The harlequin years : music in Paris, 1917-1929

Abstract

Few decades in life of any European city have been as rich in musical personalities and achievements as 1920s in Paris. It was, as Stravinsky said, hub of musical world, popular for travelers because it was cheap. Composers working in or near city included Ravel, Faure, Satie, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev as well as up-and-coming members of Les Six, most notably Poulenc, Milhaud, and Auric. Among their collaborators were painters Picasso, Braque, Dufy, and Juan Gris, while Jean Cocteau kept a watchful eye on new trends. Horowitz, Robert Casadesus, and Vlado Perlemuter all made their Paris debuts in this decade, as did young violin prodigies Ginette Neveu and Yehudi Menuhin. Women musicians were coming into their own: composers Germaine Tailleferre and Lili Boulanger, salon hostesses like Princesse de Polignac and Mae Clemenceau. The Harlequin Years charts a nimble course through this remarkable era, noting currents as well as personalities, telling stories as well as pondering occasional philosophical problem. Through whole book runs double thread spun by Jean Cocteau in his little volume Le coq et l'harlequin: the warp of traditional French cock being pulled by weft of foreign, multicolored harlequinade. Roger Nichols's spirited narrative shows that this was also an uncertain time, as war had cast doubt on old assumptions. Did wisdom necessarily come with age? Were hierarchies necessary? Irreverence was in, circus was aesthetically at least as valuable as finest symphony orchestra. Against all this some composers, like Faure and Roussel, continued with traditional forms, though each brought to them his own highly personal language and syntax.

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