He started working in various nightclubs singing his favourites from the French chansons such as those of Édith Piaf, Yvette Guilbert and Marie Dubas.
The Chansons madécasses (Madagascan Songs) are three compositions by Maurice Ravel written between 1925 and 1926 for voice (Mezzo-soprano or baritone), flute, cello and piano with words from the poetry collection Chansons madécasses by Évariste de Parny.
Brokken was one of the most popular women singers of the 1950s and 1960s, performing in the Sleeswijk Revue alongside Snip en Snap and scoring hits, some of which with translated chansons by Charles Aznavour.
A talented lute player he introduced French chansons and consorts of viols to his court and was patron to composers such as David Peebles (c. 1510–1579?).
With his friends Alain Guel and Xavier Grall, he helped found the publishing house "Kelenn", where in 1968 he published Le Livre des Chansons.
His repertoire encompassed everything from the medieval chansons of Guillaume de Machaut to the avant garde works of Igor Stravinsky.
"Il me dit que je suis belle" was covered in 1997 by Jeane Manson for the 1993 covers compilation Les plus belles chansons françaises.
Josef's chamber music is recorded on a composer portrait CD Kammermusik, including Fünf Chansons nach Texten von François Villon (for soprano, flute, clarinet and percussion), 26.6.1626 (concertante scene no. 2 for baritone, flute, violin, bassoon and piano), Bizarrerien (three songs and two intermezzi for soprano, alto flute and guitar), and the Musik für Flöte(n), Viola und Kontrabass, played by La Picassola.
The Missa Fors seulement is built on the chansons by Antoine de Févin and Matthaeus Pipelare; the Missa Fit porta Christi pervia is based on a plainchant cantus firmus; the Missa Myns liefkens bruyn ooghen uses as its source a secular song in Dutch, by Benedictus Appenzeller; and the Missa Stabat mater uses the motet by Josquin, a composer he evidently admired.
Its text is the poem La fille aux cheveux de lin No. 4 of the Chansons écossaises (Scottish songs) from Charles Leconte de Lisle's Poemes antiques (Ancient poems), published by Alphonse Lemerre in Paris, 1874.
Specifically, he has written important and influential works on Don Quixote, the chansons de geste, the medieval novel (notably Amadis de Gaula), the troubadours, courtly love, the history of Catalan literature, and the social phenomenon of the knight errant.
She is well-known for her chansons and for her children's songs about cats, written by Kajetan Kovič.
Claude Le Jeune and Paschal de L'Estocart both wrote collections of moral chansons, Octonaires de la vanité et inconstance du monde, with 19 texts common to both collections.
In 1947 Marianne Oswald performed some of his chansons in a French radio broadcast.
James V, as well as being a major patron of sacred music, was a talented lute player and introduced French chansons and consorts of viols to his court, although almost nothing of this secular chamber music survives.
The first example of such a book is probably Le parangon des chansons (1538) by Jacques Moderne of Lyon.
He also continued his career as a classical singer of opera, lieder, and chansons; making notable appearances in Japanese productions of Carmen and Hansel and Gretel, as well as singing the bass part in performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.
He would have liked to end his career singing French chansons, because his heart lay in France, where he had a house in Roquefort-les-Pins.