Le Rossignol éperdu
I. PREMIÈRE SUITE : 1. Frontispice – 2. Andromède résignée – 3. Douloureuse rêverie dans un bois de sapins – 4. Le bouquet de pensées – 5. Soleil d’automne – 6. Gretchen – 7. Les deux écharpes – 8. Liebe ! Liebe ! – 9. Eros caché dans les bois – 10. La fausse indifférence – 11. Chanson de midi – 12. Antiochus – 13. Nevermore – 14. Portrait – 15. L’enfant au perroquet – 16. Les rêveries du prince Églantine – 17. Ivresse – 18. L’arôme suprême – 19. Berceuse féroce – 20. Passante – 21. La danse de l’amour et de l’ennui – 22. Ouranos – 23. Les héliotropes du Clos-André – 24. Effet de nuit sur la Seine – 25. Per i piccoli canali – 26. Mirage – 27. La danse de l’amour et du danger – 28. Matinée parisienne – 29. Chérubin tragique – 30. Les chênes enlacés.
II. ORIENT : 31. En caïque – 32. Narghilé – 33. Les chiens de Galata – 34. Rêverie nocturne sur le Bosphore – 35. La rose de Blida – 36. L’oasis.
III. CARNET DE VOYAGE : 37. L’ange verrier – 38. Le jardin de Pétrarque – 39. La Nativité – 40. Faunesse dansante – 41. Les noces du duc de Joyeuse – 42. Le petit mail – 43. Les pages d’Elisabeth – 44. La jeunesse et l’été ornent de fleurs le tombeau de Pergolèse – 45. Vieux bahuts.
IV. VERSAILLES : 46. Hommage à Martius – 47. La reine au jardin – 48. Le réveil de Flore – 49. Le banc songeur – 50. La fête de Terpsichore – 51. Adieux au soir tombant – 52. Hivernale – 53. Le pèlerinage inutile.
Published in 1912, Le Rossignol éperdu comprises fifty-three pieces composed between 1899 and 1911. Often very short, they are collected into four suites of varying lengths. The titles provide some clues to their source of inspiration: walks and journeys, scenes in the town or country, mythological or historical references… However, Hahn also gave epigraphs to a substantial number of these pieces, taken mainly from French writers (Baïf, Molière, Voltaire, Desbordes-Valmore, Baudelaire, Musset, Verlaine, Flaubert, Hugo, Moréas, etc.) although a few are from foreign writers (Pliny, Schiller, Goethe). In some cases, there is an obvious relationship between the quotations and the subject of the piece. In others, the epigraph seems to pose a riddle that has to be solved, requiring a sound cultural education on the part of the pianist and the audience. In fact, Proust wrote to the composer, in August 1912: “I could not play your little Rossignol because I had gone to bed but I read the titles, epigraphs, instructions (I’m not sure whether the pianists won’t ask you for some explanations when they’re asked to play ‘in a Western manner’).” These annotations may have been intended to conceal the composer’s true feelings. Almost all the pieces are actually moderate or slow in tempo, and pervaded by a melancholy atmosphere. The epigraph to the Frontispice sets the mood: “Penche un peu ton oreille à cet oiseau qui pleure : c’est moi ! (Lend your ear a while to this bird which is weeping: it is me!)” (Desbordes-Valmore). An impression confirmed by Hahn’s confession to Federico de Madrazo: “This collection was almost entirely written with suppressed tears.”
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