French Mélodie ~ qhe history of French mélodie spans about 130 years, from Berlioz to Poulenc. (The term mélodie is used to distinguish classical French song or art song, from popular ‘song or folk song). The mélodie is descended from earlier French song forms, notably the eighteenth-century romance,* a song form characterized by its simplicity. The mélodie emerged as a distinct form in the middle of the nineteenth century due to several factors: * the decline in the artistic level of the romance * the introduction into France of Schubert's Lieder, which became very popular and widely published and disseminated. + the new romantic poetry, which gave composers material that called for new compositional styles and techniques. Hector Berlioz was the first composer to call his short vocal pieces mélodies, His earliest songs were no more than strophic pieces, still clinging to the unaffect- ed style of the romance, but with Les Nuits d’été (1841), Berlioz created the first cycle of mélodies. In these five songs, he established a close synthesis between text and music using techniques from his orchestral compositions—manipulations of motives, descriptive accompaniment figures, interaction between voice and piano, and an expressive treatment of the text. It was clear that the mélodie had become “a serious vocal form. During the Romantic era, the mélodie continued to develop freer forms, more Jyric vocal declamation, and increased expressiveness in the accompaniment. Composers such as Franz Liszt, Félicien David, Ernest Reyer, Henri Reber, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saéns, Victor Massé, Georges Bizet, Léo Délibes, Jules ‘Massenct, César Franck, and Edouard Lalo had texts of higher literary value at their disposal and wrote many significant songs. Mélodies gradually acquired » greater unity of word and tone and a closer blend of style and refinement that was to.culminate in the songs of Henri Dupare, Emmanuel Chabrier, Ernest Chausson, and the first collection of songs by Gabriel Fauré, Early composers of French mélodie were inspired by the poetry of Théophile Gautier, Victor Hugo, and Charles Baudelaire. Composers also set poetry by the Parnassian poets, a group of writers inspired by the clarity of form and declama- tion found in Greek poetry. Gounod, Dupare, Chausson, and Fauré (in his early songs) used numerous texts from these poets for their songs. Paul Verlaine’s poetry was the great touchstone for French mélodie in the nineteenth century. Verlaine’s interest in the musical resonances of words, the petition of vowel sounds and alliteration, and his fascination with poetry as pure sensation produced texts that sparked some of the most beautiful and characteris- tie French mélodies, notably those of Fauré and Debussy—for example, Fauré’s La Bonne chanson and Cing mélodies dé Venise, and Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées and his two sets of Fétes galantes. Francis Poulenc was the dominant French composer of mélodies in the twenti- oth century. He added 150 songs to French song repertoire, each of lyric beauty andSong . appealing character, embracing a wide range of dramatic and emotional moods. Poulene was a member of a group of Parisian composers dubbed “Les Six” or the “Groupe des six” (Geuryes Auric, Luuis Durey, Aruhur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, and Poulenc). These composers were greatly influenced by composer Erik Satie and writer Jean Cocteau. Their common reaction against over- inflated Romanticism and the vagueness of Impressionism led them to compose music that expressed clarity, precision, and simplicity. Despite their common beliefs about art, the musical styles of the composer of Les Six were quite diverse; they ‘were more a group of friends than a musical trend. After Poulenc’s death in 1963, the mélodie ceased te have any significant impact as a vocal form, Erik Satie, Reynaldo Hahn, Maurice Ravel, Albert Roussel, and Jacques ‘Leguerney are among the later French composers whose songs embody the clarity of expression and rich karmonic style that characterize the mélodie. Leguerney, a con- temporary of Poulenc, wrote sixty-eight mélodies using almost all texts from Renaissance poets. His last song was composed in 1964, one year after Poulenc’s death; his mélodies are the last substantial body of song in the great French tradition. French mélodie has definite qualities and characteristics; Debussy wrote that “clarity of expression, precision, and concentration of form are qualities peculiar to the French genius.”! Singers who want to perform French mélodies well need poet- ic sensibility, intelligence, taste and sensitivity to the clear inflection of syllables within long, flowing melodic lines. Distinguished French baritone and pedagogue Pierre Bernac described the art of the greatest French composers as an “art of sug- gestion, more often expressing moods and impressions than precise emotion.”? In other words, French song blends precision with lyricism, and demands that the performer be able to communicate with both elegance and wit. ‘The romance was the predominant form of French classical song in the early decades of the nineteenth century. It evolved from earlier French pooticfvocal forms and featured highly expressive, sentimental ‘music. There was little or no musical-poetic interaction between voice and accompaniment. During the Revolution and the Empie the romance reached its zenith, embracing a wide range of emotional texts: sentimental, heroie, passionate, and dramatic. A famous example of a romance is Martini’s “Plaisir amour” Notes 1, Quoted in Pierre Femnac, The Interpretation of French Song, 38. 2. Thia HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869) Tt is indeed a rare genius who can create works whose simplicity is in direct proportion to their size. Unfortunately, I am not one of them; I need ample resources to produée any effect. —Hector Berlioz! Hector Berlioz composed around fifty songs and it is with these songs that the important period of French mélodie began. He composed his earliest songs in the style of romances, the prevailing vocal form of the day. These early songs are strophic, each verse sung to the same music, Five collections of Berlioz’s songs were Published during his lifetime. Most notable was the group titled Mélodies