Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Timeline: Selective Chronology of Historical and Cultural Events, 1870–1939
- Introduction: The Roles of Music and Culture in National Identity Formation
- Part One Heroism, Art, and New Media: France and Identity Formation
- Part Two Canon, Style, and Political Alignment
- Part Three Regionalism
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Chapter Seven - The Symphony and National Identity in Early Twentieth-Century France
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Timeline: Selective Chronology of Historical and Cultural Events, 1870–1939
- Introduction: The Roles of Music and Culture in National Identity Formation
- Part One Heroism, Art, and New Media: France and Identity Formation
- Part Two Canon, Style, and Political Alignment
- Part Three Regionalism
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the symphony attained an unprecedented degree of acceptance in French musical society. For most of the previous century, only the symphonies of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schumann enjoyed widespread favor, and among native composers Camille Saint-Saëns alone commanded much respect as a composer of symphonic music, at least until the 1890s; even Hector Berlioz's popularity rested primarily on La Damnation de Faust. Around 1900, though, aspiring symphonists began to find reason to hope they could achieve success in their chosen field. The schools began to include the genre in their curriculum. Recent works by Saint-Saëns, César Franck, and others established themselves in the concert halls. Intellectuals debated the merits of the genre. Finally, arbiters of musical taste began to declare that the symphony, not opera, represented the peak of compositional achievement. In short, many musicians expected the new century to bring forth great French contributions to the symphony.
This new championing of the symphony occurred against a background of vigorous debate over the nature of French musical nationalism. Since the founding of the Republic, composers had become increasingly obsessed with connecting themselves to a distinctive Gallic heritage that could challenge Germany’s. Their concerns intensified after 1900 as they reacted against Richard Wagner's domination, Claude Debussy's influence took hold, and relations deteriorated between the nations. Some derided this search for identity, which socialist poet Camille Mauclair scornfully described as “the need to ‘go back to our origins,’ the anxiety to be ‘French’ “; nevertheless, as Paul-Marie Masson observed in 1913, contemporary French music had become “clearly national, and more and more so.” Composers as diverse as Saint-Saëns, Vincent d’Indy, and Debussy joined in the quest to forge a non-Germanic French music. But they feuded bitterly over the question of what belonged to the French tradition, and specifically over what elements of Germanic influence were permissible in the development of a unique national identity.
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- French Music, Culture, and National Identity, 1870-1939 , pp. 131 - 148Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008
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