{"id":1452,"date":"2022-05-16T20:44:19","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T01:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=1452"},"modified":"2022-05-16T20:44:49","modified_gmt":"2022-05-17T01:44:49","slug":"nationalism-the-father-of-all-themes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2022\/05\/16\/nationalism-the-father-of-all-themes\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationalism: Father of All Themes"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve reviewed my papers and my notes, the themes that emerged most strongly were nationalism, expression of emotion, old vs. new, and sexuality. When I thought about it more carefully, though, I realized all of the latter themes lead back to nationalism. After everything we\u2019ve learned in class, I define musical nationalism as doing what you think is right in the context of your heritage and what you want for the future of music. With this in mind, nationalism emerged as an umbrella encompassing expression of emotion, old vs. new, and sexuality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The expression of emotions became a hot topic of debate among French nationalist composers before and during the 1920s. Many felt that emotions were too Romantic, too German. They decided their new French idiom should eschew emotional expression and should instead feel detached. This idea manifested itself in pieces like Poulenc\u2019s <\/span>Les Biches<\/span><\/i>, whose lack of plot freed it from feelings<\/span>.1<\/sup><\/a> Others, however, continued to express themselves through their music. Franck was the figurehead of this opposing group<\/span>,2<\/sup><\/a> and his student Louis Vierne took after him in this way. Vierne never stated it explicitly, but his organ music seems to express his grief in response to several tragedies he had endured<\/span>.3<\/sup><\/a> Although Vierne wasn\u2019t a nationalist and didn\u2019t align himself with any sides, he admired Wagner very much<\/span>.4<\/sup><\/a> His continued use of German ideas represents what some of the French nationalists opposed. In this way, emotions (or lack thereof) in music has nationalist implications.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, sexuality became an issue under nationalism. After the war, the French viewed homosexuality as a German trait, and it was unacceptable to be gay in France<\/span>.5<\/sup><\/a> As a result, some queer composers tried to pass as straight, and others used camp to hide in the open<\/span>.6<\/sup><\/a> Poulenc did both. In his earlier years, Poulenc\u2019s music was flamboyant, wild, and secretly sexual. Poulenc had to write <\/span>Les Biches<\/span><\/i> in a way that straight people would only see as a joke. Straight audiences wouldn\u2019t see the sexual undertones, but queer viewers would<\/span>.7<\/sup><\/a> Poulenc\u2019s sexuality was only known to people within his circle who would keep it a secret. He couldn\u2019t be outed publicly, or else he might lose popularity. In his later years, Poulenc made a dramatic shift in his style to writing serious, religious music. As I argued in my third paper, Poulenc made this shift to reconcile his sexuality with his Catholicism. Even further, I think his new style was an attempt to pass as straight. Both manners of hiding his sexuality lead back to nationalism: Poulenc could not reveal that he was gay because it went against French nationalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, nationalism brought about a discussion of old versus new. All of the composers we talked about borrowed elements of old music and incorporated them into new compositions, be it form, instrumentation, texture, etc. There was certainly some disagreement about which old groups to borrow from, but I\u2019ll just talk about old vs. new in general. Pretty much everyone thought it was acceptable, nay, encouraged to borrow from Bach. It didn\u2019t matter to them that Bach was German. They saw him as a god, so he was fair game. Some French nationalist composers borrowed ideas from French Baroque music, with the goal of creating nostalgia for the golden days of France. Other camps decided that old ideas were not useful anymore, so they began appropriating popular tunes in an effort to create a new idiom. I\u2019m going to repeat something I\u2019ve already said: Poulenc did both. <\/span>Les Biches<\/span><\/i> was filled with popular tunes. It was completely new: composed for the masses and intended to be consumed by everyone. After his shift, Poulenc borrowed heavily from old music. His <\/span>Organ Concerto<\/span><\/i> specifically took after Bach\u2019s and Buxtehude\u2019s fantasias. Although Poulenc did both, old vs. new became a point of contention in the conversations about what French music should be.<\/span><\/p>\n

In reality, all of the French composers were only trying to do what they thought was right. Yes, they went about it in vastly different ways, but they all lead back to nationalism that dominated Parisian culture at the time. The readings and discussions from class helped to put each person in human terms. For me, they started as abstract figures in history and became real people with personal and political motivations. I enjoyed reading about all the drama between these composers and institutions, and I enjoyed the opportunity to create some more drama with our fictional writing assignments.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve been writing this post, I keep thinking back to when we watched the intro to <\/span>Midnight in Paris<\/span><\/i> early on in the semester. I remember that we all agreed the soundtrack \u201csounded like 1920s Paris.\u201d If you\u2019re thinking in terms of Satie\u2019s furniture music, it <\/span>does <\/span><\/i>sound like Paris in the 1920s. But now I think that audio was just one projection of that time period. Realistically, you could have replaced the soundtrack with Stravinsky\u2019s <\/span>Pulcinella<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>Wind Symphony<\/span><\/i>, Ravel\u2019s <\/span>Bolero<\/span><\/i>, Milhaud\u2019s <\/span>La Creation,<\/span><\/i> or Poulenc\u2019s <\/span>Les Biches<\/span><\/i>.<\/span> It would still <\/span>technically<\/span><\/i> sound like 1920s Paris, even if it doesn\u2019t match most people\u2019s projection of it. I mean to say that a lot of musical ideas were being thrown around in Paris at that time. Composers would use the same ideas and manifest them in completely different ways in music, and now we have a treasure trove of pieces resulting from the pushback against Romanticism. Old versus new, sexuality, emotions, and all the other themes are closely connected in more ways than I can explain in this already-too-long blog post, but I hope I\u2019ve made it clear that they all lead back to nationalism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1<\/a> Richard Taruskin, \u201cLifestyle Modernism,\u201d<\/span> in Chapter 10, \u201cThe Cult of the Commonplace,\u201d in <\/span>Oxford History of Western Music<\/span><\/i> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

2<\/a> Grout\/Palisca\/Burkholder, A History of Western Music<\/span><\/i> 9<\/span>th<\/span> ed. (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2014), 877-880.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

3<\/a> Michael Murray, French Masters of the Organ: Saint-Sa\u00ebns, Franck, Widor, Vierne, Dupr\u00e9, Langlais, Messiaen<\/span><\/i> ( New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

4<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

\n

5<\/a> Christopher Moore, \u201cCamp in Francis Poulenc\u2019s Early Ballets,\u201d Musical Quarterly<\/span><\/i> 95 (Summer-Fall 2012), 299-342.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

6<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

\n

7<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve reviewed my papers and my notes, the themes that emerged most strongly were nationalism, expression of emotion, old vs. new, and sexuality. When I thought about it more carefully, though, I realized all of the latter themes lead back to nationalism. After everything we\u2019ve learned in class, I define musical nationalism as doing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4408,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4408"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1454,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1452\/revisions\/1454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}