Research Blog

Paris during the 1920s seems to be a most enigmatic and frivolous place. The music was different, the people were changing, norms were being challenged and sexualities were becoming more present in the social spectrum. Stereotypically, the 20s were a place in history...

I think that the idea of Frenchness, and of nationalism in general proved to be the most prominent theme. Considering that we're dealing with France between wars, this makes sense, that the political divide between France and Germany should play out through music as...

Amidst our conversations about a number of different topics in this course, I have found the topic of Nationalism most relevant to my papers. This was one of the first topics we considered during this class. The people of France were longing to find a unique musical...

I must be blunt and say that nationalism is the theme that has been most prevalent in my papers. This could be due to my own bias in favor of the topic, or it might be a combination of my bias and the actual prevalence of nationalism in 1920s Paris. Whether by luck or...

Last year in our survey class I struggled with how to react to the traditional telling of music history--one that too often focuses on, and thereby values, the output of a select group of mostly dead white male composers to the dismissal of the music of composers who...

Paris in the 1920s has always seemed to be an exciting and rich time period to me, and I was thrilled with the chance to devote an entire semester to the study of its music.  Throughout our research and discussion of the compositions, composers, impresarios, and...

Nationalism is a major theme that stands out from all of my papers written for this class. My first paper on French pianist and pedagogue Marguerite Long addresses gender issue primarily, as Long experienced discrimination and obstacles during her promotion in Paris...

The theme that has resonated with me most powerfully this semester is that of the different lenses through which we view history. We discussed a handful of lenses closely related to the topic of music in 1920s Paris (namely, class, race, nationality, sexuality, and...

One of the most exciting parts about class was seeing that some topics that we discuss in class I had an in-depth knowledge of. I was genuinely excited to share my learning and knowledge and contribute to the discussion. The topics that seemed to interest me the most...

Over the course of this semester I have learned not to take anything at face value. There always seems to be another way to look at something, which in turn tells us something new. This was hard to understand at first because in education and school we are taught time...

This class improved my research skills drastically in many ways. It taught me not to just search directly for the topic I am researching, but to find as much information as possible, even if it doesn’t directly pertain to my topic. Specifically, I wrote about...

One theme/trend we've been discussing in this class is the potential for alternate histories or stories. Rather than studying a single history in a survey course where you learn facts and “objective truths” about music, its creation and the historical time period it...

Throughout this semester, we've encountered a lot of material. Some of it was easy to understand (Nationalism, Race) and some was harder to understand (Patronage, Sexuality/Sapphonics.) One of the techniques in discussing a piece/person was to look through multiple...

Paris in the 1920's was a time full of contradictions. It was a period full of experimentation, yet very restrained values. People explored sexuality and gender in music, and yet outside of the arts those endeavors were strictly taboo. Stigma's and stereotypes abound,...

At the beginning of this semester I had little idea of what was happening in Paris in the 1920s. I knew it is right after the first World War and it was the sweet spot before the second war started with a surge of nationalism happening all across Europe. I had some...

The reason I elected to take this course was that I have always been fascinated by the environment of Paris during the early twentieth century. I have often said that if I had a time machine, one of my first stops (after visiting Jesus and John Calvin, respectively)...

When I look back on this class, trying to figure out what exactly I have accomplished, I am always drawn back to one of the first assigned readings, Gumbrecht's In 1926: Living at the Edge of Time. The book attempted to look at history as if through a microscope,...

Dorf's and Moore's readings of Satie's Socrate and Poulenc's Les Biches and Aubade as works influenced by a queer aesthetic do seem justified to me. The blatant de-sexualization of the text that Satie set ("Great care [is] taken to eliminate any reference, even...

I think Moore makes his point fairly clear, that Poulenc used camp quite extensively in his works. His argument is well-thought out, could probably be more concise, but accurately depicts his point. What I had hoped he would comment on, and what I didn't really didn't...

The arguments by Dorf and Moore present interesting perspectives about the topic of homosexuality. In Dorf’s article,  he argues that the work Socrate, based on the life of Socrates by Satie was possibly affected greatly by Princess Polignac masking her personal life....

Dorf and Moore’s articles are interesting to say the least.  Their arguments surround the topic of how a person’s sexuality impacts the music he or she composes or performs.  I can’t help but look at their writings with very skeptical lenses.  I knew that Poulenc was...

Both readings by Dorf on Princesse Edmond de Polignac and Satie's Socrate and Moore on Poulenc provide very interesting hypotheses and insights on sexuality in music. While I think that Moore clearly gives a more successful argument on his case, his topic of study on...

I was very skeptical when we first read the Wood and Dorf articles for last Thursday's class. To me, they seemed to be an attempt to impose a relevant topic from today onto material that had nothing to do with it. I am often torn with how much of a composer's personal...

Both articles offer compelling analyses of two different composers, Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc, through queer perspectives. To me, the Dorf article is more of a stretch, in terms of attributing a lesbian aesthetic to Satie's music, but I think Dorf recognizes and...

In light of biographical information pertaining to the sexual orientation of Poulenc and the Princesse de Polignac, I see no reason to exclude a queer reading of Les Biches, or Socrates. Although I would not have used a queer reading initially with these pieces, this...

Both Moore and Dorf take on the subject of sexuality in a pretty serious manner. Both make their statements about their composer of choice’s sexuality and prove their point with evidence. Personally, I think Moore makes a more convincing argument in his article “Camp...

The articles by Samuel Dorf and Christopher Moore both presented an account of the private and public sexuality of important musical figures in Paris in the 1920s. I gained depth in my knowledge of Francis Poulenc, Princess de Polignac and Satie. The Moore article...

The arguments from Dorf and Moore are for the most part well crafted arguments, however they each take the relationship between Poulenc’s music and personal life and sexuality too far. For an example, the following quote from the Moore reading sets up and clearly...

Upon first reaction to reading both the Dorf and the Moore articles, I was completely of the mindset that there is no way to find something gay in music. Much like the discussion we had in class about Germaine Tellefairre's music and how we could find nothing that...

The idea that one's sexuality could affect a composition is an interesting and notable concept that deserves some discussion.  In Dorf and Moore's articles about the homosexual undertones of the Princesse de Polignac's commissions and the music of Francis Poulenc, the...

Both of the articles deal with the dual culture of public and private in the circle of homosexual composers and patrons. They also both dealt with the presence, or lack thereof, of sexual undertones in Poulenc and Satie's work. The Dorf article presented the argument...

It's interesting that two important people in the history of french music both identified as queer. The Princesse Edmond de Polignac, along with Francis Poulenc, were gay. The Princesse and her parlor concerts were known throughout France, and she commissioned many...

Although the argument that purely musical elements of a piece can indicate sexuality, gender, race, or any other factor of the composer's identity seems insubstantial and virtually impossible to prove, however a few finer details within both Dorf and Moore's arguments...

Both Dorf and Moore's queer readings of Satie and Poulenc find that their music was informed by the lives that were carefully hidden from the public eye, claiming that the music itself contains a kind of hidden sexuality as well. Dorf looks at Satie's Socrate and the...

As we came across it many times in class readings, my research subject Société Nationale de Musique seemed to be easy to approach. However, when I tried to look at the music society in the 20s exclusively, things started to get confusing. Société Nationale de Musique...

I have had a very interesting time researching The Folies-Bergere was a strange mix of things culturally. In some ways it was very scandalous and racy. The acts that were being put on seemed to be very edgy. But at the same time, many of the audience-members were...

Sometimes it is easy to forget that buildings and places have character. Buntrock has a radically different character or feel than Mellby or Thorson. In my research, it has become clear that the  character of a place can influence or be influenced by what happens...

I’m interested in engaging more deeply with the concept of Negrophilia, considering it alongside claims of 1920s Paris as being a less openly-racist environment than the United States, and learning more about how related assumptions, attitudes, and actions are...

The Théâtre des Champs-Elysées was built in 1913 by architects Henry Van de Velde then Auguste Perrett, the painter and sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, and the painter Maurice Denis. Various works have been performed and also premiered at this fine establishment such as...

It is illuminating to see how context can shape a composer's work. Their job at the time, money available, and patrons often exert an influence on the works a composer creates. One thing we might overlook from time to time, however, is a building itself, and the...

The process of researching Le Boeuf Sur le Toit already seems to be a daunting task. Aside from a basic summary found in the New Grove Music Encyclopedia, academic sources on this Parisian nightclub are mainly brief references to the famous (Nota bene famous - one...

The Casino de Paris is a beautiful music hall located in the northern half of Paris. The hall opened in 1890 and was extremely popular from the start. In fact, the hall is still open and is a major location for many big acts in Paris today (Of Monsters and Men and...

When signing up for essay prompts I jumped to pick a subject of which I was interested.  As I am a vocal performance major and am interested in opera, I decided to write my second paper on the subject of the Grand Opera House in Paris, France in 1920s.  In a  more...

In my current research about the Théâtre du Châtelet I in Paris I have encountered documentation on a number of concerts and premieres taking place there in the 1920s, however specificities of these concerts are lacking. I began my research process using the St. Olaf...

I almost feel like it's a right of passage for the romantic at heart to see the 2001 film Moulin Rouge. My personal experience was sad to say the least. I started watching it, and about halfway through the movie, my mother came down and bluntly stated, "Oh, you're...

The question here is not whether people enjoyed "Negro" culture. The essence of this post is whether there was a genuine enjoyment or a condescending one.   I'm going to argue that there was a condescending and racist overtone with the enjoyment of Black Culture,...

My first reaction before doing preliminary research was "two topics this should be easy." My current reaction is "there's so little written about either of these that writing a paper entirely on them would be near impossible." Yea. However the internet is not a...

The Ballets Suédois was very popular in Paris when it existed from 1920 to 1925. It must have appealed to some concept of French-ness in music and art, though its ties are complicated, even contradictory to what I've learned so far. The French ideal in art is...

Researching for the person-paper was a fairly standard research procedure. I wrote about Coco Chanel, and one of my main motivators for choosing her was name recognition. I knew there would be lots of sources and information on her. What I found was less than I was...

Racism is a kind of hatred that manifests itself in obvious and violent ways, and also in ways which are subtle and difficult to combat. The negrophilia of Parisians in the 1920s is one of the less obvious, but still pernicious occurrences of racism. But the question...

Upon reading Levinson’s critique and learning about “La Revue Negre” coming onto the scene in 1920’s Paris, I have decided that it is difficult to claim that Parisians had much of a sense of respect for African American cultures. Levinson calls black art “savage” and...

The Parisian infatuation with the pulsing rhythms and gyrating movements of "Negro" dancing in the 1920s was an indication not of deep love and appreciation for the people of the "other" culture, but rather an overindulged fetish of the wild and exotic. "The savage is...

“These blacks, who are grotesque caricatures, have rhythm not only in their legs, but in their skin, which shudders from their heels to the roots of their hair. They sing with a very sure sense of harmony, making us think that they remember their native forest...They...

Reading and studying about Negrophilia keep reminding me about the idea of Orientalism and that to what extent Parisian's Negrophilia bears similarities to Orientalism, another aesthetic wave of appreciating the Other happened some decades ago before 1920s. An idea...

Upon first reading about "Negrophilia", I didn't find it particularly problematic. If anything, it seemed to me that the French were embracing African culture, a refreshing idea given  the racism happening in US and other areas on Europe. However, Andre Levinson makes...

André Levinson’s opinion on the influence of African art in Parisian society is generally favorable, but chock-full of patronizing back-handed compliments. Josephine Baker’s dancing is repeatedly referred to as primitive. In fact, in Levinson’s writing on “Negro...

  Parisian audiences did not feel a true love for blackness, black music, or black culture. La revue negre was a very important piece of evidence for the evidence of this. First of all, Jordan, on page 41 of his "Le Jazz" states that when the revue arrived, the music...

The idea of Negrophilia originated way before the era of 1920s Paris. Jazz in Paris had evolved into a new cultural idea that was a fascination for the French people. It was brought by American Military bands in 1917. French society was enamored with what it brought...

Negrophilia was the surrounding phenomenon in Paris during the twenties.  This fascination with Black culture swept the city and impacted nearly every aspect of social life for the average Parisian.  A large contributor to Negrophilia was Josephine Baker and her...

Throughout the 1920s, an exotic wave of culture swept through most of France. Jazz became a prevalent aspect of French life, and artists such as Josephine Baker become phenomena. Music Historians often refer to this so called obsession with African American culture...

In 20s Paris, there was a large demand for American negro culture. Josephine Baker became the poster child for these types of shows, as French audiences were fascinated by her dances, the likes of which they had never seen before. Many have termed this "negrophilia,"...

While I do believe several 1920s Parisians had a genuine love and respect for African American artists, this number of people was limited. It is separated between the people who celebrated African American artists for their uniqueness with respect and admiration and...