1800s The Romance develops.
The early ideal of the Romance: Ņsimple touching style, with a somewhat antiquated flavour, the tune should be in keeping with the words: no ornaments, nothing mannered.Ó (History of Song, 200)
The French used the term ŌromanceÕ in the first half of the 18th century to denote a strophic poem recounting an ancient story of love and gallantry. Essential to the genre were the qualities of naturalness, simplicity and naivety.
The romance grew enormously in popularity. The genre's strophic form, unadorned melody, subordinate accompaniment and simple expression were ideally suited to exploit the vein of sentimentalism in opˇra comique. Romances were composed by the leading opˇra comique composers of the time,
Fran¨ois-Andrˇ
Danican Philidor (1726-1795)
Pierre-Alexandre
Monsigny (1729-1817)
Andrˇ-Ernest-ModesteGrˇtry
(1741-1813)
The romance developed in two directions: a set piece in an opera, or a song to be sung in a chamber-setting (the salon).
Jean-Paul-Gilles
Martini (1741-1816).
French
composer, born in Germany (birth name Johann Paul Aegidius Martin). He took
pride in being the first to
replace basso continuo in French song with obbligato keyboard. Whatever the
merits of this claim, his collections of romances and chansons were important models in the 1780s and
later.
From
his first collection of songs, the Romance du chevrier, or Plaisir dÕamour, 1783/4, remains in the repertory; its gentle
melancholy and sentimentality are matched by a suave vocal line and discreet,
but effective accompaniment. MartiniÕs other songs encompass the pastoral, the
narrative, the satirical and the comic. He also set verses by leading lyric
poets of his time, and his choices illustrate several contemporary concerns
(ShakespeareÕs arrival on the Continent, maternal devotion, political
persecution).
Plaisir
d'amour (1783/4)
is
often cited as a landmark in the development of the romance: it has a realized accompaniment,
and the normal strophic form is replaced by a rondo pattern, which became increasingly popular in the 19th century.
M1505
C35 E4 1991
Emma Calve
By the end of the 1780s the sentimental romance was very fashionable, especially at the court of Marie Antoinette. With the advent of the French Revolution (1789) the romance changed rapidly. Charm and sentimentality were replaced by patriotism, reflection of current events, tragedy and terror. With this came a new and freer lyricism, and the accompaniment, generally indicated for Ōpiano, harp or guitarÕ, became more elaborate.
By the turn of the century there was a continuous flow of these songs, affirming their immense popularity. Leading composers of the genre include:
Gossec
Mˇhul
Rodolphe Kreutzer
C.-H. Plantade
P.J. Garat
Boieldieu
The romance was popular but was not considered by contemporary critics as ŅArt.Ó
After 1830 the romance as a song type began to give way to the more dramatic mˇlodie. The most successful composers during this period were:
Pauline Duchambge
Auguste Panseron
Lo•sa Puget
Francesco Masini
Antoine-Joseph Romagnˇsi
In
1846 Romagnˇsi suggested the following classifications for the romance:
romances sentimentales
mˇlodies reveuses et graves
chants hˇroique et fortement rhythmˇs
romances passionnˇes et dramatiques
chasonettes.
Romance is to mˇlodie as folksong is to Lied