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.