Canteloube: Chants d'Auvergne

Featuring

Carolyn Sampson
Pascal Rophé
Tapiola Sinfonietta
Joseph Canteloube

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Canteloube's 'regionalism' and interest in the musical roots of French popular songs developed during his studies with Vincent d'Indy, a musician who co-founded the Schola Cantorum.

Composer Biography

Joseph Canteloube, the composer, was born in Ardèche, a French département in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, and remained proud of his origins throughout his life.

Compositional Technique

The Chants d'Auvergne are primarily in the Auvergne dialect, which derives from the ancient Occitan language, as Canteloube believed translating them into French would risk losing their deeper meaning.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Canteloube justified his aesthetic choice for instrumentation by stating that a peasant's song, even without accompaniment, is surrounded by the 'accompaniment' of nature and earth, which only art can evoke.

Compositional Technique

Unlike Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, Canteloube's approach to collecting popular songs was not strictly ethnological; he used them as a starting point for compositions that blended arrangement and original material.

Performer Biography

Carolyn Sampson, the soprano on this recording, has achieved worldwide success in repertoire ranging from early baroque to contemporary works, performing with major opera companies and orchestras.

Compositional Technique

Canteloube's rich orchestration for the Chants d'Auvergne, influenced by Debussy and d'Indy, idealizes the original melodies by adding introductions, instrumental interludes, and postludes, with a significant role for woodwinds to evoke regional instruments.