50% OFF! Hot items selling fast—Grab them before they're gone!
Unconditional Satisfaction GuaranteeNo Shipping Fees Above 302 Months to Decide. Returns Simplified.Complete with translations and guidance on pronunciation
Those interested in French music have often had reason to be grateful to Roger Nichols; his writings on Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen and Poulenc are indispensable to themusic lover.
Nichols now turns his attentions to the mlodie, where it is his mission to encourage singers to explore beyond the well-trodden paths of French song. In these two anthologies he does not ignore masterpieces by composers of the stature of Faur and Duparc, but sets them alongside music – almost impossible to find elsewhere in print – by such under-estimated figures asReber, Viardot, Mass and Paladilhe.
Even the more celebrated songs are often not easily found in practical editions, which makes thisselection an ideal starting point for wider exploration. In each of these volumes the songs appear in the chronological order of their composers birth, but Nichols somehow contrives a line-up of music which seems delightfully arbitrary at the same time as carefully designed to enrich everyones understanding of the mlodie. The books also contain a remarkable amount of scholarship, lightly worn and pithily expressed.
As well as complete translations of the songs, there is a useful and concise introduction on singing in French, together with an illuminating historical note and critical commentary; and Nichols gives full due to thepoets who were of crucial importance in the development of the mlodie tradition.
Graham Johnson
