Good question…
The nationalistic obsession with French music is one that was logical for the time. In the late 18 and early 1900’s, after a devastating defeat in the Franco-Prussian war, the French people needed something “uniquely French” to cling to. However, what I find to be an unrelatable fact of the era to modern day is that “uniquely French” music is free of external influence. To ignore that is to make the conscious decision to refute that music can be – and is – enhanced via external influence. In modern day, the effects of globalization can be felt and observed in almost all aspects of life whether that be music, food, culture, or language. The influence of cultures other than one’s own is unavoidable, and most of us are comfortable with, and probably enjoy, that fact.
What is strange to me is that the effects of globalization and foreign influence were already known by Milhaud and others that argued over the importance of a French musical identity, but they chose to ignore it. For instance, when Milhaud discusses that Debussy’s compositions are impressionistic in nature, he states that they “…possess a wonderful sense of criticism and a sensitive nature”. But when discussing impressionism under the Russian influence of Rimsky, he believes the compositions, “… led French music into a blind alley”. One where the music was full of unnecessary complications and didn’t focus enough on the all important melody (Milhaud 5). These excerpts displayed side by side clearly show the nationalistic driven hypocrisy behind opinions of music that is “truly French”.
Of course not every composer at the time had the same mindset as Milhaud. In fact, one French composer to sympathize with – and one “disdained” by Milhaud, Poulenc, and Auric – is Maurice Ravel (Kelly 25). He drew inspiration from multiple art forms such as poetry by Edgar Allen Poe, and admired many foreign composers including Mozart. Ravel’s and Poe’s philosophies of making art for art’s sake aligned, which led Ravel to construct his music in a similar fashion to how Poe constructed his poetry (Kelly 16). This is a much more realistic and accepting ideology.
Sources
Kelly, Barbara L. “History and Homage.” The Cambridge Companion to Ravel, edited by Deborah Mawer, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 16–26.
Milhaud, Darius. “The North American Review.” The Evolution of Modern Music in Paris and Vienna. Apr. 1923.