{"id":218,"date":"2020-02-25T22:11:22","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T04:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=218"},"modified":"2020-02-25T22:11:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T04:11:36","slug":"who-is-in-who-is-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/02\/25\/who-is-in-who-is-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is In? Who Is Out?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In order to have a nation, one must firstly decide who is and is not a part of it. Who is in? Who is out? In <\/span>Imagined Communities<\/span><\/i>, Anderson<\/a> introduces the idea that a nation is \u201cimagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.\u201d It is up to the members of the nation to define their own existence. <\/span>The idea of \u201cother\u201d and \u201cself\u201d has a long history for any socially designed group; French national identity between 1870 and 1920 is no exception. On one hand, I understand the need to \u201cother\u201d in order to establish a \u201cself,\u201d but alternatively, I have a difficult time understanding French refusal to acknowledge that \u2018French\u2019 music cannot exist alone, that is to say, all music has outside influence. Perhaps this comes from my belief that there is no true originality, only works inspired by other works. While I believe this to be especially true now, I feel it also resonates with 20th century France.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Music is so linked to experience, and if one is having a global experience, it must be reflected in the music they compose. With the 1889 Exposition Universelle, a global experience was certainly the goal. Given this, it is not surprising that composers like Debussy reflect this global experience in their compositions, sometimes resulting in the orientalism that is displayed in the following piece: http:\/\/https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=R-YcnPXY2yE<\/a> <\/span>While borrowing from the musical traditions of some countries was seen as acceptable, and even perhaps expected, looking to countries like Spain, Russia, or Germany was seen as distasteful and markedly un-French.<\/span><\/p>\n

While most would argue that Debussy is a stellar example of a French composer writing French music, Jean Cocteau<\/a>\u00a0argues otherwise in his <\/span>Cock and Harlequin<\/span><\/i>. Coming across as clearly anti-Wagnerian and slightly xenophobic, Cocteau spends pages calling German music \u201cundigestable.\u201d He calls Debussy a \u201cfirst-rate octopus,\u201d sucking everybody into his way of music. He does not make this same argument about Satie, a composer whom everybody looks to for inspiration and imitation. It strikes me as odd that Cocteau would completely reject Debussy, a composer who was successful while living. While he disagreed with his style, he still represented France in a positive manner. It is incomprehensible to me that Cocteau could not look past stylistic differences to support Debussy in the name of national pride.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, I understand both the desire for nationalism and the “us versus them” rhetoric it leaves as a result. I am still left with questions, however, after seeing how some musics are accepted and claimed as worthy to represent French style, while others are rejected, especially when considering my previous argument that no music is truly original. I am left wondering how much music was rejected for lack of national pride in the 20th century that we might still celebrate today had the standards of ‘French’ music been different?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to have a nation, one must firstly decide who is and is not a part of it. Who is in? Who is out? In Imagined Communities, Anderson introduces the idea that a nation is \u201cimagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.\u201d It is up to the members of the nation to define their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2604,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","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\/218","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\/2604"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}