Christopher Moore & Barbara L. Kelly 
Music Criticism in France, 1918-1939 
Authority, Advocacy, Legacy

This collection uncovers how music criticism contributed to national and transnational preoccupations and agendas.


Music Criticism in France examines the aesthetic battles that animated and informed French musical criticism during the interwar period (1918-1939). Drawing upon a rich corpus of critical writings and archival documents, the book uncovers some of the public debates surrounding classical music in the immediate aftermath of the Great War until the eve of World War II. As such, it provides new insights into the priorities, values and challenges that affected the musical milieu of this war-bound generation.

This collection of essays brings together scholars from different areas of musicology and related humanities disciplines; it also draws on different anglophone and francophone intellectual traditions. As well as considering the reception of individual works, the contributors examine key individuals, composer-critic pairings, the composer as critic and technician, the role of influential journals, and music criticism as a pedagogical tool for concert-going and radio audiences.

Focusing on the themes of authority, advocacy and legacy, it shows the contribution of principal critics such as Vuillermoz, Vallas, Prunières, Schloezer and Koechlin to shaping our understanding of music in the first half of the twentieth century in France. We see how criticism contributes to national and transnational preoccupations and agendas, which were of considerable importance throughout the interwar period and continue to have relevance today.


BARBARA L. KELLY is Director of Research and Professor of Musicology at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. CHRISTOPHER MOORE is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Ottawa. Contributors: PHILIPPE CATHÉ, MICHEL DUCHESNEAU, KIMBERLY FRANCIS, JACINTHE HARBEC, BARBARA L. KELLY, PASCAL LÉCROART, CHRISTOPHER MOORE, RACHEL MOORE, JANN PASLER, CAROLINE RAE, DANICK TROTTIER, MARIANNE WHEELDON

Table of Content

Introduction: The Role of Criticism in Interwar Musical Culture – Christopher Moore and Barbara L. Kelly

Music Criticism and Aesthetics during the Interwar Period: Fewer Crimes and More Punishments – Michel Duchesneau

Nostalgia and Violence in the Music Criticism of
L’Action française – Christopher Moore

Charles Koechlin: The Figure of the Expert – Philippe Cathé

Bleu-horizon Politics and Music for Radio Listeners:
L’Initiation à la musique (1935) – Jann Pasler

Common Canon, Conflicting Ideologies: Music Criticism in Performance in Interwar France – Barbara L. Kelly

Arthur Honegger: Music Critic for
Musique et Théâtre (1925-1926) – Pascal Lécroart

A Woman’s Critical Voice: Nadia Boulanger and
Le Monde musical, 1919-1923 – Kimberly Francis

From a Foreign Correspondent: the Parisian Chronicles of Alejo Carpentier – Caroline Rae

Debussy’s ‘Reputational Entrepreneurs’: Vuillermoz, Koechlin, Laloy, and Vallas – Marianne Wheeldon

The Legacy of War: Conceptualising Wartime Musical Life in the Post-War Musical Press, 1919-1920 – Rachel Moore

Jacinthe Harbec, Satie, Relâche and the Press: Controversies and Legacy – Jacinthe Harbec

Creating a Canon: Émile Vuillermoz’s
Musiques d’aujourd’hui and French Musical Modernity – Danick Trottier

Bibliography

About the author

RACHEL MOORE is Lecturer in Music, Cardiff University.