In France, music reflects a diverse array of styles. In the field of classical music, France has produced several prominent romantic composers, while folk and popular music have seen the rise of the chanson and cabaret style. The oldest playable musical recordings were made in France using the earlist known sound recording device in the world, the phonautograph, which was patented by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1857. France is also the 5th largest market by value in the world, and its music industry has produced many internationally renowned artists, especially in the nouvelle chanson and electronic music.
The ballet master and choreographer Marius Petipa.
Cover page of the score of the song Si petite performed by Lucienne Boyer
Alan Stivell, a Celtic musician and singer.
Nolwenn Leroy often uses to reinterpret traditional Breton and Celtic songs.
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America.
Maria Wiik, Ballad (1898)
Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
Illustration by Arthur Rackham of the Scots ballad "The Twa Corbies"
Illustration by Arthur Rackham to Young Bekie.
