JAVS Fall 2024

Another moment worth investigating is when the word “langoureux” (languorous) appears in the text; simultaneously, the word “suivez” (follow) is written in the piano line (m. 28), followed by “a tempo” two measures later. Therefore, my interpretation of the “suivez” is that the singer should sing a relax into the beat to match the languorous feeling in the text, while the piano follows the singer’s lead.

Moving through the work, the second line of the second stanza in the poem begins with the word “violin.” In the music, the phrase starts in m. 51 which is the moment where the viola switches to the upper register and into treble clef. This is also the phrase that has the highest notes for the violist; here, Loeffler is using the higher register of the viola to imitate the sound of a violin, mirroring the imagery of the poem and having the viola do something extraordinary (See Figure 4).

Figure 4. “Harmonie du Soir,” mm. 51-55. This example makes use of the following edition: Charles Martin Loeffler: Selected Songs with Chamber Accompaniment, edited by Ellen Knight. Recent Researches in American Music, vol. 16. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, Inc., 1988. Used with permission. www.areditions.com.

the very last line, but in “Harmony of the Evening , ” Baudelaire modifies this form in the last stanza. 9

It is impossible to analyze these poems without noting how the verse structure adds another layer of beauty. Baudelaire adapted the pantoum , a well-organized repeating pattern, for “Harmonie du Soir.” 8 A pantoum is a verse form that originated in Malaysia, before being introduced into French and English poems in the nineteenth-century. The form contains a series of four line stanzas, the second and the fourth lines in the stanzas become the first and the third lines of the following stanzas. Usually, the very first line of the poem becomes

To capture the beauty of the structure in the poem, Loeffler writes instrumental “interludes” for the piano and the viola between each stanza, allowing the listener to transcend their surroundings and float above the melodious lines. The interlude shown in Figure 6 occurs in mm. 31-39, with the two additional interludes occurring mm. 72-82, and mm. 113-128.

Figure 5. “Harmonie du Soir,” mm. 31-41. This example makes use of the following edition: Charles Martin Loeffler: Selected Songs with Chamber Accompaniment, edited by Ellen Knight. Recent Researches in American Music, vol. 16. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, Inc., 1988. Used with permission. www.areditions.com.

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 40, No. 2, Fall 2024