French Music: From the Death of Berlioz to the Death of Faure

by Martin Cooper

French From the Death of Berlioz to the Death of Faure

Genres: Music

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Reviews

[Will White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be subtitled "César Franck gets read for filth" or perhaps "Jules Massenet gets dragged to hell". It was a great read.

I am totally perplexed by the range of ratings on this book. I was amazed at the depth of the author's knowledge and the cogency and coherence of his writing. He had intelligent insights to share on every composer in his survey, from the most famous to the most obscure.

What's more, he gets to the heart of the issues, judging these composers and their works on the content of their music, something rare to find in music criticism or musicology these days. He is able to analyze their musical rhetoric at the level of successful melodic and harmonic writing. He is generous with his praise and unflinching in his criticism.

I learned a tremendous amount from this book and I would recommend it most highly to anyone interested in the subject.

[Kris Poorbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can I just get all you people to read a book while listening to Fauré's Requiem? And while you're at it, the Cantique de Jean Racine. Yeah.