Music of France

France has long been considered a centre for European art and music. The country boasts a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music, France has produced a number of legendary composers, while modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French rock, hip hop, techno/funk, and pop performers..

Folk music

As Europe experienced a wave of roots revivals, France found its regional cultures reviving traditional music. Brittany, Limousin, Gascony, Corsica and Auvergne were among the regions that underwent a popularization of folk music. Traditional styles of music had survived most in remote areas like the island of Corsica and mountainous Auvergne, as well as the more nationalist lands of the Basques and Bretons.

In many cases, folk traditions were revived in relatively recent years to cater to tourists. These groupes folkloriques tend to focus on very early 20th century melodies and the use of the piano accordion.

Central France

Central France incudes the regions of Auvergne, Limousin, Morvan, Nivernais, Bourbonnais and Berry. The lands are the home to the French bagpipe tradition, as well as the iconic hurdy gurdy and the dance bourree. There are deep differences between the regions of Central France, with the Auvergne and Limousin retained the most vibrant folk traditions of the area. As an example of the area’s diversity, the bourree can come in two distinct rhythms, 3/8 or 2/3; the latter is found in the south of the region, and is usually improvised with bagpipes and hurdy gurdy, while the former is found in the north and includes virtuoso players.

Bagpipe and hurdy gurdy

The hurdy gurdy, or vielle-a-roue, is a cross between a violin and a piano accordion. It is made up of a curved, oval body, a set of keys and a curved handle, which is turn and connected to a wheel which bows the strings that are stopped by the keys. There is a moveable bridge, a variable number of drones and hidden sympathetic strings, all of which can also effect the sound. Simpler forms of the hurdy gurdy are also found in Spain, Hungary and Russia.

The bagpipe is found in a wide array of forms in France, which has more diversity in bagpipes than any other country. The cabrette and grande cornemuse from Auvergne and Berry are the most well-known. These forms are found at least as far back as the 17th century. Prominent bagpipers include Bernard Blanc, Frederic Paris and Philippe Prieur, as well as bandleader Jean Blanchard of La Grande Bande de Cornemuses and Quintette de Cornemuses. Frederic Paris is also known as a member of the Duo Chabenat-Paris, a prominent duo who use elements like mixed polyphonic ensembles and melodies based on the bourree. Bernard Blanc and Jean Blanchard, along with Eric Montbel from Lyons, were among the musicians who formed the basis of La Bamboche and Le Grand Rouge. It was these two bands who did more than anyone to revitalize the traditions of Central France during the 1970s folk revival. The festival of St. Chartier, a music festival held annually near Chateauroux, has been a focal point for the music of Auvergne and Limousin.

The provinces of Morvan and Nivernais have produced some traditional stars, including Faubourg de Boignard and Les Menetriers du Morvan, respectively. The Nivernais collector Achille Millien was also notable in the early part of the 20th century.

Southern France

Southern France includes the regions of Provence, Bearn, Rousillon, Gascony and Languedoc. The Basques, with their own unique culture, are geographically part of this area, but are culturally distinct from any of their French or Spanish neighbors. The Occitan language is in use by some musicians, including Jean-Luc Madier and Rosina de Peira. The Massilia Sound System is a well-known group, specializing in what they call trobamuffin, which is Occitan raggamuffin.

Bal-musette

The hurdy gurdy became the basis for bal-musette music, which arrived in Paris by 1880 as a result of Auvergnat migration. The influence of Antoine Bouscatel led to bal-musette incorporating the Italian accordion, which soon came to dominate the music. This is the period that produced internationally known masters like Leon Chanal, Emile Vacher and Martin Cayla. Vacher’s light style, rhythmic nature and distinctive tremolo defined the genre for many audiences in France and beyond.

Basque

The Basques are a unique ethnic group, unrelated to any other in France and with uncertain connections abroad. The main form of Basque folk music is called trikitrixa, which is based on the accordion and includes popular performers like Benat Achiary and Oldarra. The Spanish Basques have had a much more active music scene, especially in the field of traditional music.

Corsica

Corsican polyphonic singing is perhaps the most unique of the French regional music varieties. Sung by male trios, it is strongly harmonic and occasionally dissonant. Works can be either spiritual or secular. Modern groups include Canta u Populu Corsu, I Muvrini, Tavagna and Chjami Aghjalesi; some groups have been associated with Corsican nationalism.

Corsican musical instruments include the bagpipe (caramusa), 16-stringed lute (cetera), mandolin, fife (pifana) and the diatonic accordion (urganettu).

Brittany

Uniquely Celtic in character, Breton folk music has had perhaps the most successful revival of its traditions, partially due to the result of Lorient, France’s most popular music festival.

The documented history of Breton music begins with the publication of Barzaz-Breizh in 1839. A collection of folk songs compiled by Hersart de la Villemarque, Barzaz-Breizh helped keep Breton traditions alive.

Couple de sonneurs, consisting of a bombarde and biniou, is usually played at festoù-noz celebrations (some are famous, like Printemps de Chateauneuf). It is swift dance music and has an older vocal counterpart called kan ha diskan. Unaccompanied call and response singing was interspersed with gwerz, a form of ballad.

Probably the most popular form of Breton folk is the bagad pipe band, which features native instruments like biniou and bombarde alongside drums and, in more modern groups, biniou braz pipes. Modern revivalists include Kevrenn Alre Bagad and Bagad Kemper.

Alan Stivell is perhaps the most influential folk-rock performer of continental Europe. After 1971’s Renaissance of the Celtic Harp, Breton and other Celtic traditional music achieved mainstream success internationally. With Dan Ar Bras, he then released Chemins de Terre (1974), which launched Breton folk-rock. This set the stage for stars like Malicorne in the ensuing decades.

Pure folk of modern Brettany include harpists like Anne-Marie Jan, Anne Auffret and Myrdhin, while singers Kristen Nikolas, Andrea Ar Gouilh and Yann-Fanch Kemener have become mainstream stars. Instrumental bands, however, have been the most successful, including Gwerz, Bleizi Ruz, Strobinell, Sonerien Du and Tud.

Music history

French music history dates back to organum in the 10th century, followed by the Notre Dame School, an organum composition style. By the end of the 12th century, a kind of music called the motet arose, accompanied by the spread of travelling musicians called troubadours. In the 14th century, France produced two notable styles of music, Ars Nova and Ars Subtilior. During the Renaissance, Burgundy became a major center for musicald development. This was followed by the rise of chansons and the Burgundian School

Classical music

Opera

The first French opera may be Akebar roi du Mogol, first performed in Carpentras in 1646. They were followed by the team of Pierre Perrin and Cambert, whose Pastoral in Music, performed in Issy, was a success, and the pair moved to Paris to produce Pomone (1671) and Les Peines et les Plaisirs de l’Amour (1672).

Jean-Baptiste Lully, who had become well-known composing ballets for Louis XIV, began innovating a French version of the Italian opera seria, a kind of tragic opera known as tragedie lyrique or tragedie en musique - see (French lyric tragedy). His first was Cadmus from 1673. Lully’s forays into operatic tragedy were accompanied by the pinnacle of French theatrical tragedy, led by Corneille and Racine.

Lully also developed the common beat patterns used by musical conductors today, and was the first to take the role of leading the orchestra from the position of the first violin.

Classical music era and modern French classical music

During the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic wars, the Paris Conservatory was established and foreigners like Frederic Chopin flocked to France. One of the major French composers of the time, and one of the most innovative composers of the early Romantic era, was Hector Berlioz.

In the late 1800s, pioneers like Georges Bizet, Jules Massenet, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy revitalized French music. The late 1800s saw the dawn of the music hall when Yvette Guilbert was a major star. The era lasted through to the 1930s and saw the likes of Felix Mayol, Lucienne Boyer, Marie-Louise Damien, Marie Dubas, Frehel, Georges Guibourg, Tino Rossi, Jean Sablon, Charles Trenet and Maurice Chevalier. This part of the 20th century also saw neo-classical music flourish in France, especially composers like Albert Roussel, Erik Satie and Les Six, a group of musicians who gathered around Satie. Later in the century, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez proved influential and incorporated non-native influences.

Popular music

French popular music in the 20th century included singers like superstar Edith Piaf as well as Monique Serf (Barbara) and Georges Brassens plus the more art-house musicians like Brigitte Fontaine. More recently, the success of the Star Academy television show has spawned a new generation of young pop music stars including Jenifer Bartoli and Nolwenn Leroy; and the superstar status of diva Mylene Farmer inspired pop rock performers like Alizee and Lorie, and R&B-influenced singers like Nadiya and Ophelie Winter.

American and British rock and roll was also popular in the 1950s and 60s, and indigenous rock achieved some domestic success. Punk rock, heavy metal found some listeners.

In particular, electronic music, as exemplified by Jean-Michel Jarre, achieved a wide French audience. The French electro-pop bands Air and Daft Punk and techno artist Laurent Garnier found a wide audience in the late 1990s and early 2000s, both locally and internationally. Electronica groups such as Telepopmusik continue to enjoy success.

Algerian rai also found a large French audience, especially Khaled. Moroccan chaabi and gnawa is also popular.

American hip hop music was exported to France in the 1980s, and French rappers and DJs, like MC Solaar, also had some success.

Rock

At the end of World War 2, French musicians were becoming wildly experimental and diverse. Popular musicians from the era included romantics like Edith Piaf, politicized singers like Leo Ferre, morbid sex symbols like Juliette Greco, elegant stars like Charles Aznavour and experimental, often humorous, performers like Georges Brassens and the Belgian Jacques Brel.

In the 50s, Elvis Presley and rock and roll made inroads in the French music scene. It produced stars like Johnny Hallyday, Richard Anthony, and Claude François, the popular ye-ye girls like Sylvie Vartan and some various music genre like Dalida, who can do anything like italian style music in 50s; twist, pop and rock in the 60s (and later pop, disco, new wave and rock in the 70s and 80s). These were popular female teen idols, and included Francoise Hardy, who was the first to write her own songs.

Singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg began as a jazz musician in the 1950s and spanned several eras of French popular music including pop, rock, reggae, new wave, disco and even hip hop filtered through his unique sense of black humor, heavily laden with sex and scatology.

Though rock was not extremely popular until the 70s, there were innovative musicians in France as the psychedelic rock trend was peaking worldwide. Jean-Pierre Massiera’s Les Maledictus Sound (1968) and Aphrodite’s Child’s 666 were the most influential. Later came bands such as Magma, Martin Circus, Au Bonheur des Dames, Trust, Telephone, Indochine, Noir Desir, and musicians Marcel Dadi, Paul Personne, Jean Pierre Danel, Bireli Lagrene, etc.

In the early 70s, Breton musician Alan Stivell (Rennaissance de l’Harpe Celtique) launched the field of French folk-rock by combining psychedelic and progressive rock sounds with Breton and Celtic folk styles.

Progressive rock

France became one of the leading producers of prog rock in the 1970s. Aficionados worldwide were enamoured by recordings like Ange’s Le Cimetiere des Arlequins, Pulsar’s Halloween, Shylock’s Ile de Fievre, Atoll’s L’Araignee-Mal and Eskaton’s Ardeur. Most well-known, however, may be the band Magma, whose 1970 debut, Magma, used free jazz and lyrical references to science fiction. The band later used Indian and electronic styles.

1980s

In the 1980s, French rock spawned a myriad of styles, many closely-connected with other Francophone musical scenes in Switzerland, Canada and especially Belgium. Pub rock (Telephone), psychobilly (La Muerte), pop punk (Les Thugs), synth pop (Telex) and punk rock (Bijou) were among the styles represented in this era.

Punk rock had arisen in the 1970s and continued into the next decade, perhaps best represented by Oberkampf and Metal Urbain. 80s progressive rock peaked early in the decade, with Dun’s Eros, Emeraude’s Geoffroy and Terpandre’s Terpandre, all from 1981, representing the genre’s pinnacle.

Hip hop

Hip hop music came from New York City, invented in the 1970s by African Americans. By 1983, the genre had spread to much of the world, including France. Almost immediately, French performers (musicians and breakdancers) began their career, including Thony Maskot, Frank II Louise, Max-Laure Bourjolly, Farid Berki, Traction Avant and Black Blanc Beur. Popularity was brief, however, and hip hop quickly receded to the French underground.

Paname City Rappin (1984, by Dee Nasty) was the first album released, and the first major star were Supreme NTM and MC Solaar, whose 1991 Qui Seme le Vent Recolte le Tempo, was a major hit.

Rai

France has long had a large Algerian minority, a legacy of long-time colonial domination of that country. Algerian immigrants brought their own music to France, most especially including rai. Originating in the lower-class slums of the city of Oran, rai shot to the top of the French charts in 1992 with the release of Khaled’s self-titled album Khaled. Later performers added influences from funk, hip hop, rock and other styles, creating most notably a pop genre called lover’s rai. Performers include Rachid Taha and Faudel.