This edition was prepared by Philip Legge — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Écot des joyeux compagnons: Histoire d'un rat (from 'Faust')
Staff Notation • Secular, Oratorios
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Écot des joyeux compagnons: Histoire d'un rat (from 'Faust') by Hector Berlioz — Lyrics
Certain rat, dans une cuisine,
Avait pris place, et le frater
S’y traita si bien que sa mine
Eût fait envie au gros Luther.
Mais, un beau jour, le pauvre diable,
Empoisonné, sauta dehors,
Aussi triste aussi misérable
Que s’il eût eu l’amour au corps.
Il courait devant et derrière,
Il grattait, reniflait, mordait,
Parcourait la maison entière ;
La rage à ses maux ajoutait,
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About Écot des joyeux compagnons: Histoire d'un rat (from 'Faust')
Hector Berlioz's Écot des joyeux compagnons paints a vivid, if darkly comic, scene of a rat meeting its end. The French text describes a rat that has settled into a kitchen, feasting well until it is poisoned. Its final frantic moments, running, scratching, and sniffing, are likened to the ravings of a lover, before it finally succumbs in an oven. The humor, however grim, is underscored by the servant girl’s laughter at its demise. This secular piece for TTBB male voices offers a characterful and narrative excursion, a departure from the grander oratorio settings often associated with Berlioz.
