Chantez-vous français?

Do you sing French?

by Olivier Bettens

Englished by Conrad Leviston

Notes of interest on the French sung
from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period

With considerations on the latin sung by the French

These pages are in the process of translation. They are regularly being expanded and updated.

Not being able to resist bringing my contribution to the fascinating edifice of the network of networks, I have reassembled here the fruit of several years of study of French song, or more precisely the French of the singers. This is not only a history of metamorphosis, but adresses questions such as "How has French transformed over the centuries?", "How, in a given century, did it change according to if one was singing in a familiar manner or with a refined air?", "How did it vary from one place to another?" and "How did these same things transform the latin of the motets?".

I have formed my documents in preparation for a number of early music concerts. Singers and musicians will find here, I hope, some simple answers to practical questions. The point of this exercise, however, is not just to give some phonetic transcriptions, insufficient by their nature, but to understand that a reflection in depth of the marriage of the sounds of the music with those of the language are indispensible to the understanding of the song.

If I feel the need for this treatise, it is because of the abyss that too often separates those who specialise in language from those in song. The former exclude song from their domain of study. The latter hardly have the courage to go and find, in the esoteric writings of the linguists, the elements that would make it a profitable exercise. I will have attained my goal if I can contribte to bringing some linguists to an interest in song and some singers to an interest in language.

In this age of multimedia, I am profoundly attached to the value of the written word. However, if these pages seem austere, it is not that I object to illustrations on priniple. On the contrary, some examples of sound would probably be useful to my purpose. Unfortunately, restrictions on disk space do not permit me to do this for the moment, but some time in the future...

1. Preamble
   • Why a historical approch to the language? *
   • The verb, the rhythm and the voice *
2. French as Sung
   • The sources of an understanding *
   • The levels of the discourse *
     • The Baroque *
     • The Renaissance *
     • The Middle Ages *
   • The phonetic norm: fact or fiction? *
   • Change and tradition *
   • The vowels
     • The vocalic systems *
     • From A to Y *
       • A *
       • E *
       • I *
       • O *
       • U
       • Y *
       • Table of vowels *
     • Digrams, diphthongs and groups of vowels
   • The nasal vowels
   • The consonants
3. The Latin of the French
4. Examples of French song *
5. The Phonetic alphabet *
6. Bibliography *

Last modification: 6th of January 1998
Last chapter added: I'll get around to putting one in soon.