French song in the late nineteenth century as typified by Faure, Chausson, and Debussy

In the decades Immediately following the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, all phases of French life—economic, political, social, and artistic-underwent massive change. It was during this period that French music emerged from a long period of mediocrity and reached new heights of achievement . This musical renaissance saw the development of the French art song and the emergence of several of France's greatest composers including Saint-Saens, Faure, Franck, d'Indy, Debussy, and Chausson. This paper is concerned with three of these composers-Faure, Chausson, and Debussy. It looks into their backgrounds, and atmosphere in which they worked, and their contributions to the development of the art song. It examines the musical styles of the three composers, and analyses a major art song of each.