Alexander Gretchaninov

After training at the Moscow Conservatory, Alexander Gretchaninov studied composition under Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg, where he developed his vocal writing technique. In 1911, he published a set of five Baudelaire songs entitled Les Fleurs du mal. They are printed in parallel text, with the French alongside a Russian translation, and include a motif recurring across the set. The analysis covers: (a) the context of composition; (b) the connections established between selected poems; (c) the statistical data generated from the adhesion strength tests; and (d) how the data shape an evaluation of Gretchaninov’s settings of Baudelaire. Analysis reveals that the songs are highly entangled through the way Gretchaninov deforms the fabric of Baudelaire’s verse. Yet the songs are also accretive, because the flexible approach to text-setting enables Gretchaninov to respond to emotive aspects of the poem. These are songs whose complexity suggests that they were designed for highly trained musicians.