Song for smokers and slackers.

Jason Tougaw

My first French chanson of this semester: Hôtel by Poulenc.

FRANCIS POULENC: A Neo-Classical composer of the 20th century(around the same time as Igor Stravinsky and a little after Claude Debussy).

HÔTEL: Lyrics by Guillaume Apollinaire. A song about being in a tight Hotel room, wanting to do nothing but smoke aka très francais. Translation of the lyrics(poem) by moi:

My room in the shape of a cage,

The sun passes his arm through the window,

But I want to smoke to create mirages.

I light the flame of the day: my cigarette.

I don’t want to work- I want to smoke.

I’m working on this song in my voice lessons this semester. I absolutely love the languidness of this song cause it leaves room for expressive singing and it’s like nothing I’ve ever sung before! Unfortunately I don’t consider myself a true slacker and certainly not a smoker, so I’ve realized that it’s harder for me to grasp this lazy flow when singing… but I am up for the challenge. I am now working on my slacking off skills by skipping class this morning, and haven’t done anything productive yet. Let’s see if this helps me sing the song as good as this woman…

and an upbeat and catchy version of the Hôtel lyrics…

Hope your ears enjoy what they hear.

 

4 thoughts on “Song for smokers and slackers.”

  1. Hi Alida. Thank you for this lovely post. I’m totally with you about the languid, hovering qualities of “Hôtel.” So much about this song, like the eerie, petal-soft harmonies in the piano accompaniment, invites the listener to lose him/herself in the aural experience. I don’t know if you have similar sentiments, but I’ve always been drawn to Poulenc’s music because it is at once intoxicating and indifferent in this stereotypically French way–and in this song, it’s hard not to suppress the idea of Poulenc himself taking on the role of a flaneur while he worked in Paris.

  2. Oh and also, could you also post the French text of Apollinaire’s poem? Sometimes it’s nice to know what they’re saying, even when I’m not perfectly fluent in French. OR, maybe it’ll improve my French. Who knows?

    • yes! i should’ve done that in the post…here it is:
      Hôtel
      Ma chambre a la forme d’une cage,
      Le soleil passe son bras par la fenêtre.
      Mais moi qui veux fumer pour faire des mirages
      J’allume au feu du jour ma cigarette.
      Je ne veux pas travailler — je veux fumer.

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