French Art Song makes up a significant chunk of what we actively perform as classical singers, so what exactly is Mélodie, or French Art Song?
Coined by Hector Berlioz, the term Mélodie refers to short vocal pieces associated with the French Art Song tradition spanning the nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries.
The introduction of this new title for French Art Song helped differentiate it from earlier styles of solo French songs (like the romance and ballade) and more popular folk styles (chanson). While the musical style and elements of the mélodie evolved over its’ 130 years of development, one thing remained constant - its commitment to marrying high quality poetry with complimentary and expressive musical composition.
The Origin of the French Mélodie
Before the mélodie, there was the romance. The dominant French Art Song style in the early 19th century, the romance was a solo vocal piece with piano accompaniment. It displayed a range of emotional themes. The sentimental, heroic, passionate or dramatic texts were set to memorable and often lyrical melodies.
However, the accompaniment and often even the harmonic language in the romance had little to no interaction with the text. It served simply as a secondary and supportive role without any exploration of dramatic range or complexity.
With the publication and popularity of Schubert's Lieder, the flowering of Romantic poetry in the French language and culture, and the evolution of other musical forms and sensibilities, the landscape for the development of the French mélodie was ripe for exploration.
Calling his Irlande “mélodies,” Hector Berlioz is the first composer to be credited with making the stylistic shift from the romance to the mélodie.
In these pieces, he begins to integrate techniques from his orchestral compositions - motivic development, instrumental interaction and a more fleshed out musical response to the text.
With these tools, he develops a more sophisticated relationship with the poetry he is setting. In doing so, he lays the groundwork for other composers to really explore this style of writing.
Though Berlioz is the first to coin the term “mélodie,” he is certainly not the first or most prolific composer in the genre.
Primary composers of mélodie in the French Art Song tradition
Many French composers in the Romantic period contributed to the genre - Bizet, Délibes, Massenet, Franck, Saint-Saëns, Viardot and others. The composers who really elevated the art form and developed the compositional language that truly synthesized music and poetry were Gounod, Duparc, Chausson and especially Fauré.
To come to Fauré in the history of French song is to enter the promised land - James Husst Hall
Building on the artistic foundations and conventions of these pioneers in mélodie, Debussy, Poulenc, Ravel, Hahn, Roussel and Leguerney, all contributed notably to the genre.
Primary Poets and Influential Literary Movements
You can’t have an art form that prioritizes poetry without a culture that produces great poets.
Early mélodie composers were inspired by French Romantic Poetry - a tradition characterized by its emphasis on emotion, individualism, and the sublime beauty of nature. Poets such as Alphonse de Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Gérard de Nerval, and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore were central figures in this movement.
They explored themes of love, melancholy, existential angst, and the transcendent power of nature. Their work often rebelled against classical forms, seeking greater freedom in expression and form.
Demain, dès l’aube, à l’heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m’attends.
J’irai par la forêt, j’irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.
Tomorrow, at dawn, when the countryside brightens,
I will depart. You see, I know that you wait for me.
I will go through the wood, I will go past the mountains.
I cannot remain far from you any longer.
- Hugo, Victor. “Demain, dès l’aube”. 1856.
By the late 19th century a literary backlash against romantic poetry was reshaping the French poetic landscape and a new artistic sensibility was on the horizon - French Symbolism.
Characterized by its emphasis on imagination, emotions, and the use of symbolic imagery to convey deeper meanings, this style of poetry was fertile ground for French Art song composers.
Prominent poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé were key figures in this movement. They sought to evoke the ineffable and transcend the mundane through their use of metaphors, symbols, and musicality in language.
This movement significantly influenced modernist literature, art and music. It emphasized the power of suggestion and the subjective experience over direct representation - opening up new worlds of expressive possibilities.
Stylistic hallmarks of French mélodie
The elevation and quality of the poetic art form is at the core of French Art song in this period.
Drawing from parallel literary and even artistic movements, the mélodie is a beautiful expression of collaboration between mediums and helps to contextualize the evolution of the French Aesthetic.
Though its roots are in the Romantic period, the mélodie would eventually reach its defining works in conjunction with the symbolist sensibilities.
It is “an art of suggestion more often expressing moods and impressions than precise emotion,” (Bernac).
Just as we see in the world of fine art, this shift in artistic and aesthetic perspectives offered an amazing opportunity for composers to explore color, texture, form and dialogue in their work. We see this artistic shift in the evolution of specific musical concepts and innovations in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Perhaps the most obvious place to see this evolution is in the actual melody and rhythms of the vocal lines in the mélodie. While we still see instrumental motives in French Art Song, we start to see vocal lines that emphasize the prosody and linguistic structure of the French language.
Prosody is the study of the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. In poetry, it refers to the patterns of sounds and rhythms used in verse, including elements such as meter, rhyme, and stanza structure. It encompasses the rules and principles governing the use of syllables, accents, and pauses to create a harmonious and expressive flow in both spoken and written language.
We move away from emphasizing a beautiful and memorable sung melody, to phrases that mimic the ebb and flow of the spoken word. Repetition of pitch over the course of a phrase becomes a common compositional device in the mélodie.
You can see this in my tonebase course on Debussy’s Beau Soir:
(If you’d like to watch the full lesson, click here to sign up for a free 14-day trial to tonebase Voice)
The rhythmic structure of the vocal phrases also incorporate the inherent legato quality of the french language. This often results in rhythmic patterns that are not as predictable or repetitious as their classical counterparts.
In addition to melody and rhythm, the range of the vocal lines frequently take into account vocal tessitura.
This nuanced approach to range allows a singer to explore the full depth and breadth of color in their instrument. This creates additional opportunities for the singer to highlight poetic allusions using all the technical and artistic tools naturally inherent to their voice.
The emphasis on poetry also requires a new approach to form. In the romance, French Art Songs were written in predictable patterns - adopting predetermined structures.
They were often strophic, but you would see them written in other common musical forms, like Martini’s Plaisir d’amor which was written in rondo form. In these earlier French Art songs, the text was one element that existed to serve the whole.
With the evolution of the mélodie, the structure took a subservient position to the text and the overall expression of the piece. The form of the pieces had to evolve and make room for these new poetic and artistic concepts. As such, we see in this evolution of French art song composers moving away from rigid predetermined song forms and toward thru-composed compositional styles.
Elevating poetry and embracing evocative aesthetic principals creates new opportunities for exploring color and mood in sound.
This concept may be most easily explored in symphonic music (where a composer would have MANY instruments and colors available to them).
In art song, the intimate nature of the combination of piano and voice creates a limited color palette. Some composers chose to eschew that structure and write art songs effectively accompanied by orchestra.
One of the most beautiful examples of this type of composition are Les Nuits D’Éte by Hector Berlioz. That said, if an orchestra is not at your disposal and you want to write colorful music, one of the most obvious musical elements to employ in this endeavor is harmony.
By innovating and exploring harmonic language, mélodie composers opened up a world of evocative sound that emphasized the symbolist aesthetic. Often borrowing from other cultures and genres, the mélodie was fertile ground for new harmonic conversations that elevated the meaning and moods of poetic ideas.
Finally and quite possibly the most interesting musical element of the mélodie is the relationship of the accompaniment to the vocal line.
With the romance, the accompaniment was subordinate to the vocal line. It provided musical structure and support.
With the evolution of Art Song, the relationship between the voice and the piano became far more collaborative. The piano did not just create a harmonic backdrop for the vocal line, it entered into a dialogue with it - often playing specific characters or alluding to ideas.
You can see a great example of this in Alex Rosen’s tonebase course on Poulenc’s Le Bestiaire.
In this song cycle you hear amazing examples of text painting and mood shifting in the accompaniment. It’s truly a conversation between the piano and the voice. Both are working in concert to express the ideas in the delightful poetry of Apollinaire on the playful theme of animals.
If you enjoyed learning more about French Art Song, stay tuned for more repertoire lessons on French Mélodie coming soon to the tonebase voice platform.
Did you learn something new?
On tonebase Voice, you’ll find countless courses with world renowned singers and vocal coaches, such as mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Rod Gilfry, and many more.
As a bonus, members receive invitations to weekly live events, a forum of fellow passionate classical singers, and custom annotated scores and workbooks.
Never before has there been a better opportunity to hone in on your vocal technique, and you can check it out for free today.
Click here to sign up for a 14-day free trial.
We hope to see you in the forums!
