In discussing the Negrophilia in Paris in the 1920s, we need to take a step back and first define what was going on. Negrophilia is a pretty vague concept and many of the audiences and critics in Paris in the 1920s had very different views from one another on the emerging influence of jazz on […]
When picking my topic for the first paper I was immediately attracted to Josephine Baker. I was familiar with her work as a civil rights activist for both France during World War II and America in the 1950s. While I was aware of her French performing career, I was entirely ignorant of her popularity and […]
Composers and writers were obsessed with establishing national identities through music in the early 20th century, in France and many Western countries. The disdain Cocteau’s writing1 shows for German music and the “mudiness” of Russian influence in Debussy’s music is at once familiar and bizarre. Certainly many people experience national pride; one need look no […]
The societal changes that drove music during the “Belle Epoque” were really the same changes that drove the reformation of everything else from technology to art. After establishing the Third Republic in France, an optimistic and proud mindset emerged, finally feeling some stability in France. Musicians and composers used that to their advantage, wanting to […]
My initial thoughts on these questions are as eclectic as the plurality of opinions and musics I’ve attempted to digest over the first two weeks of class. Firstly, the horse. I can’t stop thinking about the way the horse moves. However, in all seriousness, I think the horse is a very fitting representation of […]