Katherine Bergeron
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195337051
- eISBN:
- 9780199864201
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195337051.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
The origins of the mélodie are sketched in both figurative and literal terms in this chapter through a close reading of Gabriel Fauré's ambitious song cycle, La Chanson d'Eve. The ten songs of this ...
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The origins of the mélodie are sketched in both figurative and literal terms in this chapter through a close reading of Gabriel Fauré's ambitious song cycle, La Chanson d'Eve. The ten songs of this cycle, begun in 1906 just after Fauré had assumed the directorship of the Conservatoire, reflect the importance that song had assumed in France at the turn of the 20th century. The story of Eve's first taste of language is analogized to the advances of French poetry and French science circa 1900, while the shifting musical styles of the ten songs is read as a very practical guide what a French composer should and should not do in writing French melody.Less
The origins of the mélodie are sketched in both figurative and literal terms in this chapter through a close reading of Gabriel Fauré's ambitious song cycle, La Chanson d'Eve. The ten songs of this cycle, begun in 1906 just after Fauré had assumed the directorship of the Conservatoire, reflect the importance that song had assumed in France at the turn of the 20th century. The story of Eve's first taste of language is analogized to the advances of French poetry and French science circa 1900, while the shifting musical styles of the ten songs is read as a very practical guide what a French composer should and should not do in writing French melody.
