{"id":1881,"date":"2026-06-17T07:52:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlottesohy.fr\/?page_id=1881"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:45:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:45:30","slug":"ecrits","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/charlottesohy.fr\/en\/ecrits\/","title":{"rendered":"Writings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Writings<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Charlotte Sohy was not only a musician \u2014 she was also a writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As early as 1905, at just eighteen, she wrote the text of her\u00a0Berceuse triste<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Op. 1, where a mother\u2019s anxiety for her child mingles with the longing for an absent father and the muted threat of the call of the sea..
This was followed in 1908 by the lyrics of her\u00a0Chants de la Lande<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Op. 4, where bards, sprites, fairies, and wandering souls inhabit a fantastical world steeped in Breton legends.
In 1911, she wrote the text of her\u00a0Po\u00e8me<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Op. 8, for contralto, baritone, choir, and orchestra: a meditation on a plain once ravaged by battle and now fertile again, where the voices of fallen soldiers return to soothe an old man haunted by their memory \u2014 a text which, composed on the eve of the First World War, resonates today with particular force.
She then wrote the libretto for\u00a0B\u00e9reng\u00e8re<\/strong><\/em>, a lyric drama composed by her husband Marcel Labey, before writing the libretto for her own lyric drama, Astrid<\/strong><\/em>, inspired by a short story by Selma Lagerl\u00f6f.
Her\u00a0M\u00e9ditations<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Op. 18, appeared in 1922: three pieces of spiritual and intimate character, in which the soul yields to trust in God through images of water, childhood, and rediscovered light.
In 1938 came her\u00a0Conseils \u00e0 la mari\u00e9e<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Op. 26, where she reveals her sense of humor, slipping in \u2014 with tender mischief \u2014 the subtle art of guiding a husband without his noticing.
Finally, in 1953, she wrote and composed the\u00a0Cantique \u00e0 Sainte Claire<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Op. 35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But her literary talent extended far beyond music. Charlotte Sohy also left numerous writings \u2014 memoirs, short stories, a novel, several plays, and even a film script \u2014 rediscovered in a box kept by her daughter Gis\u00e8le, labeled\u00a0Souvenirs de mes parents<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recollections<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The salon of Mme de Saint-Marceaux<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From 1909 to 1930, Charlotte Sohy and her husband Marcel Labey were regular guests at one of the last great Parisian musical salons: that of Marguerite de Saint\u2011Marceaux. Every Friday evening, in her private townhouse, this renowned salonni\u00e8re gathered \u2014 in a lively, informal atmosphere \u2014 some of the most prominent artists of the Belle \u00c9poque and the interwar period: Faur\u00e9, Ravel, Debussy, d\u2019Indy, Messager, Roussel, and many others, who came to play, listen, or simply converse among peers.
In 1954, at the age of sixty\u2011seven, Charlotte Sohy set down her memories of those evenings: Ravel trying out the piano reduction of\u00a0La Valse<\/em>, Messager moved to tears by the\u00a0Tristan<\/em> prelude, a memorable blunder over a Monteverdi translation in front of her teacher Vincent d\u2019Indy\u2026\nPublished here in full for the first time, this text is the only written account in which Charlotte Sohy speaks about music \u2014 though never about her own. It is a precious document, illuminating both the artistic effervescence of a vanished salon and the discreet yet active place Charlotte Sohy herself occupied within it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Order<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Paris-Perros-Guirec, 1944<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In late June 1944, while Paris remained under German occupation after the Allied landings, Charlotte Sohy and her husband Marcel Labey took twelve days to leave the capital and reach their daughter Josette, who had taken refuge near Saumur. The journey, full of comic mishaps, involved makeshift trucks and even a wheelbarrow lent by a miller. After six weeks of respite with the Dominican sisters of Blou \u2014 punctuated by a few concerts given for the community \u2014 the couple set off again at the end of August to return to their house in Perros\u2011Guirec, Brittany, encountering yet more adventures along the way.
Charlotte Sohy recorded this double journey with verve, in a text intended for her grandchildren, \u201cknown and unknown.\u201d A lively, humorous account that ends with the relief of finding their Perros home intact \u2014 spared, Charlotte believed, by the protection of Notre\u2011Dame de la Clart\u00e9.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Novel and Tales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Marie-Claire de Lucigny<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

NOVEL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marie-Claire de Lucigny<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0immerses the reader in the high society of the early twentieth century. Raised in solitude after her aunt\u2019s death, the heroine discovers at the age of twenty that her mother\u2014whom she believed long gone\u2014is in fact alive, a worldly and elegant countess living in Paris. Music accompanies Marie\u2011Claire at every turn of this new life: at a society dinner, she astonishes the guests by volunteering on the spot to replace a missing accompanist, earning a success that sparks as much jealousy as admiration; later, it is through her impassioned performance of Beethoven\u2019s Sonata \u00ab\u00a0Path\u00e9tique\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>, which deeply moves her listener, that she reveals for the first time the depth of her feelings.
But beyond the plot, the novel reveals above all the intimate world of its author. Charlotte Sohy transposes into it her own universe: Parisian salons, the art of declamation, religious fervor, her passion for music and literature, and life at the Ch\u00e2teau du Buisson de May. Marie-Claire de Lucigny<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0thus emerges as a work where imagination and life intertwine, offering the reader a vivid portrait of Charlotte Sohy herself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
Order<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Old Years - Young Faces<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

TALES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Madonna of the Cliff<\/strong> \u2013 For a Mother<\/strong> \u2013 Too Beautiful<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Gathered under the title Old Years \u2013 Young Faces<\/strong><\/em>, these three tales were written by Charlotte Sohy in a school notebook belonging to her daughter H\u00e9l\u00e8ne. The title page announces four stories, but the last one, The Song of the Ford<\/strong><\/em>, is lost \u2014 or perhaps was never written.
Each tale unfolds in a distinct historical setting.\u00a0The Madonna of the Cliff<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0takes us to early\u2011twentieth\u2011century Brittany, where the life of an old sailor is upended after his granddaughter\u2019s accident.\u00a0For a Mother<\/strong><\/em> is set during the Carlist Wars in Spain and follows a young girl confronted with the violence of conflict.\u00a0Too Beautiful<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0transports us to a Middle Ages tinged with the supernatural, where love collides with appearances and social conventions.
Despite the diversity of periods and settings, these stories are bound by a common thread: the transmission of moral and spiritual values to her daughters. Charlotte Sohy\u2019s Christian faith, central to her life, permeates the narratives without weighing them down, giving their endings a tone that is at times grave, at times luminous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Theatrical Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Formed from childhood in declamation and theatre under Mme Dupont\u2011Vernon, the young Charlotte Sohy developed early on a deep love of the stage. She performed in numerous plays at society evenings and charity events, and this practice became one of the enduring threads of her life. Her daughter Josette recalled her ability to move an entire room by the sheer power of her voice, drawing on a repertoire ranging from Rostand to Catulle\u2011Mend\u00e8s and La Fontaine. Later, Charlotte continued to recite these texts, as during the 1944 journey from Paris to Perros\u2011Guirec, when she interspersed an improvised concert with monologues from her \u201cold repertoire.\u201d From this long\u2011standing familiarity with the stage arose, quite naturally, her desire to write plays of her own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
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\n

Nell<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Co\u2011written between 1905 and 1910 by Charlotte Sohy and her brother Andr\u00e9,\u00a0Nell<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0unfolds within the English aristocracy. Nellie Landsborough, an orphan under the authority of a domineering uncle, is promised to Duke Humphry Warlington, though she harbors feelings for his younger brother, Rex. Between society conversations, tennis matches, and family pressures, the play deftly explores the conflict between inner freedom and social convention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

The Good Wound<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Set during the First World War,\u00a0The Good Wound<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0follows Mme Reversan and her nieces, Edith and Liliane, in a house transformed into a field hospital. Devoted and steadfast, Edith keeps watch over Jean \u2014 Liliane\u2019s fianc\u00e9, gone to the front \u2014 through her letters. Liliane, drawn to a wealthy convalescent, hesitates between loyalty and ambition. Jean\u2019s return reveals the fragility of promises and sets Edith\u2019s constancy against her sister\u2019s fickleness, against a backdrop of intimate upheavals brought on by the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Marriage of the Viscount of Boomshire<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Written in the 1920s for her four eldest children, this one\u2011act comedy features Madame Potiron, determined to marry her niece Genevi\u00e8ve to a country viscount. Between social ambitions, misunderstandings, and the plain\u2011spoken wit of the maid Aldegonde, the play pokes fun at pretence and celebrates sincerity. Light and lively, it belongs to the tradition of th\u00e9\u00e2tre de soci\u00e9t\u00e9<\/em> that Charlotte Sohy so enjoyed.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Les \u00e9crits Charlotte Sohy n’est pas qu’une musicienne : c’est aussi une femme de lettres. D\u00e8s 1905, \u00e0 peine \u00e2g\u00e9e de 18 ans, elle signe le texte de sa Berceuse triste, Op. 1, o\u00f9 l’inqui\u00e9tude d’une m\u00e8re pour son enfant se m\u00eale \u00e0 l’attente d’un p\u00e8re absent et \u00e0 la menace sourde de l’appel du large.Suivent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1881","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nCharlotte Sohy \u2013 \u00c9crits, nouvelles et pi\u00e8ces de th\u00e9\u00e2tre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Les \u00e9crits de Charlotte Sohy : souvenirs, roman, nouvelles et pi\u00e8ces de th\u00e9\u00e2tre, en \u00e9cho \u00e0 son \u0153uvre musicale.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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