Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Music Criticism
- The Cambridge History of Music
- The Cambridge History of Music Criticism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Music Examples, Figures and Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Early History of Music Criticism
- Part II The Rise of the Press
- Part III Critical Influence and Influences
- Part IV Entering the Twentieth Century
- 15 Music Criticism in the United States and Canada up to the Second World War
- 16 Music Criticism in Portugal: Towards an Overview
- 17 Spanish Music Criticism in the Twentieth Century: Writing Music History in Real Time
- 18 Critical Battlegrounds in the French Third Republic
- 19 British Music Criticism, 1890–1945
- 20 Music Criticism in Norway
- 21 Aesthetic Conservatism and Politics in German-Language Music Criticism, 1900–1945
- 22 Music Criticism in Hungary until the Second World War
- 23 The ‘People’ in Czech and Slovak Music Criticism
- Part V New Areas
- Part VI Developments since the Second World War
- Postlude
- Bibliography
- Index
18 - Critical Battlegrounds in the French Third Republic
from Part IV - Entering the Twentieth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2019
- The Cambridge History of Music Criticism
- The Cambridge History of Music
- The Cambridge History of Music Criticism
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Music Examples, Figures and Tables
- Notes on Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Early History of Music Criticism
- Part II The Rise of the Press
- Part III Critical Influence and Influences
- Part IV Entering the Twentieth Century
- 15 Music Criticism in the United States and Canada up to the Second World War
- 16 Music Criticism in Portugal: Towards an Overview
- 17 Spanish Music Criticism in the Twentieth Century: Writing Music History in Real Time
- 18 Critical Battlegrounds in the French Third Republic
- 19 British Music Criticism, 1890–1945
- 20 Music Criticism in Norway
- 21 Aesthetic Conservatism and Politics in German-Language Music Criticism, 1900–1945
- 22 Music Criticism in Hungary until the Second World War
- 23 The ‘People’ in Czech and Slovak Music Criticism
- Part V New Areas
- Part VI Developments since the Second World War
- Postlude
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Third Republic was paradoxically both a ‘golden age’ – of the press, of cinema and of music – and a time of tragedy, humiliation and almost perpetual pessimism. Bookended by Bizet’s Carmen (1875) and Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1940–1), the musical world experienced a dizzying array of schools and movements, as musicians negotiated the transition from nineteenth-century romanticism to twentieth-century modernism, via the looming spectre of Wagnerism. These musical transformations took place against an extraordinarily turbulent political background: born out of, interrupted and ended by war with Germany, the Republic was also regularly rocked by internal crises, not least the Dreyfus Affair, which split the already deeply divided country further into two.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Music Criticism , pp. 344 - 370Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019