Watch Your Radio 10/13/09: French Mountain Air
Music is to love.
Something I love about music? The endless buffet of trailheads that fans out before anyone who takes an interest in it. Today, I'm hiking the path that leads to Pérrier, France, the mountain range just beyond called the Cévennes, and songs sung there long ago.
For all the times I've aired Vincent D'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Air on WDAV, I've only recently enjoyed immediate access to the sights and sounds that inspired D'Indy to write his sparkling, sylvan work for piano and orchestra. Today, I've seen the contours, citizens and cottages of the Cévennes, run an eye across pages of music that filled D'Indy's days off, and I'm sharing:
The two older images above come from a magnificent book about the region by Sabine Baring-Gould published in 1907 - only 21 years after D'Indy's work premiered. You can leaf through the whole thing online.
Whether you can read French, music or neither, it's also worth taking a peek at this collection of folk songs from the era and a more northerly region that similarly served as inspiration for D'Indy. Pages 10, 12 and 14 are where the tunes begin. Happy humming. I'm off to renew my passport.