La Guirlande de Campra

La Guirlande de Campra is collaborative orchestral work written by seven French composers in 1952. It is in the form of variations or meditations on a theme from André Campra's 1717 opera Camille, reine des Volsques.[1]

The numbers and their composers are:

1. Toccata (Arthur Honegger^*)[2]
2. Sarabande et farandole (Daniel Lesur)[3][4]
3. Canarie (Alexis Roland-Manuel)
4. Sarabande (Germaine Tailleferre^*)
5. Matelote provençale (Francis Poulenc^*)
6. Variation (Henri Sauguet)
7. Écossaise (Georges Auric^*)[5]

^*Member of the group Les Six

The work was first performed on 30 July 1952[6] at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, by the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, under conductor Hans Rosbaud.[3]

Benjamin Britten attended the premiere, and it gave him the idea of commissioning several composers to contribute to a set of Variations on an Elizabethan Theme to celebrate the forthcoming coronation of Elizabeth II, for which he was also writing his opera Gloriana.[7][8]

Adaptations

In 1966, a ballet, La Guirlande de Campra, was choreographed by John Taras and presented by New York City Ballet.

References

1. "La Guirlande de campra; une serie de variations ou de meditations sur un theme de l'opera, Camille. De Arthur Honegger, Daniel-Lesur (Daniel Lesur), Roland Manuel, pseud. of Roland Levy et al".
2. Music and history 1951–60 Archived 14 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
3. Daniel-Lesur Archived 10 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
4. durand-salabert-eschig Archived 31 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
5. "Georges Auric (1899–1983)".
6. Some sources give the date as 31 July 1952.
7. "Home – Benjamin Britten Website".
8. Britten, Benjamin (2008). Letters from a Life: 1952–1957. Boydell Press. ISBN 9781843833826.