The period from the 1850s to the 1890s in Paris marked a key turning point for poets and
composers as they grappled with the new ways in which poetry and music could intersect. Under
the particular conditions of the time and place both art forms underwent significant
developments which challenged the status of each form. In both creative and critical work from
this era poets and composers offered tantalising but problematic insights into 'musical'
poetry and 'poetic' music. The central issue examined in this book is that of what happens to
poetry when it encounters music especially as song. The author places Baudelaire's famous
sonnet 'La Mort des amants' at the heart of the analysis tracing its transposition into song
by a succession of both amateur and professional composers examining works by Villiers de
l'Isle-Adam Serpette Rollinat Debussy and Charpentier as well as an extraordinary parodic
song version by Valade and Verlaine. A companion website offers recordings of each of the songs
analysed in this book.
