5 - In Search of the Musical esprit du temps

Summary

In the preceding chapters I have traced some of the musical exchanges that took place between composers of often different generations and schools across the pre- and post-war periods. Identifying the dialogues that emerge from musical scores enables us to perceive creative works and their performance, at often specialised concert series, as crucial sites for musical debate and emerging consensus. While critics had a role to play in publicity and in bringing particular individuals and groups to public attention (as Chapter 3 has shown), composers and critics used public forums such as the press and public lectures to voice the stylistic priorities of a particular moment; for Paul Landormy, for example, it was his goal and duty as a critic, musician and educator. I now attempt to capture the musical esprit du temps by focusing on the emerging consensus around musical taste, which makes the interwar period distinctive. I trace the debates about these priorities in polemical articles, advertising notices, and private and public letters by key figures including Roussel, Poulenc, Landormy, Roland-Manuel, Ravel, Vuillermoz, Milhaud and Ansermet. The texts I have selected either helped to shape the consensus or, in the case of private materials, reflected it. Linearity, melody, simplicity and the ‘stripped-down style’ emerge as the principal musical priorities not only of members of Les Six, but of those who were considered aesthetically opposed, such as Ravel and Migot.