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Flanerie - a view of Paris

An imagined serendipitous journey through Paris's streets, past and present, told through its literature and music, with the actors Tamsin Greig and Neil Pearson.

An imagined serendipitous journey through Paris's streets, past and present, told through its literature and music, with the actors Tamsin Greig and Neil Pearson

The Fl芒neur - "that aimless stroller who loses himself in the crowd, who has no destination and goes wherever caprice or curiosity directs his or her steps".

It was Baudelaire, in his "Fleurs du Mal" in the late 19th century, who created fl芒nerie as a literary ideal for evoking the patterns and emotions of modern urban life in Paris; but the concept of the detached observer - casual, directionless, voyeuristic - who finds refuge within the crowded streets of the capital, had been around for some time. Balzac, writing in the years before the advent of Haussman's modern cityscape, had described fl芒nerie as "the gastronomy of the eye". Later, the German writer and social-critic, Walter Benjamin, would use the experiences of the Parisian fl芒neur as illustrations for socio-political commentary.

In this edition of Words and Music, we - much in the spirit of the fl芒neur - take a casual musical and literary journey through Paris's imagined streets. Glimpses of buildings bring to mind the city's great history and its inhabitants; its poets, writers and composers. Imagine sauntering past Notre Dame and the neighbouring university: and the ribaldry of medieval Paris fills the mind's eye, evoking the words of Villon and Rabelais; of Victor Hugo describing the medieval skyline and the festive sound of the medieval bells.

Next on to the Louvre and the Marais, and echoes of the grandeur of Paris during the age of the Sun King; of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de S茅vingn茅's famous letters; of the music of Lully and Charpentier. Turn another corner, and find the youthful Marin Marais, lost and bewildered by the banks of the Seine - his voice, post-pubescent - his services no longer required in the Royal Chapel.

A hundred years on, and in the wretched area of Sainte-Antoine, Charles Dickens watches the abject poor seemingly rehearse events for one the city's least glorious moments; their hands and clothes stained with red wine, like blood.

Balzac lists the varied "physiognomy" of the Parisian back streets in the years just before Haussmann re-invented the city - we follow him into some of Paris's more forbidding and darker haunts; while later - into the Belle 脡poque and beyond - coursing among the newer buildings, parks and thoroughfares - Baudelaire, Proust and Zola observe Parisian life with a multitude of senses and a painterly eye. As do Faur茅, Verlaine and Debussy.

"Among all cities, there is none more associated with the book than Paris", wrote Walter Benjamin. Ernest Hemingway finds refuge in one of the city's necessary cafes, watching and transcribing, while Beria and Bechet set the same thoughts to music.

Finally, our serendipitous journey presents an aspect of the modern Paris: not the beautiful; nor the bustling, fashionable and vibrant; but urban nonetheless. The city at its edge - people at the periphery. The world in the Banlieue: of graffiti and the blues.

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 17 Feb 2019 18:15
麻豆社 Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Frederick Delius

    Paris: Song of a Great City

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox (conductor).
    • EMI 49932.
    • Tr 3.

  • EE Cummings

    聯Paris; the April sunset completely utters聰, read by Neil Pearson

  • Edmund White

    聯The Flaneur - A stroll through the paradoxes of Paris, read by Tamsin Greig and Neil Pearson

  • 00:06

    Guillaume de Machaut

    Messe de Notre Dame - Kyrie

    Performer: The Hilliard Ensemble, Paul Hillier (conductor).
    • Hyperion CDA 66358.
    • Tr 1.

  • Fran莽ois Rabelais

    Pantagruel and Gargantua, read by Neil Pearson

  • 00:09

    Claude Debussy

    Trois Ballades de Fran莽ois Villon

    Performer: Christopher Maltman (baritone), Malcolm Martineau (piano).
    • Hyperion CDA67357.
    • Tr 21.
  • 00:11

    Cl茅ment Janequin

    Voulez ouyr les cris de Paris

    Performer: Ensemble Cl茅ment Janequin.
    • Harmonia Mundi HMT901072.
    • Tr 1.

  • Victor Hugo

    The Hunchback of Notre Dame (excerpt), read by Tamsin Greig

  • 00:12

    Frederick Delius

    Paris: Song of a Great City

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox (conductor).
    • EMI 49932.
    • Tr 3.
  • 00:14

    Jean鈥怋aptiste Lully

    Overture and Act 3 Scene 4, 鈥楲e Sommeil鈥�

    Singer: Gilles Ragon (Counter tenor). Ensemble: Les Arts Florissants. Conductor: William Christie.
    • HARMONIA MUNDI 7488192632.
    • Tr 1.

  • The Letters of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de S茅vingn茅

    Excerpt read by Tamsin Greig

  • Pascal Quignard

    All the Mornings of the world (excerpt), read by Neil Pearson

  • 00:24

    Marin Marais

    Pieces de Viole: Book 4 聭Le Reveuse聮

    Performer: Jordi Savall (viole).
    • ALIA VOX AVSA9872.
    • CD4 Tr8.
  • 00:28

    Jean-Baptiste Davaux

    Symphonie Concertante M锚l茅e D'Airs Patriotiques for 2 violins & orchestra in G - 1st mvt

    Performer: Werner Ehrhardt (violin), Andrea Keller (violin), Concerto K枚ln.
    • CAPRICCIO 10280.
    • Tr1.

  • Charles Dickens

    A Tale of Two Cities (excerpt), read by Tamsin Greig

  • 00:34

    Hector Berlioz

    L茅lio, Op. 14b - Movement V: La harpe 茅olienne

    Performer: Berlin Komische Oper Orchestra, Rolf Reuter (conductor).
    • BERLIN CLASSICS 002149BC.
    • Tr 10.
  • 00:37

    Giacomo Puccini

    La Boheme - Act 2 Opening

    Performer: Orchestra e coro dell'Accademia di Santa Ceclia, Tullio Serafin (conductor).
    • DECCA 4255342.
    • Tr 11.

  • Balzac

    Ferragus (excerpt), read by Neil Pearson

  • 00:38

    Fr茅d茅ric Chopin

    Piano Sonata No 2 in Bb minor Op35 - 4. Finale

    Performer: Nikita Magaloff (piano).
    • PHILIPS 456 376-2.
    • Tr8.
  • 00:40

    Giacomo Puccini

    La Boheme - Act 3 duet "Mimi - Speravo di trovarvi qui"

    Performer: Renata Tebaldi (soprano), Ettore Bestianini (baritone), Orchestra e coro dell'Accademia di Santa Ceclia, Tullio Serafin (conductor).
    • DECCA 4255342.
    • CD2 Tr3.
  • 00:45

    Frederick Delius

    Paris: Song of a Great City

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox (conductor).
    • EMI 49932.
    • Tr 3.

  • Baudelaire

    Fleurs du Mal: 聭To a Passer-By聮, read by Tamsin Greig and Neil Pearson

  • 00:46

    Gabriel Faur茅

    La bonne chanson, Op 61 - III "La lune blanche luit dans les bois"

    Performer: Camille Maurane (baritone), Lily Bienvenu (piano).
    • PHILIPS 438 970 -2.
    • Tr 10.
  • 00:49

    Claude Debussy

    Petite Suite - I. En Bateau (orchestrated by Henri B眉sser)

    Performer: Orchestre. National de L'O.R.T.F, Jean Martinon (conductor).
    • EMI CDM7695892.
    • Tr 7.

  • Marcel Proust

    Swann聮s Way I (Vol. 1 of 聯Remembrance of Things Past聰), read by Neil Pearson

  • 00:53

    Jacques Offenbach

    Overture "La Belle H茅l猫ne"

    Performer: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Louis Fr茅maux (conductor).
    • EMI CDM7630242.
    • Tr 14.

  • Emile Zola

    The Ladies Delight, read by Tamsin Greig

  • 00:57

    Gustave Charpentier

    Louise Act 3 - "Depuis le jour"

    Singer: Ileana Cotruba葯. Singer: Pl谩cido Domingo. Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra. Conductor: Georges Pr锚tre.
    • SONY S3K 46429.
    • 11.
  • 01:01

    Danse les Musettes a Paris

    "Danse les Musettes a Paris"

    Performer: Germaine Beria, Les Vagabonds.
    • FREMEAUX & ASSOCI脡S FA 005.
    • Tr 2.

  • Ernest Hemingway

    A Moveable Feast (excerpt), read by Neil Pearson

  • 01:02

    Sidney Bechet

    Petite Fleur

    Performer: Sidney Bechet.
    • EUROPE 1710440.
    • Tr 5.

  • Jeanine Basinger

    "A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women 1930-1960", (excerpt) read by Tamsin Greig

  • 01:06

    U&G Hermosa

    La Lambada

    Performer: Koama.
    • TELSTAR TTVCD3067.
    • CD2 Tr 8.

  • Mehdi Charef

    Tea in the Harem (excerpt), read by Tamsin Greig

  • 01:07

    Jacques Higelin

    Banlieue Boogie Blues

    Performer: Jacques Higelin.
    • EMI 796482.
    • Tr 2.
  • 01:12

    Frederick Delius

    Paris: Song of a Great City

    Performer: Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Richard Hickox (conductor).
    • EMI 49932.
    • Tr 3.

  • James Fenton

    In Paris with you (excerpt), read by Neil Pearson

Producer's Note

The Fl芒neur - "that aimless stroller who loses himself in the crowd, who has no destination and goes wherever caprice or curiosity directs his or her steps".

听

It was Baudelaire, in his "Fleurs du Mal" in the late 19th century,听 who created fl芒neurie as a literary ideal for evoking the patterns and emotions of modern urban life in Paris; but the concept of the detached observer - casual, directionless, voyeuristic - who finds refuge within the crowded streets of the capital, had been around for some time. Balzac, writing in the years before the advent of Haussman's modern cityscape, had described fl芒neurie as "the gastronomy of the eye". Later, the German writer and social-critic, Walter Benjamin, would use the experiences of the Parisian fl芒neur as illustrations for socio-political commentary.

听

In this edition of Words and Music, we - much in the spirit of the fl芒neur - take a casual听 musical and literary journey through Paris's imagined streets. Glimpses of buildings bring to mind the city's great history and its inhabitants; its poets, writers and composers. Imagine sauntering past Notre Dame and the neighbouring university: and the ribaldry of medieval Paris fills the mind's eye, evoking the words of Villon and Rabelais; of Victor Hugo describing the medieval skyline and the festive sound of the medieval bells.

听

Next on to the Louvre and the Marais, and echoes of the grandeur of Paris during the age of the Sun King;听 of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de S茅vingn茅's famous letters; of the music of Lully and Charpentier. Turn another corner, and find the youthful Marin Marais, lost and bewildered by the banks of the Seine - his voice, post-pubescent - his services no longer required in the Royal Chapel.

听

A hundred years on, and in the wretched area of Sainte-Antoine, Charles Dickens watches the abject poor seemingly rehearse events for one the city's least glorious moments; their hands and clothes stained with red wine, like blood.

听

Balzac lists the varied "physiognomy" of the Parisian back streets in the years just before Haussmann re-invented the city - we follow him into some of Paris's more forbidding and darker haunts; while later - into the Belle 脡poque and beyond - coursing among the newer buildings, parks and thoroughfares - Baudelaire, Proust and Zola observe Parisian life with a multitude of senses and a painterly eye. As do Faur茅, Verlaine and Debussy.

听

"Among all cities, there is none more associated with the book than Paris", wrote Walter Benjamin. Ernest Hemingway finds refuge in one of the city's necessary cafes, watching and transcribing, while Beria and Bechet set the same thoughts to music.

听

Finally, our serendipitous journey presents an aspect of the modern Paris. Not the beautiful; nor the bustling, fashionable and vibrant; but urban nonetheless. The city at its edge - people at the periphery. The world in the Banlieue: of graffiti and the blues.


Chris Wines (producer)

Broadcasts

  • Sun 11 May 2014 17:30
    麻豆社 Radio 3
  • Sun 17 Feb 2019 18:15
    麻豆社 Radio 3

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