A French Song Companion (review)

A French Song Companion. By Graham Johnson and Richard Stokes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. [xxxii, 530 p. ISBN 0-19-816410-6. $72.]

The mélodie is long overdue for a comprehensive treatment, given the current flowering of interest in this repertory on the part of performers and audiences. Moreover, the intrinsic value of the works demands a full consideration. Whereas there are excellent collections of translations that represent composers or works separately, and there are rewarding studies of individual composers' music, no previous work of this scope is available. Saying that, I move immediately to Graham Johnson's purpose: "[R]eaders [of this work] will be those who are predisposed to the idea that great poetry and classical music are not only separately delectable, but even more delightful when conjoined" (p. xii). Regarding the translations provided in this companion, Johnson and translator Richard Stokes focus on "the English-speaking music-lover [who] needs accurate, accessible translations of the poems as a starting point to understanding the repertory" (ibid.). Thus, the book is a general one, without the serious exploration of prosody or structure or interpretation sometimes offered elsewhere. In these latter concerns--and still mindful of the flowering of listener and performer interest--I suggest that scholars are well behind the demand for a careful accounting. Even so, Johnson and Stokes present an excellent starting guide to this wealth of music.

Johnson, a remarkably well-read accompanist and student of the mélodie, offers informative essays on some 150 composers, including those from France, Belgium, and Switzerland, but also England (Frederick Delius and Lennox Berkeley), the United States (Amy Beach, Charles Ives, Samuel Barber), and Spain (Joaquín Rodrigo). He also introduces the reader to unexpected French-language works from such sources as Gian Francesco Malipiero, the Portuguese Luis de Freitas Branco, the Canadians Keith Bissell and Pierre Mercure, the Romanian Dinu Lipatti, and the German Hans Werner Henze. His judgments seem sure and provoke exploration, and he thereby fulfills his stated purpose of inspiring curiosity and encouraging the reprint and new publication of mélodies by French and other publishers. He notes that Charles Koechlin is "coming into his own with the public as a composer of real individuality" (p. xxiii) and singles out "the formidable Elsa Barraine," whom he observes as "the most gifted French woman composer since Lili Boulanger" (p. xxix). One must, however, challenge the superlative by pointing out the music of Betsy Jolas.

Johnson provides longer essays on the major figures of French song, including Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Henri Duparc, Maurice Ravel, and Erik Satie. Scholars and performers, though, will want to go to specialist sources, initially for bibliography and then for analysis. Johnson writes fluid prose that usually grasps the reader's attention: "Gounod's gift for singable melody enabled him to smuggle the art song--a high-born and demanding enfant--into the homes and hearts of the French middle class where operatic airs, operetta, romance, and chansonnette had previously held sway" (p. 221). At times, however, a certain breeziness or awkwardness can distract the serious reader: "The inspiration [Debussy] derived from the Russian composers, and the exceptional range of his general culture, helped provide new ingredients for a musical Molotov cocktail which exploded onto the Parisian musical scene, and little by little, as one work followed another in a war of attrition, established a new order--at least until that was toppled, in turn, by a real Russian revolution--Stravinsky, aided by Cocteau and Les Six" (pp. 92-93). But all in all, Johnson deserves our sincere gratitude for the sheer love of the mélodie that he exudes: "[In the mélodie] a different music prevails. . . . it contains a whole world within its boundaries. This music is spun gold rather than heavy metal, bright diamond rather than hard rock" (p. xii).

Stokes, a linguist and singing coach, offers approximately 700 song translations. Johnson appears to have chosen these, admitting that the selection draws upon his "musician's working...