Uploaded November 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
- Composer: Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (5 April 1869 -- 23 August 1937)
- Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
- Conductor: Stéphane Denève
- Year of recording: 2009
Le marchand de sable qui passe [The Sandman], Op.13, incidental music for a verse play by Jean-Aubry, written in 1908.
00:00 - I. Prélude
04:20 - II. Scène 2
08:06 - III. Interlude et Scène 4
13:03 - IV. Scène finale
Georges Jean-Aubry (1882-1950) is remembered, when he is remembered, for his coinage of the phrase "serene anxiety" to describe the art of César Franck. Yet, in his time he carved an admirable niche in Parisian musical life as an influential critic; a distinguished minor poet whose lyrics were set by Ibert, Caplet, and Roussel; and an intimate of the circles surrounding d'Indy, Ravel, Gide, Viñes, Selva, Séverac, Roussel, and so on. From 1915 to 1930 he lived in London, editing The Chesterian, though he never ceased to be a keen observer of development in French musical life. Roussel became acquainted with Jean-Aubry in 1907, a friendship that lasted until the composer's death. An immediate consequence of their meeting was that in 1908 Roussel furnished music for Jean-Aubry's 'conte lyrique', or verse play, Le Marchand de sable qui passe {The Sandman}, in which that legendary figure proves instrumental in helping a girl and boy, symbolic figures lost in a symbolic forest, to an awareness of their love. After the vibrant rhythmic animation of the Divertissement for winds, composed in 1906, the suave charm, atmospheric scoring (for flute, clarinet, horn, harp, and string quintet), and aura of the uncanny and magical take one by surprise. From the incidental music Roussel drew four extensive segments, to make a concise suite through each of whose movements the Sandman's theme is heard, though managed with such deft cunning that one never tires of it.
d'Indy had been Roussel's school master and mentor, and Roussel, even as he was completing the course at the Schola Cantorum -- d'Indy's private musical school, albeit a rival to the Conservatoire -- he was teaching counterpoint there, in which capacity his students included Varèse and Satie. While d'Indy maintained cordial relations with Debussy, his outspoken disapproval of Impressionism polarized French musical life, provoking jealous partisanship on either hand. It is a measure of his largeness of spirit that he could see beyond the debt to Impressionism in Le Marchand de sable qui passe to recognize Roussel's individuality. On 21 July 1910, he wrote to Roussel, "I read your Marchand de Sable and was charmed...and, believe me, it was not because sand was thrown in my eyes. I found in it the fine and sound musical qualities I like in you...There are now so many composers who arrange (or disarrange) sounds literally or pictorially or merely aurally...."
The piece is dedicated to Suzanne Berchut, a famous singer from the beginning of the 20th century. The premiere was conducted by Roussel in Le Havre on 16 November 1908.
- Composer: Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (5 April 1869 -- 23 August 1937)
- Orchestra: Royal Scottish National Orchestra
- Conductor: Stéphane Denève
- Year of recording: 2009
Le marchand de sable qui passe [The Sandman], Op.13, incidental music for a verse play by Jean-Aubry, written in 1908.
00:00 - I. Prélude
04:20 - II. Scène 2
08:06 - III. Interlude et Scène 4
13:03 - IV. Scène finale
Georges Jean-Aubry (1882-1950) is remembered, when he is remembered, for his coinage of the phrase "serene anxiety" to describe the art of César Franck. Yet, in his time he carved an admirable niche in Parisian musical life as an influential critic; a distinguished minor poet whose lyrics were set by Ibert, Caplet, and Roussel; and an intimate of the circles surrounding d'Indy, Ravel, Gide, Viñes, Selva, Séverac, Roussel, and so on. From 1915 to 1930 he lived in London, editing The Chesterian, though he never ceased to be a keen observer of development in French musical life. Roussel became acquainted with Jean-Aubry in 1907, a friendship that lasted until the composer's death. An immediate consequence of their meeting was that in 1908 Roussel furnished music for Jean-Aubry's 'conte lyrique', or verse play, Le Marchand de sable qui passe {The Sandman}, in which that legendary figure proves instrumental in helping a girl and boy, symbolic figures lost in a symbolic forest, to an awareness of their love. After the vibrant rhythmic animation of the Divertissement for winds, composed in 1906, the suave charm, atmospheric scoring (for flute, clarinet, horn, harp, and string quintet), and aura of the uncanny and magical take one by surprise. From the incidental music Roussel drew four extensive segments, to make a concise suite through each of whose movements the Sandman's theme is heard, though managed with such deft cunning that one never tires of it.
d'Indy had been Roussel's school master and mentor, and Roussel, even as he was completing the course at the Schola Cantorum -- d'Indy's private musical school, albeit a rival to the Conservatoire -- he was teaching counterpoint there, in which capacity his students included Varèse and Satie. While d'Indy maintained cordial relations with Debussy, his outspoken disapproval of Impressionism polarized French musical life, provoking jealous partisanship on either hand. It is a measure of his largeness of spirit that he could see beyond the debt to Impressionism in Le Marchand de sable qui passe to recognize Roussel's individuality. On 21 July 1910, he wrote to Roussel, "I read your Marchand de Sable and was charmed...and, believe me, it was not because sand was thrown in my eyes. I found in it the fine and sound musical qualities I like in you...There are now so many composers who arrange (or disarrange) sounds literally or pictorially or merely aurally...."
The piece is dedicated to Suzanne Berchut, a famous singer from the beginning of the 20th century. The premiere was conducted by Roussel in Le Havre on 16 November 1908.
