Le Soleil des eaux


Le Soleil des eaux is a cantata for soprano, choir and orchestra by Pierre Boulez. Composed in 1965 after two poems by René Char, it was preceded by three successive versions, the first in 1948 for the radio, the second in 1950 for soprano, tenor, bass, choir and chamber orchestra, the third in 1958 for voice and orchestra. Premiered in Berlin in 1965 by the composer, the work is in two movements.

Structure

  1. La complainte du lézard amoureux: seven stanzas constitute this movement where voice and orchestra alternate in antiphony.
  2. La Sorgue: eleven verses that put the choir in the foreground.