French Musical Modernisms: aesthetics and criticism

法国音乐的两次世界大战期间经常被认为是有问题的。德彪西在1918年战时去世，对许多人来说，这标志着失去了一位重要的音乐领袖，标志着法国音乐辉煌时期的衰落。年轻一代声称，他们正在提供一些与他们的前辈截然不同的新东西。他们对既定传统和前卫方面的明显拒绝，导致他们与主流现代主义相对孤立。此外，第一次世界大战后的法国与新古典主义联系在一起，直到最近，斯特拉文斯基一直被排除在音乐现代主义的叙事之外。联谊项目重新评估了从1913年到第二次世界大战期间的法国音乐和美学。它追溯了两代明显不相容的人之间的连续性和不连续性，特别是关注象征主义美学如何转变为与一战后时期相关的现代主义。在这样做的过程中，它与经历了类似转变的文学和艺术家人物建立了联系。该项目选择了法国在其他地方密切参与超现代音乐的时刻。1913年是起点，与其说是斯特拉文斯基的《春天的仪式》对新音乐产生了如此重大的影响，不如说是因为一些作品的灵感来自勋伯格的《皮埃罗·卢内尔》：斯特拉文斯基的《日本歌词》和拉威尔的《特洛伊斯·洛迪斯》。他们独特的反应揭示了他们各自独立但又相互重叠的音乐关注点，特别是在音色、乐器组合、声音和调性方面。1922年，勋伯格的《皮埃罗·卢内尔》和斯特拉文斯基的《玛夫拉》在巴黎首次演出，再次上演了这种趋同。该项目追溯了室内乐和芭蕾舞领域的其他重要的现代主义思潮，这些音乐起源于战争时期，但在20世纪20年代取得了成果。该项目考察了第一次世界大战后人们对德彪西的记忆，以及这对关于新音乐的辩论产生的影响。它认为媒体在制定议程、塑造音乐辩论和影响公众舆论方面发挥着重要作用。这一时期评论家和作曲家的互动是惊人的，表明了一种在当今媒体主导的世界中常见的共谋。这些争论的核心是法国音乐的未来定位以及谁应该领导它。萨蒂和拉威尔以两个人物的身份出现，他们分裂了法国音乐界，更关键的是，分裂了组成Les Six的年轻作曲家；该项目考察了作曲家和评论家参与的音乐争论。这项研究揭示了这一时期正在出现的音乐优先事项和特点，重点是一种令人不安的共识，这种共识可以追溯到战争时期，并在20世纪20年代得到确立，包括“Style dépouillé”、对位和旋律。它着眼于遵循的压力，并审查了作曲家试图与明显的共识合作或反对的尝试，例如，20世纪20年代的米尔豪德和20世纪30年代的普伦茨和索盖。在努力重新评估二战期间法国流行的轻浮、肤浅、世俗主义和古典主义的音乐观点时，该研究项目提供了对那个时期及其与其他欧洲现代主义发展的互动的更微妙的理解。最后，它反映了档案本身、早期传记作者和布列兹等有影响力的人物是如何塑造对这一时期的理解的。

The interwar period in French music is often seen as problematic. Debussy's war-time death in 1918 signalled for many the loss of a significant musical leader and the decline of a glorious period of French music. The younger generation claimed that they were offering something new and distinct from their immediate predecessors. Their apparent rejection of established traditions and of aspects of the avant-garde has resulted in their relative isolation from mainstream modernism. Moreover, post World War 1 France is associated with the neoclassicism that marginalized Stravinsky from narratives of musical modernism until relatively recently.The Fellowship project reassesses French music and aesthetics from 1913 until World War 2. It traces continuities as well as discontinuities between two apparently incompatible generations, looking in particular at how a Symbolist aesthetic transformed into the modernism associated with the post-World War 1 period. In so doing, it makes links with literary and artist figures who underwent comparable transformations. The project selects moments when France was closely engaged with ultra-modern music elsewhere. 1913 is the starting point, not so much for Stravinsky's _Rite of Spring_, which made such a momentous impact on new music, but because of a number of works that were inspired by Schoenberg's _Pierrot lunaire_: Stravinsky's _Japanese Lyrics_ and Ravel's _Trois mélodies_. Their distinctive responses reveal the separate but overlapping musical preoccupations, in particular, with sonority, instrumental combinations, the voice and tonality. This convergence was played out again in 1922 with the first performance of Schoenberg's _Pierrot lunaire_ in Paris and Stravinsky's _Mavra_. The project traces other significant modernist strands in the areas of chamber music and ballet, which have their roots in the war period, but came to fruition in the 1920s.The project examines how Debussy was remembered after WW1 and the impact this had on debates about new music. It considers the significant role of the press in setting the agenda, shaping musical debates and influencing public opinion. The interaction of critics with composers of this period is striking and suggests a complicity that is familiar in our current media-led world. Central to these debates was the future orientation of French music and who should lead it. Satie and Ravel emerge as two figures who divided French musical circles and, more crucially, the young composers who formed Les Six; the project examines the musical polemics in which composers and critics were engaged. The research uncovers the emerging musical priorities and qualities of this period, focusing on an uneasy consensus that can be traced to the war and became established in the 1920s, including, the 'style dépouillé', counterpoint and melody. It looks at the pressure to conform and examines composers' attempts to work with or against the apparent consensus, for example, Milhaud in the 1920s and Poulenc and Sauguet in the 1930s. In striving to reassess the prevailing view of music in interwar France as one of frivolity, superficiality, secularism and classicism, the research project provides a more nuanced understanding of the period and its interaction with other European modernist developments. Finally, it reflects on how an understanding of this period has been shaped by the archives themselves, by early biographers and by influential figures, such as Boulez.