| Abstract |
This study covers all of Chausson's music in detail and further makes an intimate connection between his music and the type of life he lived, the ideals he maintained, and the culture of which he was a part. It also treats the music much more thoroughly from the analytical viewpoint than has hitherto been done and correlates the analyses with forty-one carefully chosen musical examples. In addition, it explores thoroughly the relationship of Chausson's music to that of Franck and Wagner an area never covered before. The first chapter presents Chausson against his late nineteenth century background of wealth and social position in Paris. He entertained in his luxurious home many of the most famous painters, literary figures, and composers and performers of his day, including Manet, Degas, and Renoir; de Regnier, Mallarme, and the youthful Gide; Franck, Chabrier, Debussy, Albeniz, and Satie; and Ysaye, Cortot, and Jeanne Raunay. Chapters 2 through 7 deal with the various genres in which Chausson composed: melodies, music for orchestra, keyboard music, music for the theater, chamber music, and miscellaneous works. In these chapters the most important of the works are singled out for musical analysis, in most instances with examples from the scores. Among others, works treated are Poeme de l'amour et de la mer, the symphony in B-flat major, Quelques danses, the opera Le Roi Arthus, the concert in D major, and Hymne vedique. The French art song also receives special attention, especially the differences between the stereotyped romance and the highly individual melodie, the former typified by the Franck, the latter by Chausson. The final chapter presents conclusions based on the assessments of the previous chapters - that Ernest Chausson, hampered by an appalling lack of self-confidence, composed an attractive an appealing body of music that was not only not dependent upon Franckian and Wagnerian models but was in the forefront of new and progressive movements. True, derivative passages are occasionally heard, but not only is Chausson's music genuinely independent; it also marks an important transition from Franck to Debussy. Had Chausson not been killed in an accident at age forty-four, he might well have become a major figure. All his music is deserving of more frequent performance and wider acceptance. |
