First complete and critical edition César Franck’s songs for voice and piano. This score contains 19 songs and, in appendix, the two patriotic pieces Paris and Patria. The importance of this set in the history of « mélodie » in France must be underlined, even if the name of the composer is mainly linked today with the organ repertoire.

Indeed, Franck begins with romance-like works, simple and strophic, and ends with masterpieces revealing the new genre of the French « mélodie ». At the same t...