Baquet de vin

SATB, a cappella

Baquet de vin (“Bucket of wine”) is informed by the harmonic language of one of my favorite composers, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), as the angular leaps and harmonic jolts represent the staggering, back-and-forth walk of a person who may have had a bit too much to drink. That being said, it’s a happy drunken state and the setting ends on a warm and positive sonority.

This work is the second movement of the song cycle, Chansons de la Vigne (“Songs from the Vine”). It can be purchased and performed separately.

The Text

By Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)

Et s’écrie en versant des larmes
Baquet plein de vin perfume
Viennent aujourd’hui les gendarmes
Nous aurons bu le vin de mai

Laughing and weeping he exclaims
O bucket of perfumed wine
If the police come today
We’ll be so drunk we won’t mind

Performed by the Chapman University Singers
(Dr. Joseph Modica, conductor).