Between Poetry and Music

Research discussed in this article draws together literary history and word-and-music studies to explore the relation between poetry and music in French culture, focusing on the example of a now-forgotten genre, namely the poetic cantata (which comprises many musical elements in accordance with principles set out by Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, a subject discussed in the opening of the text) and transformations within this genre in the nineteenth century (dramaturgically complex works similar to operatic scenes, and simultaneously a return to simple strophic structure). The central section of the article comprises a comparative analysis of two poetic cantatas which were crucial to the development of the genre, written by Casimir Delavigne and Alphonse de Lamartine. Additionally, I discuss a ‘cantata’ written by Alfred de Musset, which constitutes a unique example of how this genre functioned in the second half of the nineteenth century

Art · Literature · Poetry · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis