Summertime. A time for vacations, even if merely of the imaginary variety.
In music, there are two types of musical vacations: actual travel music, inspired by a trip taken to a specific locale (as per Sunday night’s edition of “The Lost Chord” – “Channel Hopping” – which will be rebroadcast Wednesday evening at 6 ET at wwfm.org); and the flight of fancy, or a vacation of the creative mind. The latter often manifests itself in a collection of miniatures given descriptive names, in the manner, perhaps, of some of the great keyboard works of Robert Schumann.
The French composer Déodot de Séverac studied in Paris with Vincent d’Indy and Albéric Magnard. He also acted as an assistant to Isaac Albeniz, whose own character pieces certainly influenced some of his evocative regional painting for the keyboard. In writing vocal music, he set texts not only in French, but also his native Provençal (the historic language of Languedoc) and Catalan (the historic language of Rousillon).
Séverac composed two sets of piano pieces under the title “En vacances” (“On Vacation,” or “Holiday Time”). The second was left incomplete at the time of his death at the age of 48.
These musical snapshots are clearly skewed toward the experiences of his children, Mimi and Toto, with movements named “Invocation to Schumann,” “Grandmother’s caresses,” “Visit from the little girls next door,” “Toto pretends to be a verger,” “Mimi dresses up as a Marquise,” “In the park,” “On listening to a musical box,” and “Romantic Waltz.”
Enjoy the first set here, performed by the late Aldo Ciccolini (complete with atmospheric LP crackle):
I-IV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyO2JnnG9E8
V-VIII: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugi_6-uJ4EE
Happy birthday, Déodot de Séverac (1872-1921)!
