France Musique

[underthecountertenor]

I've taken to listening to France Musique (and reading Le Monde) recently, in an effort to brush up my French language skills. For a station whose slogan is 'Ce monde a besoin de musique,' they don't 'alf talk a lot. Fine for my purposes, but I'm not sure that it would go down well hereabouts. Ou ai-je tort?

[Radio64]

Thanks for le tip. It looks a bit like the Italian Rai Radio3 (discussed elsewhere) which is a sort of mixture of BBC's Radios 3&4 so quite a lot of chattin' as well as music.

But I'm sure this one serves well for your didactic purposes.

le linkage

[underthecountertenor]

Thanks, yeah? One of the charms of France Musique is the presenters' attempts at English names, which often exceed even Rob Cowan's assassination attempts. Earlier in the week, the Petroc Trelawny du petit dejeuner referred to Stephen Hough as Stephane Oof. Lovely.

[gurnemanz]

I wonder if they have an "Amis de France Musique" board to comment on pronunciation misdemeanours from presenters.

[french frank]

Ou ai-je tort?

Peut-être. For me, at any rate, it's the substance of what's said that matters. In fact I would welcome more regular programmes that talked about music.

[DracoM]

I've taken to listening to France Musique (and reading Le Monde) recently, in an effort to brush up my French language skills. For a station whose slogan is 'Ce monde a besoin de musique,' they don't 'alf talk a lot. Fine for my purposes, but I'm not sure that it would go down well hereabouts. Ou ai-je tort?

Absolutely my experience as well, and it's a pity. Repertoire can be illuminating, but entre les tracks, beaucoup de jacassement, eh?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder if they have an "Amis de France Musique" board to comment on pronunciation misdemeanours from presenters.

Organised by "English Penny"?

[underthecountertenor]

Absolutely my experience as well, and it's a pity. Repertoire can be illuminating, but entre les tracks, beaucoup de jacassement, eh?

Absolument.

[MickyD]

I've taken to listening to France Musique (and reading Le Monde) recently, in an effort to brush up my French language skills. For a station whose slogan is 'Ce monde a besoin de musique,' they don't 'alf talk a lot. Fine for my purposes, but I'm not sure that it would go down well hereabouts. Ou ai-je tort?

I listen to it a lot in the car, travelling between jobs. The only thing I will say is that there is less chat than there used to be! But at least it is not inanities such as phone-ins and what-sort-of-music-do-you-like-to listen-to-whilst-you-are-having-breakfast type questions. If you can persevere and try to understand the language, most of it is illuminating stuff.

[french frank]

I listen to it a lot in the car, travelling between jobs. The only thing I will say is that there is less chat than there used to be! But at least it is not inanities such as phone-ins and what-sort-of-music-do-you-like-to listen-to-whilst-you-are-having-breakfast type questions. If you can persevere and try to understand the language, most of it is illuminating stuff.

There also seems to be a French station called Ambiance classique (which I've just found) - with a constantly refreshing playlist page with the last few pieces played. This seems to be a sort of Classic FM with no speech at all (not while I listened, anyway?). I heard a bit of Mzt's clarinet quintet, Für Elise, Pachelbel's Canon, Vivaldi, Mandolin Concerto. But I don't think I could stand that stream of short unrelated pieces with no information at all.

There seems to be an almost infinite variety of combinations out there - just not the the kind of thing R3 used to do. I would look for a station with pieces long enough to make a reasonable amount of information worth giving, and a selection of music much of which I hadn't heard (or hadn't heard in the past few weeks).

[mercia]

how can a radio station (be expected to) know and play what one particular person hasn't previously heard and do likewise for each of its listeners

[french frank]

how can a radio station (be expected to) know and play what one particular person hasn't previously heard and do likewise for each of its listeners

If it plays the same pieces very regularly (à la Classic FM) it can be pretty sure that many of its listeners will have heard the pieces quite recently!

[MickyD]

FF...I think this is the station you mean...and yes, it is a bit like Classic FM.

http://www.radioclassique.fr/

[Don Petter]

FF...I think this is the station you mean...and yes, it is a bit like Classic FM.

http://www.radioclassique.fr/

I think that comparison is a little unfair. As we drive through France (at least twice a year) we alternate between France Musique and Classique, depending on the vagaries of mobile reception. In general, we prefer the latter, because of the no-nonsense presentation, without the the former's insistence on first putting every piece in the context of history, musicology, sociology, geography and the universe. ('Get on and play the damned thing!')

[french frank]

FF...I think this is the station you mean...and yes, it is a bit like Classic FM.

http://www.radioclassique.fr/

It's not playing the same music as the link to 'ambiance'??? There isn't any presentation at all - just the online details. A moment ago an announcer said "Ambiance classique' and the music started again. Currently playing the Radetzky March (following Handel's Royal Fireworks). Each piece seem to last about 3 mins or so.