La Mer (Chanson)

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La Mer ( French The Sea ) is a chanson by the French chansonnier Charles Trenet . It was written in 1943 and was first recorded by Trenet in 1946. Since then, the song was by many international artists gecovert and became one of the most famous French songs.

Text and music

The American songwriter Jack Lawrence, who translated La Mer into English , described Trenet's chanson as a tone poem in the style of Claude Debussy 's symphonic poem of the same name, La Mer , to which the title refers. Trenet meditate on the different moods of the sea and how he is touched by them. Sunlight and clouds are reflected on the waves. In the depths of the ocean he discovers angels, sheep and an azure blue shepherdess.

The first stanza reads:

La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie

The song begins with the playing of a harp , the arpeggio of which can be understood as an accompaniment to the wave movement. Trenet's singing soars in a climax until he is accompanied by a male choir at the finale. Each stanza is introduced uniformly with the words “La mer”.

Stefan Lüddemann describes the chanson as "as light as the reflections of sunlight on the Mediterranean Sea, as sentimental as a holiday memory". According to Will Friedwald the song is usually with the seriousness and solemnity of a national anthem intonation and is a source of Gallic pride. Its publication immediately after the Liberation , the liberation of France from National Socialism, contributed to this feeling of pride and to the popularity of the chanson. Critics accused Trenet of using the chanson to glorify Pétain's values ​​such as the local “plaice” and youth.

history

Trenet wrote the song in 1943 (according to other sources in July 1942) on a train ride to Perpignan , accompanied by the singer Roland Gerbeau and the pianist Léo Chauliac . The lake landscape through which the journey led reminded Trenet of a poem he had already composed as a teenager. Chauliac recorded Trenet's humming melody and edited it later. Most of the time, however, he is not mentioned as a co-composer of the piece.

A first performance of the chanson in front of an audience was only poorly received. Trenet himself found the song to be “solennelle et rococo” (“solemn and rococo ”), and it disappeared in a drawer for two years. The first record release sang in 1945 Roland Gerbeau after Suzy Solidor rejected the title. Trenet did not take up his title until 1946 under pressure from the music publisher Raoul Breton. The recording was conducted by Albert Lasry, who is also named as co-composer in new editions of the song.

La Mer became a hit in post-war France, thanks in part to the performance of Trenet. The success soon drew the attention of performers in other countries to the piece, who recorded cover versions of the piece. In 1966, the American Billboard magazine named the song together with La vie en rose as the best-selling French song and had almost 100 recordings. By Trenet's death in 2001 this number had already grown to over 4,000 recordings. The number of records of the chanson sold at this time was over 70 million.

Interpretations

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
La Mer (Beyond the Sea) (Bobby Darin)
  US 6th 02/29/1960 (14 weeks)
  UK 8th 02/04/1960 (13 weeks)

The American songwriter Jack Lawrence translated La Mer into English as Beyond the Sea in 1946 . His version of the song is about a lover who longs for his love “beyond the sea”. Benny Goodman came with this version in 1949 at position 26 on the US charts. For the American singer Bobby Darin , Beyond the Sea was one of his greatest successes. He reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 on the UK singles chart with the song . His life story was filmed in 2004 under the title Beyond the Sea - Music was his life .

The first German translation was written by Hans Fritz Beckmann in 1948 together with Lale Andersen (under her pseudonym Nicola Wilke). Andersen sang the song with Michael Jary and his orchestra. Beckmann, however, was dissatisfied with the version and made a greatly modified new translation, which became popular in 1949 when Liselotte Malkowsky recorded it with the Adalbert Lutters orchestra . In December 1948 an instrumental trumpet interpretation by Kurt Hohenberger and his soloist orchestra appeared. The Danish guitarist Jørgen Ingmann also had some success in Germany with an instrumental version of La Mer in 1964.

Use as film music

The original version of Trenet was used in many films, e.g. B. in A Safe Place (1971), LA Story (1991), Funny Bones (1995), The Dreamers (2003), Le scaphandre et le papillon / Schmetterling und Taucherglocke (2007). In the movie Mr. Bean's Vacation , Mr. Bean dances to this chanson at the end of the movie. In Brösel's animated film Werner - Pukes Later! accompanied La mer idyllic initial scene on a Corsica camping before they degenerate in a soccer battle. The song was also used in the German crime series Derrick ( Madeira , April 1975, with Curd Jürgens ), Ein starkes Team ( Das große Fressen , October 2009) and Tatort ( Amour Fou , June 2017). The chanson also plays an important role in Jaco Van Dormael's comedy The Brand New Testament (2015). In an episode of the series Lost from 2005, it is sung by the character Shannon and continued by playing the piano.

The English cover version of Robbie Williams can be heard in the animated film Finding Nemo . The French version of the film uses the original Trenet version. In the film French Kiss , Kevin Kline sings the credits in French. Another version, sung by Julio Iglesias , closes the British spy film Lady, King, As, Spy . The chanson is also used in the credits of the German film His last race . In the offshoots of the BioShock game series, you can often hear a cover version of the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Will Friedwald: Ocean Crossing on the website bobbydarin.com.
  2. ↑ La Mer on charles-trenet.net.
  3. ↑ Jordan Bhatt La Mer - Charles Trenet - 1946 in the blog themusiccriticblog.
  4. ↑ Stefan Lüddemann: "La Mer": Chansoner Charles Trenet born 100 years ago . In: Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , May 17, 2013.
  5. ↑ Hans-Georg Rodek: Immortals of the French chanson . In: Die Welt , February 20, 2001.
  6. ↑ a b c d Charles Trenet: Y a d'la joie. Intégrale des chansons . Le Cherche Midi, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-7491-1959-5 . Notes on La Mer , no page number.
  7. ↑ a b Véronique Mortaigne: Le siècle de Charles Trenet . In: Le Monde , February 19, 2001.
  8. ↑ a b Jazz hit of the month December 2013 on the website of Götz Alsmann .
  9. ↑ Dominic Daussaint: Roland Gerbeau: De Trenet à Castro . On charles-trenet.net, July 21, 2003.
  10. ^ Trenet Returns To Paris Stage . In: Billboard , October 22, 1966, p. 44.
  11. ^ French singer Trenet dies . In: BBC News , February 19, 2001.
  12. ↑ Patrick O'Conner: Charles Trenet . In: The Guardian , February 20, 2001.
  13. ↑ Charts UK Charts US
  14. ↑ a b Matt Schudel: Composer Jack Lawrence Dies at 96 . In: The Washington Post , March 18, 2009.
  15. ↑ Kurt Hohenberger with his soloist orchestra: "La Mer", Charles Trenet, Polydor 48122B, matrix number: 884KK of December 22, 1948
  16. ↑ Eberhard Dobler: "Werner - Gekotzt wird Später" from Original Soundtrack - laut.de - Album. In: laut.de. Retrieved July 19, 2014 .