Si mes vers avaient des ailes

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Si mes vers avaient des ailes
If my verses had wings
Mes vers fuiraient, doux et frêles,
My verses would flee sweet and fragile
My verses would rush, soft and delicate,
towards your lovely garden,
if only my verses had wings,
wings like the bird.
Vers votre jardin si beau,
towards your garden so beautiful
Si mes vers avaient des ailes,
If my verses had wings
Des ailes comme l'oiseau.
wings
like the bird
Ils voleraient, étincelles,
They would fly sparks
Vers votre foyer qui rit,
towards your hearth which laughs
Si mes vers avaient des ailes,
if my verses had
wings
Des ailes comme l'esprit.
wings
like the spirit
Près de vous, purs et fidèles,
Close of you pure and faithful
Ils accourraient, nuit et jour,
they would hasten night and day
Si mes vers avaient des ailes,
if my verses had
wings
Des ailes comme l'amour.
wings
like the love
This is one of the best known mélodies by Hahn. Like Guitar
by Lalo, earlier in this collection, this is another song to a text
by the great French writer and poet Victor Hugo. There have
been many poems evoking images of messages of love carried
on wings – perhaps the most famous being Auf Flügeln des
Gesanges (On wings of song) by Mendelssohn with which it
shares a flowing semiquaver accompaniment and an
appropriately beautiful melody.
The song’s three verses share much the same emotion and it is
difficult to colour them differently, so it is most important to
sing this song with a beautiful quietly lyrical tone. Hahn’s
dynamics are helpful. The opening speed is about q=64 but
there is plenty of opportunity to enjoy using a fluid rubato.
Exploit the alliteration on “f”s and the related “v”s in the first
two lines of text. The lovely rising phrase in bar 4 can broaden
to the words si beau, leaning and lengthening a little on the
word si to stress just how beautiful the garden is. The pp on
bar 6 is sudden and very delicate, and the final bars of the
verse can be a little warmer with no rit.
The shaping of the second verse is much the same, but it needs
a little more flow in tempo, as indicated in bar 10. The verse
opens with a triplet which is effective only if it is very even.
The word étincelles is set to a dotted rhythm which should be
crisp to colour the sparking. Whereas in much of the song one
is trying to use long breaths, the suggested extra breath just
before is good as it adds further glitter. Enjoy the alliteration
on the v’s through the verse, whilst playing with other related
They would fly, like sparks,
towards your cheerful hearth,
if only my verses had wings,
wings like the spirit.
Pure and faithful, by night and by day,
they would hasten to be close to you,
if only my verses had wings,
wings like love.
Explanation of French musical terms:
Très doux et expressif – very gently and with expression
Un peu moin lent – a little less slow
un peu retenu – a little held back, slower
plus lent, et en ralentissant jusqu’à la fin – slower and slowing
down progressively to the end
Très retenu – very held back, much slower
encore plus lent – even slower
long – hold the pause for a long time
consonants too. Again the rising phrase in bar 12 can broaden
and the top note can ring like the laughing hearth it describes.
The semiquavers stop for final bars of this verse which are pp
and allow the singer a little extra time to use the “s” of l’esprit
as a smile.
The last verse is marked slower again and should continue to
slow progressively to the end of the song. There is a little
rhythmic twist in the rising phrase this time, which is broken
by a quaver rest. Managed well this creates a momentary
suspension. This time there is a diminuendo as the phrase rises
and the climax calls for a beautifully floated p. In French,
liaisons can not usually be made after a noun, but nuit_et jour
is a popular phrase which does habitually carry a liaison.
Rather uncharacteristically Hahn repeats the penultimate line
of the text, as though teasing us to think of what might be
carried on wings; with little surprise the answer is of course
love. The concluding two bars are as quiet as possible, and if
there is any surprise it is in the almost baroque chromaticism
of the resolution from below to the final note. Use this to add a
note of sensuality to the word amour.
The song is composed in two bar phrases. Hahn’s phrase
markings in the singer’s part are very strange. He omits a slur
completely from the first phrase. Thereafter slurs only cover
single bars. Read the slur in bar 4 as crossing into bar 5. At the
end of bar 6 he even ends the slur in the middle of a word –
the phrase must surely cover the two bars. The same principle
applies throughout the song. In bar 21 the rest creates a
moment of suspension within the phrase, but preferably
without taking a breath.
The eternal trap for English speakers on the vowel
combination [ɥi] comes right at the start with the word
fuiraient and then again on nuit in bar 21.