Lieder

Shrink-wrapped "Composed during the period of protective custody between 1915 and 1917", Henri Marteau notes on the cover of the sketches for the cycle Opus 19c. He originally wrote the eight songs for string accompaniment, but then asked the Bulgarian composer Pantcho Wladigueroff for an arrangement for piano and voice. The poems which he carefully sets to music are by Sully Prudhomme and Francois Coppe, and they depict the vivid and symbolical nature and the rain, the Bretagne, the sea and the pretty grisettes who it their lovers after work. The musical language of Marteau is poetic, atmospheric, most of the songs are at a slow pace, the moods are cloudy and in minor.