Chanson perpétuelle, Op.37

Chausson’s last song, written in Paris in December 1898 between the first and second movements of his unfinished String Quartet in C minor, is the ultimate in more than just the chronological sense. It is more than just a song too: it is an intimate scena tingling with historical associations from the baroque cantata to Wagnerian music drama and yet entirely of its time and place in its tender melodiousness and discreet modal harmonies. Looking at it from the Wagnerian point of view, it is constructed on a pattern of leitmotifs carried in the instrumental accompaniment - piano, piano quintet or orchestra, depending on which of Chausson’s three versions is used - but rarely affecting the vocal line, the shape of which is determined by the natural rhythms and pitch inflections of the words. At the same time Chausson’s use of his instrumental themes, particularly the regretful melody that opens the work and recurs like a refrain before its fragmented last appearance in the final bars, is essentially song-like.

Why Chausson turned at a particularly happy time in his life to this sad text by Charles Cros (from his 1879 collection Le Coffret de Santal) not even he could say: “I don’t understand. It’s about violent despair in love. I’m not in that state of mind at all. So what price sincerity? Is it just pretence?… Not at all… I feel the pain I would have if I were in that situation and the happier I am I feel it all the more.”