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Hey people, just finished my new song for the RAC (Represent a Country), you can come and check it out here!

I'm representing France, and I've done my fair part in research. I've started by transcribing songs from artists such as Avishai Cohen (Staav, Structures in Emotion) and Jacques Brel (Vesoul), before thoroughly analyzing their rhythmic characteristics, chord quality and structure, as well as the overall structure and characteristic resemblance within each composition.

Throughout my research, I've found a few interesting elements, including a fairly original chord progression, which I'll dub the french cadenza until I learn the actual name, which happens to be extremely tense and romantic at the same time.

In the example of a D Major tonality, the progression would be as followed: G-Em7b5-D. From what I gather, the Em7b5 is attained by using a minor substitution to make a chromatic descent from the B in G to the A in D, a bit in the same mind as the standard Am-AmMaj7-Am7-Am6 seen in a lot of 50's compositions like Thelonious Monk's 'Round Midnight, or Eden Abhez's Nature Boy.

That said, I did the same form of analyse with some french orchestral composers like Camille Saint-Saëns, Maurice Ravel and Gustav Mahler (I know he isn't french, but come on, you can't go wrong with MAHLER!)

And there it is! I really didn't do much concrete research, I mostly listened to their music to get as immersed as possible in their culture to grab the essence of french composition.

I hope you guys enjoy, I put quite a bit of effort in the actual composition!

Cheers,
Samuel Hébert