Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/606

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Several brunettes were included in the great collection of old French popular songs, which A. Philidor copied out with his own hand and dedicated to Louis XIV. Many were undoubtedly written on old Noël airs, especially those in parts. After the 17th century they become scarcely distinguishable from romances.

For excellent and typical specimens of the romances of the 18th century, we may quote J. J. Rousseau's 'Le Rosier' and 'Au fond d'une sombre vallée,' both which are found in his collection entitled 'Lea Consolations des Miseres de ma Vie.' Simple, graceful, and pathetic as the former of these is, it is inferior to the latter in the descriptive power of the music. Its melody is as follows:—

while the soft murmur of the accompaniment ia sustained in semiquavers. The musicians of this period would seem to have been inspired by the grace and delicacy of the contemporary poetry to create melodies of great tenderness and simplicity. Insipid as these melodies must often appear to us, whose taste has been educated by great masters of the classical and romantic schools, they are thoroughly representative of the age which produced them. It was the time of that singular phase of thought and feeling which will for ever be associated with the name of J. J. Rousseau; a time of yearnings to return to some imagined state of native innocence; to an ideal pastoral life in some visionary Arcadia. All this was faithfully reflected in the works of its poets and musicians. What an idyll, for instance, is presented to us by 'Que ne suis-je la fougère,' the words of which were written by Riboutté, an amateur poet, to an old air wrongly attributed to Pergolesi. Among other favourite romances were 'O ma tendre musette'—words by La Harpe, and music by Monsigny; 'Il pleut, bergère,' by Simon; 'Les petits oiseaux,' by Rigel; 'L' Amour fait passer le temps, le temps fait passer l'amour,' by Solié; 'Annette et Lupin,' by Favart; and 'Que j'aime à voir les hirondelles,' by Devienne.

Although romances were so much in vogue and reached so high a degree of excellence, they were not the only noteworthy songs of the times in question. Songs of other kinds were written by such eminent composers of the 18th century as Grétry, Dalayrac, and Méhul. Amongst these, political songs are prominent. In no country have they been more important than in France. The temperament of the French has ever been favourable to the production of political chansons. The 'Mazarinade' of the 17th century was a vast collection of more than four thousand satirical effusions against Mazarin, adapted to popular airs. Early in the 18th century was heard the famous song 'Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre,' and later on, in the first throes of the Revolution, the Royalists of France were singing 'Pauvre Jacques,' by the Marquise de Travenet; and the air resounded with 'Ça-ira,' from the throats of the insurgent rabble of Paris. 'Richard ô mon roi,' and 'Où peut on étre mieux qu'au sein de sa famille' have become historical by their use at the same terrible period. [See vol. iii. p. 127a; vol. ii. p. 616b.] As might have been expected of so profound a movement, the Revolution gave birth to many remarkable songs. To the stormy years of the close of the 18th and the opening of the 19th centuries are due the finest chants or patriotic songs of France. Supreme among these