A la Claire Fontaine

A la claire fontaine is a famous French love-song composed for voice (solo or choral) and one or two flutes with piano, harp or guitar.

It can be sung by boys or girls (nowadays, who cares…) and tells of a youngster seeing a fountain or a pool (like the picture by Turner you can see in the Tate Gallery) and bathing in it.

She’s sad because the person she’s in love with offered her a bouquet of roses and she refused them (she doesn’t explain why but now it’s tear-time…) It’s all rather allegorical but you don’t need to understand everything because it’s not meant to be completely clear anyway.

Just about unrequited love. Enjoy it.

Listen to the mp3 recording and you’ll get a fair idea of how to perform it. The piece is written for young musicians and can accompany a solfège class or a choral group.

Score

If you perform it, do let me know …

And if you’d like to contribute to the work, that would be really nice. (et si vous voulez participer un peu à l’ouvrage, ce serait très sympathique ) !

My way to say …
Comment / suggestion