Les nuits d’été (Summer Nights)

Composer: BERLIOZ, (Louis-) Hector
  • Les nuits d’été (Summer Nights) is a song cycle originally written for voice and piano between 1840-41. It was later arranged for voice and orchestra in 1856. Today, the orchestrated version is performed much more often than the piano version.
  • For texts, Berlioz set six poems by friend of the composer, Théophile Gautier, to music:
    1. Villanelle
    2. Le Spectre de la rose*
    3. Sur les lagunes: Lamento (On the lagoons)
    4. Absence
    5. Au cimetière: Clair de lune (In the cemetery: moonlight)
    6. L’Île inconnue (The unknown isle)1
  • You can find English translations of all six poems here.
  • The overarching theme of the song cycle is love and longing, each song addressing a different phase within this human experience.
  • Fun fact – Berlioz is responsible for ushering in a historically significant and prolific period for French mélodie (art song). Les nuits d’été is viewed by many as the first great song cycle in French mélodie.2

Sources

  1. “Les nuits d’été, H 81 (Berlioz, Hector),” IMSLP, accessed August 18, 2025, https://imslp.org/wiki/Les_nuits_d’%C3%A9t%C3%A9%2C_H_81_(Berlioz%2C_Hector).
  2. Carol Kimball, Song: A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2005), 159.

Cut IDs

19136 20967 20968 20969 40145