Orchestral songs

‘The lied with orchestra is a social necessity,’ wrote Camille Saint-Saëns to Marie Jaëll in 1876. To enrich concerts with new vocal pieces without having to draw from opera excerpts, the late Romantic period endeavored to produce a type of score that had become rare: the orchestrated melody. Jules Massenet, an essential link in the history of this genre, illustrates its intimate side by crafting an orchestral lace around the vocal line, in contrast to Duparc, who favored more extensive orchestral forces.