ASSOCIATION CENTRE INTERNATIONAL DE LA MÉLODIE FRANÇAISE
ACADÉMIE FRANCIS POULENC

For those who do research in musicology, in comparative history, in the scenic arts, as well as for singers, pianists, and concert organizers, in France or elsewhere, no documantation concerning French art song has been available in one single place until now.  

To research, one has had to follow arduous, sometimes complicated, paths :

For music, at the French National Library where the restricted classification system does not facilitate the task ;

For poetry, in each and every library, including the University institutions ;

For works dealing with this subject, admittedly not numerous, most are out of print or difficult to find, and many are not in French ;

For published scores, those which are off the beaten track are usually out of print, and contemporary works are rare. French music publishers often consider vocal music as a minor item.

As for recordings, the big name firm catalogues have little to offer.  Commercial logic obviously takes priority over any other consideration.

The CIMF  (Centre International de la Mélodie Française) encourages the regrouping of all these documents: published or unpublished scores, unpublished or neglected manuscripts, books of poetry in or out of print,reference works on specific study and performance of French song, sound archives (discs, CDs, etc.), iconography (posters, facsimiles, art works), video archives (of concerts and events), films.

The CIMF has founded a ‘Resource Center’ which includes :

An encyclopaedia accessible on Internet with a data base regularly up-dated listing nearly 15,000 French romances, songs (chansons), and art songs (mélodies).

Archives (which may be consulted at the address in Tours (12 place Foire le Roi, 37000 Tours - Tél : 02 47 20 43 15) : - published and unpublished scores of vocal works, autographs, manuscripts; - books and reference material on composers, performers, interpretation, musicology, poets;    - audio recordings (of all kinds) and visual documents (videos, films, photographic documents).

The CIMF is authorized to receive donations or legacies from those who might wish to transmit their own archives or book collections concerning French song.

Therefore it is truly the reference center of French song, accessible to both amateurs and professionals for the purpose of diffusing this still not-so-well-known panel of French culture.

Download the pdf association affiliation form

THE ACADÉMIE FRANCIS POULENC

THE PRINCIPAL GOALS OF THE ACADÉMIE FRANCIS POULENC

To have the seminars in performance be a veritable pole of reference in the specific field of French art song by proposing  workshops, unique in form and content, for professional and soon-to-be professional musicians, French and non-French.

To become a place where contemporary songs are premiered and where songs by living composers are studied for interpretation.

To enable French and foreign audiences to discover all aspects of the subtle art of French song through high-level and varied programming for concerts and recitals, as well as through performance practice sessions and musical and poetical exchanges.

To reinforce and to augment the connections which the Académie has already established in 1997 with international institutions such as the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

A WORD BY OUR PRESIDENT FOR THE 2008 ACADEMY

The true father of Art song in France is Charles Gounod' said Ravel in 1922, 'it's him who found back the secret of the harmonic sensuality lost since the harpsichordists of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries'. He was right, for the celebrated composer of Faust has published more than 150 songs (among them around 30 in English, 15 in Italian, and some in Spanish and German), and, in such a quantity, very few are negligeable, because this genre, in its intimate expression, was the elected ground of Gounod's genius. Besides, he chose very often good poets : La Fontaine, Lamartine, Hugo, Musset, Gautier, and even Baïf, Passerat and Ronsard. And, last but not least, he gave them justice thanks to a 'light touch' which uplifts verses without weight, and lets the "souplesse' of French language speak. Fauré, Bizet, Duparc and Reynaldo Hahn have all acknowleged what they owe to his example. Sérénade, as recorded by Francis Poulenc and Pierre Bernac is a reference.

André Caplet (1878-1925) is well-know for his connection and affinities with Debussy. He never met Gounod, but his mystical nature, his love for the human voice and his intimate knowledge of the secrets of French language put his little-known fourty songs in the inheritance of Gounod's. He too elected poets of true value, like La Fontaine, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Hugo, Baudelaire, Lacordaire, Verlaine, Paul Fort. His keenship allows him to follow nuances of texts with a rare delicacy ; the fluidity and the internal sectioning of phrases, the irregularity of periods as well as the rythmical liquidity of syllables are all treated with great care. For these qualities and the freshness of Caplet's musical writing, these songs, too often deserted, open an ideal ground for study in a summer Academy.

BOARD OF THE ACADEMY

Artistic Director : Mr François Le Roux (Baritone)
Président : Mr Gérard Condé
Vice-Président : Mr Jean-Pierre Tolochard
(Deputy Mayor for the cultural affairs of the city of Tours)
Treasurer : Mr Jean-Claude Crapet
Assistant Treasurer : Mr Georges Collin
Secretary : Mrs Marie-Thérèse Aubert
Assistant Secretary : Mr Pascal Bergerault