Pianophilia

Jean-Séb wrote:La Vague (the wave) was the most famous collection of waltzes by Olivier metra.

Once I read somewhere, that 'les roses' was Metra's biggest smash hit, but anyway ... here comes the last bunch of his works.

FW190 wrote:

Jean-Séb wrote:La Vague (the wave) was the most famous collection of waltzes by Olivier metra.

Once I read somewhere, that 'les roses' was Metra's biggest smash hit,

Yes, Les Roses was the waltz which made him famous. And it was actually a smash hit. But I believe that La Vague had a longer success ; it was also turned into a song (recorded here in 1909), simplified arrangements for piano were printed, and it is the Metra score I find the most frequently in second-hand music, proving how much it was popular once.
For a recent recording of Les Roses, see here.

G. Sindeng's Rustle of autumn ("Herbstrauschen").
My first thought was: Oh, a Sinding parody, but it seems rather to be the attempt to make some money by the reference to a famous name.
Funny typo on the title page Herbstrauchen (~ Autumn smoking) instead of Herbstrauschen.

Wow, great case of plagiarism ! Thank you.

I have been surprised at how many French salon pieces of the mid-late 19th century seem to have been published with fairly innocuous titles followed by exclamation marks on the cover pages. For example: 'Dolor!' (Kowalski), 'L'enfant perdu!' (Ravina) and 'Rêves du Soir!' (O'Kelly) are two that I have come across recently. I am not a native French speaker so have no idea if this is a linguistic point, or merely a marketing ploy!

Interesting !

My opinion only, but I think it is intended to emphasise the sentiment of the title and the extreme of that sentiment - a bit like underlining it or putting it in caps or bold.

So it wouldn't just be Sadness / Anguish (Dolor) - but really really abject and totally bottomless sadness / anguish. L'enfant perdu ! would suggest that the child wasn't merely lost but really really permanently, hopelessly and irretrievably lost.

I doubt, however that it was a linguistic feature in the sense that it had a universal use (the French had many government watchdogs to prescribe the preservation and proper use of their language), it was more likely an individual publisher's fad or quirk.

As I say, just my opinion, but I would be interested to hear if there is a more properly researched answer.

Bon Noel !!

tobyjj

FW190 wrote:G. Sindeng's Rustle of autumn ("Herbstrauschen").
My first thought was: Oh, a Sinding parody, but it seems rather to be the attempt to make some money by the reference to a famous name.
Funny typo on the title page Herbstrauchen (~ Autumn smoking) instead of Herbstrauschen.

Sindeng.-.Rustle-of-Autumn-(pno-CMP-Edition-1929).pdf

Finally I find the piece closer to another famous standard Murmuring Zephyrs by Jensen, originally for voice a piano and transcribed for piano alone.

tobyjj wrote:My opinion only, but I think it is intended to emphasise the sentiment of the title and the extreme of that sentiment - a bit like underlining it or putting it in caps or bold.

So it wouldn't just be Sadness / Anguish (Dolor) - but really really abject and totally bottomless sadness / anguish. L'enfant perdu ! would suggest that the child wasn't merely lost but really really permanently, hopelessly and irretrievably lost.

You are absolutely correct : actually this last piece is a "poésie funèbre" dedicated to the memory of Ravina's son.
I did not notice before Phillip's remark the abundance of exclamation marks in French titles. Is it really more than in any other language at the same period and for the same style of music?

Jean-Séb wrote:

tobyjj wrote:My opinion only, but I think it is intended to emphasise the sentiment of the title and the extreme of that sentiment - a bit like underlining it or putting it in caps or bold.

So it wouldn't just be Sadness / Anguish (Dolor) - but really really abject and totally bottomless sadness / anguish. L'enfant perdu ! would suggest that the child wasn't merely lost but really really permanently, hopelessly and irretrievably lost.

You are absolutely correct : actually this last piece is a "poésie funèbre" dedicated to the memory of Ravina's son.
I did not notice before Phillip's remark the abundance of exclamation marks in French titles. Is it really more than in any other language at the same period and for the same style of music?

Definitely more than in English salon music - where I can't think of any examples. Balfe's ballad 'Excelsior' - which is an exclamation uttered by the narrator in the lyric, and outside music, Stevenson's novel 'Kidnapped' were published without exclamation marks in the titles. I'm sure that if these had been French works they might have had them. I was really surprised that Ravina would have had the exclamation mark on the title of an elegy to his own son - maybe it shows a huge cultural gulf between our times and his.

Aplogies if this was in fact part of the many Engelmann uploads a while back, this shares the name with the popular and lovley Melody of Love Op 600 but is designated as a paraphrase.

Also, I am having massive trouble accessing PP via a normal connection, the domain seems to be blocked or unable to load on my end (I hope a temporary situation and not an all out 'block' like other media sites have been recently from my geography).

I had to use "hidemyass.com" which routes me through a secondary hidden proxy and seems to fool any blocks/filters into thinking I am attempting to access the address from a different location.

As such, I am unable to upload a file/attach as a result of the workaround.

If someone would be so kind as to download it from

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?lc3wgld4p0ya4o1

and if they can go a step further and apply the black and white and clean up too that would be super wonderful and help me out a bunch!