Abstract
The overwhelming presumption about songs is that they are meant to be sung. In the curious case of “En Sourdine” (“Muted”; 1904), composed by Pau Casals (1876–1973), we see an exquisite discrepancy: a love song that is both romantic utterance and yet muteness. The paradoxical genesis of “En Sourdine” stems from Casals’s then secretive relationship with lieder singer, Susan Metcalfe, during their performance engagements in and around New York City circa 1904. In “Musicology for Art Historians”, Jonathan Hicks tells us that musicology relentlessly promoted the association of “composerly authority with a masculine subject.” This focus obfuscated many aspects of compositional impetus and relegated the role of other historical agents to oblivion, particularly the roles of “singer, instrumentalist, patron, etc.—that women have most often been in positions to perform.” “En Sourdine,” a song that significantly appears in Casals’s catalog without a date, reveals the deeply personal nature of his vocal works. An analysis of “En Sourdine” reveals the song’s function as a form of sensual communication, not intended for public dissemination. This study contributes to a reassessment of the role of singer and muse, as well as a discussion of one of Casals’s 34 songs.
Highlights
I n educating fledgling vocal students on the need for the song repertoire, Carol Kimball argues that singers should develop the ability to become “the conduit for channeling the poet and the composer to the listening audience, and [the composer’s] inner muse.”[1]
In world-‐acclaimed cellist Pau Casals’s “En Sourdine” (“Muted”; 1904), we have a song that is not designed for public dissemination
An intertextual and compositional analysis of “En Sourdine,” which Casals gifted to his amorous interest, singer Susan Metcalfe, reveals the function of song as seductive utterance and even sensual foreplay, shared in an intimate space of communication where secrecy must coexist
Summary
At the intersection of music and gender, the role of the singer has been frequently overlooked by music historians, who have tended to concentrate on analytical and performance traits rather than the magnitude of stimuli behind the music. Like much Rococo art, Casals’s “En Sourdine” promotes intertextual and interartistic ideas that flow from painting, to poetry, to music. In 1869, Paul-‐Marie Verlaine (1844–1896), one of Casals’s favorite poets, published Fête galantes, a set of 22 short poems praised for their metrical fluidity and musicality.[36] Verlaine’s poems are based on paintings by Watteau, expressing otherworldly scenes of romanticized love. It’s important to note that Chansarel executed the public premiere of several of Debussy’s works while participating in prestigious Parisian and American musical circuits that were frequented by both Casals and Metcalfe Casals appropriated these sources and set his “En Sourdine” in Catalan, imprinting a very personal mark on the song and illuminating the undisputed connection between the emotional context in which he lived and his muse, singer Susan Metcalfe. Comes through the dark holm-‐oak wood, making our anxiety obvious the nightingale will sing.[44]
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