ABSTRACT
A culture of high-minded and ambitious instrumental music developed in Paris during the last three decades of the nineteenth century. French instrumental music before the 1870s, there was nonetheless a rich culture of orchestral and chamber music societies during the middle of the century. This chapter explores some of the ways in which the repertoire remained distinctively French, despite the strong Germanic influences that were initially felt in the 1870s and 1880s. It investigates some of the technical resources used by French composers during this period. The chapter also reviews the critical debates that surrounded instrumental music, and evaluates the achievements and historical significance of the repertoire. An expressive narrative seems to have motivated Gabriel Faure's single overt use of cyclicism in his chamber music. Cesar Franck was particularly adept at contrapuntal displays, and in his most successful chamber music he yoked them to motivische Arbeit and powerful long-term linear processes.
