The art song of Louis Beydts (1895-1953)

Louis Beydts was a French composer, director of the Opéra-Comique, music critic, and a conductor. Renowned for operettas, comic operas, and film music in his lifetime, Beydts also wrote about one hundred mélodies which are lesser known. Excepting operettas, Beydts’s work has rarely been performed or recorded since his death. To date, there are no recordings presenting solely Beydts’s art songs.

The purpose of this project is to create a resource to introduce Louis Beydts (1895-1953) and his mélodie to teachers and students of singing, to performers, and to concert audiences. The project includes a high-quality recording of selected vocal repertoire by the composer composed between 1926 and 1946: four complete sets of his mélodies (Chansons pour les oiseaux, Trois Mélodies, Six Ballades Françaises de Paul Fort, Deux Mélodies), one partial set (“C’est moi,” “Pour le petit enfant,” “Ne parle pas,” and “Un cri” from La Guirlande de Marceline: Sept romances sur des poésies de Marceline Desbordes-Valmore), a vocalise, and a single mélodie (“Les Cerises”). Along with the recording, this project presents a thesis comprising the composer’s biography, notes on his compositional style, texts and translations, a commentary on the individual pieces, and liner notes. This recording will be the first one to feature exclusively the art songs of Louis Beydts.