The Magic Tent. A Celebration of French Language Popular Music > Comments > "Perfectly engaging tour of French chanson"
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- Rekha Murthy
- Username: rmurthy
- Location: Arlington, Massachusetts
- Joined PRX: Jan 04, 2005
Piece Information

- "The Magic Tent. A Celebration of French Language Popular Music"
- Summary: Prepare to be dazzled by the Music, Voices and Artists in this Whirlwind Tour of French Language Popular Music. This program was specially created for English Speaking Audiences. A great selection for Bastille Day, July 14.
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Perfectly engaging tour of French chanson
Rekha Murthy
Posted on June 11, 2010 at 01:33 PM
I listened on an overcast, late-spring day, which put me into a Parisian mindset. On any day, though, I would have thoroughly enjoyed Charles' survey of French music. I had heard of many of the artists, and heard their work, but I never had context - who was contemporary with whom, who influenced whom. This piece is great for structuring my understanding of the music, presenting the artists in loose time sequence and drawing connections of influence among them. I enjoyed hearing stylistic shifts across artists and over time. I'd like a piece like this for many music traditions worldwide.
Charles' writing is simple, clear, and interesting - a great combination that made it much easier to remember what I was hearing. The production quality is high. Nothing fancy, just professionally done, and a reminder that simplicity can work well. The piece does start to feel rather long after 40 minutes or so - Charles himself acknowledges there's a lot of music to go through. It might be worth breaking it up by decade, even at risk of losing the stylistic comparisons over time.