But many other composers have set poetic masterpieces or texts by their contemporaries to music. Join Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, BAM, New York City Opera and many others in reaching your target audience through parterre box. STUDY. Caplet studied the violin and became Director of The Odéon. Recevez chaque vendredi le meilleur de France Musique ! What draws them by the droves to the Greek songs of Ravel or the English songs of Milhaud? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_list_of_French_classical_composers France, as it is shown to us by Hollywood, CNN, and BBC, is somehow set apart from the modern world – unerringly backwards, stuck in some vague, purple-tinged past. 22 August 1862. This is not to say that this recording lacks color or variety: Sicard’s rich, golden upper register provides a strident contrast to his sweet, fuzzy middle. In her new monograph, Katherine Bergeron ventures into the world of the French melodie in the Belle Epoque (1880-1920) with the purpose of investigating the short-lived yet prolific art form and exploring "what it meant to those who first enjoyed it--and, more important, why it mattered" (p. ix). Sadly, he passed away from an illness at the age of only 36. Composer. Period: Apr 29, 1749 to Apr 29, 1832. “I don’t think I ever understood Hollywood”. He originally trained as a mathematician and even had a career at sea; after returning from his travels in Asia and Indo-China, he devoted himself to music. Our week of random contemporary music has flown by! Monsieur Gabriel Dupont was born in Caen but quickly decided to move to Paris where he studied composition. Hahn’s Five Little Songs – a collection of cute musical dumplings – were sung so blandly (and often so brashly) that even these adorable little numbers felt tedious. Celebrated for his composition The Carnival of the Animals, Saint-Saëns was also a virtuoso pianist. The flowing arpeggiated accompaniments so favored by these composers frequently lacked clarity – the quick, cascading patterns of Massenet’s “Come into the Garden, Maud,” for example, simply dissolved into an indistinct harmonic muddle. 16 August 1953. She would go on to compose three grand and beautiful symphonies, over two hundred works for piano and 150 mélodies. Ernest Chausson was part of the Parisian bourgeoisie, thus enjoying great financial security, a rare occurence for a composer! Here are portraits of ten such composers whose melodic work is sometimes unfairly underestimated... Massenet composed 280 melodies, but he is particularly remembered for his operas Manon, Werther, Thaïs, Le Cid and Cendrillon. Verlaine - Symbolist Poets And The French Melodie by Jean-François Lapointe - Year of production 2007 Either way, these three albums offer a unique insight into this repertoire and will surely be of great interest to any aficionado of French art song. Sicard’s new album of Ravel mélodies foregrounds the composer’s cosmopolitanism – including the composer’s Spanish-infused song cycle Don Quichotte à la Dulcinée, his Two Hebrew Songs, his Madagascan Songs, and his Scottish, French, Spanish, Hebrew, and Greek “folk” songs. And while Duncan’s declamation could be a little stuffy, it was always crystal clear, making it easy for the listener to enjoy these marvelous texts. He lived a confined and melancholic life. Find out more about the greatest French Composers, including Camille Saint-Saëns, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Hector Berlioz, Kavinsky and Georges Bizet. However, there were a number of unexpected pearls in this sea of clams: the brooding atonality of the two songs by Roussel is ominously rendered by both Duncan and Switzer; Gounod’s delightful sexual satire “Beware!” is disconcertingly fizzy; and the Two Love Poems of Milhaud possess a gooey warmth, the second allowing Duncan to mellow in his darker lower register. He was a student and colleague of Debussy. The last few months have seen a new recording of various Ravel song cycles from French baritone Victor Sicard (La Musica), an assortment of mélodies from French soprano Sabine Devieilhe (Erato), and an album of English-language settings by various French composers from Canadian baritone Tyler Duncan (Bridge Records). This is a refined genre, requiring excellent pronunciation from the performer. Dans la forêt du charme et de l'enchantementby Ernest Chausson, set to a poem by Jean Moréas. Élégieby Jules Massenet, set to a poem by Louis Gallet. France’s bloody colonization of Madagascar raged throughout most of Ravel’s lifetime, and these songs are a disquieting byproduct of this violence (although the poetry itself is from the 18th century, written by Évariste de Parny, a French colonialist in India – one of the songs is disturbingly titled “Beware of the White People”). Following the model of the German Lied, the 19th-century mélodie was usually a setting of a serious lyric poem for solo voice and piano that recognizably combined and unified the poetic and musical forms. En cliquant sur « je m’abonne », j’accepte que les données recueillies par Radio France soient destinées à l’envoi par courrier électronique de contenus et d'informations relatifs aux programmes. Le jardin mouilléby Albert Roussel, set to a poem by Henri de Régnier. He was confronted with the decline of regional music and criticised the small-minded Parisian circles. When Devieilhe ventures into this more sonorous register, Tharaud sometimes matches her tone with a brighter, more crystalline touch, well suited to this repertoire. He first worked as a civil servant before leaving the ministry in order to pursue a career in music. It is in the slower, more speech-like mélodies – especially those that are lower in tessitura – where this album languishes. PLAY. So why are singers today so easily seduced this age of French musical internationalism? Specifically, a mélodie is the setting to music of a usually poetic text. While the repertoire featured on this album is also diverse – featuring English-language songs by Gounod, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Hahn, Roussel, Ravel, Poulenc, and Milhaud – the performances are all too uniform for such an eccentric assortment of songs. Manic, slightly erratic renditions of “Fêtes galantes” from Poulenc’s Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon and “Paysages belges” from Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées provided a welcome injection of energy to an album that often felt all too leisurely. However, the repertoire on this album is also market by a stylistic unity: internationalism is so ingrained in Ravel’s compositional voice that it is often difficult to distinguish between what is Ravel and what is cultural pastiche. In Music. Yet Sicard plays down the cultural and national differences represented in these various songs, opting for a relatively even-handed French lyricism. Some of the blame lies with her longtime collaborator, pianist Alexandre Tharaud, whose playing could be indistinct and often a little toothless. All rights reserved. Famous French Composers. Mandoline : Les donneurs de sérénadeby Gabriel Dupont, set to a poem by Paul Verlaine. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German writer and statesman who wrote epic and lyric poetry, many of which was used in Lied. Duncan might as well have been reading the phonebook, however, for the lack of contrast or character that mark his monochromatic rendition of this idiosyncratic cycle. Albert Roussel or Emmanuel Chabrier? Yet, for all its faults, Chanson d’Amour succeeds by dint of those faster, more melodic mélodies in which both Devieilhe and Tharaud come into their element. Si vous n'avez rien à me direby Camille Saint-Saëns, set to a poem fromContemplationsby Victor Hugo. While many French composers took to the task of composing mélodies, this week we are going to look at just two: Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) and Francis Poulenc (1899–1963). Devieilhe sings with such laser focus in her upper register that those mélodies which veer towards this golden part of her voice are often strikingly vivid, even larger than life. 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