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"Plaisir d'amour" ([plɛ.ziʁ da.muʁ], "Pleasure of love") is a classical French love song written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (1741–1816); it took its text from a poem by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794), which appears in his novel Célestine.
The song was greatly successful in Martini's version. For example, a young woman, Madame Julie Charles, sang it to the poet Alphonse de Lamartine during his cure at Aix-les-Bains in 1816, and the poet was to recall it 30 years later.
Hector Berlioz arranged it for orchestra (H134) in 1859. Louis van Waefelghem arranged the tune for viola d'amore or viola and piano in the 1880s. It has been arranged and performed in various pop music settings.
Recordings
- Rina Ketty in 1939 (with extended lyrics)
- Paul Robeson in 1940
- Joan Baez in 1961
- The Seekers and Judith Durham in 1964 or 1993 concert
- Marianne Faithfull on her debut-album Marianne Faithfull in 1965
- Mary Hopkin in Welsh as "Pleserau Serch", 1971
- Mireille Mathieu on her album Les grandes chansons françaises [fr] (1985)
- Gabriel Yacoub on disc 9 Chansons d'Amore of the multi-volume Anthologie de la chanson française recorded in 1992–1994
- The Kings Singers in 1993, on their album Chansons D'amour
- Judy Collins on her 2000 album Classic Folk
- Jacky Terrasson on his 2000 album A Paris...
- Charlotte Church Live in Jerusalem 2001
- Nana Mouskouri and Charles Aznavour on the album Nana & Friends – Rendez-vous (2012)
- Nick Drake in 2012 (recorded 1971)
In popular culture
The tune is heavily featured as a theme to the 1939 feature film Love Affair starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, with Dunne also performing the song within her role as a singer
The song served as the main theme of, and was sung by Montgomery Clift in, the 1949 movie The Heiress.
The opening sequence of the Christmas comedy film We're No Angels (1955), directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, contains the song "Ma France Bien-Aimée" which borrows the music of "Plaisir d'amour".
The melodies for Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961) and the 20th century Christian hymn "My God Loves Me" are based on "Plaisir d'amour".
Mado Robin's version of the song plays in Djibril Diop Mambéty's 1973 film Touki Bouki when Nori and Anta go to visit a rich patron's estate in order to convince him to fund their trip to Paris. It is repeated a few times more throughout the remainder of the film.
A church choir performs this song for exhausted members of Easy Company in the episode entitled "The Breaking Point" in HBO's acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers.
In the 1966 movie Batman, the song was being performed by an on-stage singer (Julie Gregg) in a romantic restaurant that Bruce Wayne (Adam West) had unwittingly taken Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) to on a date, thinking she was the Russian journalist "Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff".
References
- Vojislav Mate Jovanović "La Guzla" de Prosper Mérimée: étude d'histoire romantique 1910 p. 136 "Les paroles de Florian furent mises en musique par Martini, l'auteur de Plaisir d'Amour; cette traduction obtint un grand succès en France. En 1816, Mm° Charles la chantait à Lamartine, et le poète du Lac, trente ans plus tard, déclarait dans une page de Raphaël qu'il ne pouvait entendre sans pleurer les vers de cette touchante ballade : Quand les moutons sont dans la bergerie, .."
- Berlioz: Musical and Literary Works (list of reference editions)
- "Plaisir d'amour", Martini – Jean Davon – T. Henriotti (alias for Gustave Kahn)
- Paul Robeson: The Complete EMI Sessions (1928–1939) "Plaisir d'amour" (2008 remastered version) Video on YouTube
- "Joan Baez – "Plaisir d'amour"". Discogs. 1974. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- The Seekers All Bound For Morningtown (Their EMI Recordings 1964-1968) "Plaisir d'amour" Opens full album on Spotify, Plaisir d'amour is #10 Last Accessed 2018-09-25
- seekersarchive (7 January 2010). The Seekers Plaisir D'amour (Live). Retrieved 27 November 2024 – via YouTube.
- "Mary Hopkin – Pleserau Serch – Plaisir D'Amour". Discogs. June 1971.
- "Tracks on Les grandes chansons françaises - Mireille Mathieu (1985) | SecondHandSongs". secondhandsongs.com. Retrieved 27 November 2024.
- "Chanson D'Amour". The King's Singers. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
- Classic Folk at AllMusic
- Nana & Friends – Rendez-vous at Discogs
- "Nick Drake – "Plaisir d'amour"". Discogs. November 2012. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- "Love Affair (1939) – IMDb". IMDb.
- Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Love Affair (1939) – "Plaisir D'Amour" – via YouTube.
- "The Heiress (1949) – IMDb". IMDb.
- "My God Loves Me", godsongs.net
- "Can't Help Falling in Love", songfacts.com
- "Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973)" by Charles Matthews, 21 September 2016, charlesmatthews.blogspot.com
- ""Band of Brothers" the Breaking Point (TV Episode 2001) – IMDb". IMDb.
External links
- "Plaisir d'amour": Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Plaisir d' amour, hundreds of renditions by hundreds of artists, MusicMe.com
- Plaisir d'amour on YouTube, sung by Rina Ketty (1939)
- "Plaisir d'amour" ou petite histoire d'une romance de plus de 200 ans, history, sheet music and MIDI file, by Denis Havard de la Montagne (in French)
