BEAUTÉ

Home 9 Composers 9 Jean-Charles Côté 9 BEAUTE

Beauté (Beauty) is based on a poem from Avancées vers l’invisible by Fernand Ouellette (published by Éditions de l’Hexagone in 2015). The idea of “transfiguration” permeates all of the poet’s works, which extol the virtues of his wife. The music is simple and tonal. Its atmosphere is calm and serene, its character expressive. It is written for choirs at the intermediate or advanced level. The piece was premiered on November 5, 2017, by the Choeur de Chambre du Québec at Église St-Georges in Montreal.

Tu as repris ta beauté première
Sans une seule ombre.
Ton âme va du même pas,
De la même poussée
Que le soleil ascendant,
Au-delà du foisonnement
De tout divers.

Oui, ton corps te reviendra
Jubilant de la naissance de l’aube,
Transfiguré, sans terme…
Chantent déjà les élus
Dans les moindres secrets
De la paix, de la glorification
Qui va nous transfigurer.

translation

You have reclaimed your original beauty
Without a single shadow.
Your soul follows,
With the same momentum
As the rising sun,
Beyond abundance
Of all varieties.

Yes, your body will return to you
Exulting the birth of dawn,
Transfigured without end …
The chosen already intone
The sligh secrets
Of peace, of glorification
That shall have us transfigured.