ROBIN BOWMAN
 
The songs of Albert Roussel and André Caplet
 
Albert Roussel (1869 - 1937) and André Caplet (1878 - 1925), two very
northern French composers, were central figures in the musical life of the first
quarter of the twentieth century in France. Though their individual styles are
markedly different, each of them produced a sizeable output of songs exploring
a wide range of musico-poetic expression from knockabout humour to extreme
pathos, and always displaying a great love of life!  In many ways firmly situated
in the French impressionist tradition, they both also explore idiosyncratic
innovative compositional techniques, but their substantial legacies as song-
composers still seem to be somewhat overshadowed by the works of their more
famous compatriots, hence my enthusiasm for offering you samples from these
substantial legacies in this lecture.