Yamada, Kōsaku : PIERRETTE. PETIT FLEUR DE CAMELIA
Work Overview
Instrumentation：Piano Solo
Genre：Various works
Total Playing Time：1 min 00 sec
Copyright：Public Domain
Commentary (2)
Author : Maruyama, Yoko
Last Updated: March 28, 2018
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Author : Maruyama, Yoko
Context of "Petits Poèmes"
Following his series "Poèmes for Piano," around 1915, Yamada began composing short piano pieces designated as "Petits Poèmes," each bearing a date. According to Goto (Kōsaku Yamada: Not Creating but Giving Birth, Tokyo: Minerva Shobo, 2014), Yamada referred to these "Petits Poèmes" as "a page from a diary," positioning them as "a diary in sound." Subsequently, poetic titles gradually began to be assigned to his works, and from pieces composed after "Petit Poème No. 9" in 1916, only lyrical titles were given. The works from 1917, such as "Just Flow" and "A Flower in a Vase," are examples of this trend.
About "A Flower in a Vase"
Composed the day after "Just Flow," this piece was dedicated to Etsuko Terasaki.
The program note explains that Yamada, captivated by the charm of a camellia in a friend's garden, placed it in a vase on his piano. As he was about to begin playing, the affection he felt for the flower was expressed along with a short poem. It is worth noting that "A Flower in a Vase" and several other works bear French titles, which Goto speculates might be an indication of Yamada's awareness of Impressionistic works.
Author : Maruyama, Yoko
Last Updated: April 18, 2018
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Author : Maruyama, Yoko
Pierette, petit fleur de camélia was composed the day after Abandonnez-vous à la fortune was completed, and is also dedicated to Etsuko Terasaki.
Following the series Poems for a Piano he wrote, Yamada began to write piano pieces with the title ‘petit poème’ as well as a date. According to Goto, Yamada considered these ‘petit poème’ like “one page in a diary for tones.” While the first piece titles in this series included their date and only a part of them had poetic titles, after Petit Poem No. 9 (composed 1916), however, he began to give only poetic titles, without their dates, to each piece. The pieces from 1917 like Abandonnez-vous à la fortune, Pierette, petit fleur de camélia etc. are examples of such works.
In the program notes, with a short poem he described his intimacy felt just on beginning a performance to a camellia flower. The flower, which he found in his friend’s garden, charmed him to pick it out. Then he quickly put it in a vase on top of the piano.
Yamada gave some pieces, including Pierette, petit fleur de camélia, titles in French language, which may represent Yamada’s awareness of French impressionism, as Goto assumes.
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