An approach of the main prosodie devices in French chanson

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to show how a certain form of traditional prosody, still in use in the French chanson stemming from the "rive gauche" tradition as well as in certain rock bands, has been complemented by English ways of writing. The initial French chanson's manner was to match musical and textual accents as well as possible. But the use of syncopation, as well as that of what I call musical "strides" and of breaks in groups of meaning, lead to conclude that the composers' prosodie work has evolved to integrate language intonations in the musical line.