Sheet music
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G12052
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The folk song Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre comes from the old vaudevilles, but its actual origin is uncertain. The satirical lyrics recount the death in 1722 of John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, who was victorious against Louis XIV in the War of the Spanish Succession. Today, it is impossible to explain why this song suddenly became so very popular after 1783 and enjoyed this popularity throughout the following decades. It is said that Napoleon hummed the melody every time before going into battle. The song was also used by Beethoven in Wellington’s Victory (op. 91, 1813) to characterise the situation in the French camp. We do not know what inspired Bousquet to take up this melody, but the idea may have been derived from the famous variations for violin and piano on the same tune, composed by Adolphe Herman1 in 1856. The clownish, exuberant character of this piece made it a resounding success right from the date of publication. Newspapers report that Bousquet played his own composition of an Air varié for the first time as early as 4 and 5 July of the following year, 1857, in the Concert Musard. The successful operetta Le Page de Malborough by Frédéric Barbier, composed in 1858 for the Folies-Nouvelles, may have been another source of inspiration. Bousquet was well acquainted with the compositions of Herman and Barbier as he had already published several arrangements by these composers. But whatever the origin, the playful character of Bousquet’s variations obviously springs from the merry world of fools and requires a diversity of musical interpretation.
Bousquet’s Air varié sur Malborough was published in two parts. The first was published in 1860 and contained solo parts for flageolet or flute and for cornet à piston together with the piano accompaniment. Two years later, a complete set of parts for a large orchestra was published as an accompaniment to the solo part as well as a septet version which has since been lost. The fact that Bousquet’s music was preserved at all is due to a law which obliged all music publishers to leave a copy of each printed work to the Imperial library and to the library of the Conservatoire in Paris. These prints are now preserved in the music department of the French National Library in Paris.
This edition is based on the print numbered VM9-1492, which consists of the solo part for flageolet and the piano score, which also includes the flageolet part. A comparison reveals various minor and a few major discrepancies between the separate solo part and the flageolet part in the piano score. The present edition has been based on this piano score as it is practically error-free. The additional articulation signs in the separate solo part were also adopted. On the basis of parallel passages and practical experience, a performer can easily add any missing articulation signs. This seems to have been taken for granted by Bousquet himself, as this “carelessness” is typical of all his editions. He relied on the experience and musicality of the performer instead of prescribing every last detail, thus avoiding an overload of notation.
The orchestral version (VM7-10562) was also consulted in order to clarify doubtful passages. It seems obvious that the work was first composed for flageolet and orchestra. Nevertheless, the arrangement for piano cannot merely be regarded as a simple piano reduction, but rather as a version in its own right, compiled by Bousquet with special care. In this edition, the Air varié sur Malborough was transposed a whole tone down from D major to C major making it playable for an alto or sopranino recorder. The editor’s report contains details of the necessary changes made.
Translation: Catherine Taylor
Michel Quagliozzi, May 2022 in Nice
Composer(s):
Publisher(s):
Publishernumber:
G12052
Instrument(s):
ISBN:
9790500840848
Number:
931760
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