Barcarolle

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For the racehorse, see
Black rose (symbolism)
.

A barcarolle (

classical music, two of the most famous barcarolles are Jacques Offenbach's "Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour", from his opera The Tales of Hoffmann; and Frédéric Chopin's Barcarolle in F-sharp major
for solo piano.

Description

A barcarolle is characterized by a rhythm reminiscent of the gondolier's stroke, almost invariably in 6/8 meter at a moderate tempo.[2]

While the most-famous barcarolles are from the Romantic period, the genre was known well enough in the 18th century for Burney to mention, in The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1771), that it was a celebrated form cherished by "collectors of good taste".[3]

Notable examples

The barcarolle was a popular form in opera, where the apparently artless sentimental style of the folklike song could be put to good use. In addition to the Offenbach example:

traditional Neapolitan barcarolle "Santa Lucia" was published in 1849. The 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdulaziz (1830-1876), also composed a barcarolle, entitled "La Gondole Barcarolle".[4][5]

Arthur Sullivan set the entry of Sir Joseph Porter's barge (also bearing his sisters, cousins and aunts) in H.M.S. Pinafore to a barcarolle, as well as the Trio "My well-loved lord and guardian dear" among Phyllis, Earl Tolloller and the Earl of Mountararat in Act I of Iolanthe. Schubert, while not using the name specifically, used a style reminiscent of the barcarolle in some of his most-famous songs, including especially his haunting "Auf dem Wasser zu singen" ("To be sung on the water"), D.774.[3]

Other notable barcarolles include: the three "Venetian Gondola Songs" from

Barcarolle for violin, cello, harmonium (or organ) and piano; Béla Bartók's "Barcarolla" from Out of Doors; Barcarolle, Op. 27, no. 1, by Moritz Moszkowski, and several examples by Anton Rubinstein, Mily Balakirev, Alexander Glazunov, Edward MacDowell, Mel Bonis, Ethelbert Nevin; and a series of thirteen for solo piano by Gabriel Fauré.[3]

In the 20th century, further examples include:

Gian-Carlo Menotti's ballet Sebastian; the first movement of Nikolai Myaskovsky's Piano Sonata no. 8, op. 83 (1949); "Hello Young Lovers" from Richard Rodgers' The King and I (1951); "The Kings' Barcarolle" from Leonard Bernstein's Candide (1956); and Juan María Solare's neoclassical Barcarola for piano (recording included in the album Sombras blancas). Dominick Argento's 25-minute choral cycle Walden Pond (1996) is subtitled "Nocturnes and Barcarolles for Mixed Chorus"; the five-movement work makes extensive use of 6/8 meter. The penultimate movement of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, Heimfahrt, is also labelled a barcarolle.[6]

Mikhail Glinka's "Barcarolle in G major", from Four Musical Essays (1847)
Performed by Adam Cuerden
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Bob Dylan’s song "I've Made Up My Mind to Give Myself to You" from his 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways uses Offenbach’s "Barcarolle" as a riff.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ "Barque" in English shares the same etymology.
  2. ISBN 0-674-61525-5
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-56159-174-2
    .
  4. ^ The Court Historian. The Society for Court Studies. Volume 7, 2 December 2002. Quote: "Abdulaziz with French titles were published by Lucca in Milan in the 1860s; they included a polka, La Harpe Caprice, La Gondole Barcarolle."
  5. ^ "A Prismatical Figure in History: Sultan Abdülaziz". Thinking Prismatically. Quote: He had his own compositions ... La Gondole Barcarolle and Sultans Polka.
  6. ^ "Pierrot lunaire". Sound Trove. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  7. ^ Bob Dylan Still Bristles on ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’. June 18, 2020. Pareles, Jon. NY Times.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Barcarole".
Look up barcarole in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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