MHMUS 476 — French Chanson, Mélodie, and the Merveilleux

3 credits
Spring
Martin Verdrager

The term “Marvelous” is often applied to describe the beauty, mystery, intensity, and colors of the standard French song repertoire. For more than 150 years, from Berlioz’s time through Poulenc’s, audiences have been treated to copious streams of great music set remarkably well to French poetry. Songs written during this long period brought living composers and poets together to create what its earliest composers called mélodies. The subtlety and grace of French verse are expressed musically in understated ways. This music, which enhanced the words and breathed with poetry that already held its own sound-sense, may represent the finest combination of sophisticated music and intelligent settings ever wrought. As poetic styles changed from Romanticism, to Parnassianism, to Modernism, which includes Symbolism and Dadaism, musical styles were transformed as well. Consequently, French mélodie was always at the forefront of the avant-garde. This class will connect with the composers and poets of those 150 years. Additionally, it will consider the French chanson from medieval times through the late Classical era, as well as French songs of the later 20th and 21st centuries.