These are more like two poems then tales. They are part of a cycle of poems written by Aloysius Bertrand.The poems inspired Maurice Ravel to transcribe the poems in music. It resulted three solos for piano famous for their difficulty.
I added the piece named Scarbo for the atmosphere.
I added some info about Bertrand and the musical poems of Ravel.
THE GOTHIC CHAMBER
by Aloysius Bertrand
Translated by Michael Benedikt
"Nox et solitudo plenae sunt diabolo."
-- The Church Fathers --
"At night, my room is full of devils."
"Oh! the earth"--I murmured into the night--"is a perfumed flower whose pistel and stamens are the moon and the stars!"
And, eyes heavy with sleep, I closed my window inlaid with the cross of Calvary, outlined in black among the yellow haloes of the stained glass.
*
Oh were it only on this midnight--this traditional time for dragons and devils!--some little gnome once again, drunken from drinking the oil of my lamp!
Were it only some wetnurse droning a dismal lullaby, and rocking a tiny, still-born baby in the hollow of my father's breast-plate.
Were it only the skeleton of the old swordsman imprisoned in the wall-paneling, and banging on it with his forehead, elbow, and knee!
Were it only my grandsire stepping down full-figure from his worm-eaten frame, and dipping his gauntlet in the holy-water fount.
But no: Instead it's Scarbo, gnawing away at my neck, and then cauterizing my bloody wound by thrusting out one iron finger--red-hot from the fireplace--straight out into it!
SCARBO
by Aloysius Bertrand
Translated by Michael Benedikt
"Dear Lord, at the hour of my death,
give me the prayers of a priest, a linen shroud, a coffin made of pine
and a nice dry place."
--The Paternosters of a General
"Whether you die absolved or damned," muttered Scarbo into my ear that night, "your shroud shall be a spiderweb,
and I'll wrap up the spider right in there with you!
"Oh, let my shroud at least be"--I replied, with eyes red from so much weeping--some trembling leaf in whose hollow
the breezes of the lake may rock me!"
"No!" snickered that scoffing dwarf, "you shall be a feast for some dung-beetle who comes creeping out at dusk
to hunt down gnats blinded by the setting sun!"
Sobbing, more in tears than ever, I bitterly replied--"I suppose you'd like it still better yet were a tarantula with a stinger the size of an elephant's trunk to suck the living daylights out of me?"
"Now, now, console yourself," he interrupted, "for your shroud you shall have speckled bands of golden snake-skin,
in which I'll wrap you up as snug as any mummy."
"And from the shadowy crypt of Saint Benigne, where propped up against one wall we'll bury you bolt upright,
you'll be able to hear to your heart's content the weeping of little children in Limbo."
*****
About Aloysius Bertrand:
Louis-Jacques-Napoléon “Aloysius” Bertrand (20 April 1807 – 29 April 1841) was a French poet instrumental in the introduction of the prose poem into French literature and is credited with inspiring later Symbolist poets [1]. He wrote a collection of poems entitled Gaspard de la nuit, after which composer Maurice Ravel wrote a suite of the same name, based on the poems "Scarbo", "Ondine", and "Le Gibet".
Bertrand was born in Ceva, Piedmont, Italy (then a part of Napoleonic France) and his family settled in Dijon in 1814. There he developed an interest in the Burgundian capital. His contributions to a local paper lead to recognition by Victor Hugo and Sainte-Beuve. He lived in Paris shortly with little success. He returned to Dijon and continued writing for local newspapers. Gaspard was sold in 1836 but it wasn't published until 1842 after his death of tuberculosis. The book was rediscovered by Charles Baudelaire and Stéphane Mallarmé. It is now considered a classic of poetic and fantastic literature. He died in Paris.
About Ravel`s musical poem:
Gaspard de la nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand is a piece for solo piano by Maurice Ravel. It has three movements, each based on a poem by Aloysius Bertrand. The work was premiered on January 9, 1909 in Paris by Ricardo Viñes.
The piece is famous for its incredible difficulty, partly due to the fact that Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev's Islamey. Because of its technical difficulty and profound musical structure, it is popularly considered to be one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire.
The manuscript currently resides in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of The University of Texas at Austin.
1. Ondine is an oneiric tale of a water fairy singing to seduce the observer and accompany her to visit her kingdom deep at the bottom of the lake in the triangle of water, fire and earth. It is reminiscent of the tinkling of the water in a stream, woven with cascades. This movement was intended to describe the water sprite in Aloysius Bertrand's poem, attempting to lure men into her domain. This piece contains technical problems for the right hand such as wild cadenza figures, fast repetition of three-note chords, rapid chromatic runs and melodies of intervals played with one hand.
2. Le Gibet, an eerie work in which the observer wonders at the scene he's witnessing. "It is a bell tinting at the walls of a city under the horizon and the carcass of a hanged man reddened by the setting sun". This piece contains over 20 different styles and textures in terms of melody, however, the repeating B-flats (played 153 times) must remain in the same style, that is like sad tolling bells for a man being lynched in the distance.
3. Scarbo, a small fiend — half goblin, half ghost — making pirouettes, disappearing and scaring a person in his home. Scarbo could stand for "scarabée", a beetle. Its uneven flight, hitting and scratching against the panels of the bed, casting a growing shadow under the moonlight creates a nightmarish scene for the observer lying in his bed. With its repeated notes and two terrifying climaxes, this movement is the high-point of technical difficulty of the three movements. It gives an impression of the fiendish mischief committed by a ghostly imp during the night, fading in and out of vision while changing forms, which is portrayed in the difficult crescendos. The technical difficulties of the piece are wildly arpeggiated figures for both hands, frequent crossing of hands at large intervals, and fast moving melody lines made of chords.
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