Epithalame from Le Cantique des Cantiques
About this Piece
Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur, French composer and teacher, was born in Paris in 1908. His mother was a composer and a student of Tournemire, with whom Daniel-Lesur had early organ and composition lessons. He did further study at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1936 Daniel-Lesur was, with Messiaen, Jolivet, and Baudrier, a founding member of the group La Jeune France, dedicated to a "return to the human" and opposed to the neo-classicism then prevailing in Paris. Epithalame comes from a collection that sets to music the Song of Songs. Daniel-Lesur uses the tune of the Veni sponsa Christi chant and layers its text with the following famous passage.
| Pose-moi comme un sceau sur ton coeur | Put me like a seal on your heart | |
| Comme un sceau sur ton bras | Like a seal on your arm | |
| Car l'amour est fort comme la mort | For love is as strong as death | |
| La jalousie est dure comme l'enfer | Jealousy is as cruel as the grave | |
| L'amour ses traits sont de feu | Its flashes are flashes of fire | |
| une flamme de Yahvé! | The very flame of the Lord! | |
| Les grandes eaux n'ont pu éteindre l'amour | Many waters cannot quench love | |
| Les fleuves ne le submergeront pas! | Neither can floods drown it! | |
| Alleluia. | Alleluia. |
04/07