Have you ever wondered why that final “e” in French mélodie and arias is sometimes sung and sometimes not? The basis of French poetry is the alexandrine, a line that usually consists of six, eight, or ten iambic feet. Unlike English poetry, which measures the number of accented beats, French poetry measures the number of syllables in each line, whether stressed or unstressed.
Each line has only two strong accents: One at the caesura, or break, and the other at the end, usually marked by the rhyme. Whether the mute “e” is pronounced depends on whether the poet, or the composer, needs its sound to achieve the exact count of syllables for the alexandrine.
If you read the poetry of your Fauré or Debussy songs while ticking the syllables on your fingers, you’ll see that the number of syllables for each line rarely varies, and that those mute “e”s become an important variable in balancing the poetic meter.
