After having taken a week (and a few days) to ease my way into the world of 1924 Paris, the major players in the field of music performance and composition of the time, and the scholarship that exists around these, I can confidently say that I know absolutely nothing whatsoever. That is to say, I know precious little about the locale, the people, and the music, and even less about topics tangentially related. I have, however, been able to fill out a very thin, very light outline of what knowledge I might begin to gain throughout my work on this project. This week has been incredibly useful in developing a framework around which I can work and study and into which I can place information to flesh out my view of the city at this particular point in time. I have learned of some of the more prominent patrons of music and the arts, such as Serge Koussevitzky, and the Comte Etienne de Beaumont. I have learned of the major artists active in Paris in 1924 (as well as found some whom I thought might be but in fact were not). I have learned of the establishments and venues that would present music and art for the Parisian public to see.
The next step of this process is to begin filling out this outline, growing flesh on the skeleton of knowledge that I have constructed thus far. It will take a great deal longer to complete this task than it has the prior – and, in fact, it will never really be complete. It is a continual project of research and renewing my schema of 1924 Paris. I can only hope that, by the end of the summer, I will have assembled a large body of knowledge on the artistic scenes (because there are multiple overlapping scenes) of 1920’s Paris.