Author: Peter Hawkins
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351572415
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 247
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Book Description
En France, tout finit par des chansons' is the well-known phrase which sums up the importance of chanson for the French. A song tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages and troubadours of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, chanson is part of the texture of everyday life in France - a part of the national identity and a barometer of popular taste. In this first study of chanson in English, Peter Hawkins examines the background to the genre and the difficulties in defining what is and what is not chanson. The focus then moves to the development of the singer-songwriter of chanson from 1880 to the present day. This period saw the emergence of national icons from Aristide Bruant at the end of the nineteenth century through to internationally recognized musicians such as Jacques Brel and Serge Gainsbourg. Each of these figures used chanson to express the particular moral dilemmas, tragic situations and moments of euphoria particular to themselves and their times. The book provides bibliographies, discographies and details of video recordings for each of the singer-songwriters that it discusses. It is both an essential reference guide to the genre and a useful case history of the adaptation of an ancient form to the demands of the modern mass media.
Author: Olaf Salie
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 3791386174
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
A photographic tribute to France's most lyrical, romantic, and poetic musical tradition. Virtually no other musical discipline is as closely linked with the culture and essence of a country as the chanson with France. With roots in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, this secular, lyric-driven form of song has been reborn throughout French history—and continues to influence today’s pop artists. Featuring the work of such celebrated photographers as Robert Doisneau, this fascinating history of the chanson profiles some of its most beloved artists, their music, and the cultural moments they represent. Readers will learn about Aristide Bruant—the red scarf-wearing subject of one of Lautrec’s most recognizable posters. It recounts the lives of Josephine Baker, Maurice Chevalier, and their contemporaries as it peeks inside the Folies Bergère and the Moulin Rouge. It introduces readers to the “Piaf Generation,” which produced the likes of Yves Montand and Georges Moustaki. And it explores the bohemian enclaves of postwar France, when revolutionary artists remade the chanson in their own melancholy image. In addition, this volume shows how classic songs of the all American song book, such as “My Way,” or “September Morning” have their roots in the chanson tradition. Illustrated with 200 lavish photographs, the pages of this beautifully produced hardback are edged with the French tricolor. Whether you’re a fan of 1920s torch songs or prefer the electronica of ZAZ, you’ll learn how the chanson is important to just about every French musical tradition—and why this genre is the perfect expression of the country’s history and culture.
Author: Maria Rika Maniates
Publisher: A-R Editions, Inc.
ISBN: 0895792362
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 162
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Book Description
Author: Carol Sweetenham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317038770
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 441
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Book Description
The Old-French Chanson d'Antioche has long intrigued historians and literary scholars. Unusually among epic poems, it follows closely a well documented historical event - the First Crusade - and appears to include substantial and genuine historical content. At one time it was believed to be based on an account by an eye-witness, 'Richard the Pilgrim'. Carol Sweetenham and Susan Edgington have combined forces to investigate such claims, and their findings are set out in a comprehensive introduction which, firstly, examines the textual history of the poem from its possible oral beginnings through several re-workings to its present form, achieved early in the thirteenth century. A second chapter assesses the Chanson's value as a source for the crusade, and a third considers its status as a literary text. A complete prose translation follows, the first in English and based on the definitive edition. The Chanson is revealed as a lively narrative, with tales of chivalry, villainy, and even episodes of humour. There are extensive footnotes to the translation, and an appendix provides supplementary material from a different manuscript tradition. There is also a cast list of heroes and villains with biographical information for the 'real' ones and literary analogues for the fictional characters. The Chanson d'Antioche can now be read for enjoyment, and for a whole new perspective on crusading in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Author: Carol Sweetenham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317038738
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298
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Book Description
The First Crusade was arguably one of the most significant events of the Middle Ages. It was the only event to generate its own epic cycle, the Old French Crusade Cycle. The central trilogy at the heart of the Cycle describes the Crusade from its beginnings to the climactic battle of Ascalon, comprising the Chanson d’Antioche, the Chanson des Chétifs and the Chanson de Jérusalem. This translation of the Chétifs and the Jérusalem accompanies and completes the translation of the Antioche and makes the trilogy available to English readers in its entirety for the first time. The value of the trilogy lies above all in the insight it gives us to medieval perceptions of the Crusade. The events are portrayed as part of a divine plan where even outcasts and captives can achieve salvation through Crusade. This in turn underlies the value of the Cycle as a recruiting and propaganda tool. The trilogy gives a window onto the chivalric preoccupations of thirteenth-century France, exploring concerns about status, heroism and defeat. It portrays the material realities of the era in vivid detail: the minutiae of combat, smoke-filled halls, feasts, prisons and more. And the two newly translated poems are highly entertaining as well, featuring a lubricious Saracen lady not in the first flush of youth, a dragon inhabited by a devil, marauding monkeys, miracles and much more. The historian will find little new about the Crusade itself, but abundant material on how it was perceived, portrayed and performed. The translation is accompanied by an introduction examining the origins of the two poems and their wider place in the cycle. It is supported by extensive footnotes, a comprehensive index of names and places and translations of the main variants.
Author: Rachel Haworth
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317131681
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 212
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Book Description
The similarities between the chanson française and the canzone d'autore have been often noted but never fully explored. Both genres are national forms which involve the figure of the singer-songwriter, both experienced their golden age of production in the post-World War II period and both are enduringly popular, still accounting for a large proportion of record sales in their respective countries. Rachel Haworth looks beyond these superficial similarities, and investigates the nature of the relationship between the two genres. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing textual analysis of song lyrics, cultural history and popular music studies, Haworth considers the different ways in which French and Italian song is thought about, written about and constructed. Through an in-depth study of the discourse surrounding chanson and the canzone d'autore, the volume analyses the development of the genres' rules and rhetoric, identifying the key themes of Authority, Authenticity and Influence. The book finally considers the legacy of major artists, looking at modern perspectives on Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré, Fabrizio De André and Giorgio Gaber, ultimately affording a deeper understanding of the notions of quality and value in the context of chanson française and the canzone d'autore.
Author: Dr Carol Sweetenham
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409482758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 441
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Book Description
The Old-French Chanson d'Antioche has long intrigued historians and literary scholars. Unusually among epic poems, it follows closely a well documented historical event – the First Crusade – and appears to include substantial and genuine historical content. At one time it was believed to be based on an account by an eye-witness, 'Richard the Pilgrim'. Carol Sweetenham and Susan Edgington have combined forces to investigate such claims, and their findings are set out in a comprehensive introduction which, firstly, examines the textual history of the poem from its possible oral beginnings through several re-workings to its present form, achieved early in the thirteenth century. A second chapter assesses the Chanson's value as a source for the crusade, and a third considers its status as a literary text. A complete prose translation follows, the first in English and based on the definitive edition. The Chanson is revealed as a lively narrative, with tales of chivalry, villainy, and even episodes of humour. There are extensive footnotes to the translation, and an appendix provides supplementary material from a different manuscript tradition. There is also a cast list of heroes and villains with biographical information for the 'real' ones and literary analogues for the fictional characters. The Chanson d'Antioche can now be read for enjoyment, and for a whole new perspective on crusading in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Author:
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 542
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Book Description
Author: Gérard Gouiran
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351028367
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216
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Book Description
In this collection of essays Gérard Gouiran, one of the world's leading and much-loved scholars of medieval Occitan literature, examines this literature from a primarily historical perspective. Through texts offering hitherto unexplored insights into the history and culture of medieval Europe, he studies topics such as the representation of alterity through female figures and Saracens in opposition to the ideal of the Christian knight; the ways in which the narrating of history can become resistance and propaganda discourse in the clash between the Catholic Church and the French on the one hand, and the Cathar heretics and the people of Occitania on the other; questions of intertextuality and intercultural relations; cultural representations fashioning the West in contact with the East; and Christian dissidence in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Written in an approachable style, the book will be of historical, literary and philological interest to scholars and students, as well as any reader curious about this hitherto little-known Occitan literature. (CS1087).
Author: Sara Poole
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761829195
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 140
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Book Description
In celebration of his unique talent and in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death, this is the first book-length study in English of the work of Belgian chansonnier Jacques Brel. This study is of great use to anyone interested in 20th century popular European culture, and required reading for all those exploring the rich and vibrant world of chanson.
