Berceuse sur une gamme fantaisiste for Medium Voice and Piano (Loiseleur/Vogel)

This song was commissioned by the French baritone L'Oiseleur des Longhchamps who gave the world premiere in May 2009.

The text of this craddle song, published in 1945, immediately after World war II, adopts a joyful and childish tone around the musical scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C in English, Do, ré, mi, fa, sol, la si, do in French). So it was natural for the composer, in the musical adaptation, to use a different scale for each strophe: major, minor, "oriental" with augmented second interval, Debussy's full-tone scale, Bartok's acoustic mode, Messiaen's mode II. The large ambitus requires some virtuosity from the singer (from the low G to the high A in falsetto).

One can of course spot allusions to the terrible consequences of World War II and the hope for a better world in this apparently innocent poem (Children without toys, girls without expectations, why would you cry in the curtains ? Tomorrow is gift's day.).

Do, ré, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do,

Enfants sans jeux, filles sans dot,

Pourquoi pleurer dans vos rideaux ?

C’est demain le jour des cadeaux,

Do, ré, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do.

• Berceuse for Soprano and Piano