Svendsen, Johan

Persisk dans (La Brise av Camille Saint‐Saëns)

Persian Dance (La Brise by Camille Saint‐Saëns)

Original title: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): La Brise, from Mélodies Persanes op. 26 (1870)

JSV 83

Johan Svendsen’s (1840–1911) Persian Dance has long been believed to be an original work by Svendsen, while actually it is an orchestration of La Brise, a song composed in 1870 by Svendsen’s good friend Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921). It is the first of four songs in Saint-Saëns’ collection Mélodies Persanes, Op. 26, published in 1872 by G. Hartmann in Paris. The lyrics of all the four songs are taken from Armand Renaud’s (1836–1895) collection of poems Les nuits persanes (1870). Svendsen has included some rare guests in the orchestra to produce a ‘breeze’ of oriental sounds: glockenspiel, tambourine and two piccolo flutes, along with cymbals and the usual classical symphonic forces.

Composition: 1883-02.

Christiania

Alegretto lusignando

Key: E minor

Extent: ca. 3 min.

Sources

A; Score, autograph

[Classification: notated music, manuscript, autograph, score, fair copy]

12 pages; 35x27 cm.

Title page: Svendsen / Persisk Dans (The title is written in pencil, not by Svendsen). On the title page there are also several notes in pencil, written by Georg Carl Bohlmann (1838–1920). Bohlmann was a composer and orchestrator, working with the publisher Wilhelm Hansen as an arranger and proofreader.

Hand ruled music paper, 18 staves
Pagination: 1–12
Above the score: Persisk Dans
At the end of the score: Xania Februar 1883 / JSvendsen

There are many additions in pencil in the score, not done by Svendsen himself, but probably inserted by Georg Carl Bohlmann. Enclosed with the score is a sheet with the heading ‘Til Afskriveren’ (to the copyist), signed ‘Bohlmann 11/12 11’. It contains printing instructions for the work, with substantial changes in the scoring. The score was never printed.

Written in ink (Johan Svendsen). Additions in pencil (Georg Carl Bohlmann).

N-Onm (National Library of Norway, Oslo, Norway) Mus.ms. 7875. Facsimile

B: Printed edition of Saint-Säens' original

[Classification: notated music, print, score, first edition]

G. Hartmann, Paris 1872.

Title page: MÉLODIES PERSANES / Poésies tirées des / NUITS PERSANE / D’ARMAND RENAUD / MUSIQUE DE / C. SAINT-SAËNS / OP. 26

Pl. no. G.H.645(1–6).

Arrangement: Piano two hands

[Classification: notated music, print, score]

Arranger: Eyvind Alnæs.

Wilhelm Hansen, København & Leipzig 1911.

Pl. no. 15042.

Arrangement: Piano two hands (Svendsen-album)

[Classification: notated music, print, score]

Arranger: Eyvind Alnæs.

Wilhelm Hansen, København & Leipzig 1911.

Pl. no. 15058.

Identical with the arrangement for two hands printed separateley with Pl. no. 15042

Arrangement: Salon Orchestra

[Classification: notated music, print, score and parts]

Nikolaj Hansen (arranger).

Wilhelm Hansen, København & Leipzig 1913.

Pl. no. Heimdal 11,15479.

Title above the score: DANSE PERSANE. / Persian Dance. - Persisk Dans.