INTRODUCTION

Between the wars Paris reigned supreme. Harold Acton proclaimed: ‘Intellectually Paris was the capital of the world, and the judgement of Paris was final. The Entente Cordiale in the fine arts had never been stronger.’ The appalling casualties and deprivations of the First World War had left Paris anxious to forget the Germans and to concentrate on French art and ideals. It was in that spirit that in 1915 Debussy announced his Six Sonatas and signed the title pages ‘musicien Français’ – but he lived to complete only three and never saw the end of the conflict.

Purely French theatrical traditions were invoked when, starting before the armistice, the Opéra reopened with thirty-three performances of Rameau's Castor et Pollux. On 20 January 1919 the song-cycle Clairières dans le ciel by Lili Boulanger, Nadia's sister, was given its premiere by the enterprising Société musicale indépendante, which would later present several works by Berkeley. In his letters to his teacher he would refer regularly to the anniversaries of Lili Boulanger's premature death in March 1918 at the age of only twenty-four.

With the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917 and the influx of Americans into Paris, early jazz arrived and the city would remain host to many jazz musicians. It was a cultural shock which the New World injected into the Old – and the Old World has never recovered.