Singer as Interpreter

This biographical text contains translations of some of the master classes given by Claire Croiza in the 1930s, when she lectured on many aspects of singing and interpretation with particular reference to French composers. The stage of her career with which the book is chiefly concerned is her work as a singer for such composers as Faure, Debussy, Duparc, De Breville, Roussel, Milhaud and Honegger, who admired her interpretations of their songs. Because of her intimate knowledge of how these composers wished their works to be performed, she was asked to give classes at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s. The text describes her comments on individual songs, and attempts to relate the informal character of her lectures or "causeries".