Chanson

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the musical term. For the song genre, see Nouvelle Chanson. For other uses, see Chanson (disambiguation).
This article is about the English-language use of the term Chanson. For the French-language use of the term, see Song.
Chanson
Stylistic origins
medieval era, France
Derivative forms

A chanson (

polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of French pop music which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s.[3][4][5] The genre had origins in the monophonic songs of troubadours and trouvères, though the only polyphonic precedents were 16 works by Adam de la Halle and one by Jehan de Lescurel.[6] Not until the ars nova composer Guillaume de Machaut did any composer write a significant number of polyphonic chansons.[6]

A broad term, the word chanson literally means "song" in French and can thus less commonly refer to a variety of (usually

secular) French genres throughout history. This includes the songs of chansonnier, chanson de geste and Grand chant; court songs of the late Renaissance and early Baroque music periods, air de cour; popular songs from the 17th to 19th century, bergerette, brunette, chanson pour boire, pastourelle, and vaudeville; art song of the romantic era, mélodie; and folk music, chanson populaire [fr].[4] Since the 1990s, the term may be used for Nouvelle Chanson, a French song that often contains poetic or political content.[3]

High medieval precedents

Chanson de geste

Main article: Chanson de geste

The earliest chansons were the

jongleurs or ménestrels. These usually recounted the famous deeds (geste) of past heroes, legendary and semi-historical. The Song of Roland
is the most famous of these, but in general the chansons de geste are studied as literature since very little of their music survives.

Chanson courtoise

Main article: Grand chant

The chanson courtoise or grand chant was an early form of monophonic chanson, the chief lyric poetic genre of the trouvères. It was an adaptation to Old French of the Occitan canso. It was practised in the 12th and 13th centuries. Thematically, as its name implies, it was a song of courtly love, written usually by a man to his noble lover. Some later chansons were polyphonic and some had refrains and were called chansons avec des refrains.

Late medieval and early Renaissance

Formes fixes

See also: Motet-chanson

In its typical specialized usage, the word chanson refers to a polyphonic French song of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.[4] Early chansons tended to be in one of the formes fixes—ballade, rondeau or virelai (formerly the chanson baladée)—though some composers later set popular poetry in a variety of forms. The earliest chansons were for two, three or four voices, with first three becoming the norm, expanding to four voices by the 16th century. Sometimes, the singers were accompanied by instruments.

The first important composer of chansons was Guillaume de Machaut, who composed three-voice works in the formes fixes during the 14th century.[6]

Burgundian chanson

Two composers from

Burgundy, Guillaume Du Fay and Gilles Binchois, who wrote so-called Burgundian chansons,[7] dominated the subsequent generation of chanson composers (c. 1420–1470).[8] Their chansons, while somewhat simple in style, are also generally in three voices with a structural tenor. These works are typically still 3 voices, with an active upper voice (discantus) pitched above two lower voices (tenor and altus) usually sharing the same range.[8] Musicologist David Fallows
includes the Burgundian repertoire in A Catalogue of Polyphonic Songs 1415–1480.

Mid-late Renaissance chanson

Later 15th- and early 16th-century figures in the genre included Johannes Ockeghem and Josquin des Prez, whose works cease to be constrained by formes fixes and begin to feature a pervading imitation (all voices sharing material and moving at similar speeds), similar to that found in contemporary motets and liturgical music. The first book of music printed from movable type was Harmonice Musices Odhecaton, a collection of ninety-six chansons by many composers, published in Venice in 1501 by Ottaviano Petrucci.

Parisian chanson

Beginning in the late 1520s through mid-century,

madrigal
.

Modern chanson

French solo song developed in the late 16th century, probably from the aforementioned Parisian works. During the 17th century, the

Michel-Richard de Lalande
. This still affects today's chanson as many French musicians still employ harp and keyboard.

During the 18th century, vocal music in France was dominated by

Felicien David
and many others.

Another offshoot of chanson, called

cabarets of the Montmartre district of Paris and influenced by literary realism and the naturalist movements in literature and theatre, chanson réaliste was a musical style which was mainly performed by women and dealt with the lives of Paris's poor and working class.[9][11][12] Among the better-known performers of the genre are Damia, Fréhel, and Édith Piaf
.

Later 19th-century composers of French art songs, known as mélodie and not chanson, included Ernest Chausson, Emmanuel Chabrier, Gabriel Fauré, and Claude Debussy, while many 20th-century and current French composers have continued this strong tradition.

Revival

In the 20th century, French composers revived the genre.

a capella, completed in 1908. Maurice Ravel wrote Trois Chansons for choir a cappella after the outbreak of World War I as a return to French tradition, published in 1916.[citation needed
]

Nouvelle chanson

Main article: Nouvelle Chanson

In France today chanson or chanson française is distinguished from the rest of French "pop" music by following the rhythms of French language, rather than those of English, and a higher standard for lyrics.

Museum

In La Planche, Loire-Atlantique, the Musée de la chanson française was established in 1992. The museum has the goal to remember the artists that have established the heritage of the chanson.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ "chanson". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021.
  2. ^ "chanson". Lexico UK English Dictionary US English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "chanson, n.". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 20 June 2021. (subscription required)
  4. ^ a b c Wilkins 2001, Introduction.
  5. ^ "Chanson | Biography, Paper & Facts | Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 18 December 2017. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2020.(subscription required)
  6. ^ a b c Wilkins 2001, 1. Origins to about 1430.
  7. ^ Strohm 2005, p. 181.
  8. ^ a b Strohm 2005, p. 182.
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-8195-6473-7
    .
  10. ISBN 2-296-00176-9
    . (French text)
  11. ISBN 0-520-07864-0
  12. ISBN 0-520-24407-9
  13. ISBN 9782748346824

Sources

Further reading

External links
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