A French Song Companion

The French Song Companion is the most comprehensive book of French melodiein any language. The great accompagnist Graham Johnson, a noted authority ofsong, provides repertoire guides to the work of some 150 composers - themajority of them from France, but including British, American, German, Spanish,and Italian musicians who have written French vocal music. There are majorarticles on such figures as Faure, Duparc, Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc;substantial articles on Bizet, Chabrier, Gounod, Chausson, Hahn, and Satie; andreassessments of such composers as Massenet, Koechlin, and Leguerney. A host ofless celebrated figures who have contributed to the genre take their place in abook which is both informative and entertaining.The biographical articles are supplemented by the song translations of RichardStokes, some 700 in all, and a veritable treasury of great French poetry fromthe fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. These stand in their own right asindispensable to music lovers, concert-goers, and professional singers and theiraccompanists. This is a book which not only reflects the repertoire as found intoday's concert halls, but also encourages performers and armchair enthusiaststo explore the neglected highways and biways of an endlessly fascinating andhighly civilised body of music.