French Symphony at the Fin de Siècle: Style, Culture, and the Symphonic Tradition

The first extended study of seven beloved French symphonic masterpieces, from Saint-Saëns and Franck to d'Indy and Dukas.

In this first full-length study of the symphony in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France, Andrew Deruchie provides extended critical discussion of seven of the most influential and frequently performed works of the era, by Camille Saint-Saëns, César Franck, Édouard Lalo, Vincent d'Indy, and Paul Dukas. The volume explores how these symphonists modernized the art form yet preserved many of the formal and rhetorical conventions of the canon, reconciling, in particular, Beethoven's symphonic legacy with the musical culture, intellectual environment, and political milieu of fin-de-siècle France. Drawing on contemporary criticism, music histories, composers' prose, and unpublished sketches, Deruchie's readings offer fresh insights on issues of musical form and technique, and also move beyond the notes to consider questions of meaning.

Andrew Deruchie is a lecturer in musicology at the University of Otago (New Zealand).