Pauline Duchambge

The poem La Jalouse (The Jealous One) was first published in Desbordes-Valmore's collection Papillon (1834) under the title La Fuite (The Escape), also in Pauvres Fleurs (1839). The poem has three stanzas of "huitains" (eight lines). The rhyme scheme of the stanzas is ABAB CDCD. The agitated introduction in C minor, with sixteenth-note triplets, establishes the mood. In the first phrase (bars 5–12), setting a sad, somber text, the melody begins in a narrow range, harmonised with a C minor broken chord. The melody glides up the scale on "glissant," and the phrase ends in E flat major. In verse three, these ascending notes triumphantly proclaim "I am the ungrateful one!" In the following unstable section (bars 13–18) in the minor dominant, the melody leaps up and down large intervals, portraying bouncing footsteps (verse 1) and turmoil (verse 2). The melody moves up a seventh to F, harmonised with a dominant-seventh chord, as the text commands "Ne fuis pas encore" (Do not flee yet). The melody descends, as the words say there is more to be told. One ("I am the ungrateful") is repeated in an Andantino section (bars 18–23), set triumphantly in C major with a disjunct line and joyous triplets, leading to a C-minor interlude (bars 23–26) that sets the mood for the following verse. For verses 2 and 3, Duchambge makes slight adjustments in the rhythm to set the words appropriately.

Le Jardin de ma fenêtre (The Garden by my Window) describes a flower garden and hedgerow in April, and a sailor returning home. The poet, Desbordes-Valmore, loved flowers and decorated the balconies and windows of her apartments with flowers. The poem has four stanzas, huitains, and the rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD. The first half of the poem (bars 1–16), beginning without introduction, is set simply with tonic and dominant chords in A flat major. The melody is mostly stepwise, setting a peaceful scene of nature in each verse: the flower garden by the window, the evening swallow returning, the lamp lit for the returning sailor. The middle section (bars 17–24) is unstable with complex harmonies, leading to a return to the tonic. The melodic line in bars 25–31 ascends by a fifth, then moves gradually to the tonic as the words describe unsteady plants, a trembling hedgerow (or heart), and a flickering flame. The final melodic line is disjunct, accompanied by a series of secondary dominants, before landing on the tonic. The text reflects on two plants that are separated (representing two people), questions the significance of the returning swallow, and describes the lamp and flowers set out as a beacon for the sailor. The final four bars, serving as an interlude to the following verse, are stable with dominant and tonic chords over a tonic pedal. A new rhythmic figure in sixteenth notes is introduced, giving the song a pleasant motion.

Adieu tout (Farewell All), another poem by Desbordes-Valmore, has three stanzas of quatrains in an ABBA rhyme scheme with a two-line refrain. Duchambge's setting begins with an agitated section in F minor with tonic, dominant, and diminished broken chords over a dominant pedal (bars 1–8). The melody descends stepwise through the minor scale, recalling the sweet memory of love, then leaps up an octave, proclaiming the separation. The three verses are set in F major, with complex harmonies using the submediant, secondary dominants, and diminished chords. The melodic line begins simply with an undulating major third, then ascends a sixth before descending in the D harmonic minor scale. The melody then rises stepwise to E as verses 2 and 3 speak of going to heaven, then descends to the tonic. The final four bars, leading back to the F minor opening, have scales in contrary motion and reaffirm the F-major tonic.[8]