This recent Centrediscs release contains 27 songs (a generous 76 minutes of music) written by Québecois singer and composer Lionel Daunais in the mid 20th century. The songs really fall into two distinct groups. Some are art songs written for concert hall performance while others are works in a more popular style written for a wider audience. The art songs are very French; the others distinctly of Quebec.

The art songs set quite a wide range of texts but there’s a definite leaning towards the symbolist poets of the early 20th century. There’s some Tristan Klingsor and more Paul Fort; a poet rather under-represented in song given his stature and huge output. There’s even one text in similar style written by Daunais himself. Besides the symbolists there’s some Ronsard and Boileau and even a translation of a 13th century Arabic text. There’s some variation in these songs but a strong tendency to languorous settings of poems about unrequited love though sometimes the subject matter becomes more surreal as in Fort’s “Le diable dans le nuit” or the setting more up tempo as in the anonymous “L’innocente”. In many ways these Daunaissongs are not very different from much of the output of composers like Poulenc or Duparc. Fans of that style of chanson will likely enjoy these songs too. Continue reading →