In this short article, the author hopes that if readers have heard the orchestral music of Raymond Lefèvre (abbreviated: RL), they will remember an outstanding orchestrator and arranger. If not, then please find out and listen to a few dozen of his most excellent pieces.
Biography
According to the book “Les Arrangeurs de la Chanson Française” by Serge Elhaik, published in 2018, Raymond Lefèvre was born on November 20, 1929, almost a century ago. He grew up in a family that, although not middle class, was very fond of music. His father knew how to play the clarinet, piano and cello. RL studied flute and piano from a young age, he won first prize in both instruments in his locality (Calais) as well as first prize in music theory. Realizing that Calais did not have the means to continue his studies, he asked his parents to let him go to Paris to study in 1946, when he was only 16 years old. He later passed the entrance exam to the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Music” in Paris.
Knowing that his parents did not have enough money to support his education, in the second month he began to ask to play piano for dance bands and orchestras in Paris. He gradually became interested in playing popular music and jazz, and in 1949 he became the pianist and arranger for the Hubert Rostaings band, and a few years later became the pianist for the Bernard Hilda band, which at that time was the most famous lounge band in Paris. He also followed Bernard Hilda to play music throughout Italy, Spain, Monte Carlo, and the United States.
Around the mid-1950s, RL met Franck Pourcel, a musician whose orchestra had become famous and who recorded with Pathé–Marconi. Franck asked RL to write arrangements for some of the band's music as well as being his pianist. Through Franck, RL was introduced to Paul Mauriat, the beginning of a close friendship between the three of them.
In 1956, RL decided to form his own band under the name «Raymond Lefèvre et son grand orchestra». He also signed a contract as conductor for the Barclay company, responsible for writing orchestrations for new singers, the first of whom was none other than the lovely singer Dalida, with many famous songs such as « Bambino », « Love in Portofino », « O Sole Mio », « La Chanson d'Orphée », etc. In addition, he was also a conductor and composer for TV programs from the late 1950s to the early 1970s such as « Musicorama », « Palmarès des Chansons », « Cadet Rousselle ». In addition, he also composed the soundtrack for the 6-volume series "Les Gendarmes de Saint-Tropez", starring the great actor Louis de Funès, and several subsequent films.
Figure 1 – Raymond Lefèvre's official albums – Source: https://www.grandorchestras.com/lefevre
It was not until 1972, when he had become famous all over the world, especially in Japan with the song "La Reine de Saba", which he was invited to tour all over Japan for many years, that he slowed down his tremendous workload, and solely focused on composing for the orchestra that bears his name. The 1970s and 1980s continued to witness his achievements in orchestration with his albums of French, American, British, Italian music, and the renewal of classical music with albums such as "Soul Symphonies 1, 2, 3 & 4", "Back to Bach", etc. His best arrangements have been the companions of many music listeners such as myself, from the mid-1950s until today and forever in the future ...
In the 1990s, he wrote less and began to compose several CDs with his second son, Jean-Michel Lefèvre. In the early 2000s, he let his son continue to tour Japan several times. He passed away on August 27, 2008, at the age of 78.
The above is a short biography of Mr. Raymond Lefèvre, which very few people outside of France and Japan know. Only after the author Serge Elhaik published the book "Les Arrangeurs de la Chanson Française" with 2158 pages and over two hundred interviews (!), international music lovers then had the opportunity to learn about the biographies and compositional processes of the "giants" of French music arrangements such as Franck Pourcel, RL, Caravelli, Vladimir Cosma, Gérard Gambus, Christian Gaubert and Jean Musy (who arranged the music for Francis Lai), André Popp, etc.
Going back in history through the arrangements of Raymond Lefèvre
Going back to explore the music from the 1960s to the early 1990s, listeners find the gems of a golden age of popular music, with a very elegant style of RL. Not only do we find British and American music like The Beatles, but we also hear French, Italian, and classical music rejuvenated with electric guitar, bass and drums. Typical are British and American songs such as “Strangers in the Night”, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, “The World We Know”, “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, “We Shall Dance”, “Let Me Try Again”, etc. We also see that RL is very fond of French music, sending listeners many excellent songs such as: « La Boheme », « Un Homme et une Femme », « Love me, Please Love me », « Ame Caline (Soul Coaxing) », « La Reine de Saba », « 13 Jours en France », « Que Je t'aime », « La Musica », « Viens Viens », « Rien Qu'une Larme », and many, many more …
After RL stopped making new CDs, Victor Entertainment company made a set of “The Best of Raymond Lefèvre“. They were indeed containing most of the best works of RL, most notably on Italian music, French music (the genre « classic chanson »), and Classical music rejuvenated (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 - Cover images of some selected CDs produced by Japan - Source: personal documents.
- French Chanson : a compilation CD titled « Hymne a L'amour », with immortal « chansons » like « Les Feuilles Mortes », « La Boheme », « La Mer », « La Vie En Rose », « L'important C'est La Rose », etc.
- Italian music : a CD compilation entitled « Da Troppo Tempo » with the above song and other contemporary songs such as « Io Che Non Vivo », « Un Grand Amore E Niente Piu », « Parole-Parole », etc.
- Classical Music popularized with the discs « Raymond Lefèvre Pop Classical »: « Le Canon de Pachebel », « Aria de Bach », « Concerto Pour Une Voix », etc.
Raymond Lefèvre's Musical Style
If we can compare the two musical styles of Paul Mauriat (PM) and RL in general, PM's orchestral music somewhat has a mathematical precision, like the music of JS Bach, while Raymond Lefèvre's can be compared to a certain school of architecture, which makes us feel very comfortable to live in. Raymond's music does not have the outstanding intelligence, "genius" appearance like WA Mozart, but I find his music has nuances like LV Beethoven, more subtle, more introspective than the music of Bach or Mozart.
After listening to many scattered youtube and mp3s of songs that I don't have the CD, plus songs from 10 CDs that I bought nearly 30 years ago during my first visit to Paris, there are about 40 songs that I really like, the most typical of the following music genre:
- · Contemporary French Music : Après Toi , Sans Toi Je Suis Seul , Je T'aime - Moi Non Plus , Chez Laurette , Il Neige Sur Yesterday , Eux , La Reine De Saba , Emmanuelle , Goodbye Marylou , Belle Ile En Mer , La Maison Est En Ruine , Concerto Pour Une Voix , 13 Jours En France , Viens Viens , Un Jour Un Enfant , Que Je T'aime , Deux Amis Pour Un Amour , Mourir D'aimer , Une simple mélodie.
- · Italian Music : Io Che Non Vivo , Da Troppo Tempo , Un Grand Amore E Niente Piu , Paroles-Paroles , Storie Di Tutti I Giorni , Donna Con Te , Le Colline Sono In Fiore, Qui Saura .
- · European and American music : Let Me Try Again , Yesterday Once More , Little Girl , Save Your Kisses For Me , AW hi ter Shade Of Pale , We Shall Dance , Hotel California.
- · Popularized Classical Music : Adagio De La Sonate Pathetique De Beethoven , Adagio Du Concerto En Do Mineur De Marcello , Aria De Bach , Le Canon De Pachelbel .
The above songs are the best in my opinion, of course there are many other songs about French music "chansons" that are also good but I don't like the melody as much as the above songs.
The common feature of these harmonies is that they all have at least two or three melodies: the main melody of the song, and one or more secondary melodies, alternating with the main one to enhance it or create a harmony that makes the song very balanced in. The listeners thus feel very comfortable, pleasant, and safe. These secondary melodies have layers, a clear structure, not arbitrary. Mr. Raymond has a very scientific way of filling in the gaps between musical phrases, I never found the music loose, there is always this, that, complementing each other. I will let you to discover for yourself how RL plays the above songs, because words cannot convey the satisfaction and joy when listening to RL's music.
Raymond Lefèvre's music: timeless or will be forgotten?
In my observations, the Japanese have bought the copyrights to release all the LPs and CDs that RL made. They have slowly released them, first exclusively in their own country, with selected music discs labeled "compilations", "the best of", "deluxe", in which the song titles must be in Japanese first, as shown in Figure 3 below. When buying discs produced in Japan as I just mentioned above, if I want to see the song titles appear on my iPhone, I have to replace the Japanese characters with the original song titles, which is very time-consuming.
Figure 3 - The contents of the CDs are all written in Japanese first - Source: personal document.
When asked by Serge Elhaik during his lifetime whether Raymond's orchestra ever performed in major opera houses in France, Raymond replied, "Never!" He added that Paul Mauriat suffered the same fate, that his music and that of other "giants" such as Franck Pourcel and Caravelli were only popular with international audiences, while the French people were indifferent! What a pity!
After seeing a French music producer – Mr. Stéphane Lerouge – he is very vital and influential in collecting / curating the assets of the old musical masters to create Collections such as Ennio Morricone 1 & 2 , then Michel Legrand , then Francis Lai , I often wonder why Mr. Stéphane does not make a collection of Raymond Lefèvre to sell to international music collectors? Why let a musical treasure of a French musician fall into the hands of the Japanese, causing the French people and the world to suffer? Victor Entertainment has stopped producing Raymond Lefèvre records for more than 15 years now, and if they sell them again, it will only be on their domestic market.
Figure 4 – two CD collections of Maestro Ennio Morricone, curated by Mr. Stéphane Lerouge (18 CDs for Vol 1 and 14 CDs for Vol 2.)
Exactly ten years ago (2014), when I finished my third article on Paul Mauriat's orchestral music, I still regretted that I had listened to Raymond Lefèvre's music as much as PM's, but had not written a single article about him. This year, on the occasion my yearly holiday retreat, I made up my mind to write an article about RL, sharing my feelings about the pain of not being able to collect the original discs (LPs or CDs) which RL himself published. Thank you for your time in reading this far.
Best regards,
Hoctro
12/25/2024
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References
1. “ Les Arrangeurs de la Chanson Française » - Serge Elhaik. Textuel published 2018.
2. Raymond Lefèvre’s Fan website: https://www.grandorchestras.com/lefevre
3. Victor Entertainment's Raymond Lefèvre Discography page (in Japanese). The CDs were released only once, mostly in 2009, and were sold only in Japan. They are now out of print. If one wants to buy used CDs on Ebay, they average about $90 a disc.
https://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/-/Discographylist/A002476.html
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