Le Jardin Provençal

Subtitled “Suite Française,” Le Jardin Provençal consists of four movements, none of which describe a particular garden in Provence. The first movement is a brisk Ouverture in sonata form followed by a Romance sans paroles – a “song without words.” The third movement is a farandole, a Provençal dance used most famously by Georges Bizet (1838-1875), which is characterized by a skipping step and a regular pulse. Thus the Farandole avec musette is based on a Provençal folksong with a contrasting musette that is my own invention. Borrowing a title from a poem by Paul Verlaine (1844-1896), the final movement is entitled Fêtes galantes; this music evokes the moonlit landscapes that were perfected in the elegant canvases of Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721).

Byron Adams