'Les Sirenes' - Music Lesson For Kids

LISTEN WITH LIZZIE Lili Boulanger ‘Les Sirenes’ This month in Hackney Choral we're exploring themes of flight. #ListenWithLizzie to Lili Boulanger's 'Les Sirènes' ('The Mermaids'), following the score in this YouTube ​video​.

At the beginning, the three choir parts act like soloists, singing their own melodies at the same time. They are mermaids, ‘flying without wings’ through the sea, given the freedom to stand out against a simple piano part.

Three more choir parts enter at 1:00, singing only the sound 'Ah'. Read the English translation of the lyrics. Why might Boulanger have included a second choir, who just sing 'Ah', at this point?

At 1:30 notice how the texture changes; the piano part starts moving in semiquavers, with notes flowing up and down like waves, and the choir makes way for a soprano soloist, who speaks on behalf of all of the mermaids.

Read the text: 'our glance, ever changing, seems like the blue-green waves'. The harmony keeps changing, too! Can you spot C major, Eb major, A major, even D major?

A long way from the F# major opening.

Then at 3:30 what happens to bring the music back to the beginning? All three voices sing a gentle C# 'Ah', the dominant of F# major, the main key of the piece.

Now we hear again the same music as we heard at the beginning. This part of the piece is called the 'recapitulation'. This time, the flowing semiquaver waves are still present in the piano part, although the voices sing the same notes and text as they did at the beginning.

Finally listen from 4:30. Now the three voices have come together to sing slow, floating chords, moving through different harmonies, ending simply on an F# major chord. The voices are very spaced out. What is the interval between the upper two parts?

It is a sixth - a minor one, although it makes a major chord! Do you like this piece? How did it make you feel? How do you think Lili Boulanger managed to tell the story of the mermaids' flight through her music?