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SEGALEN (Victor). Orphée-Roi. Paris: Georges Crès et Cie, Le…
See original version (French)
SEGALEN (Victor). Orphée-Roi. Paris: Georges Crès et Cie, Le…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 109
SEGALEN (Victor).
Orphée-Roi.
Paris: Georges Crès et Cie, Le théâtre d'art, 1921. - In-8, 235 x 171: frontispiece, (2 ff.), VI pp, (2 ff.), 131 pp, (2 ff.), printed cover. Paperback, untrimmed, filled cover.
First edition, published posthumously, of this lyrical drama in 5 acts, written in collaboration with Claude Debussy.
Victor Segalen, a musician and admirer of Claude Debussy, collaborated with him on a lyrical drama inspired by Orpheus after their meeting in 1906. An article by Segalen in 1907 aroused Debussy's interest, and he saw in this myth an "unheard-of" potential. Between 1907 and 1908, Segalen wrote Orphée-triomphant, a human and conflicted version of the myth, centred on "lyrical incomprehension". Debussy, enthusiastic, suggested adjustments to strengthen the role of the crowd and streamline the style.
Despite fruitful exchanges, the project ran out of steam: Debussy, who was ill, gave up in 1916, believing that "one cannot make Orpheus sing, for he is the song itself". Segalen completed a final version alone in 1916, but both men died (Debussy in 1918, Segalen in 1919) before it was published.
Their collaboration, combining poetry and music, aimed to create a work in which "words sacrifice themselves to the future hymn". Segalen describes the work as a quest for "incantation of syllables" and "musical lyricism", in which "a voice singing on its own" should have sealed their joint artistic testament. The project remained unfinished, a testament to their radical aesthetic ambition.
The edition is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece based on a composition by the painter Gustave MOREAU, and 9 woodcuts in the text by George-Daniel de MONFREID (1856-1929), a painter whom Segalen met under the auspices of Paul Gauguin.
Edition of 1,430 copies. This is one of the 30 first off-market copies on large Tribut paper (no. 4, one of 15 with large margins), enriched with a second proof of the frontispiece on blue paper.
A very well preserved copy, despite the slightly sunned cover.
See original version (French)
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