Salons, singers, and songs : a background to Romantic French song 1830-1870 / David Tunley.

Author/creator Tunley, David
Format Book
Publication InfoAldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, ©2002.
Descriptionxi, 283 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Subjects
Songs, French--France. --Paris. --19th century. --History and criticism.
Singers--France. --Paris. --History. --19th century.
Romanticism in music--France. --Paris.
Salons--France. --Paris. --History. --19th century.
Paris (France)--Social life and customs. --19th century.

Contents Musical Paris -- The salons and their music -- Singers in the salons -- The all-pervasive Romance -- The Romance and Romanticism -- Paris discovers the songs of Schubert -- Romance into Melodie -- Reaching out to full bloom -- Appendices. List of private salon recitals in Paris 1834-1870 compiled from reports in the Revue et Gazette musicale, Le Menestrel, and Le Monde musical -- Schubert's solo songs, published by Richault -- Extracts from L'Art de chanter les Romances, les Chansonnettes et les Nocturnes et generalement toute la musique de salon ... par A. Romagnesi (1846) -- The publication of Monpou's L'Andalouse as described in J. Stadler, 'La Premiere Romance', L'Echo musical, 1 September 1839 -- Extract from Chapter XXI of Jules Janin's The American in Paris (London, 1843).
Abstract Afternoon and evening entertainments in the drawing rooms of the aristocracy and upper middle classes were a staple of cultural life in nineteenth-century Paris. Music was often a feature of these occasions and private salons provided important opportunities for musicians, especially singers, to develop their careers. Such recitals included excerpts from favourite operas, but also the more traditional forms of French song, the romance and its successor the melodie. Drawing on extensive research into the musical press of the period, the author paints a vivid portrait of the nineteenth-century Parisian salons and the performers who sang in them. Against this colourful backdrop, he discusses the development of French romantic song, with its hallmarks of simplicity and clarity of diction. Combined with Italian influences and the impression made by Schubert's songs, the French romance developed into a form with greater complexity--the melodie. This book describes this transformation and the seeds it sowed for music by later composers such as Faure, Duparc and Debussy.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 276-279) and index.
LCCN 2001046037
ISBN0754604918 (alk. paper)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML2527.8.P37 T86 2002 ✔ Available Place Hold