Pastorale d’Été (Summer Pastorale)

• Honegger composed the lyrical Pastorale d’été in 1920¹ while vacationing in the Swiss Alps.²
• Quote: Honegger prefaced the score with a quote from the poem “Aube,” from Illuminations (1873) by French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud:

“J’ai embrassé l’aube d’été”
“I embraced the summer dawn”

From “Aube,” by Arthur Rimbaud

1. Geoffrey K. Spratt, “Honegger, Arthur,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 24, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000013298.
2. Robert Maycock, “Programme note: Honegger – Pastorale d’été,” BBC: Proms 2014, accessed October 24, 2019, http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2014/analysis/203.