“Historical Anthology Of Music By Women” in “Historical Anthology of Music by Women”
Pauline Viardot-Garcia was a member of the legendary Garcia clan, which was inextricably intertwined with opera and vocal pedagogy during the nineteenth century. Her father, Manuel Garcia (1775-1832), was as famous for his family-opera-company tour of the United States and Mexico (1825-28) as for his creation of Rossini roles and the training of some of the century’s most accomplished singers, among them his own children. Her mother, Joaquina Sitchez, was an accomplished actress- singer, who took over the pedagogical role at her husband’s death to such an extent that Pauline claimed her mother as her only voice teacher. Pauline’s brother Manuel (1805-1906), the celebrated “centenarian of song,” devoted himself to pedagogy and research into vocal physiology, while Pauline and her sister Maria Malibran (1808- 1836) held undisputed positions in the operatic world.
A child prodigy of diverse gifts, Pauline early and effortlessly acquired five languages, accompanied her father on the piano at age eight (she later studied with Liszt), became an accomplished portraitist, and studied composition with the reigning contrapuntist of the age, Anton Reicha. In 1839, three years after the untimely death of her sister Maria, Pauline began an operatic career that nearly matched Maria’s in the Italian repertoire and surpassed all rivals in the French, performing works by Thomas, Meyerbeer, Halévy, and Gluck. She retired from the operatic stage in 1862 but gave recitals for another decade and taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1871 to 1875.
Pauline Garcia’s wide-ranging intellect made her a companion to artists, writers, and intellectuals and accords well with her marriage to the writer and critic Louis Viardot (1800-1883). The Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev fell under her influence in 1843; and she was instrumental in launching the careers of Gounod, Saint-Saens, Faure, and Massenet as well as of the writers Flaubert, Hugo, Sand, and Zola and the artists Dore, Ingres, and Millet. Acclaimed for her abilities as an actress, Garcia- Viardot would often treat her Thursday gatherings to monologues from Shakespeare before launching into a melange of chansons, lieder, arias, and comic songs from current operettas, often followed by group participation in improvised farces. Testimony abounds of her ability to manipulate her admittedly limited vocal instrument and her large features to best advantage. Of her compositions, three operettas (at least one on a Turgenev libretto), many piano pieces, and around 100 songs survive in manuscript or published form.
Garcia-Viardot made repeated visits to Russia and added that country’s vocal music, in Russian, to her repertoire. “Die Beschworung” (Supplication) was published in 1865 in a set entitled Zwölf Gedichte von Pushkin. Both the poem and its musical setting proclaim that this is not the genteel “parlor music” usually associated with “cultivated” women composers of the nineteenth century. Pushkin’s text does not deal with the timid flutterings of awakening love but with the railings of an adult against a cruel thief, Death. Similarly, neither the singer nor the pianist can be classified as genteel: The singer is not given a pretty melody to cradle, but must master rapid dramatic declamation involving extremes of pitch, tempo, and mood; while the pianist must command a technique associated with Chopin and Liszt, both of whom admired Viardot-Garcia’s compositions.
Although the musical setting follows the general outlines of Pushkin’s three-verse form, it allows the emotional stance of each verse to dictate the musical drama. The third verse echoes the first in key, mode, and melody, while the second makes use of contrasting material. The second verse thus presents an image of loving recollection as opposed to the firm resolve of the first and third. Especially effective are the composer’s avoidance of formulaic repetition for the last-line refrain and her dramatic mastery of gradually accumulating chromatic inflections in the accompaniment.
O, if it is true that when night
lulls all life to sleep,
and when only moonlight’s pallid gleam
weaves among the tombstones;
O, if it is truly then
that graves yield up their dead,
It is then that I wait to embrace you
Hear me Leila! Come to me! Come home!
Emerge from your realm of shadows,
just as you were before our parting,
cold as a winter day,
your face distorted with pain.
O come back, as a distant star,
as a breath, as a delicate sound,
or in some more terrifying beauty,
it makes no difference: Come to me! Come home!
I cry to Leila not
to plumb the secrets of the grave,
nor to rebuke those
who killed my love,
nor even because of the bitter despair
which tortures me.
No, only to tell her that my
stricken heart is still true;
is still breathing . . . Come to me! Come home!
Recording
Lieder, Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, Josephine Lang, Pauline Viardot-Garcia. “Die Beschwörung.” John Ostendorf, baritone, and Rudolph Palmer, piano. Leonarda LP1-107.
Further Reading
Fitzlyon, April. The Price of Genius: A Biography of Pauline Viardot. London, 1964.
Viardot, Pierrette Jean. “Les Jeudis de Pauline Viardot,” Revue Internationale de Musique Frangaise 3, #8 (June 1982):87-104.
Reprinted from the edition of 1865, by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig
We use cookies to analyze our traffic. Please decide if you are willing to accept cookies from our website. You can change this setting anytime in Privacy Settings.