Front cover image for The harlequin years : music in Paris, 1917-1929

The harlequin years : music in Paris, 1917-1929

Few decades in the life of any European city have been as rich in musical personalities and achievements as the 1920s in Paris. It was, as Stravinsky said, the hub of the musical world, popular for travelers because it was cheap. Composers working in or near the city included Ravel, Fauré, Satie, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev as well as the up-and-coming members of Les Six, most notably Poulenc, Milhaud, and Auric. Among their collaborators were the painters Picasso, Braque, Dufy, and Juan Gris, while Jean Cocteau kept a watchful eye on new trends. Horowitz, Robert Casadesus, and Vlado Perlemuter all made their Paris debuts in this decade, as did the young violin prodigies Ginette Neveu and Yehudi Menuhin. Women musicians were coming into their own: the composers Germaine Tailleferre and Lili Boulanger, salon hostesses like the Princesse de Polignac and Mae Clemenceau. The Harlequin Years charts a nimble course through this remarkable era, noting currents as well as personalities, telling stories as well as pondering the occasional philosophical problem
Print Book, English, ©2002
University of California Press, Berkeley, ©2002
Criticism, interpretation, etc
288 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780520237360, 9780500510957, 0520237366, 0500510954
49226376
Map: Paris in the 1920s
6(3)
Introduction9(2)
Acknowledgments11(1)
Chronology12(6)
The legacy of peace and war
18(23)
Orchestras, conductors, chamber ensembles
41(18)
The Opera
59(19)
The Opera-Comique and other musical theatres
78(28)
Operettes, music hall, revues, chansons
106(28)
Ballet
134(42)
The Establishment: the teaching institutions; the churches; the salons; the press
176(33)
Composers old and new
209(41)
Paris, the past and elsewhere
250(29)
Select bibliography279(3)
List of photographs282(1)
Index283