between "vaisseaux" (ships) and "berceaux" (cradles) — both the same shape, but at opposite ends of human experience.

By the harbour, great ships rock gently, taking no notice of the cradles that mothers rock nearby. But the day of departure comes: the women are left in tears, while the men chase distant horizons that will only disappoint them. And as the ships move away from the port, it is as if those faraway cradles were holding them back — the pull of the families left behind.

Fauré wrote a blend of lullaby and barcarolle in B-flat minor, one of his favorite keys.

Fauré dedicated the song to Alice Boissonnet, a woman he was in love with at the time. It was also the last of Sully Prudhomme's poems that Fauré ever set to music. Another of his Sully Prudhomme songs, "Au bord de l'eau," is also in this app. (Ex. 9-11: Au bord de l'eau by Gabriel Fauré) The melody is a favorite for instruments too, often arranged for cello or violin.

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