Darius Milhaud and the Debate on Polytonality in the French Press of the 1920s

Darius Milhaud and the Debate on Polytonality in the French Press of the 1920sAuthor(s): François de MédicisSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 86, No. 4 (Nov., 2005), pp. 573-591Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3526571 .Accessed: 17/02/2015 23:49

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Music & Letters, Vol. 86 No. 4, ? The Author (2005). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. doi: 10.1093/ml/gci106, available online at www.ml.oxfordjournals.org

DARIUS MITTHAUD AND THE DEBATE ON POLYTONALITY IN THE FRENCH PRESS OF THE 1920S

BY FRANQOIS DE MEDICIS

IN THE EARLY 1920s, Darius Milhaud participated actively in the development and dissemination of the innovative musical idiom of polytonality, and to a lesser extent in the promotion of atonality. This emerges not only in his compositions but also through his performing and journalistic activities. In 1923 he published two seminal articles on the subject of polytonality: 'Polytonalite et atonalite' and 'The Evolution of Modern Music in Paris and Vienna'.' Much attention has been devoted to Milhaud's theory of polytonality in so far as it applies to his music: a dissertation by Virginia Cox, articles byJens Rosteck, and a book by Deborah Mawer have already dealt with this question in some depth.2 But except for the recent book by Barbara Kelly,3 the wider cultural context of Milhaud's theories has escaped serious scholarly attention. Despite its significant contri- bution, however, her book deals mainly with Milhaud's ties to French musical tradition. She eloquently outlines the development of polytonal writing in the composer's output as well as its relationship to the style of his predecessors and contemporaries. She also interprets his writings with respect to the formation of early twentieth-century French musical identity, the position he assigns to himself in his own self-fashioned historical narrative, and his deep attachment to his Jewish heritage. In this article, I shed new light on the performance and reception of Milhaud's music and provide a closer look at his journalism of the early 1920s, by examining them in parallel with an important and voluminous press debate surrounding polytonality that took place concurrently.

Preliminary versions of this article were presented at the annual meetings of the Canadian University Music Society (Halifax 2003) and the American Musicological Society (Houston 2003) as well as the symposium 'Musique francaise 1900-1945: Perspectives multidisciplinaires sur la modernite' held jointly by the Observatoire International de la Crea- tion Musicale and the Universite de Montreal (Montreal 2004). I am profoundly indebted to Steven Huebner, Catrina Flint de Medicis, and Louise Hirbour for reading earlier versions of this article and for offering their invaluable advice and assistance.

'The first of these was originally published as 'Polytonalite et atonalite', in Revue musicale, 4/4 (1923), 29-44; it was reprinted in Darius Milhaud, Notes sur la musique: Essais et chroniques, comp. and ed. Jeremy Drake (Paris, 1982), 173-88. The genesis and dissemination of 'The Evolution of Moder Music in Paris and Vienna' is fairly complex. In Tradition and Style in the Works ofDarius Milhaud 1912-1939 (Aldershot, 2003), Barbara L. Kelly suggests that the text may be a reworking of a lecture that Milhaud gave at Harvard University during his first North American tour in 1922. It was originally published in English in two American journals: the North American Review, 35 (Apr. 1923), 544-5 and the Franco-American Musical Sociey Bulletin, 1 (Sept. 1923), 9 (See Ronald V. Wiecki, 'A Chronicle of Pro Musica in the United States (1920-1944); with a Biographical Sketch of its Founder, E. Robert Schmitz' (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin at Madison, 1992), 147- 48). Milhaud later published these ideas in French in an article entitled 'La Musique francaise depuis la guerre', in his book Etudes (Paris, 1927).Jeremy Drake has translated the original version of the article into French, but his text is based in part on the French version that appears in Etudes. See Milhaud, Notes sur la musique, 193-205.

2 Virginia Cox, 'Simultaneous Diatonic Harmonic Contexts in Early Twentieth-Century Music' (Ph.D. diss., West Virginia University, 1993); Jens Rosteck, 'Auf der Suche nach dem besonderen Glanz: Darius Milhauds lebenslange Reise zur Polytonalitat', in Milhaud 'Musicien Franfaix': Zum 100. Geburtstag von Darius Milhaud-Zum 80. Geburtstag von Jean Franfaix (Berlin, 1992), 22-27; id., 'Umrisse einer Theorie der Polytonalitat bei Darius Milhaud', International Journal of Musicology, 3 (1994), 235-90; Deborah Mawer, Darius Milhaud: Modaliy and Structure in Music of the 1920s (Aldershot, 1997).

3 Kelly, Tradition and Style.

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I demonstrate how his professional activities (as an individual and as part of the Groupe des Six) influenced the evolution of the debate, and how he reacted in turn to this controversy in two significant 1923 articles.

THE DEBATE ON POLYTONALITY AND ITS MAIN ISSUES The earliest writings on polytonality to frame the concept in theoretical terms date from 1923 and 1925 and originate with composers who had some stake in developing it as a compositional technique: Charles Koechlin (1867-1950), Alfredo Casella (1883-1947), and Darius Milhaud (1892-1974).4 Koechlin's investigations into polytonality date from the early 1900s, while those of the younger Casella and Milhaud emerge in the 1910s. Milhaud later suggested that the daring harmonies of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps, which partly motivated the scandal of the work's premiere in 1913, significantly stimu- lated compositional reflection and research on polytonality.5 But the word 'polytonalite' and its variant 'polytonie' actually appear in the press some time before these more theoretical discussions. The idea that different keys might be simultaneously combined in a work turns up in conservative critical discourse denouncing new developments in extended tonality as aberrations that would ultimately lead to anarchy and chaos. As early as 1870, a critic for the New York Sun invoked the idea of polytonality when he wondered aloud why Liszt's spiritual affinity for the demonic in the Dante Symphony 'did not inspire him to compose for each class of instruments in a separate key. The effect of demoniac confusion and horror at which he aimed would then certainly have been attained, and his audience sent howling with anguish out of the house.'6

Yet when French critics writing in the early twentieth century refer to the superimpo- sition of keys, or actually use the term 'polytonality', such comments are not always intended as pejorative and should not necessarily be taken as a sign of anxiety about innovative works. They are sometimes offered in a positive vein or arise as attempts to make objective stylistic descriptions. With this in mind, Debussy's reaction in 1903 to a concert devoted to the works of Richard Strauss should be viewed as highly perceptive, though not entirely devoid of irony. He notes that Strauss 'superimposes the most dis- tantly related keys in the most cold-blooded manner, for he is not concerned with what he has "abused" but only with what "new life" he has gained'.7 As I have already suggested, the critical reception of the premiere of Le Sacre included numerous descriptions of'polytonal' writing and, to a lesser extent, atonal composition. Amid copious references to the scrambling of multiple keys, an article in Le Matin declared the work 'resolutely polyrhythmic and polytonal'.8 Less than a year after Le Sacre, Alfredo Casella's JNotte di

4 Darius Milhaud, 'Polytonalit6 et atonalit6'. Alfredo Casella, 'Problemi sonori odiemi', La prora (Feb. 1924), 5-18. This article subsequently appeared in English translation as 'Tone-Problems of Today', Musical Quarterly, 10 (1924), 159-71; then the Italian original was reproduced in a collection of Casella's articles, 21 + 26 (Rome and Milan, 1931), 61-83. Charles Koechlin, 'Evolution de l'harmonie: Periode contemporaine, depuis Bizet et Cesar Franckjusqu'a nos jours', in Encyclopedie de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire, ii/ 1, ed. Albert Lavignac and Lionel de La Laurencie (Paris, 1925), 591-760.

5 Darius Milhaud, Entretiens avec Claude Rostand (2nd edn., Paris, 1992), 48-9. 6 Cited in Nicolas Slonimsky, Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers since Beethoven's Time (2nd edn.,

Seattle and London, 1965), 112. 7 ' superpose les tonalites les plus 6perdument eloignees avec un sang-froid absolu qui ne se soucie nullement de ce

qu'elles peuvent avoir de "d6chirant", mais seulement de ce qu'il leur demande de "vivant".' Published in Gil Blas, 30 Mar. 1903, and repr. in Claude Debussy, Monsieur Croche et autres icrits (2nd edn., Paris, 1987), 138.

8 'R6solument polyrythmique et polytonale'. A. D., 'Theatre des Champs-Elys6es: I"r Repr6sentation du Sacre du Printemps', Le Matin, 30/10685 (30 May 1913), 3. An abundant selection of reviews that followed the premiere of Le Sacre has been reprinted in Francois Lesure (ed.), Igor Stravinsky, Le Sacre du Printemps, dossier de presse (Geneva, 1980). The most complete collection of these reviews is found in Truman C. Bullard, 'The First Performance of Igor Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps with Reviews of Sacre, 1913 in English Translation and Original French Texts of Reviews' (Ph.D. diss., Uni- versity of Rochester, 1970).

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maggio, premiered at the prominent Concerts Colonne, was received by Emile Vuillermoz as a reformulation of Stravinsky's innovations, which channelled all the elements of the Russian composer's harmonic revolution into a more accessible form. For Vuillermoz, Casella's work seemed 'an example of poly-harmonic music-for this is how far we have come-and an absolutely exquisite one'.9 By the early 1920s, the use of the term had become widespread and gave rise to an active critical debate. But because polytonality was not discussed in theoretical terms prior to 1923, the debate reveals little musical consistency about pitch organization and harmonic idiom. Nonetheless, it is very revealing of its time, inasmuch as polytonality was used to project aesthetic, polit- ical, and nationalist agendas.'?

The extended debate on polytonality was triggered by two articles of 1920 by Henri Collet, the composer-critic famous for baptizing 'Le Groupe des Six'." The first of them was formulated as a review of Ma Vie musicale by Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as of Jean Cocteau's Le Coq et l'arlequin. Written in the wake of his fruitful collaboration with Satie for the ballet Parade (1917), Cocteau's book sets out an aesthetic programme for contemporary French music. A group of young composers had already gathered around Cocteau and Satie at about the time of its publication, and lent credence to its artistic dicta, though with a degree of commitment or understanding that has sometimes been called into question.'2 In this article, Collet designated his young proteges 'Le Groupe des Six' by analogy with the Russian Five, underscoring the nationalist aspi- rations of the two groups. In his second article, Collet devoted more attention to the individual achievements of each member of Les Six. In an effort to establish the stylistic commonalities within the group, he seized on the notion of polytonality or 'polytonie' (to use his precise term), and linked the emergence of this compositional means to two larger issues: the rift between the new musical avant-garde and established composers, and French nationalism.

Collet's articles positioned Les Six as a group of composers driven by nationalist ambitions, as the instigators of a stylistic revolution that resolutely broke with 'impressionism' and the teachings of the Schola Cantorum. Polytonality figures as a character- istic feature of all members of Les Six-an important point to bear in mind-and is explicitly tied to the expression of nationalist ideologies through the assumption that polytonal writing marks a return to the simplicity and clarity deemed essentially French. When Collet asks 'What is after all the musical aesthetic of Les Six?' he quickly answers:

9 'Un specimen de musique poly-harmonique-car nous en sommes la!-absolument exquis'. Emile Vuillermoz, 'La Musique au Concert', Comoedia, 30 Mar. 1914, p. 2. This article was reprinted under the title 'La Musique "poly-harmonique" et La Nuit de mai, d'Alfred Casella', Poeme et Drame: Atlas international des arts modemes, 2/7 (Jan.-Mar. 1914), 11-15.

'0 Barbara Kelly touches on the 1920s debate on polytonality in ch. 6 of Tradition and Style, 142-68. She cites many articles written within the context of the controversy, but she is primarily interested in the theoretical stakes of polytonality (fundamentals of polytonal writing, perceptive limits) and treats them within a synchronic perspective, showing how the issues of these debates have been perpetuated in recent arguments on polytonal writing.

" 'Un livre de Rimski et un livre de Cocteau. Les cinq Russes, les six Francais et Erik Satie', Comoedia, 16Jan. 1920, p. 2; and 'Les Six francais: Darius Milhaud, Louis Durey, Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc et Germaine Tailleferre', Comoedia, 23 Jan. 1920, p. 2. Both articles are reprinted inJean Roy, Le Groupe des Six (Paris, 1994), 192-8 and 198-203. Already in the 1920s, Collet boasted that he had coined the name 'Les Six'. See Henri Collet, Comoedia, 12 Aug. 1921, p. 2.

12 Much ink has flowed over the founding of the group to establish the extent to which their association was arbitrary or justified, and to demonstrate the extent to which Collet was either manipulated or worked on his own initiative to per- petuate the idea of Les Six. Undoubtedly the most daring thesis has been advanced by Michel Faure, who maintains that the whole idea was cleverly orchestrated by Cocteau and Les Six, who used Collet as a puppet: Faure also argues that the publication of Le Coq et l'arlequin was delayed in order to coincide with the naming of the group. See Michel Faure, Du Nioclassicisme musical dans la France du premier XX siecle (Paris, 1997), 113-40. For the most sophisticated and best- documented interpretation of this issue see Eveline Hurard-Viltard, Le Groupe des Six. Ou le matin d'unjour dejfte (Paris, 1987), 11-15.

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'They take the complexities of polytonality as a point of departure eventually to arrive at simplicity."3 Later he adds that

polytonality, bereft of the enchanting vagueness of early experiments in the style, may, in its present, denuded state sound somewhat crude... Ears hypnotized by Debussyste charms must become accustomed to it. At last, melody may escape its psalmodic past without sacrificing pure French prosody. Les Six know their language.'4

In the ensuing debate in the music periodicals, the majority of commentators used the term 'polytonality' as if it were self-explanatory. Exceptions to this were writings by critics such asJean Deroux and Maurice Touze, who pointed to its semantic flux.'5 For example, Deroux reports in 1921 that 'for the past several months much has been written about polytonal music (which appears variously as "polytonie" and "polytonalite"). But at the same time, a precise definition of the term has yet to be offered."6 A critical shift in the reception of Schoenberg's music in France during the early 1920s and the increased use of the term 'atonality' in the same period brought even greater terminological confusion to polytonality. For although a limited number of Schoenberg's works had been performed in Paris since 1910, including the Klavierstiicke Opp. 11 and 19 and Das Buch der hingenden Gdrten, his music attracted almost no attention in the press. But as Marie-Claire Mussat has shown, attitudes in the French press towards Schoenberg changed radically in the 1920s: for progressives, he became an important composer whose 'atonal' works constituted a legitimate form of artistic expression."7 Milhaud was closely and actively involved with this change in attitude: he was the pianist in Das Buch der hdngenden Girten in 1921, and conducted the first French performances of Pierrot lunaire in 1921 and 1922.18 In the winter of 1922, Milhaud travelled with Francis Poulenc to Vienna, where he gave a private performance of Pierrot for Schoenberg, who presented him with scores of several of his works. At home in Paris, Milhaud dedicated his Fifth String Quartet to Schoenberg, a piece that is arguably his most rigorous and daring effort in polytonal writing.

Confusion over atonality and polytonality became so pronounced within the debate that these terms were at times used interchangeably, as catch-alls to describe all manner of adventurous works. This is clear in Jean Bernier's review of Pierrot lunaire, where readers learnt that 'tonality, it is understood, no longer exists, since this music is constantly

13 'Quele est en somme 1'esthetique musicale des Six ? Is partent de la complexit6 polytonique pour trouver la simplic- ite.' See Roy, Le Groupe des Six, 201.

14 'La polytonie, destituee de ce flou ensorceleur de sa periode de recherche, peut, dans sa nudite actuelle, sembler parfois un peu fruste.... I1 faudra [que les oreilles qu'hypnotise le debussysme] s'habituent. Enfin la melodie s'evade des psalmodies anterieures sans que la declamation cesse d'etre conforme a la pure prosodie francaise. Les Six savent leur langue.' Ibid.

15 Jean Deroux, 'La Musique polytonale', Revue musicale, 11 (Oct. 1921), 251-7; Maurice Touz6, 'La Tonalite chroma- tique', Revue musicale, 9 (1 July 1922), 57-65. Even after the publication of Milhaud's theoretical article on polytonality in a 1923 issue of the Revue musicale, Albert Febvre-Longeray continued to complain that the term was ill-defined. See his 'Du "Systeme" polytonal', Le Courrier musical, 25/8 (15 Apr. 1923), 141-4.

16 'Depuis quelques mois, on a beaucoup 6crit sur la musique poytonale (que l'on d6signe sous les noms de polytonie ou polytonalite). Et cependant, il ne semble pas qu'on en ait encore donn6 de d6finition precise.' D6roux, 'La Musique polytonale', 251.

17 Marie-Claire Mussat, 'La Reception de Schonberg en France avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale', Revue de musicolo- gie, 87/1 (2001), 145-86; works by Schoenberg performed in Paris during the 1910s are listed on pp. 146-7, and his reputation during the 1920s is discussed on pp. 168-71.

18 Milhaud accompanied Marya Freund in a performance of Das Buch on 29 Nov. 1921 at the inaugural concert of the Concerts de la Revue musicale (organized by Henri Prunieres). He also conducted a premiere of excerpts from Pierrot lunaire on 15 Dec. 1921, and the first French performance of the complete work on 16Jan. 1922, both at the Concerts Wiener. See Mussat, 'La Reception de Schonberg en France', 153-5.

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polytonal and polyphonic'.'9 Enlightened composer-critics such as Paul Le Flem were no less guilty of this kind of terminological conflation, and even comments by Koechlin, who had some experience of polytonality, are not without contradictions.20 In his 1917 article for the Courrier musical, Koechlin situates Schoenberg categorically within the atonal clan, whom he views as directly opposed to polytonality. Nonetheless, in various publications from the early 1920s, including the article 'Polytonie' inserted in a programme for the Concerts Colonne and in his series entitled 'Etude sur les notes de passage', Koechlin actually links Schoenberg with polytonality. In his 1925 article for the Lavig- nac Encyclopedie he plays both sides: when he describes atonality he illustrates his points with a number of excerpts from Schoenberg (pp. 738-46), and in the passage on polytonal counterpoint he writes: '[this style] has proved itself worthy, notably with Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire' (p. 706). It is likely that the ambiguity between polytonality and atonality that we find in Koechlin derives in part from his broad theoretical understanding of polytonal writing. For him, polytonality results from chromatic additions to a diatonic collection, which leads him to identify embryonic forms of it in purely tonal works as surprising as the overture to Mozart's Don Giovanni, in which a chromatic passing note is placed against a triad (a D# over a D major triad).21 By extension, a chromatic passage completely devoid of polarity or recognizable tonality but replete with common- practice chords could qualify as polytonal.

Between 1920 and 1923, the use of the term polytonality in the musical press increased exponentially. As may be expected, it occurs prominently in articles devoted to Les Six such as Andre Coeuroy's 'Le Grand Soir de la musique', or in studies dealing with individual members such as Henry Prunieres's examination of Milhaud for the Nouvelle revue franfaise (NRF).22 But the term also appears in connection with composers outside the group. For instance, four articles in the Revue musicale between April and July 1921 devoted to composers as varying in compositional style as Ravel, Szymanowski, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev all feature discussions of polytonality.23 Even Saint-Saens, who died in the midst of this debate, was posthumously positioned as a practitioner of this language thanks to the zeal of one hagiographer anxious to establish the pervasive avant-gardism of the composer's late works.24

THE RIFT BETWEEN THE AVANT-GARDE AND THE MUSICAL ESTABLISHMENT In an artistic community dominated by an established generation of composers whose music was frankly repudiated by Les Six and their supporters, the debate about polytonality was also one about the legitimacy of the young avant-garde. As part of his campaign

'9 'La tonalit6, bien entendu, n'existe plus, la musique est constamment polytonale et polyphonique.' Jean Bernier, 'Les Concerts', Le Theitre et Comoedia illustre, 2 (Feb. 1922), 39.

20 Paul Le Flem, 'La Musique au concert', Comoedia, 19 (Dec. 1921), 4; Charles Koechlin, 'Esth6tique', Courrier musical, 19 (15 Feb. 1917), 79-80; id., 'Polytonie', Programme des Concerts Colonne, 30-1 Oct. 1920, p. 7; see also Koechlin's series of articles 'Etude sur les notes de passage', published in Le Monde musical between Nov. 1920 and Mar. 1921 and reprinted as a book under the same title in 1922.

21 In the Lavignac article, the Mozart passage is transposed into the key of C (p. 699). To complicate matters even more, during the 1920s Schoenberg distanced himself from the term 'atonality'. In a notice inserted in the 1921 edition of Harmonielehre, he clearly dissociates himself from partisans of 'atonality'. For Schoenberg, the term is nonsensical, because in German 'Ton' means 'sound' or 'notes'; 'atonal' thus refers to the negation of notes or sound, and not merely the elimination of tonality. See his Theory of Harmony (London and Boston, 1986), 432.

22 Andre Coeuroy, 'Le Grand Soir de la musique', Revue du mois, 10 Nov. 1920, pp. 354-66; Henry Prunieres, 'Darius Milhaud', Nouvelle Revuefranfaise, 14/80 (May 1920), 762-7.

23 Alexis Roland-Manuel, 'Maurice Ravel', Revue musicale, 6 (Apr. 1921), 1-21; Alexandre Tansman, 'Karol Szymanowski', ibid. 7 (May 1922), 97-110; Ernest Ansermet, 'L'(Euvre d'Igor Strawinsky', ibid. 9 July 1921), 1-27; Boris de Schloezer, 'Serge ProkofiefF, ibid. 50-60.

24 Maurice Reuschel, 'Saint-Saens, la polytonie et la polymodie', Comoedia, 16Jan. 1922, p. 4.

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in favour of these young composers, Cocteau defined their revolution both as a reaction against impressionist tendencies and as part of a return to the traditional French values of clarity and simplicity exemplified in Satie's Parade. Such attacks, aimed at nationally acclaimed composers including the recently deceased Debussy and a middle-aged Ravel, prompted critical indignation.25 Still, it is important to bear in mind that opinions expressed publicly by members of Les Six and their supporters did not always represent the group as a whole, and that printed disclaimers and the distancing of individual members often induced critical confusion as to the official stance of the group. For instance, while individual members often appeared to condemn Debussysme as a whole, they maintained a fervent level of admiration for Debussy himself.6 Moreover, if Ravel was sometimes the target of criticism in the periodical Le Coq and elsewhere, and Milhaud was never able to bestow unreserved admiration upon him, we know that Louis Durey paid his respects to him in a 1921 article for The Chesterian and that Germaine Tailleferre even studied with him.27

Cocteau played an important role in promoting Les Six, and the attention they received as a result of his press campaign owes much to his genius for formula and flair for publicity. He contributed relentlessly to periodicals such as Le Mot, Paris-Midi, and Le Coq, and sent open letters to a variety of journals ranging in focus and readership from Comoedia to Le Temps. He often crossed swords with esteemed intellectuals and music critics includingJean Marnold from the Mercure de France, Andre Gide at the JNRF,Jean Bernier in Le Crapouillot, Dominique Braga in Le Monde nouveau, Paul Souday at Le Temps, and the often virulent Emile Vuillermoz, who contributed regularly to Le Temps and other periodicals. Yet nowhere in this massive onslaught does Cocteau write of polytonality. It is Collet who proposes that there is a relationship between this style of writing, inherent in the music of Les Six, and Cocteau's aim, the return to simplicity.

Collet's amalgam of polytonality, Les Six, and simplicity was further disseminated by critics favourable to the group. In a lengthy 1921 article on the decline of impressionism, Paul Landormy draws on Collet's idea and deploys it in a broad historical narrative that includes not only Les Six, but also Scholiste composers and impressionists, extending beyond music to include literature and visual art.28 Landormy asserts that the rejection of the vague and the imprecise, and the increased valuation of melody over harmony, is not exclusive to Les Six but rooted in works by Ravel, Albert Roussel, Deodat de Severac, and Florent Schmitt. Severac's music 'has no grounding in the pastel effects of impressionism. Here the horizontal triumphs over the vertical, the melodic over the harmonic, in preparation for the reversal of method that would soon be the work of our young musicians.'29 And if the simple, unadorned style of Les Six had ties to the past, its youthful

25 On the attitude of Les Six towards Debussy, Ravel, and other established French composers, see Kelly, Tradition and Style, 5-7 and Hurard-Viltard, Le Groupe des Six, 101-37.

26 Confusion reigned in Vuillermoz's review of the 1923 premiere ofMilhaud's opera La Brebis egaree, a youthful work written much earlier. It is possible that his confusion was entirely deliberate. He makes ironic comments on the Debussyste qualities of a work composed by such a hardened adversary of Debussy: 'In fact, we know that M. Darius Milhaud is one of the most enthusiastic detractors of Debussy and impressionistic ideals... However, La Brebis egaree constitutes the most naive, the most avid, and let us not hesitate to say, the most servile homage yet to be offered, not to Debussy, but to Debussysme [On sait en effet que M. Darius Milhaud est un des detracteurs les plus acharns de Debussy et de l'ideal d'art impressionniste... Or, la partition de la Brebis egaree constitue l'hommage le plus naif, le plus empresse et, disons le mot, le plus servile qui ait jamais ete offert, non pas a Debussy, mais au debussysme].' Emile Vuillermoz, 'La Brebis 6garte', Revue musicale, 5/3 (1924), 57-8.

27 Louis Durey, 'Maurice Ravel', The Chesterian, 14 (Apr. 1921), 422-6. Hurard-Viltard mentions Ravel's teaching of Tailleferre in Le Groupe des Six, 109.

28 Paul Landormy, 'Le Declin de l'Impressionnisme', Revue musicale, 2/4 (1921), 97-113. 29 'Ce ne sont plus du tout les effets de demi-teinte de l'impressionnisme, et voila en meme temps "l'horizontalisme"

qui reprend le dessus sur le "vertical", la melodie sur l'harmonie. Nouvelle preparation a ce renversement de methode qui sera l'ceuvre de nos tout jeunes musiciens.' Ibid. 103-4.

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composers stood apart because their revolution in musical language would usher in polytonality:

Les Six are harmonic revolutionaries, for after the Debussyste revolution, which already had such a pronounced effect on harmony, they are anxious to complete their own.... From now on, all the pitches in a chord will not necessarily be taken from the same key. Not only will single pitches be superimposed, but various keys as well.30

Adversaries of Les Six, or those who held polytonal writing in contempt, adopt various strategies in their discussions of polytonality, but generally tend to minimize the revolutionary character of the body of works championed by Cocteau. In defence of the music of Ravel, for instance, Alexis Roland-Manuel calls into question the very existence of polytonality. He observes that even if one were to concede its existence, it would still be possible to find examples of it in Ravel's music.3'

The most rabid detractor of Les Six was without a doubt the influential critic Emile Vuillermoz. A fixture in the musical press, he had previously deployed all the resources of his sumptuous style to defend innovative music produced prior to the First World War with a sure-handed ability to discern quality. Musically trained in direct opposition to the conservative tendencies and aesthetics of the Schola Cantorum and other Franckistes at the Societe nationale de musique, he helped found the Societe musicale independante (S.M.I.), and took up the cause of Debussy and Ravel as well as Stravinsky's Le Sacre. After the war, he remained attached to the aesthetic grounding of his friends at the S.M.I. (Ravel, Koechlin, and Casella) and frequently displayed a condescending, often churlish attitude towards works produced by the emerging generation of post-war composers.32 Vuillermoz's hostility towards Les Six was quite transparent and was perceived as excessive partisanship by Georges Jean-Aubry, among others. In his review of Vuillermoz's Musiques d'aujourd'hui (a collection of articles published in 1923), Jean- Aubry's initial praise of Vuillermoz's elegant style of writing as well as his defence of new music gives way to censure. He deplores the 'slightly harsh attitude assumed by M. Vuillermoz towards an active and sometimes obtrusive party of young French composers, an attitude which occasionally induces him to exaggerate the merits of those among the young people who keep aloof from it'.33

Vuillermoz's campaign tactics against Les Six did not include an explicit calling into question of polytonality, as Roland-Manuel's did. Instead, Vuillermoz worked to darken the group's reputation and discredit it in the public eye by using a number of critical strategies, usually with some reference to polytonality. For instance, he praises Koechlin's

30 'Les "Six" sont des r6volutionnaires en harmonie et, apris la revolution debussyste si grave deja au point de vue harmonique, ils veulent accomplir la leur.... D6sormais toutes les notes d'un accord ne seront plus necessairement empruntees a une meme gamme. On superposera non plus seulement des sons mais des tonalites diverses.' Ibid. 111-12.

31 Roland-Manuel, 'Maurice Ravel'. 32 Francis Poulenc, who obviously had little reason to like Vuillermoz, explains the critic's attitude as stemming from a

generation gap as well as aesthetic incomprehension: 'Mavra has confirmed what Parade allowed us to see, that is, that there exists a "pre-war critic" who appears not to have developed the ability to judge contemporary music... At the time of the Sacre Vuillermoz's opinion was law-but this is no longer the case, Monsieur Vuillermoz having himself provided, on several occasions over the past two years, proof [that perceptive commentators belong] to the past [Mavra a confirme ce que 'Parade' nous laissait entrevoir, c'est-dire qu'il existe une 'critique d'avant-guerre' mais qu'il ne semble pas encore s'en former une, apte ajuger la musique actuelle.... A l'epoque du Sacre l'opinion d'un Vuillermoz faisait loi-I n'en est plus de meme aujourd'hui, M. Vuillermoz ayant donn6, a maintes reprises, depuis deux ans, la preuve [que les commen- tateurs comprehensifs appartiennent] au passe .' In 'La Musique. A propos de "Mavra" de Igor Strawinsky', Feuilles libres, 27 June-July 1922), 222-4.

33 GeorgesJean-Aubry, 'Musiques d'aujourd'hui', The Chesterian, 31 (May 1923), 197. According toJean-Aubry, the talents of certain young individuals were exaggerated by Vuillermoz. These very likely included Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht and Georges Migot. Barbara Kelly discusses the relationship between Vuillermoz and Milhaud in Tradition and Style, 7-9.

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application of polytonality as rooted in a poetic intention, and 'natural' in appearance, in order to denounce the group's use of this same technique as arbitrary, with a concomi- tant forced and artificial character. As a point of proof, Vuillermoz examines Koechlin's 'Le Chant du chevrier' (from Paysages et marines for piano), where bitonality projects two distinct tonal planes, to suggest a melody heard from afar.34 Distancing the work of Koechlin from Les Six is more malicious than it may appear, for it is an indirect attack on the strong personal ties that bound Milhaud to Koechlin, and their common interest in polytonality. Koechlin, who had worked alongside Vuillermoz to found the S.M.I., was a mentor to Milhaud, who in turn had great sympathy and admiration for his older colleague. In the summer that followed the premiere of Le Sacre, Koechlin and Milhaud analysed the work together at the latter's family estate in Provence.35 Milhaud also took part in the premieres ofKoechlin's Viola Sonata and some pieces from Paysages et marines for piano.36 In turn, when Milhaud's Deuxieme Suite symphonique was premiered by the Concerts Colonne in 1920, Koechlin wrote the aforementioned short manifesto on polytonality that was inserted in the programme. Moreoever, it was Milhaud who sent the young Francis Poulenc to study with Koechlin between 1921 and 1923, and later in 1925.37

In another article, Vuillermoz attempted to divert public attention from the group by championing Georges Migot (1891-1976), a contemporary of Les Six. Migot's injury in combat during the First World War gave him war-hero status in the eyes of the French public. Moreover, as a multi-talented artist, Migot produced poetry and paintings, in addition to musical compositions that had been recognized with prestigious awards between 1918 and 1921. These included the Lili Boulanger, Lepaulle, Halphen, and Florence Blumenthal prizes, the last of which was given in recognition of the composer's lifetime achievement, even though he was only 30 years old at the time. Vuillermoz took up Migot's cause from the moment his earliest works were published, among them the piano quintet Les Agrestides and the Piano Trio, which both won awards.38 The critic compares the young composer's struggle for notice, or notoriety, to the savage battle waged around Ankela on the rock of counsel in Kipling's Jungle Book. He pits Migot's seriousness and tangible achievements against the frivolity of Les Six, whom he finds long on words but short on substantial works.

Vuillermoz's critical attacks challenged the press supporters of Les Six and mobilized other parties within the musical community who were already ill disposed to works of the group. Leon Vallas, for one, adopted Vuillermoz's tactic of elevating Migot to the detriment of Les Six. In a short monograph on the composer, Vallas set him up as a serious, superior, and single-minded artist in direct opposition to the group, whom he cast as superficial:

As for the celebrated Groupe des Six, Migot has completely resisted their-often quite diverse- influences. Might he not, with some humour, set himself up as an analogous Groupe du Un, and become his very own Cocteau? He has in fact accomplished this through calm unity of thought, perfect logic, and a consistently serious attitude. With Migot we find neither salon dilettantism, nor fashion, nor caprice, but rather an individual with a solid background in the history of

34 mile Vuillermoz, Le Temps (14Jan. 1921). 35 Darius Milhaud, Ma Ve heureuse (Paris, 1973), 54. 36 Robert Orledge mentions Milhaud's role in the premiere of the Viola Sonata Op. 53 (on 27 May 1915), and briefly

discusses the relationship between the two composers in his book Charles Koechlin (1867-1950): His Life and Works (London, 1989), 17 and 348. Milhaud performed excerpts from Koechlin's Paysages et marines at a concert of the S.M.I. held on 23 May 1919. See Michel Duchesneau, L'Avant-garde musicale a Paris de 1871 a 1939 (Liege, 1997), 312.

37 See Orledge, Charles Koechlin, 19 n. 16. 38 Emile Vuillermoz, Le Temps (25 Feb. 1921), 4. For biographical information on Migot, see Claire Latham (ed.),

Georges Migot: The Man and his Work (Strasburg, 1982).

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music, arts, and literature, possessed of precision matched by a penetrating sensibility and implacable reason.39

Migot became increasingly hostile and critical towards Les Six and polytonality between 1920 and 1923, very likely under the influence of the attention that he and his colleagues received in the press. Although his early theoretical writings make no direct mention of the group, Migot initially appeared to regard polytonality favourably, writing in 1920 that his generation had reacted to the previous one by conceiving of 'a "tonal" music that is, however, polytonal or polymelodic'.40 Once cast as a counter- weight to the frivolous activities of Les Six, Migot developed the idea of the polyplanaire or 'polyplanal', in which polytonality is subsumed as a simple technique within a broader compositional style, and argued the impossibility of combining more than two distinct keys.4' He also advocated intellectual diligence and emotional compositional depth in his concert reviews, in direct opposition to the aesthetic of musical humour he associated with Les Six.42 But such activities appear to have had little intimidating effect on the group. In a review from 1923, Milhaud takes Migot's protector Vuillermoz to task for his failure to appreciate Roussel's Second Symphony: 'It is true that for M. Vuillermoz, M. Migot, who isn't fooling anyone, is a great musician. But who cares? M. Roussel's symphony was an absolute triumph the other evening.'43

In an article dating from December 1921, Vuillermoz redoubled his efforts to dispar- age Les Six. He accomplished this in part by refusing to acknowledge the historical grounding of the group's stylistic trademark of polytonality, and sharply censured what he perceived as their pretentious claims to exclusivity with respect to this compositional technique. We learn from Vuillermoz that polytonality was not developed by Les Six but that it originated in the works of composers such as Strauss, Stravinsky, Koechlin, and Casella.44 More devastating for Les Six was Vuillermoz's attempt to detach Honegger from the group and expose the artificiality of their association. He did this by underlining stylistic differences that forcefully dissociate Honegger's very successful oratorio Le Roi David (premiered on 11 June 1921) from the official style espoused by the group, as defined by their promoter, Jean Cocteau. Vuillermoz claimed that, even though Le Roi David is highly personal, it was part of a tradition proceeding through Bach, Debussy, Ravel, and the primitivist Stravinsky. Honegger may use polytonality, 'but never in an arbitrary manner, or in such a way as to attach him to a particular school. He produces wonderful effects in the descriptions of the crowds, in the processional entries where themes maintain their tonal independence amidst surrounding movement.' Honegger

39 'Au fameux Groupe des Six, dont il ne suit point du tout les tendances, d'ailleurs divergentes, Georges Migot, non sans humour, ne pouvait-il etre tent6 d'opposer le Groupe du Un, et de devenir son propre Cocteau ? I1 le fit et le fut avec une tranquille unite de pensee, une sire logique, un serieux constant. Chez lui, ni improvisation salonniere, ni sno- bisme, ni boutade; une etude approfondie de l'histoire de la musique, des arts, de la litterature, une observation exacte poursuivie avec un sens penetrant, et puis des deductions implacables.' Leon Vallas, Georges Migot (Paris, 1923), 8.

40 '[Une] musique "tonale" mais polytonalement ou polym6lodiquement'. Georges Migot, 'Appogiatures: Sur la pos- sibilit6 de rapports entre deux polytonalites', L'Esprit nouveau, 3 (Dec. 1920), 308-9.

4 Georges Migot, Appogiatures resolues et non resolues (Premier cahier) (Paris, 1922), 24-7, and esp. the first note on p. 25. This 'polyplanal' conception resurfaces in the prefatory manifesto to the vocal score of his stage work Hagoromo (Paris, 1922).

42 See e.g. articles written for Comoedia, 18 and 25 Dec. 1922. In the first, Migot analyses the so-called humour of Mil- haud's Fifth String Quartet (which is actually one of the composer's most daring attempts at polytonal writing and, as mentioned above, was dedicated to Schoenberg!).

43 'I est vrai que pour M. Vuillermoz, M. Migot, qui ne trompe plus personne, est un grand musicien. Qu'importe? La Symphonie de M. Roussel a triomphe l'autre soir.' Courrier musical, 17 (1923), 340-1, cited in Milhaud, Notes sur la musique, 77.

44 Emile Vuillermoz, Le Temps, 30 Dec. 1921.

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thus 'betrays the "cause" of his associates. If the latter are sincere, the excommunication of brother Honegger from the congregation of the "six" is only a matter of days away.'45

Beyond Migot, Vuillermoz's attempt to exclude Honegger from the group continued to generate the most significant repercussions. His opinions spawned sympathetic writings from Andre Marot and Henri Gauthier-Villars (Willy), and blunt replies from Cocteau, Georges Auric, and Satie.46 Cocteau turned temporarily on Honegger in a public unveiling of Vuillermoz's tactic. He denounced the latter's attempts to divide the group through the 'positioning' of support for its most conservative member, warning that 'He among you who is being "positioned" against the others still engages at times in prac- tices that are on the way out.'47 Cocteau subsequently published 'Deux Post-scriptum' in which he softened his tone with respect to Honegger, reminding readers that despite their differences there was still enough common ground between them to support fruitful collaborations, proof of this being the songs and the projected opera Antigone.48 Thus Milhaud and Honegger attempted to calm the debate and reaffirm the ties that bound Honegger to the rest of the group, emphasizing the essentially amicable nature of these common ties.49

Amid Vuillermoz's campaign to dismantle the group, Collet vacillated under fire in January 1922 with an article entitled 'The Twilight of Les Six'. Here Collet writes that

The foremost musical critic of our time, whose studies are a testimony to his impeccable taste, precise understanding of technique, and the innate gift of writing, recently published an article on the occasion of the premiere of Honegger's Roi David, which constitutes a definitive condemnation, without appeal, of what has become collectively known as the 'Groupe des Six'.50

He distances himself somewhat from Les Six, in what may have appeared to them as a capitulation, by asking:

where does the irritation provoked by Les Six, with the exception of Honegger, come from? From their incredible success, but also from their lack of tact. They could have contented them- selves with success. They chose notoriety. Milhaud might simply have had his works performed, but he preferred to write, to engage in aggressive music criticism, of a brand even more disagree- able than that of Debussy, who had some advantage over him in the form of an official position, as a Prix de Rome winner which, whatever one might wish to say, proves mastery of his art... at least for those who have studied at the Conservatoire. Milhaud's unwise criticisms have only

45 'Bien entendu, le compositeur n'hesite pas davantage a se servir de l'ecriture polytonale lorsqu'il en voit l'utilit. Mais l'emploi qu'il en fait n'est jamais arbitraire et ne revele aucun sectarisme d'ecole. II en tire des effets extremement heureux dans des descriptions de foules, dans des entrees de corteges ou les themes gardent leur independance tonale au milieu du mouvement general... 1 trahit "la cause" de ses coassoscies. Si ces derniers sont sinceres, l'expulsion du frere Honegger hors de la congregation des "six" n'est plus qu'une question de jours.' Ibid.

46 Andre Marot, 'Le Mouvement musical contemporain: Le Groupe des Six (1918 a 1922)', Le Camet-Critique, 23 (1 June 1922), 70-5; Willy, 'A batons rompus', Comoedia, 26June 1922, p. 4;Jean Cocteau, 'Lettre ouverte a mes amis Musiciens', Comoedia, lOJan. 1922, p. 1; Erik Satie, 'Les "Six" ', Feuilles libres, 4/1 (Feb. 1922), 42-5; Georges Auric, 'La Musique: Quelques maitres contemporains', Les Ecrits nouveaux, Mar. 1922, pp. 70-9.

47 'Celui de vous qu'on "organise" contre les autres participe encore quelquefois d'un ordre de choses a l'agonie.' Cocteau, 'Lettre ouverte', 1.

48 Jean Cocteau, 'Deux Post-scriptum', Feuilles libres, 4/1 (Feb. 1922), 46-8. 49 Darius Milhaud, 'Petit Historique necessaire', Coumier musical, 24/2 (1922), 30; Arthur Honegger, 'Petit Historique

necessaire (suite et fin)', ibid. 24/3 (1922), 58. 50 'Le premier critique musical de ce temps, dont les etudes revelent a la fois un gout perspicace, une connaissance

precise de la technique et les dons innes de l'ecrivain, vient de publier, a l'occasion du Roi David, d'Honegger, un article qui constitue un "ereintement" definitif, sans appel, de ce qu'on entend communement par le "Groupe des Six".' Comoedia, 9Jan. 1922, 4.

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earned him public hostility and the dislike of a number of reputable musicians. And this is very dangerous for him, who composes too much, and can't seem to watch his pen.5'

After Cocteau's reply to Vuillermoz, and with the publication of 'Etude en Sixte', Collet soon placed himself in the middle ground between the poet and the critic of Le Temps, preserving his role as the one who discovered the group. Here, he acknowledges Honegger's genius (in the traditionalist vein), and vaunts 'the truly new perfection' of Les Six's collaborative works with Cocteau (Le Boeufsur le toit, Les Maries de la Tour Eiffe). But Collet also says that further evaluation of the group's importance requires distance:

If it is possible at this stage to say that Honegger's work is that of a 'living man and posthumous artist', and if I have no hesitation in saying the same of Georges Auric who has provided such faithful musical renditions of the innovative poetry ofJean Cocteau, then I must also admit that a certain distance is necessary to give a definitive judgement of Darius Milhaud's highly varied output, or other attempts by members of his group.52

The end of the article alludes to Vuillermoz's attempt to negate Les Six as pioneers of polytonality (although Collet does not use the word itself) and to claim that they merely followed the lead of Strauss, Koechlin, Stravinsky, and Casella. Collet concludes that even if polytonal writing did not originate with Les Six, their work is part of a renewal that he was the first to identify: 'In spite of the purely innovative techniques of Richard Strauss, Koechlin, Stravinsky, and A. Casella, the appearance of the "Groupe des Six" marks a period in our modern music that I had the honour of first observing.'53

NATIONALISM The adoption of a nationalist position through the affirmation of an essentially French identity is another important aspect of the debate on polytonality. Thus to appreciate the controversy to the full, it is also necessary to understand the nationalist current in French music criticism of the period. During the First World War, nationalist senti- ments intensified to the point where, in 1916, the Ligue pour la defense de la musique francaise put forward a motion to ban the performance of German works that were not yet in the public domain.54 Nationalist zeal continued throughout the 1920s, though not without the censure of enlightened intellectuals such as Romain Rolland, who preached the value of internationalism and cosmopolitanism, and spawned a moderate, 'tolerant' form of nationalism, which appears to have prevailed throughout the decade.55 In music

5' 'D'of [vient] cette irritation que provoquent les "Six", h l'exception d'Honegger? De leur r6ussite foudroyante, mais aussi de leur maladresse. Ils pouvaient se contenter du succes, ils ont voulu la publicite. Un Milhaud n'avait qu'a se faire jouer, il a prefere ecrire, faire de la critique musicale plus agressive, plus d6sagreable que celle meme de Debussy qui avait sur lui l'avantage d'une position officielle, de ce Grand Prix de Rome qui, quoi qu'on en dise, prouve la maitrise... du moins pour ceux qui ont frequent6 le Conservatoire. Les critiques imprudentes de Milhaud lui ont valu l'hostilite du public et la haine de nombre de musiciens reput6s. Et cela est fort dangereux pour lui, qui produit trop, et ne surveille pas assez sa plume ...'. Comoedia, 16Jan. 1922, p. 4.

52 'Si l'on peut deja r6pondre que l'ceuvre d'Honegger est d'un "homme vivant et d'un artiste posthume", si je ne crains pas d'en dire autant de celles d'un Georges Auric qui traduit si fidelement la poesie neuve de Jean Cocteau, j'admets, par contre, qu'un certain recul soit demande pour juger en definitive de la production multiforme de Darius Milhaud, ou des essais des autres co-associes.'

53 'En d6pit des nouveautes purement techniques de Richard Strauss, Koechlin, Strawinsky ou A. Casella, l'apparition du "Groupe des Six" marque dans notre musique modere une date que je m'honore d'avoir ete le premier a signaler.'

54 On different types of nationalist sentiment affecting French musical culture between 1870 and 1914, see Annegret Fauser, 'Gendering the Nations: The Ideologies of French Discourse on Music (1870-1914)', in Harry White and Michael Murphy (eds.), Musical Constructions of Nationalism: Essays on the History and Ideology of European Musical Culture 1800- 1945 (Cork, 2001), 72-103.

55 An interpretation of a more inclusive type of French nationalism, or patriotism, prevalent among composers during the First World War is found in Carlo Caballero, 'Patriotism or Nationalism: Faur6 and the Great War', Journal of the American Musicological Sociey, 52 (1999), 593-625.

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we see this in Georges Jean-Aubry's La Musique et les nations, which urges composers to remain faithful to their national roots in order to create 'lasting' works.56 Yet Jean- Aubry also reasons that composers from nations other than France should strive to express their own sensibility, and that French composers would do well to study works by non-French composers, as long as they adapt any foreign models to French national traditions. During the late 1910s and early 1920s, nationalism also occupied a significant place in Cocteau's aesthetic discourse, though it is a sentiment that changed and evolved over the years. The kind of tempered, non-exclusive form of nationalism found in his 1920 Le Coq articles bears a striking resemblance to the form of nationalism that Milhaud would later adopt in his writings of 1923.

In Le Coq et l'arlequin, discussions of major figures of the musical avant-garde are frequently cool, and framed in nationalist terms. The eponymous cockerel refers to a traditional symbol of France and incarnates Cocteau's ideal of the purely Gallic. By opposition, the harlequin with his billowing costume represents the amorphous nature of hybrid works, the result of foreign influences gone awry. In Cocteau's eyes, even the work of Debussy, with its debt to Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, fails to escape such influence-what Cocteau stigmatizes, with his usual wit, as 'Debussy played in the French manner, but with a Russian pedal'.57 Only the work of Satie is singled out for unreserved praise. Contemporaries such as Jean Bernier, Jean Marnold, and Paul Landormy read Le Coq as the expression of an ultra-protectionist attitude.58 Passing references to positive foreign influences in Le Coq et l'arlequin are too transitory to mitigate the forceful tone of an exclusive nationalism. American music, for instance, is glossed over thus: 'what sweeps away impressionism, for example, is an American dance I once saw at the Casino de Paris'.59 And although Cocteau mentions the salutary influence of Schoenberg further on, he immediately afterwards writes him off as a 'blackboard musician'.60

In opposition to the exclusive nationalist tone that permeates Le Coq et l'arlequin, the articles that Cocteau wrote in 1920 for the periodical Le Coq betray a much more tempered nationalism. The group's declaration, 'Arnold Schoenberg, Les Six salute you', in the inaugural issue was recognized by a number of journalists as a contradiction of Cocteau's earlier position. This led him to explain himself in the following issue with an article entitled 'Point sur l'I', which defined nationalism as respectful of other cultures, an opinion very close toJean-Aubry's described above. Cocteau tells his readers: 'This assertion of admiration for Schoenberg demonstrates the quality of our nationalism. EACH TO HIS OWN, TO THE BEST OF HIS ABILITY, for the international artist lacks an Esperanto. For my part, I am fully prepared to shake the hand of the young German who is fed up with Wagner.'61 This shows the extent to which, despite the over- blown language of Le Coq et l'arlequin, Cocteau and Les Six are far from provincial in their attitudes. Ample proof lies in their fascination with and/or adoption of a variety of foreign stylistic innovations from American jazz and music hall, Brazilian popular

56 GeorgesJean-Aubry, La Musique et les nations (Paris and London, 1922). 57 'Debussy a jou6 en francais, mais il a mis la pedale russe.' Jean Cocteau, Le Coq et I'arlequin, in id., Romans, poesies,

eruvres diverses (Paris, 1995), 446. 58 Jean Bernier, 'Mise au point', Le Crapouillot, 15 Feb. 1920, p. 12; Jean Marnold, Le Mercure de France, 139/524 (15

Apr. 1920), 495-502;Jean Marnold, Le Mercure de France, 139/525 (1 May 1920), 782-91; Paul Landormy, 'Le Coq et 1'Arlequin', La Victoire, 24 Aug. 1920, p. 2.

59 'Ce qui balaye la musique impressionniste c'est, par exemple, une certaine danse americaine que j'ai vue au Casino de Paris.' Cocteau, Le Coq et l'arlequin, 433.

60 Ibid. 434. 61 'Ce temoignage d'admiration [A Schoenberg] montre la qualite de notre nationalisme. CHACUN CHEZ SOI, LE

MIEUX POSSIBLE. A l'artiste international, il manque un esperanto. Pour ma part, je ne refuse pas la main au jeune allemand excede de Wagner.'Jean Cocteau, Le Coq, 2 (1920).

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music, and Schoenbergian atonality. Moreover, this attitude towards Schoenberg would later be revealed as strikingly similar to Milhaud's, as expressed in his articles of 1923.

Other segments of French society held much more extreme nationalist positions, including organized groups who sought to propagate xenophobia. AsJane Fulcher has shown, organizations such as Action frangaise used artistic productions as forums for the dissemination of their own xenophonic ideals, giving voice to their opinions in periodicals such as the Revue critique des idees et des livres and attracting sympathy from highly visible musicians such as Vincent d'Indy.62 Inspired by Wagner's anti-Semitic tirades, d'Indy published similar ideas in various periodicals, from the extreme right-wing L'Occident to the more moderate Revue musicale. One of the more celebrated examples dates from 1923, when d'Indy declares Wagner a hero for liberating France from the 'Italo- Judaic-eclectic yoke'.63

Occasionally, polytonal music was singled out as the target of racist, and sometimes more specifically anti-Semitic, attacks. The involvement of polytonality in nationalist discourse is illustrated by two examples that also enable a better assessment of the singu- larity of Collet's and Milhaud's opinions, as well as a more nuanced evaluation of Collet's influence in the debate. The first example is a brief altercation between d'Indy and Koechlin in 1917.64 Following an abortive attempt to merge the Societe nationale and the Societe musicale independante, d'Indy gave free voice to his ire, denouncing a variety of avant-garde compositional styles associated with members of the S.M.I., including Debussysme, polytonal writing, and atonality. He begins in a conciliatory manner, affirming that musicians of all schools are universally devoted to the cult of beauty. He compares the variety of modern stylistic trends to differences in clothing styles, clearly signifying with his choice of metaphor that they are not all cut from the same cloth and thus not all endowed with the same quality. For d'Indy, the polytonal practitioner 'has not the least hesitation in exhibiting himself in the pyjamas of two superimposed keys (style boche)'. The atonal composer 'proudly dons a brilliant jacket when he relinquishes all form and all tonality'.5 Among other issues, Koechlin took offence at 'the epithet "style Boche" applied to "clothing made from superimposed keys"'. He cites a number of non-Germans who had used polytonality, such as the Hungarians Bartok and Kodaly, as well as the French composer Alfred Bruneau, and goes on to say that 'the superimpo- sition of two keys is not in and of itself Boche. It is possible to create effects that are com- patible with our national qualities. And it would be a shame to discredit these means a priori by dismissing them as Boche.'66 In short, as early as 1917, the argument about polytonality was already underpinned by a pronounced nationalist tone and had become a sticking point in the conflict between progressive and conservative composers. Thus Collet's articles of 1920 stand in high relief because they were based on a new premiss:

62 Jane F. Fulcher, 'The Preparation for Vichy: Anti-Semitism in French Musical Culture between the Two World Wars', Musical Quarterly, 79 (1995), 458-75. See also Eugen Weber, Action Franfaise: Royalism and Reaction in Twentieth- Century France (Stanford, 1962) and Francois Huguenin, A l'Ecole de l'Action Franfaise: Un siecle de vie intellectuelle (Paris, 1998).

63 'du joug italo-judaico-eclectique'. Genevieve Perreau, 'Wagner jug6 par les musiciens francais d'aujourd'hui', Revue musicale (1 Oct. 1923), 175-8; cited in Fulcher, 'The Preparation for Vichy', 468.

64 See Vincent d'Indy, 'Esthetique', Courrer musical, 19 (15Jan. 1917), 25-6; and Charles Koechlin, 'Esth6tique', ibid. (15 Feb. 1917), 79-80.

65 '[L'adepte de l'6criture polytonale] ne craindra pas de s'exhiber en pijama a deux tonalites superposees (style boche),... ['atonaliste] arborera fierement un veston brillant par l'absence de toute forme et de toute tonalite.' D'Indy, 'Esth6tique', 25-6.

66 'contre l'6pithete: "style Boche" appliquee au "vetement fait de tonalites superposees".. . La superposition de deux tonalites n'a en soi rien de Boche. On peut en tirer des effets musicaux compatibles avec nos qualit6s nationales. Et il serait regrettable de jeter a priori le discredit sur ces moyens, en les traitant de Boches.' Koechlin, 'EsthEtique', 79-80.

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polytonality, now associated with the avant-garde of Les Six, became a positive attribute of French culture. That is, it is neither a negative derivative of German art, as d'Indy would have had it, nor an ethnically neutral device, as the intemationlist Koechlin proposes.

My second example of the interaction between discussions of polytonality and nationalism is the resurfacing in 1923 of the idea that polytonal writing stemmed from a nefarious German influence, now reinforced by the confusion between this technique and Schoenbergian atonality, and compounded by anti-Semitic sentiment. On New Year's Day, Louis Vuillemin published an article in the Courrer musical using the French premiere of Pierrot lunaire as a launching pad for a virulent anti-Semitic and racist attack on the Concerts Wiener. This article is hardly a review since it identifies neither the per- formers nor the works given at the concert, but the references were clear and explicit enough for Ravel and other composers to respond with an indignant letter of protest in support of Jean Wiener, who also wrote a letter to the editor.67 The concert involved highly visible Jewish musicians: Milhaud, Schoenberg, and the pianist and concert organizer Wiener. In previous events, Wiener had showcased jazz and pieces by foreign avant-garde composers such as Stravinsky and Alois Haba. Vuillemin's article, bearing the insulting title 'Concerts meteques', is replete with commonplace anti-Semitic trap- pings, including an international plot to corrupt French taste, financing from the occult (referring implicitly to Jewish banks), and negative physical stereotypes ofJewish near- sightedness.68 Vuillemin's response to the objections of Ravel and other French composers was equally hostile, and included the following passage equating polytonality with a foreign weapon used in prisoner-of-war camps:

As for the astonishing attitude of [Ravel and his co-signataries], I see only one explanation: they have been intoxicated by gas!... And I hope that these pioneers will not ultimately find them- selves prisoners!... That would serve them right! They would be packed off to a 'bitonal' peni- tentiary where they would be forgotten until the end of the war.69

67 Louis Vuillemin, 'Concerts meteques...', Courrier musical, 50 Jan. 1923). Vuillemin's article and the responses to it are reproduced in Jean Wiener, Allegro appassionato (Paris, 1978), 66-8. The title of Vuillemin's regular column in the Courrier musical, 'Notes sans mesures', indicates his frank, direct style, but the racist tone of his writings was surprising and not at all representative of the other columns. He was also a composer, and the author of monographs on Louis Aubert and Gabriel Faur6, as well as a memoir on his war experiences (L'Hroique pastorale (Paris, 1922)), for which he won over four of the jurists for the Femina-Vie Heureuse competition. At the time of the scandal surrounding the performance of Milhaud's Second Symphonic Suite at the Concerts Colonne in 1920, he appeared receptive to polytonality and quite favourable to the composer, saying 'that he is gifted, that he has talent, a sure power of expression, an innate sense of col- our and movement', though he displays a 'tendency to exaggerate', and a lack of stability and taste (qu'il est dou6, qu'il a du talent, une puissance d'evocation certaine, un sens inn6 de la couleur et du mouvement... tendance a l'exageration). Louis Vuillemin, La Lanteme, 26 Oct. 1920, p. 2.

68 This theory of aJewish plot to foment anarchy was put forward by Max d'Ollone in Le Monde musical, and was later refuted in Koechlin's review of the Pierrot lunaire concert. Koechlin maintains that while great innovators in philosophical thought and cultural undertakings may indeed be Jewish (Schoenberg and Milhaud in music, Einstein in science, Bergson in philosophy), there are also an equal number of non-Jews engaged in this pursuit (Stravinsky and Poulenc in music, Poincar6 in science), and that not all notable Jews were necessarily revolutionary (Mendelssohn, Halevy, and Meyerbeer). He poses the question 'Surely, chaos, anarchy, and the rejection of all existing music may be in danger, but frankly, are we really there yet? [Assurement, le chaos, l'anarchie, l'oubli de toute musique existante pourrait etre un danger; mais, franchement, en sommes-nous la?]'. He goes on to demonstrate the futility of this idea, and celebrates contemporary mastery of compositional technique evident in the major works of the innovative composers of his day. See Koechlin's article published in Le Monde musical, 13 Feb. 1922, reproduced in Francois Lesure (ed.), Dossier de Presse de Pierrot lunaire (Geneva, 1985), 111-15; the quotation is from p. 114.

69 Je ne vois a l'etonnante attitude [de Ravel et de ses co-signataires] qu'une explication: [ils] sont intoxiqu6s par les gaz!... Et je ne souhaite pas [a ces] pionniers de se laisser faire fmalement prisonniers! ... Du coup, leur compte serait bon! Envoyes dans un camp de "bitonalite par represailles" ils y demeureraient oubli6s jusqu'a l'issue des hostilits ...'. Cited in Wiener, Allegro appassionato, 68.

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MILHAUD'S 1923 PRESS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DEBATE ON POLYTONALITY The picture I have drawn of musical life in France during the 1920s is vital to any understanding of the particular position occupied by Darius Milhaud. As aJewish composer, Milhaud was vulnerable to racist attacks from right-wing nationalists.70 But as the principal exponent of 'polytonal' writing, he seems also to have positioned himself wil- fully in the line of fire. For it was a battle that he had, of his own volition, helped to insti- gate. Milhaud served as an active agent in the debate, not only by composing polytonal works but also by contributing articles to the press-he was the most prolific writer of the Groupe des Six.71 His patently sincere devotion to the exploration of polytonal resources, and the rigour of his compositions in this manner notwithstanding, Milhaud exercised a keen sense of self-promotion and publicity in shaping the reception of his works, and in bringing polytonality to the fore in his press articles. He was, after all, working at a time when a robust succes de scandale could boost a career (famous prece- dents include Pellas et Milisande, Le Sacre du printemps, and Parade), and he did not hesitate to provoke his readers, audiences, and critics.

Two daring polytonal works by Milhaud resulted in notable scandals, and fuelled the quarrel over polytonality: the Suite symphonique no. 2 (after Protee) in 1920, and the Cinq Etudes for piano and orchestra in 1921.72 At the premiere of the suite, the audience was so dis- ruptive that the conductor, Gabriel Pierne, stopped the performance in order to instruct them to contain their opinions until the end of the work. Two days after this concert performance, the programme was revised to include the subtitle 'Polytonality' and a short manifesto signed by Koechlin, another well-known partisan of polytonal composition.73 As a whole, the two performances resulted in a scandal on the scale of the ones that had followed Le Sacre and Pierrot lunaire.74 While it may be difficult from our perspective to imagine a reaction of this magnitude, the vast press coverage of this concert is extremely unusual in the history of premieres. Milhaud's work received far more attention than an interlude from Honegger's La Mort de Sainte Almeenne, which was in the programme. Koechlin's manifesto had its effect, and a number of critics who had not mentioned polytonality in their initial reviews scrambled to cover their tracks in subse- quent commentaries, where they duly introduced the term.75 The octogenarian Saint-Saens published a letter to Pierne in Le Minestrel, criticizing polytonality and arguing that 'several instruments playing in different keys never made music, only cacophony'.76 The

70 Milhaud was profoundly attached to theJewish religion, though he maintained an open attitude towards other con- fessions of faith. A number of his mature works are rooted in Jewish themes, including the Poemesjuzfs, Chants populaires hebraiques, Liturgie comtadine, and the operas Esther de Carpentras and David. It has been argued that his vision ofJudaism arose from the particularly favourable conditions Jews enjoyed in his native region of Comtat-Venaissin. For more information on this topic, see Jeremy Drake, The Operas ofDarius Milhaud (New York, 1989), 18-19; Kelly, Tradition and Style, 27-34; and Armand Lunel, Mon ami Darius Milhaud (La Calade, 1992).

71 For a survey of his journalistic output, seeJeremy Drake's introduction to Milhaud, Notes sur la musique, 9-15, as well as the list of articles supplied in the Appendix, 214-31.

72 The journalist Marcel Rieu recounts that Milhaud 'had been prepared for anything since the day when, at the Salle Gaveau, during a performance of the [Etudes pour] Piano et Orchestre a policeman was sent to protect him from vehement detractors of his music [s'attend a tout depuis le jour of, salle Gaveau, pendant l'execution [des Etudes pour] Piano et Orchestre, on lui d6pecha un agent de police pour prot6ger sa personne contre les vehements d6tracteurs de sa musique]'. Marcel Rieu, 'Les Avants-premieres: "L'Homme et son d6sir" au Theatre des Champs-Elys6es', Comoedia, 6 June 1921, pp. 1-2.

73 Charles Koechlin, 'Polytonie', Programme des Concerts Colonne, 30-1 Oct. 1920, p. 7. 74 This was in the opinion of Wi6ner; see Allegro appassionato, 48. 75 Compare for example the two reviews of Nadia Boulanger: Monde musical, 31/19-20 (15 and 30 Oct. 1920), 304-5

and 31/23-4 (15 and 31 Dec. 1920), 358-62, or those of Robert Dezamaux: La Liberti, 26 Oct. 1920, p. 2, and 3 Nov. 1920, p. 2.

76 'Plusieurs instruments jouant dans des tons diff6rents n'ont jamais fait de la musique, mais du charivari.' Cited in Milhaud, Ma Vie heureuse, 92.

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scandal wreacked such havoc that, according to Koechlin, it delayed Pierne's election to the Institut.77

Bearing in mind that Milhaud had a vested interest in polytonality and an acute sense of publicity, it seems plausible that he was the anonymous source for a crucial point in Collet's second article, when the latter makes a connection between the new simplicity of Les Six and their polytonal style. If this is indeed the case, Milhaud actually instigated the press controversy surrounding polytonality. Although this hypothesis has no basis in hard evidence, if we look closely at Collet's text and the work of Les Six during this period, for a number of reasons Milhaud emerges as Collet's most probable informant. Through a pro- cess of elimination, we may exclude Cocteau, since, as noted earlier, he never invoked the notion of polytonality in his journalistic crusade for Les Six. Auric and Poulenc, though we know that they were fairly ahead of their time, were both only 21 at the outset of the debate. And if Milhaud was not the only individual firmly committed to polytonal composition in the group, he was the most advanced user of it, and the only one to have under- taken an active, intensive, and systematic exploration of it. In sum, no other member of Les Six had such an intimate knowledge of polytonality when the group met Collet in 1920.

Still, the most compelling evidence is Collet's description of the evolution of polytonal writing among Les Six, a manner that according to Collet began with 'polytonic complex- ity' but eventually resulted in 'simplicity', or in a style that disengaged itself from 'the enchanting vagueness of its initial stages' to arrive at its 'present denuded state'. To what music does Collet refer here? It is quite possible to conceive of an evolutionary path from the rich and shimmering polytonality of Le Sacre ending in the simple, unadorned works of Les Six. The composer who would have been best able to speak of this transformation was surely Milhaud, the only member of the group whose output may be said to have traced the same path. In the mid-191 Os, Milhaud's early experiments with 'harmonic' polytonality reached their most extreme in the dense textures of Les Choephores, which is full of superimposed triads and common-practice chords.78 Endeavours in what could be called 'contra- puntal' polytonality, in which voices in specific diatonic keys are layered, began with transitional works such as Le Retour de l'enfant prodgue and Les Eumenides and culminated in the thin, transparent textures of the first two chamber symphonies Opp. 43 and 49, the Sonata for piano and three woodwind instruments Op. 47, and the song cycle Machines agri- coles. Works in this new style began to appear at the end of Milhaud's stay in Brazil and on his return to Paris, just before the celebrated encounter between Les Six and Collet.79

In 1923 Milhaud published the two major articles mentioned at the outset of this essay in which polytonality occupies an important place: 'Polytonalite et atonalite', and 'The Evolution of Modern Music in Paris and Vienna'. By this time, several members of Les Six had lost interest in polytonal writing. Tailleferre is particularly blunt in this respect, writing to Poulenc in August of 1923, 'I have followed your excellent advice and no longer compose polytonie'.80 Milhaud's articles deftly synthesize the main arguments

77 Koechlin, 'volution de l'harmonie', 697. 78 Kelly, Tradition and Syle, 67-8. 79 On the development of polytonal writing in Milhaud, see Drake, The Operas ofDarius Milhaud, 31, 63-4, and 78-114;

and Kelly, Tradition and Style, 64-72 and 147-68. 80 'Je suis tes bons conseils etje ne fais plus de polytonie.' In Francis Poulenc, Correspondance, 1910-1963, ed. Myriam

Chimenes (Paris, 1994), 138. InJuly 1922, Poulenc wrote to Paul Collaer that 'Mavra [by Stravinsky] proved to me that there is some good in the triad. Once again, Satie was right. Believe me, poytonie is a dead end that will go out of fashion within five years, unless it is the means of expression for some type of genius, like Darius. I will not speak of atonality. It's shit [Mavra [de Stravinsky] m'a prouve que l'accord parfait a du bon. Une fois de plus, Satie a eu raison. Croyez-moi, la polytonie est une impasse dont on sentira la caducite d'ici 5 ans, a moins que ce ne soit le moyen d'expression d'un type de genie, comme Darius. Je ne parle pas de l'atonalite: c'est de la merde].' Paul Collaer, Correspondance avec des amis musiciens, ed. Robert Wangermee (Liege, 1996), 103.

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of the debate and establish a forceful, original position in the clash between the older, established generation of composers and the post-war avant-garde. Amid the confused formulations of his colleagues and contemporaries, Milhaud provides readers with clear descriptions of polytonality and atonality that clarify the relationship of these compositional devices to tonality. Moreover, these concepts are also sifted through the rhetoric of a tolerant, non-exclusive form of nationalism that would have rallied support from the majority of his readership.

Milhaud's writings betray a clear awareness of tensions between the young avant- garde and the established generation of composers, and he presents atonality and polytonality as new resources developed as part of contemporary musical trends. He insists that these idioms in no way violate fundamental musical principles. Instead they represent the culmination of various traditions, for 'each time we speak of newness, of revolution for a musician, we may be sure that any rich new element that is introduced is underpinned by a solid tradition'.81 For Milhaud, this tradition is grounded in the national roots of the composer. 'we do not invent tradition, we experience it, we work within it. It results not only from the individual tastes of the musician, his personal pre- dilections, and life experiences that may have an influence on his work, but above all from his race'.82

Milhaud's conception of tradition stems from a vision of history as teleological and evolutionary, which allows him to view the relationship between atonality and polytonality as deriving from different tonal traditions, and which, in turn, allows him to maintain a non-exclusive nationalist stance. Polytonality and atonality are treated as the natural extensions of Latinate and Teutonic national traditions respectively. On one hand, polytonality continues the modal diatonicism of Debussy (since it is based on diatonic melodies and triadic harmonies). On the other, Schoenbergian atonality furthers Wagnerian chromaticism. By underscoring the importance of Schoenberg even as he places him in a parallel, but independent, line of development of Latinate culture, Milhaud recalls Cocteau's effacement with respect to nationalism discussed above, 'each to his own, as much as possible'. Milhaud's view departs radically from Koechlin's, for whom polytonality was a procedure devoid of any nationalist sensibility or association. But Milhaud may well have influenced Casella's thinking on the issue. The latter maintained a strong interest in Viennese atonality and Stravinskian polytonality during the 191 Os, and ostensibly flirted with both styles from 1914 until he abandoned atonal composition entirely in 1918.83 If Casella's first non-theoretical articles on polytonality predate Milhaud's,84 it is only after the publication of 'Polytonalite et atonalite' that he expresses his disavowal of atonality in cultural terms, dismissing it as poorly suited to the Latin sensibility.85 A striking detail highlights the similarities between the discourses of Milhaud and Casella: their invoking of the idea of the Latin, not the French or the Italian, sensibility. For when Milhaud refers to the use of polytonality outside France,

81 'Chaque fois qu'on parle pour un musicien de nouveaut6, de r6volution, nous pouvons etre sirs que tout 6elment riche et neufintroduit s'appuie sur une tradition solide.' 'The Evolution', in Milhaud, Notes sur la musique, 194.

82 'On ne s'invente pas une tradition, on la subit, et on la travaille. Elle depend non seulement des gofts du musicien, de ses tendances intimes, des influences que peuvent avoir sur son oeuvre les consequences de sa vie, de ses preferences musicales, mais surtout de sa race.' Ibid.

83 Alfredo Casella, Music in my Tume (Norman, Okla., 1955), 106. His memoirs were originally published in Italian under the title Isegreti della giara (Florence, 1941).

84 Alfredo Casella, 'Ce qu'est la musique polyharmonique', Mon#joie!, June 1914; reproduced in Roberto Calabretto (ed.), Alfredo Casella: Gli anni di Parigi (Florence, 1997), 213-15. Alfredo Casella, 'L'evoluzione armonica moderna', La riforma musicale (7 Feb. 1915), 1; and id., 'Why I write as I do', Musical Courier, 84/9 (Mar. 1922), 34-5.

85 Casella, Music in my Time, 106.

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he must have been thinking of Italy, where Casella and his young entourage vaunted its virtues.86

According to Milhaud, however, polytonality and atonality are not valid modes of expression simply by their nature or essence. They gain legitimacy only when they arise from an authentic melodic inspiration. In fact, the value of a work in Milhaud's estimation rests entirely with its melody:

What determines the polytonal or atonal nature of a work is much less the method used in writing than the essential melody on which it is based, and which originates only in the heart of the musician. It is an absolute, organic necessity for the initial melody that will check these proce- dures from becoming embroiled in a system that would otherwise be still-born.87

But ultimately this reasoning is circular because this melodic sense is in turn intimately linked to a national tradition. In Milhaud's words, 'only melody allows us to work with our imagination while bringing us closer to our tradition'.88

In sum, even before the notion of polytonality was established in theoretical terms, the term had been used in the French press for nearly two decades with various intended meanings until two seminal articles by Henri Collet ignited the debate surrounding this compositional technique. Two important aspects fuelled the debate: the conflict between the established and the younger generation of composers, and the expression of a French national identity in music. The brief survey provided here demonstrates how quickly and how widely arguments and disputes could develop within a period of less than three years in the context of great cultural and musical experimentation and productivity. Returned to their original context, the ideological stakes at play in Milhaud's influential texts on polytonality become much more readily apparent. His argument has its faults, a major one being his treatment of polytonality as an idiom on the same scale as tonality and atonality. To date there is no consensus in the musicological and music theoretical communities as to the exact nature of polytonality.89 Yet on the whole, we appear to have reduced it to a short-lived compositional style, the platform of a few composers, mainly Milhaud and Koechlin, in France. According to Serge Gut, 'in ret- rospect, we see that fascination with polytonality was short-lived, between 1910 and 1930. In our own time it has been reduced to an occasional compositional technique.'90 Even

86 Milhaud and Casella first became acquainted in Paris prior to Casella's return to Italy in 1915. They later met in Rome in March of 1921 shortly before the publication of their respective theoretical articles on polytonality. In one of his chronicles, Milhaud recalls that he and Georges Auric gave the premiere of Casella's Pagine diguerra for piano duet, and was given the manuscript as an expression of the composer's gratitude. See Milhaud, Notes sur la musique, 76.

87 'Ce qui determinera le caractere polytonal ou atonal d'une ceuvre, ce sera bien moins le procede d'ecriture que la melodie essentielle qui en sera la source, et qui vient du "cceur" seul du musicien. C'est une necessit6 absolue, organique, de la melodie initiale qui empechera ces proc6ds de se figer en un systeme autrement mort-n.' 'Polytonalit6 et atonalite', in Milhaud, Notes sur la musique, 44. Melody for Milhaud is linked to a number of important issues: the aesthetic of Les Six, nationalist agendas, the composer's preference for counterpoint, and the influence ofAndre Gtdalge's teaching. For more information on this subject, see Kelly, Tradition and Stle, 115-19 and 154-5 and Hurard-Viltard, Le Groupe des Six, 47 and 141-5.

88 '[Seule la melodie] nous permet de travailer avec notre imagination tout en nous rapprochant de la tradition qui est la n6tre.' 'L'Evolution de la musique', 205.

89 A number of theorists have called the viability of polytonality into question: Allen Forte, Contemporary Tone-Structures (New York, 1955); Arthur Berger, 'Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky', Perspectives of New Music, 2 (1963), 11-43, repr. in Benjamin Boretz and Edward T. Cone (eds.), Perspectives on Schoenberg and Stravinsky (New York, 1972), 123-54; Benjamin Boretz, 'Metavariations: Part IV, Analytic Fallout', Perspectives of New Music, 11 (1972), 149; Pieter van den Toorn, 'Some Characteristics of Stravinsky's Diatonic Music', Perspectives of New Music, 14 (1975), 104-38. Barbara Kelly has given an account of these theoretical questionings in Tradition and Style, 142-68.

90 'Avec le recul du temps, on constate que le grand engouement pour la polytonalite a ete de courte duree, en gros de 1910 a 1930. De nos jours, elle n'est plus qu'un moyen occasionnel d'ecriture.' Cited in the article 'Polytonalite', in Marc Honegger (ed.), Dictionnaire de la musique. Science de la musique (Paris, 1976), 821.

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within Milhaud's oeuvre, polytonality is often an intermittent procedure, and works that are continuously polytonal, such as the Fifth String Quartet, are very rare. Nonetheless, this fault forces us to come to grips with the extent to which ideological debates may hold sway over aesthetic arguments. Milhaud's critical ingenuity is certainly to be admired, because he managed to find a place for himself between national extremists and moder- ates while handily exploiting an evolutionary view of history to erect his compositional interests as nothing less than the foundation for the post-war generation of the French musical avant-garde.

ABSTRACT

The concept of polytonality occupies a prominent place in two 1923 articles by Darius Milhaud. Considerable attention has been devoted to his theory of polytonality in so far as it applies to his music (Rosteck 1992 and 1994, Cox 1993, Mawer 1997), but except for the work of Barbara Kelly (2003) the wider cultural context of its meaning has escaped close scrutiny. To grasp the significance of these two essays more clearly, we must deter- mine how they relate to an important press debate on polytonality and atonality between 1920 and 1923.

Fuelled by Henri Collet's tagging of the Groupe des Six in 1920, as well as the recognition of Schoenberg's music and legitimization of his atonal writing in France, the controversy raises the subjects of polytonality, atonality, nationalism (sometimes degenerating into racism), and the aesthetic clash of the impressionists, or established composers, with the young avant-garde, or Les Six. As a term, polytonality suffered from gross distortion. Best viewed as a technique, usually employed only locally and by a minority of composers, in the debate it became an idiom, such as tonality or atonality, rich enough to inspire a 'school', in this case Les Six, or even the entire French style.

As aJewish composer vulnerable to racist attacks, and as the main exponent of polytonality, Milhaud skilfully turned the issues of the debate to his advantage. He portrays Viennese atonality as the natural outcome of Wagnerian chromaticism, and polytonality as the extension of French diatonic modality. His construct appeals to both nationalist pride and ethnic tolerance, and his evolutionary principle positions polytonality as inev- itable for nothing less than the whole French musical avant-garde.

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Darius Milhaud and the Debate on Polytonality in the French Press of the 1920s

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