Berceuses du chat

Berceuses du chat, K022 by Igor Stravinsky is a 1915 cycle of four songs for a medium voice, usually a contralto, and three clarinetists. The work is usually referred to by its French title. Although it is often sung in Russian, Stravinsky assisted his friend, the Swiss author C. F. Ramuz, to make a translation into French at the time of publication. The cycle is set for contralto and three clarinettists: E clarinet; A clarinet, and a B bass clarinet.

Songs

The titles of the four songs are:
The French titles for songs 2 to 4 are not translations; nos 2 and 3 are poetic titles, no. 4 is the French incipit. The cat is a male cat – кот, not кошка.

History

The Berceuses du chat were composed in 1915/16 while Stravinsky was living in Clarens, Switzerland, during World [War I]. Helmut Kirchmeyer states that the texts are based on Russian folksongs, but the melodies are Stravinsky's.
Stravinsky dedicated the work to Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov.
The cycle was first published in Geneva by Adolphe Henn in 1917, and subsequently reissued by J. W. Chester in 1923 with Russian, French and German texts.

Premières

Berceuses du chat was first heard in Paris on November 20, 1918, in a program that also included the slightly earlier Pribaoutki; both works were accompanied by piano in this performance. The first performance with clarinets was given in Vienna on June 6, 1919, at a concert of Arnold Schoenberg's Society for Private Musical Performances. Again, the program also included the Pribaoutki.