The Cambridge Companion to French Art Song

The twenty-first century has witnessed a surge of scholarly interest in the French art song, or mélodie, with a flood of new books, articles, and editions. This Companion draws on the best of this new research, with chapters by world-renowned scholars and performers examining French art song through the practicality of performance, both pianistic and vocal. The book surveys the repertory chronologically from the 1820s into the 1950s, covering all the central composers (Berlioz, Gounod, Fauré, Debussy, Duparc, Chausson, Ravel, Poulenc, Messiaen, and many more). It includes chapters on the role of women in the creation, performance, and diffusion of French song; the analysis of French prosody and poetic forms; the position of the mélodie in French literary history; and the interpretation of mélodie in performance. Scholars, students, performers, and music lovers will find thorough and up-to-date resources to enable them to explore this crucial yet understudied song repertory.

List of contents

Introduction; Acknowledgments; Author biographies; List of musical examples, figures, and tables; 1. Song and the French poetic tradition Vincent Vivès; 2. French versification and song: interconnected worlds David Hunter; 3. Romance to mélodie? The trajectory of Berlioz's songs Julian Rushton; 4. The mélodie comes of age (Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Massenet) Steven Huebner; 5. Fauré's individual songs and collections Roy Howat; 6. Debussy's early songs: finding his compositional voice Marie Rolf; 7. The Franckist-Wagnerian strain (Duparc, Chausson, Chabrier) Andrew Pau; 8. Women and French song Annegret Fauser; 9. Fauré's song cycles Stephen Rumph; 10. Debussy's mature songs Denis Herlin; 11. Ravel and his contemporaries Emily Kilpatrick; 12. Poulenc and his circle: le style quotidien Byron Adams; 13. Olivier Messiaen Stephen Broad and David Evans; 14. Interpreting French art song François Le Roux; Guide to further reading; Index.

Product details

• Assisted by: Rumph Stephen (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 31.10.2025
• EAN: 9781316514474
• ISBN: 978-1-316-51447-4
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: Cambridge Companions to Music
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; France, MUSIC / General, Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900, History of Music, Later 19th century c 1850 to c 1899, c 1910 to c 1919, c 1920 to c 1929, Composers and songwriters, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Music reviews and criticism, Classical Music (C 1750 To C 1830), c 1900 to c 1909, Art music, orchestral and formal music, c 1830 to c 1839, Theory of music and musicology, c 1840 to c 1849, c 1820 to c 1829