France

65 articles related to France:

Orchestra
Ravel's La Valse and the duel that wasn't

Completed by Maurice Ravel in 1920, La Valse stands as a remarkable composition distinguished by its innovative waltz…

August 11, 2023
Songwriter
Bamboléo: meaning and origin of the Gipsy Kings song

Bamboléo, released by the French band Gipsy Kings in the 1980s, remains the defining genre entry of its era. The band's…

July 2, 2022
Piano
Estampes: the world cultures of Debussy's imagination

Estampes, conceived as a three-piece piano suite by the French Impressionist Claude Debussy, is rightfully recognized…

February 17, 2022
Piano
Je te veux: Satie's love song refashioned as piano piece

Je te veux is one of the best-known pieces by the French Romantic composer Erik Satie, famous for popularizing his…

December 9, 2021
Piano
Two Arabesques: the fledgling impressionism of Debussy's early work

Deux arabesques are two piano pieces written by Claude Debussy in the late 1880s and are now considered to be one of…

October 18, 2021
Violin
Méditation from Thaïs: Massenet's intermezzo as the best violin encore

Méditation is one of the best-known orchestral works by the Romantic-era composer Jules Massenet which appears as an…

August 21, 2021
Piano
La fille aux cheveux de lin: Parnassian poem behind Debussy's most recorded piece

La fille aux cheveux de lin or The Girl with the Flaxen Hair is the best-known piano prelude by the French…

August 11, 2021
Piano
Berceuse: Chopin's variations on his mother's favorite lullaby

Berceuse is a lyrical piano piece written by Frédéric Chopin late in his career and first published in 1844. The work…

July 7, 2021
Flute
Flute Sonata: canonical performance of Poulenc's best-known piece

The Sonate pour flûte et piano or Flute Sonata is among Francis Poulenc's best-known works, a French composer whose…

June 26, 2021
Piano
Le Tombeau de Couperin: Ravel's only wartime piece shaped by Baroque canons

The musical output of the leading French impressionist Maurice Ravel was almost completely halted by the arrival of…

June 11, 2021
Piano
Miroirs: Ravel's piano suite that put his avant-garde friends to work

Miroirs or Mirrors is an essential piano suite by the French impressionist Maurice Ravel, each movement of which is…

April 14, 2021
Xylophone
Danse Macabre: skeletal images in Saint Saens' iconic xylophone

The concept of the Danse Macabre (literally meaning the Dance of Death) dates back to the Medieval period when European…

March 22, 2021
Piano
Suite bergamasque: did Debussy record his best-known piano piece?

Suite bergamasque is one of the best-known piano works of the French impressionist Claude Debussy written in 1890 and…

March 12, 20211 comment
Piano
Pavane for a Dead Princess: who inspired Ravel's early piano piece?

Pavane pour une infante défunte or Pavane for a Dead Princess is a well-known piano piece with a leisurely and charming…

February 17, 2021
Orchestra
Les Indes Galantes: Rameau's controversial opera as the essence of Rococo style

Les Indes Galantes is Jean-Philippe Rameau's first stage work in the opéra-ballet form with a prologue and four entrées…

January 23, 2021
Orchestra
La Marcho di Rei: L'Arlesienne opening theme harks back to Provencal Christmas carol

The origin of the iconic theme in the energetic opening of Georges Bizet's L'Arlésienne is still unclear. Presumably,…

December 24, 2020
Orchestra
Lully's Passacaglia of Armide revised by Bear McCreary in Outlander score

The passacaglia is a slow dance that originated in Spain at the very beginning of the Baroque era, initially performed…

November 22, 2020
Orchestra
Gabriel Faure's Pavane as the key to modern revival of early genre

The pavane—a slow processional dance of Italian origin—was quite common in Europe during the transition period from the…

November 3, 2020
Orchestra
Capriol Suite: early dances arranged for modern orchestra by Peter Warlock

The Capriol Suite is one of the most popular works by the 20th century English composer Philip Arnold Heseltine who…

October 15, 2020
Music Theory
5 songs featuring Dorian mode

Out of all seven diatonic scales, the major and minor scales have been the two most prevalent in Western music…

August 30, 2020
Violin
Edouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole brought to life by the best violinists of the 20th century

Symphonie Espagnole is an iconic work by the French composer Edouard Lalo, which is believed to have launched the…

June 25, 2020
Classical Guitar
Tango En Skai: light party atmosphere of Roland Dyens’ challenging guitar work

Tango En Skai is a popular guitar work by Tunisian-born French composer Roland Dyens whose contribution to the…

May 31, 20206 comments
Music Theory
Picardy third: cadence for a happy ending in classical music and popular songs

In musical theory, the term Picardy third is used to refer to a special way of ending a minor piece with a major chord…

May 13, 2020
Kayamba
Traditional maloya music meets French chanson in swaying songs of Maya Kamaty

Maya Kamaty is a new generation singer and songwriter from the Réunion island located in the Indian Ocean east of…

March 1, 2020
Classical Guitar
Matteo Carcassi's guitar etudes of early Romanticism are still relevant for teaching classical guitar

Matteo Carcassi was an Italian guitar composer whose creative period coincided with the expansion of classical music…

February 16, 20206 comments
Nature Sounds
Crickets choir: musical examples imitating rhythmic patterns of chorusing insects

One of the most mesmerizing sounds in nature is the bizarre rhythmic patterns generated by chorusing insects. While…

February 9, 20201 comment
Piano
Scandalous piano experiments by George Antheil shocked early avant-garde scene

George Antheil was an American pianist and composer whose extraordinary works are mainly associated with the avant…

February 5, 2020
Piano
Germaine Tailleferre as a member of Les Six composers group guided by Jean Cocteau

Germaine Tailleferre was a gifted pianist and composer whose role in the search for new French musical aesthetics of…

February 3, 2020
Music Theory
Lydian mode: famous examples throughout the music history

Major and minor modes are the most used diatonic scales in classical and popular music due to their versatile structure…

January 12, 2020
Violin
Ernest Chausson as the first promoter of nascent impressionism

Ernest Chausson was a composer who, despite his rather humble body of work, still played a crucial role in the history…

December 29, 2019