Abstract:
This thesis explores the evolution in style of keyboard music written by French composers, from the first half of the eighteenth century through to the early years of the twentieth. It investigates historical links between the keyboard works of François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau, and those of Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Chapter One discusses the origins of keyboard music during the reign of Louis XIV, along with the subsequent innovations made by composers working after his death, during the remaining years of the ancien régime. Chapter Two examines the impact of the French Revolution on the composition of keyboard music in France, especially for the piano, which was still a relatively new instrument at that time. Chapter Three considers the emergence of a particular French style of keyboard pedagogy and performance which grew during the nineteenth century, as well as the works of a new wave of young French composers, all of whom were commencing their careers during the later years of that century. These composers resolved to create a body of keyboard music that would be taken as seriously by performers as the works of their German counterparts. This thesis asks how and why they chose to look back at the music of pre-revolutionary French composers, as a source of inspiration. The aesthetic qualities of French keyboard music composed over this period of time are considered, along with compositional processes used and the cultivation of particular musical genres. The thesis examines all of these factors in a broad socio-political context, in terms of how the unique political and social conditions pertinent to France during the chosen time frame, influenced the conscious creative decisions which were taken by composers who lived and worked during these years.