Less well known are two interesting pieces by Massenet, "Chères Fleurs" and "Chantez"  (Alliance Music, I think).  Chantez is very exciting.  And two by Saint-Saens, "Calme des nuits" and "Les fleurs et les arbres." 

David

There are some cool pieces by Lili Boulanger, sister of the famous Nadia, such as

Also the Baroque composer Michel-Richard de Lalande (spelling varies: Delalande, De la Lande, etc.) wrote some fantastic "grand motets" (comparable scale and difficulty to Bach cantatas), if you don't mind doing a piano reduction of orchestral accompaniment. I particularly like his "Confitebor tibi Domine" and "Super flumina". If you're looking for something shorter, the Requiem finale to his his "De profundis" is to die for.

 

Mozart sometimes wrote in French (the original lyrics to "Twinkle twinkle" are "ah, vous dirai-je, Maman"), and so did Orlando di Lasso (e.g. La Nuit froide et sombre), although of course there were plenty of French Renaissance composers. Stravinsky spent quite a bit of time in France: Les Noces is one result, although that's probably more ambitious than you're looking for.

 

Poulenc?

How about Les Chansons des Roses by Lauridson which is a set of songs in French, fairly difficult but beautiful. There is also in English Madame Jeanette by Lyn Murray. in Englsih and not too long and rather easy.

 

Erwin Petri 

There is quite a lot of French baroque music (Lully, Rameau, etc.).  In addition, I am quite fond of Janequin's onomotopoeic (sp?) program chansons.  "Le chant des oiseaux" and "La guerre" come to mind.

French a cappella music exists  but is rather like hen's teeth!

 

I'd nevertheless endorse the references to Lili Boulanger, to Massenet and to Saint-Saens.  You seem to know already about Fauré's Lydia; and the Debussy Charles d'Orleans settings.  Poulenc and Ravel have written sets of music, in Poulenc's case both sacred and secular (Six chansons...).  Ropartz - entirely neglected - has a set of Six Chansons Bourbonnais.

 

Pierre Villette's music could do with exposure - a Hyperion cd has a good selection of his sacred pieces.

 

In cross-cultural terms (!), apart from the Lauridsen set of Chansons des Roses, Hindemith set six poems by Rilke - who was writing in French!  And the American composer Julian Wachner has performed a similar service (there's a cd on Naxos).

 

Best of luck.  I look forward to a host of references - could do with them here.

 

roly brown, france

 

 

 

I'm glad you asked!  I recently had two works premiered on a concert of/about France.  One, Love Always!, for SATB and soprano sax, sets a translation of Victor Hugo's famous love poem  "Aimons toujours!"

 

The other, Waltzes About France, is for SATB and jazz quartet (tenor sax/piano/bass/drums), and sets two poems about France, one by the English poet Barry Cornwall, and the other by me.

 

These aren't up on my website yet, but if you contact me at the address below, I can send you sample score PDFs, performance MP3s, etc.

 

All best!

Jonathan Santore

info(a)jonathansantore.com

www.jonathansantore.com

Dear Kate,

 

I have the following programme for a "French Connection"concert in the UK in October:

 

Have a look at Nicolas Gombert's (1490-1556) scores. Here's some links. Enjoy!

Mark

 

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/O-Domina-mundi/4496478

 

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Ave-Maria/4341330

 

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Souffrir-me-convient/18651281

Les Djinns by Fauré

 

or  Sépulture (Baudelaire) by me - http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=home.score&scoreID=136497

 

or Hymn to St. Martin of Tours (Breviarium Romanum) in Latin- http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=home.score&scoreID=116924

 

both of which are free to download, but subject to notification by email if being performed.

Please consider checking out my newly published arrangement of "Beau Soir" by Debussy, ECS Publishing No. 7689. Thank you for your consideration.

 

Stanley M. Hoffman

Two pieces by John Biggs:

 

From Consort Press:

CP 2 "BON JOUR, MON COEUR"  (Text in French & English) SATB acappella  2.5min. $1.50

From Theodore Presser:

312-40525 "IL COURT, LE FURET" (French folk song) SSA acappella, 1.5 mnin., French & English, price unknown

 

See composer bio here: http://consortpress.com/Bio.Reviews.html

 

 

 

Corrado Margutti (b. 1974): Le mensonge / The Lie - for SATB ac

PDF

MP3

If you can do accompanied works ... the Stabat Mater of Francis Poulenc is one of the most stunning of all French choral works.  Might be OK with the piano reduction in the full vocal score.  The Gloria of Poulenc was mentioned above ... that does work well with just piano. 

Want something fun with an upbeat tempo.  Try J'tends Moulin by Patriquin (Earthsongs)  Has some percussion accompaniment as well.  Need a good accompanist. 

While on the subject, I need a simple round in French that can be sung by a combined 6/7/8 small chorus and a HS SATB group.  Basic and beautiful is what I'm looking for.  Ideas?