Le Ruban dénoué

Published by Heugel in 1917, Le Ruban dénoué is a suite of twelve waltzes. In the preface to the collection, Hahn described the composition of this album as a way of relaxing and staving off boredom: “This set of waltzes has occupied some of my dreary hours of leisure these past few months,” he wrote. “I am not crediting them with greater musical value than they have. But I have tried to set down in them some of the times that have mattered most in my life.” Reflecting these words, and its title, the first piece is characterised by a sort of indolence, which is mainly achieved by overlaying binary and ternary metres. After the cheerful refrains of “Soirs d’Albi”, composed with a fast, strongly accented rhythm, and enhanced by sudden modulations, the third piece returns to the languor of the first waltz, which segues into the haunting melancholy of the “Danse de l’amour et du chagrin”. The fifth number of the collection is the most highly developed. With its improvised character, it features consistently ornate harmonies which break with the simplicity of the previous numbers. A real musical kaleidoscope, this waltz seems to contain all the feelings expressed by Hahn in this volume with its autobiographical inflections: torpor, grief, serenity, joy. After the Faurean colours of “L’Anneau perdu” and the lively rhythms of “La Cage ouverte”, the ninth piece in the collection represents the composer’s suffering, as can be seen by his note in the preface stating that he had lived through “a painful period” between nos. 8 and 9. The collection concludes with a romantic trilogy: echoes of the passion in “Baisers” are found in the first theme of “Il Sorriso” which was to serve as an accompaniment to the duet of the lovers Lorenzo and Jessica in Act I of Le Marchand de Venise. The composer regarded the last waltz as the most “sincere” in this highly personal suite: “this motif arose within me and took me over, as it were”, he explained in the preface.