Cultural Prehistory of Modern Paris

Music

Paris was central to the development of European music from the Middle Ages to the Romantic Era. Housing both native and foreign talent, Paris provided a meeting ground for the great European musicians.

During the Middle Ages (c. 500-1420), the church controlled Europe and prescribed the course of the arts. During this period, the Roman Catholic Church left little room for experimentation and innovation. The Gregorian chant, a monophonic musical accompaniment to mass services, was the main musical development of the Middle Ages. The Notre Dame School of Paris contributed the Mangus Liber Organi, the Great Book of Organa, (c. 1170) by LÈonin, the first major polyphonic (many voices) composer known by name. The Mangus Liber Organi contained two part organa. Organa were musical pieces in which a plainchant melody is sung against another line of music. PÈrotÌn, his successor, soon expanded LÈonin's two part compositions to three and four parts. PÈrotÌn expanded the Mangus Liber Organi and was one of the first composers to use rhythm. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the gracefully expressive music of the French composer Guillame Dufay (1400-1474) helped to link the Middle Ages to the subsequent Renaissance.

The Renaissance (c. 1420-1600) was the European cultural reawakening that gave new life to the arts. The rise of humanism and the decreasing influence of the church gave composers greater freedom to explore both sacred and secular music. The French contribution to Renaissance music was the development of the late medieval chanson. During the Renaissance, the chanson, a secular form of poetry music, developed a clear structure, lively programmatic writing, and an irregular metric organization called musique mesurÈe that preserved the accents and meaning of the poetry. This demonstrates the French primary concern for textual over musical meaning. Josquin Des Prez (1445-1521), who is considered on of the greatest Renaissance composers, relaxed many of the previous requirements for chansons and gave them a freer feel. As the philosophical freedom and renewal of the Renaissance gave way to competition between European monarchs, each kingdom tried to demonstrate its superiority by ornamenting overly its arts. This grandiosity was evident in French Baroque music.

The competition between monarchs in the Baroque period (1600-1750) produced an explosion of new musical styles. French opera grew during the Baroque period. Ballet dancing was incorporated into the opera. The overture, (a slow movement, a fast movement, and a return to the slow movement) became a fixture. Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) helped to introduce the overture into French Opera. As was characteristic of Baroque musicians, Lully worked from the king's court. Louis XIV and his contemporaries aimed to surround their thrones with new music to demonstrate their own magnificence. Because the Thirty Years War threw France into chaos, the Italians dominated much of the progress of French opera. Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), however, contributed much to French opera. During the late Baroque period, he introduced diverse harmonies, intense speech sections, and complex orchestrations. As the public became tired with the Baroque over-ornamentation of music, composers returned to a more simple Classical style.

The Classical Period (1750-1820) reflected the elegant simplicity of the Greek and Roman periods. The Classical Period was centered in Vienna, among Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. During much of the Classical Period, France was undergoing the turmoil of the Revolution and could not focus on the arts. Still, the classical desire for simplicity was reflected in the revolutionary ideals.

Composers of the Romantic Era (1820-1900) added emotional depth and self-expression to their works. Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was a dramatist whose exposure of emotion in music made him a controversial figure. Berlioz' famous Symphonie Fantastique was based on a love affair. His long, sweeping melodies that demonstrate passion, melancholy, and joy, helped to transform music into a means of expression of feeling. FrÈdÈric Chopin (1810-1849) also expressed emotion through music. His many piano compositions include new ways of using fingers and pedals. Chopin used a different method to express each feeling. His insight into feeling and aptitude for transforming feeling into music made him a primary figure of the Romantic Era.

Paris held the position of musical center through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque Period, Classical Period, and Romantic Period. Paris' vivid musical history demonstrates the richness of Parisian culture.