Béranger, Pierre Jean de. (1780-1857)
Portrait Medal
A scarce medal of the important French songwriter, by an unidentified artist. Features an excellent bust portrait facing left with text "PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER" and a star. Verso with a lyre and laurel and the text "NE LE 19 AOUT 1780 MORT LE 16 JUILLET 1857" surrounded by the quotation "NE N'AI FLATTE QUE L'INFORTUNE." 23 mm. Niggl 328."Béranger did more than anyone else to revive and legitimize the French political chanson. Like so many of his predecessors, he used pre-existing tunes (timbres) that were well known rather than compose new ones of his own...He is one of the few songwriters of any era to express, with a pen of professional and artistic cunning, a feeling for the desires of the popular masses. The uncrowned national bard of France and, in particular, the voice of the liberal and republican opposition during the Bourbon restoration, he lived to see his works sung and read throughout Europe, drawing praise and in some cases imitation from Goethe, Heine, Thackeray, Garibaldi and many of the progressive Russian writers....His songs remain a powerful example of the role that music can play in the propagation of social and political ideology." (Grove Online) (1863)
Ephemera Song