{"id":936,"date":"2020-05-12T09:28:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-12T14:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=936"},"modified":"2020-05-12T09:28:38","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T14:28:38","slug":"paris-the-1920s-and-modernism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/05\/12\/paris-the-1920s-and-modernism\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris, the 1920s, and modernism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout this course I\u2019ve continued to gain new insights into the idea of modernism in Paris in the 1920s. The readings for our very first day of class discussed Taruskin\u2019s assessment of the idea of lifestyle modernism in Paris, a movement away from romanticism towards something more deliberately shallow.1 <\/sup><\/a>The new generation of composers and artists in 1920s Paris wanted to disown their predecessors for a modernist lifestyle.2 <\/sup><\/a>This lifestyle popularized many different musical and artistic movements that were influential to the subjects of my papers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"After
Debussy and Stravinsky https:\/\/www.wrti.org\/post\/after-rite-spring-classical-music-was-never-same<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One example of a modernist musical aesthetic was neoclassicism. Stravinsky used severe juxtaposition of patterns in his music, creating a sound that could come across as geometrical and cold to the romantic ear, but this sound was refreshing and captivating to modernist Parisians.3 <\/sup><\/a>Debussy understood that \u2018conciseness of expression and form\u2019 were essential to building a French sound, and continued to fight against romanticism by employing unique harmonies into his music. 4 <\/sup><\/a>Anti-romanticism became the modern ideal for composers in Paris, and they used neoclassicism as well as other techniques to convince the public their music triumphed over romanticism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Video
Jelly d’Ar\u00e1nyi, the violinist who premiered Tzigane www.heifetzinstitute.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Josephine Baker, photograph by George Hoyningen-Huene in 1934 https:\/\/womenshistorynetwork.org\/josephine-baker-1906-1975\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fasciation with other cultures became a part of modernist Paris in the 1920s, with growing movements of exoticism and negrophilia. Many successful composers around this era intentionally used foreign material to appeal to the Parisians who were fascinated with the unknown. Debussy heard gamelan at the <\/span>Exposici\u00f3n Universal in 1900, and these harmonies became the foundations for the movement of impressionism.5 <\/sup><\/a>Ravel made other cultures the subject of his compositions, such as using Hungarian gypsy music as a vehicle for virtuosity in his violin piece <\/span>Tzigane<\/span><\/i>.6 <\/sup><\/a>Venues such as Casino de Paris, Moulin Rouge, and <\/span>Th\u00e9\u00e2tre des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es fed the mania of Negrophilia in Paris. This is best illustrated by the debut of Josephine Baker at Th\u00e9\u00e2tre des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es and the public\u2019s continued fascination with her, as if her perceived<\/span> savagery would become something familiar, something French. 7 <\/sup><\/a><\/span>Perhaps the French saw this as progressive movement, because it was welcoming other cultures into Paris. However, it demonstrates a more shallow infatuation aligned with Taruksin\u2019s assessment of lifestyle modernism, because composers and artists were taking what they want from people and cultures that have been othered, rather than considering them viable or able to speak for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Josephine
Josephine Baker, center, at her restaurant Chez Josephine in Paris, around 1928. https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/10\/16\/books\/review\/when-paris-sizzled-mary-mcauliffe.html<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The modernist movement manifested in 1920s Paris in many different ways. Modernism was informed by the development of impressionism, negrophilia, exoticism, anti-romanticism, neoclassicism, and a need for composers to find a voice that was distinctively French. Debussy and other French composers, such as members of Les Six, tried to define what French music was. It seems that French music can\u2019t be strictly defined when each composer uses and is influenced by different elements of Parisian modernism. Perhaps this is what made this short time in Paris so influential to the development of French music and art.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n

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

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2 Ibid.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3 Stravinsky, Igor, Robert. Craft, and Rita. McCaffrey. <\/span>Igor and Vera Stravinsky\u202f: a Photograph Album, 1921 to 1971 <\/span><\/i>New York: Thames and Hudson, 1982 (18). <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Van den Toorn, Pieter C. The Music of Igor Stravinsky <\/i>New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983 (63)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4 Claude Debussy, Three Articles for Music Journals in Morgan, <\/span>Source Readings in Music History, <\/span><\/i>volume 7, <\/span>The Twentieth Century, <\/span><\/i>ed. Oliver Strunk, New York: Norton, 1998 (161-166).<\/span><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5 <\/a>Randles, Kathleen, and Eileen Davis. \u201cExoticism in the Melodie: The Evolution of Exotic Techniques as Used in Songs by David, Bizet, Saint-Saens, Debussy, Roussel, Delage, Milhaud, and Messiaen\u201d. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing (1992), 61. <\/span><\/a>http:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/304045365\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6 Nemet, Mary. \u201cMusic Review: Fiery Ravel Showpiece Gets Welcomed Urtext Treatment.\u201d <\/span>Strings<\/span><\/i>. San Anselmo, Calif.: String Letter Publishing, Inc, August 1, 2013. <\/span><\/a>http:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/1433232528\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7 Eburne, Jonathan P., and Jeremy Braddock. <\/span>Paris, Capital of the Black Atlantic Literature, Modernity, and Diaspora <\/span><\/i>Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013 (79).<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout this course I\u2019ve continued to gain new insights into the idea of modernism in Paris in the 1920s. The readings for our very first day of class discussed Taruskin\u2019s assessment of the idea of lifestyle modernism in Paris, a movement away from romanticism towards something more deliberately shallow.1 The new generation of composers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,70,33,71,19,2,86],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-claude-debussy","tag-exoticism","tag-igor-stravinsky","tag-jelly-daranyi","tag-josephine-baker","tag-maurice-ravel","tag-neoclassical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","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\/3393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":943,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}