Ma Poupée Chérie (1914) M.J.A.D. de Severac
About the arrangement of this tender lullaby (included in the collection Les 100 de Roland Dyens) , the Master himself wrote :
“What else can be said about such Melody…” that my Mother (Nina) sang to me as a child to make me Sleep… other than it Is Infinitely moving and more over when dressed with its Lyrics” ….
I had the privilege and the honor to meet and know Mrs Nina Dyens in Naples. She accompanied her beloved “Roland” , who came to Naples for the recital I organized for him in July 2006.
This music summons so many nice memories of those year….
Here you find my modest tribute to Mother and Son.
Marie-Joseph Alexandre Déodat de Séverac ; 20 July 1872 - 24 March 1921) was a French composer.
Séverac was born in Saint-Félix-de-Caraman, Haute-Garonne. He descended from a noble family, profoundly influenced by the musical traditions of his native Languedoc.
He first studied in Toulouse, then later moved to Paris to study under Vincent d'Indy and Albéric Magnard at the Schola Cantorum, an alternative to the training offered by the Conservatoire de Paris. There he took organ lessons from Alexandre Guilmant and worked as an assistant to Isaac Albéniz. He returned to the southern part of France, where he spent much of the rest of his rather short life. His native south was a region that attracted a number of his contemporaries-artists and poets he had met in Paris. His opera Héliogabale was produced at Béziers in 1910.
Séverac is noted for his vocal and choral music, which includes settings of verse in Occitan (the historic language of Languedoc) and Catalan (the historic language of Roussillon) as well as French poems by Verlaine and Baudelaire. His compositions for solo piano have also won critical acclaim, and many of them were titled as pictorial evocations and published in the collections Chant de la terre, En Languedoc, and En vacances.
Ma poupée chérie
Ma poupée chérie ne veut pas dormir!
Petit ange mien, tu me fais souffrir!
Ferme tes doux yeux, tes yeux de saphir,
Dors poupée, dors, dors! ou je vais mourir!
Il faudrait, je crois, pour te rendre sage,
Un manteau de soie, de riches corsages!
Tu voudrais des roses à ton clair béguin
Des bijoux d'or fin et mille autres choses!
Ma poupée chérie ne veut pas dormir!
Petit ange mien, tu me fais souffrir!
Ferme tes doux yeux, tes yeux de saphir,
Dors poupée, dors, dors! ou je vais mourir!
Quand parrain viendra, sur son âne gris,
Il t'apportera de son grand Paris,
Un petit mari qui dira: "papa"
Et qui dormira quand on le voudra.
Ma poupée chérie vient de s'endormir!
Bercez-la bien doux, ruisseaux et zéphirs!
Et vous chérubins, gardez-la moi bien!
Sa maman jolie, l'aime à la folie!
Déodat de Séverac
My dear doll
My dear doll does not want to sleep!
My little angel, you make me suffer!
Close your sweet eyes, your sapphire eyes,
sleep doll, sleep, sleep, or I shall die!
To make you behave it would take, I believe,
a coat of silk, and fine corsets!
You would like roses upon your bright bonnet
jewels of fine gold and a thousand other things!
My dear doll does not want to sleep!
My little angel, you make me suffer!
close your sweet eyes, your sapphire eyes,
sleep doll, sleep, sleep, or I shall die!
When godfather comes upon his grey donkey
from his great Paris he will bring you
a little husband who will say: "Daddy"
and who will sleep when he should.
My dear doll has just gone to sleep!
Rock her very gently, streams and breezes!
And you cherubin, look after her well for me!
Her pretty mother loves her wildly!