Plaisir d'amour

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"Plaisir d'amour" ([plɛ.ziʁ da.muʁ], "Pleasure of love") is a classical French love song written in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (1741–1816); it took its text from a poem by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794), which appears in his novel Célestine.

Music by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini (1741–1816)
Lyrics by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794)

The song was greatly successful in Martini's version. For example, a young woman, Madame Julie Charles, sang it to the poet Alphonse de Lamartine during his cure at Aix-les-Bains in 1816, and the poet was to recall it 30 years later.[1]

Hector Berlioz arranged it for orchestra (H134) in 1859.[2] Louis van Waefelghem arranged the tune for viola d'amore or viola and piano in the 1880s.[citation needed] It has been arranged and performed in various pop music settings.

Recordings

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The tune is heavily featured as a theme to the 1939 feature film Love Affair starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, with Dunne also performing the song within her role as a singer[13][14]

The song served as the main theme of, and was sung by Montgomery Clift in, the 1949 movie The Heiress.[15]

The opening sequence of the Christmas comedy film We're No Angels (1955), directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, contains the song "Ma France Bien-Aimée" which borrows the music of "Plaisir d'amour".

The melodies for Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1961) and the 20th century Christian hymn "My God Loves Me" are based on "Plaisir d'amour".[16][17]

Mado Robin's version of the song plays in Djibril Diop Mambéty's 1973 film Touki Bouki when Nori and Anta go to visit a rich patron's estate in order to convince him to fund their trip to Paris. It is repeated a few times more throughout the remainder of the film.[18][importance of example(s)?]

A church choir performs this song for exhausted members of Easy Company in the episode entitled "The Breaking Point" in HBO's acclaimed miniseries Band of Brothers.[19]

In the 1966 movie Batman, the song was being performed by an on-stage singer (Julie Gregg) in a romantic restaurant that Bruce Wayne (Adam West) had unwittingly taken Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) to on a date, thinking she was the Russian journalist "Kitayna Ireyna Tatanya Kerenska Alisoff".

References

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  1. ^ Vojislav Mate Jovanović "La Guzla" de Prosper Mérimée: étude d'histoire romantique 1910 p. 136 "Les paroles de Florian furent mises en musique par Martini, l'auteur de Plaisir d'Amour; cette traduction obtint un grand succès en France. En 1816, Mm° Charles la chantait à Lamartine, et le poète du Lac, trente ans plus tard, déclarait dans une page de Raphaël qu'il ne pouvait entendre sans pleurer les vers de cette touchante ballade : Quand les moutons sont dans la bergerie, .."
  2. ^ Berlioz: Musical and Literary Works (list of reference editions)
  3. ^ "Plaisir d'amour", Martini – Jean Davon – T. Henriotti (alias for Gustave Kahn)
  4. ^ Paul Robeson: The Complete EMI Sessions (1928–1939) "Plaisir d'amour" (2008 remastered version) Video on YouTube
  5. ^ "Joan Baez – "Plaisir d'amour"". Discogs. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  6. ^ The Seekers All Bound For Morningtown (Their EMI Recordings 1964-1968) "Plaisir d'amour" Opens full album on Spotify, Plaisir d'amour is #10 Last Accessed 2018-09-25
  7. ^ "Mary Hopkin – Pleserau Serch – Plaisir D'Amour". Discogs.
  8. ^ Tracklist, Les grandes chansons françaises (retrieved 2018-12-2)
  9. ^ "Chanson D'Amour". The King's Singers. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  10. ^ Classic Folk at AllMusic
  11. ^ Nana & Friends – Rendez-vous at Discogs
  12. ^ "Nick Drake – "Plaisir d'amour"". Discogs. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Love Affair (1939) – IMDb". IMDb.
  14. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Love Affair (1939) – "Plaisir D'Amour" – via YouTube.
  15. ^ "The Heiress (1949) – IMDb". IMDb.
  16. ^ "My God Loves Me", godsongs.net
  17. ^ "Can't Help Falling in Love", songfacts.com
  18. ^ "Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty, 1973)" by Charles Matthews, 21 September 2016, charlesmatthews.blogspot.com
  19. ^ ""Band of Brothers" the Breaking Point (TV Episode 2001) – IMDb". IMDb.
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