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A period as short as 50 years means that our French composers were all contemporaries. Our course will therefore see them crossing between sessions, more emphasis being placed perhaps on genres than sequential narrative. We start in 1870 and France’s wartime defeat, when anti-German sentiment and the love-hate relationship with Wagner came to a head. You will learn how an initiative to train native-born composers and defy the stuffy stranglehold of the Paris Conservatoire emerged, with influential teachers like Saint-Saens and Faure in the lead. Meanwhile, Offenbach and Bizet turned from light to more serious music, each significantly raising international standards. You will then see how a more revolutionary challenge came from Debussy. Ignoring all conventions, he developed a sound world based on Far Eastern tonality and the symbolism of Verlaine and Mallarme. Though hating the word Impressionism, uniquely sensual harmonies and effects are his hallmark. Though you may hear them as similar, Ravel’s music demonstrates more limpid restraint, elegance and formality. Because of his Basque heritage, he was also one of many influenced by Spain.