French Cultural Politics and Music: From the Dreyfus Affair to the First World War

by Jane F. Fulcher

Overview

This book draws upon both musicology and cultural history to argue that French musical meanings and values from 1898 to 1914 are best explained not in terms of contemporary artistic movements but of the political culture.

During these years, France was undergoing many subtle yet profound political changes. Nationalist leagues forged new modes of political activity, as Jane F. Fulcher details in this important study, and thus the whole playing field of political action was enlarged. Investigating this transitional period in light of several recent insights in the areas of French history, sociology, political anthropology, and literary theory, Fulcher shows how the new departures in cultural politics affected not only literature and the visual arts but also music. Having lost the battle of the Dreyfus affair (legally, at least), the nationalists set their sights on the art world, for they considered France's artistic achievements the ideal means for furthering their conception of "French identity." French Cultural Politics and Music: From the Dreyfus Affair to the First World War illustrates the ways in which the nationalists effectively targeted the music world for this purpose, employing critics, educational institutions, concert series, and lectures to disseminate their values by way of public and private discourses on French music. Fulcher then demonstrates how both the Republic and far Left responded to this challenge, using programs and institutions of their own to launch counterdiscourses on contemporary musical values.

Perhaps most importantly, this book fully explores the widespread influence of this politicized musical culture on such composers as d'Indy, Charpentier, Magnard, Debussy, and Satie. By viewing this fertile cultural milieu of clashing sociopolitical convictions against the broader background of aesthetic rivalry and opposition, this work addresses the changing notions of "tradition" in music—and of modernism itself. As Fulcher points out, it was the traditionalist faction, not the Impressionist one, that eventually triumphed in the French musical realm, as witnessed by their "defeat" of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195120219
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/14/1999
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.36(h) x 0.99(d)
Lexile:	1570L (what's this?)

About the Author

Jane F. Fulcher is also the author of The Nation's Image: French Grand Opera as Politics and Politicized Art (1987), as well as numerous articles. She served as Visiting Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris in 1985 and again in 1995. She has been a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris) and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Berlin), the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Council of Learned Societies. Fulcher earned a Ph.D. at Columbia University and is now Professor of Music at Indiana University.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	3
I	The Battle Is Established: Musicians Enter, 1898-1905
1	The New "Cultural War" and the French Musical World	15
	The Dreyfus Affair and French Musicians	15
	D'Indy, Anti-Dreyfusism, and the Schola	24
	The Republic's First Riposte: The 1900 Exposition and Music	35
	Sources of Support for the Schola	48
	The Battle over French Music History	56
	Ideological Dialogue at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales	59
2	Creative and Professional Responses to the Politicization of Music	64
	D'Indy's "Ideological Music,"	64
	Magnard's "Dreyfusard" Compositions	74
	Charpentier's Louise: Its Political Uses and Critical Misreadings	77
	The "Conservatoire Populaire de Mimi Pinson,"	97
	Politicization in Repertoire Choices, Subventions, and Journalism	103
II	The Battle Escalates and Is Won, 1905-1914
3	Proliferating Factions, Issues, and Skirmishes	119
	The Action Francaise and Music	120
	French Socialist Initiatives in Music	126
	The National-Socialist Musical Aesthetic	133
	Cultural Politics in French Musical Journalism	136
	Interlocked Battles over the "New Sorbonne" and the Paris Conservatoire	140
	The Conservatoire's Response through Faure	143
	New Counterattacks on the Schola	147
	Politicization in the War of the "Chapelles,"	153
	Perceptions of the Conflicting Musical "Dogmas,"	162
4.	Responses of French Composers to the Traditionalist Victory in Politics and Music	169
	Debussy's Nationalism	170
	Satie's Creative Politics	194
	Charpentier's Disillusionment and Politics	204
	D'Indy's Triumph and His Enduring Obsessions	206
	The Dilemma of the Independents: Magnard, Ravel, Ropartz, and Roussel	208
	Final Attempts at a Reconciliation	213
	Scholisme and the Musical Mainstream	214
	The Last Skirmish: Le Sacre du printemps	216
	Conclusion	221
	Notes	227
	Bibliography	265
	Index	285

Editorial Reviews

"There is much to praise in Fulcher's book, which is well proportioned and includes some excellent summaries of obscure but important sources."—Notes

"...a study that deserves to become a standard reference for advanced students of the period."—Choice

"The interdisciplinary scope of Fulcher's project, the attempt to unravel political meanings from within musical form and content, and the attention to institutional history should excite interest among musicologists today."— Journal of the American Musicological Society

From the Publisher