1. French Music of the 1920s
Contexts and Perspectives
Scott Scholz

2. Just before the 1920s
Claude Debussy
Erik Satie
Maurice Ravel

3. Jean Cocteau: Les Six
Jean Cocteau chose the composers of Les Six
Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius
Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre
Through the 20s, the group held court at the Le Boeuf sur le
Toit--this is the club of legend alluded to in “Midnight in
Paris,” where many European and American expatriate
artists gathered (writers, painters, musicians, fashion
designers)

5. Music by Erik Satie, sets and
costumes by Pablo Picasso,
choreography by Leonide
Massine, scenario by Jean
Cocteau
Program notes by Guillaume
Apollinaire coin the phrase
“surrealism” in 1917

6. Darius Milhaud
La Creation du monde (1923):
jazz influence
La boeuf sur le toit (1920):
“surrealist ballet” with
Brazilian tango/pop influences
and quotations

7. Arthur Honegger
Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (1924)
In “neoclassical” style, also being explored
by Igor Stravinsky in the 1920s
impressionistic and surrealistic with
unusual approaches/communication quirks
between the piano and the rest of the
ensemble

8. Edgard Varese
Arcana (1925-27)
influenced by Surrealism and
dream states
“symphonic poem”
Varese moved back to Paris in
1928

9. Maurice Ravel
Bolero (1928)
based on Spanish dance of the
same name
jazz influences
repetition; exposition through
orchestration

10. A change in public focus
transition from dominance of orchestral, large-format musical
works to music from smaller ensembles
“songs” versus “compositions”
the influence of jazz and American expatriates in France
(Paris as cultural center; Europe as escape from Prohibition)
changes in technology available to the public: the radio and
the phonograph, changing both method and motivation for
consuming music (a process still evolving today)

11. Josephine Baker
Born in St. Louis
dropped out of school at 12; destitute
began vaudeville dancing/singing at
15, eventually relocating to NYC
went to Paris in 1925 as part of La
Revue Negre and became wildly
successful, eventually becoming a
French citizen

12. Sidney Bechet
also arrived in Paris as part of the
Revue Negre, staying through the
late 1920s
his playing (mostly soprano sax
and clarinet) and compositional
style were very influential on the
next decade of French jazz
musicians

13. Cole Porter
Moved to Paris in 1917 and stayed into
the 1920s
short ballet “Within the Quota”
debuted on the same 1923 program as
Millhaud’s “La Creation du monde”
studied orchestration and counterpoint
in Paris, but was relatively less
musically active (and much more
socially active) in his Paris years

14. Paris and Jazz
Most of the 1920s jazz
artists in France are
Americans
By the 1930s, France is
producing jazz artists of its
own, such as Django
Reinhardt and the
Quintette du Hot Club de
France

15. France continued its love affair with American jazz artists
over subsequent decades: Dexter Gordon in the early 1960s,
and the BYG/Actuel record label documenting avant-garde
and free jazz artists in the late 60s/early 70s

17. Jazz influences chanson
Jazz influences seep into the French popular song (chanson)
tradition, while retaining other regional/folk/classical
influences
French singer/songwriters like Edith Piaf and Serge
Gainsbourg carry the tradition through subsequent decades

19. Questions? Comments?
My email is ScottScholz@gmail.com
You can also reach me at:
http://wordsonsounds.blogspot.com
Thanks for letting me crash your class!