Chansons bretonnes for cello and piano op. 115
1. La prophétie de Gwene’hlan – 2. Le seigneur Nann et la fée – 3. Azénor la pâle – 4. Les trois moines rouges – 5. Le baron Jaouioz – 6. Notre-Dame du Folgoat – 7. Iannik Skolan – 8. Les Laboureurs – 9. Le Vin des Gaulois – 10. Saint Eflam et le roi Arthur – 11. Alain-le-Renard – 12. La ceinture de noces – 13. La chanson du pilote – 14. Merlin au berceau – 15. La conversion de Merlin – 16. Le faucon – 17. Le rossignol modulant – 18. L’enfant supposé – 19. L’épousé du croisé – 20. Le page de Louis XIII
The music history class taught by Bourgault-Ducoudray aroused Koechlin’s interest in modality and folksong. In 1915, he gave a lecture on his former professor’s course at the Paris Conservatoire, followed by a concert which included several Breton songs harmonised by Bourgault-Ducoudray. Although Koechlin had already written some folk-style themes for his instrumental works, he had not yet embarked on a large-scale arrangement project. He took the plunge in 1931, when he chose twenty pieces from the Barzaz-Breiz: this collection of folk songs and legends from Brittany compiled by Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué had created quite an impact when it was first published in 1839, as can be seen by its successive reprintings (the texts were published with their melody, supplemented with historical and ethnographic commentaries, which was still quite rare at that time). Koechlin gave the melody to the cello and composed a piano accompaniment. In 1934, he selected twelve pieces, which he published in two collections of six songs. In the same year, he orchestrated all twenty titles. He kept the original melodic line and composed its setting so as to preserve the spirit of the folk song. Modal colouring, simple writing (Azénor la pâle, Le faucon), parallel fifths (Les trois moines rouges, L’épousée du croisé), three-note parallel chords (Saint Eflam et le roi Arthur) but also chromatic shading of the modal scale (Le vin des Gaulois): the form always serves the content. A third collection remained unpublished for many years.