Résumés
Abstract
In an interview published in the October 21, 1908, issue of the Boston Transcript, Debussy had been asked to comment on American musical life. He remarked, “The distinction of a country like [the United States] is that it imbibes from all sources... it is less German bound than are the countries who hear little or no other music through chauvinism or antipathies.” This paper examines the roles of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) and Claude Debussy (1862-1918) in driving such a modernist evolution. Saint- Saëns performed with and conducted the New York Symphony in 1906, including his symphonic poem Le rouet d’Omphale and playing solo piano in his Africa, Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre. He thereafter appeared in both Chicago and San Francisco, and critics could already hear the modernist aesthetic in formation. When conductor Frederick Stock, a stalwart champion of French music, led Prélude à “L’après- midi-d’un faune” in Chicago in December 1908, the symbolist dimensions of the new music were grasped by both critics and audiences, and Paul Rosenfeld wrote: “We should look to France for the latest gospel [of the new musical advancement] […] Claude Debussy has broken through the limitation of the old, and shall we say he has found new musical dimensions?” Contemporaneously, the premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande in New York dramatically impressed the new hearing on American audiences. To be sure, anti-German feelings after 1910, brought with the Great War, promoted such a shift from the aesthetics of the Gilded Age, but the new French music had itself led the way since just after 1900. By 1923, Carl Van Vechten, in Music after the Great War, wrote, “It is not from the German countries that the musical invention of the past two decades has come. It is from France.”
Résumé
Dans une entrevue publiée dans l’édition du 21 octobre 1908 du Boston Transcript, Claude Debussy répond à une question concernant la vie musicale aux États-Unis. Il déclare : « La caractéristique distinctive d’un pays comme [les États-Unis] est qu’il s’imprègne de toutes les sources […] il est moins tourné vers l’Allemagne que les pays qui n’écoutent que peu ou pas d’autre musique, que ce soit par chauvinisme ou par antipathie ». Cet article examine les rôles de Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) et de Debussy (1862-1918) dans l’évolution des goûts musicaux américains vers le modernisme. Saint-Saëns a dirigé le New York Symphony en 1906, avec au programme son poème symphonique Le rouet d’Omphale, en plus de jouer Africa, Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre avec la même formation. Il s’est ensuite produit à Chicago et à San Francisco, et les critiques pouvaient déjà témoigner de sensibilités artistiques nouvelles, modernes. Frederick Stock, grand défenseur de la musique française, dirige Le prélude à « L’après-midi d’un faune » à Chicago en décembre 1908. Les aspects symbolistes de cette nouvelle musique n’échappent pas au public et aux critiques ; Paul Rosenfeld écrit : « Nous devrions nous tourner vers la France pour trouver le dernier évangile [du nouvel avancement musical] […] Claude Debussy s’est défait des chaînes des conventions anciennes, et pourrions-nous dire qu’il a atteint de nouvelles dimensions musicales ? » Au même moment, la première de Pelléas et Mélisande à New York a marqué au vif la nouvelle écoute. Bien sûr, les sensibilités antigermaniques d’après 1910, résultats de la Première Guerre mondiale, ont facilité un changement d’esthétique durant l’âge d’or aux États-Unis, mais la nouvelle musique française elle-même avait pavé la voie depuis le début des années 1900. En 1923, Carl Van Vechten écrit dans son ouvrage Music after the Great War : « L’invention musicale des deux dernières décennies ne vient pas de l’Allemagne. Elle vient de la France ».
Parties annexes
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