Norman Lebrecht has a wrong framework but is usually interesting reading - except when he is trying to explain that framework. But even by Lebrecht's standards an unusually stimulating piece by him has been brought to my attention in Wednesday's Evening Standard.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-home/article-23499926-details/A+classical+buff%27s+guide+to+YouTube/article.do
Its subject is music and YouTube - an issue well worth considering. But particularly interesting for themes on this blog are his observations on post-World War II French chanson - remarks centring on Brel, Brassens, Piaf and Barbara. Lebrecht writes: 'The French chanson, an insular art that falls midway between Vaughan Williams's Songs of Travel and Radiohead's latest, is a world unto itself... the essential pessimistictristesse of the genre, the sense that we might as well accept the world as it is, for it will never get any better.' Having previously greatly admired Brel, in particular, but only recognising a distinctive 'feel' of this genre without any clear uconceptualistion, an important thought was added by reading Lebrecht. Indeed the sadness frequently underlying the music is striking.
I am absolutely not an expert on French culture so would not make any significant observations except that I have a great liking for Simenon who, at least for me, has some of the same feel - an underlying view of of hidden tragedies, the pursuit of petty purposes, of tragedy by accident, of futility. If accurate such observations obviously invite the question of why such concepts were influential in important parts of post-World War II French language literature and song.
However it may also be that these observations are a result of ignorance and wrong? Contributions by anyone with better knowledge of the issue would be welcome.
But Lebrecht's is definitely an article worth reading and is recommended - and not simply for its observations on YouTube.
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