There is a lot of connectivity to the three topics that were covered in the papers written for this class. Not only are there clear throughlines regarding the lenses we’ve studied, such as race, class gender or sexuality, there are clear figures who act as throughlines for some musical corners of Paris at this time. Paramount to these lenses and themes, however, is nationalism. The most prevalent theme in this course is the idea of a national consciousness defined by music. In a lot of ways, it’s been a fun experiment to study a place and time whose ideas about a collective, national consciousness can be studied through the music, or whose nationalism isn’t reinforce by physical violence, as many of us drew connotations to out current time when faced with the definition of the word nationalism.
One example of an instance of nationalism that we’ve studied is during our time studying Negrophilia. Not only is the phenomenon present in our current time, but it was very prevalent back then, somehow with the same goal of appropriating another culture’s art in order to establish the values of another culture. What a silly paradox we find ourselves in time and time again. As French music was initially defined by the sentiments against Germanic composition and values, it is later defined using Black art to amplify their art. This phenomenon of taking art and using it for other means, while it might have artistic merit and internal value, is highly problematic and doesn’t make space for Black artists in this musical culture that is being defined. A faulty means to the end of a unique France, it’s important to learn for instance like these in order to adequately correct them.
Nationalism can be a dicey subject for our modern ears to discuss. America’s collective consciousness, to the younger generation, could not be more splintered. To read and absorb the world of 1920s France, one could argue that the war and culture previous left France just as splintered. In a way, the study of a culture in formless chaos like France’s has left me hopeful for our future. Given what we’ve learned about how things come and go, art changes are appropriate. What I hoped that French creatives back then would have learned is that their identity doesn’t need to be defined in opposition. Rather, faith in one’s creative potential would leave a far more interesting cultural imprint, possibly one that included more than one type of music maker.