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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2018 Behind the Red Curtain: Nationalism and Satie's Parade Julian Duncan Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC BEHIND THE RED CURTAIN: NATIONALISM AND SATIE’S PARADE By JULIAN DUNCAN A Thesis submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music 2018 Julian Duncan defended this thesis on March 26, 2018. The members of the supervisory committee were: Michael Broyles Professor Directing Thesis Sarah Eyerly Committee Member Aimée Boutin Committee Member The Graduate school has verified and approved the above-named committee members and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1: RAISING THE RIDEAU ROUGE ...........................................................................1 CHAPTER 2: POETICS AND MANIFESTOS: THE NATIONALISM OF PARADE ..............15 CHAPTER 3: THE AESTHETIC OF PROGRESS: ANTI-NATIONALISM AND SATIE’S “ADVANCED” ART.....................................................................................................................34 CHAPTER 4: THE REVOLUTIONARY IN PICASSO’S PARADE ...........................................56 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUDING THOUGHTS: BEHIND THE RIDEAU ROUGE .......................67 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................................71 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................75 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 La Famille Imperiale boche kubistée ...........................................................................22 Figure 2.2 Dirigeable en cuivre ‘Le rapide' ..................................................................................29 Figure 3.1 Cabaret Accompaniment in Parade, mm. xx—xx .......................................................40 Figure 3.2 Souvenir de l’Inauguration Excerpt .............................................................................40 Figure 3.3 Prelude du Rideau Rouge mm. 20—38 ........................................................................47 Figure 3.4 Transition out of Prestigitateur Chinois’ Section, mm 200—206 ................................51 Figure 3.5 Ostinato, mm. 39—44 ...................................................................................................52 Figure 3.6 Acrobats’ Theme, mm. 394—399 ................................................................................53 Figure 3.7 Close of the Acrobats’ Theme mm. 467—471 ..............................................................55 Figure 4.2 Glass and Bottle of Suze ...............................................................................................57 Figure 4.2 Picasso, Self Portrait ....................................................................................................59 Figure 4.3 Rideau rouge .................................................................................................................63 Figure 4.4 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon ..........................................................................................65 Figure 4.5 Study for Cheval-Jupon Mask ......................................................................................66 iv ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes Jean Cocteau’s (1889–1963), Erik Satie’s (1866–1925), and Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) ballet Parade in the context of wartime nationalism. During the war, the dominant aesthetic was defined by traditionalism and Classicism. This aesthetic was rooted in the nation and opposed to the external threat of German culture and the internal threat of subversive and revolutionary art. Drawing on the writings of Guillaume Apollinaire as well as on Cubism and Futurism, Cocteau sought to invert the dominant aesthetic, recasting modernism as a Classicism for its own time. Thus, for Cocteau, Parade’s avant-garde nature advanced nationalism and the war effort. For Satie and Picasso, the ballet’s provocative aspects were anti-nationalist and subversive. Satie’s aesthetic was rooted in the popular music of Parisian cabarets. Seeing a correlation between progressive politics and progressive art, he incorporated the techniques of the avant- garde and irreverently parodied wartime Classicism in Parade. In keeping with his self-image as a revolutionary, Picasso similarly parodied the dominant Classical aesthetic. His Rideau rouge suggests the wartime Classical aesthetic, but undermines it by eschewing perspective and proportion. Additionally Picasso incorporates primitivist techniques, recalling the opposition of the French Left to colonialism. Satie’s and Picasso’s Left-wing convictions undermined Cocteau’s vision, such that Parade retained a subversive character, and their opposition to militarism and nationalism left Parade open to the charge that it was an assault on the cultural and political status quo. As a result, Parade both supports and undermines wartime nationalism. v CHAPTER 1 RAISING THE RIDEAU ROUGE Introduction This thesis analyzes Jean Cocteau’s (1889–1963), Erik Satie’s (1866–1925), and Pablo Picasso’s (1881–1973) ballet Parade, and offers a new perspective on the ideological and political significance of each of the collaborators’ contributions to the work. Due to the pervasive culture of nationalism and militarism engendered by the First World War, art bore multiple levels of signification that interacted with cultural politics. Each of Parade’s collaborators inflected the ballet with their own aesthetic beliefs. For Cocteau, Parade’s avant-garde nature advanced nationalism and the war effort, whereas for Satie and Picasso the ballet’s provocative aspects signified anti-nationalist and subversive ideology. As a result, Parade both supports and undermines wartime nationalism. Each chapter examines the artistic contributions of the collaborators and offers a political reading of the aesthetic beliefs that motivated them. The importance of Parade has been well-documented in musicology and art history. However, few sources engage directly with the political implications of the ballet, or with the ideological aims and assumptions brought to the table by its collaborators. Two notable exceptions to this are Jane Fulcher’s The Composer as Intellectual: Music and Ideology in France, 1914–1940, and Caroline Potter’s Erik Satie: A Parisian Composer and his World. This thesis builds on the work of these authors, and pays special attention to the political, aesthetic, and literary movements with which its collaborators were associated. 1 I employ two primary methodologies in this thesis. Most importantly, I analyze source documents to place Parade in context, and illuminate the collaborators’ political and aesthetic beliefs. Secondly, I analyze musical and artistic style in the ballet, placing them in the larger context of the collaborators’ other works and of contemporary artistic movements. In this way I offer a holistic picture of the ballet as its collaborators intended it, as its audience understood it, and as it can be read contextually. Stylistic analysis is of paramount importance to this study. I contend that Parade’s political significance is rooted in its relationship to the aesthetics of wartime nationalism. Therefore, analyses of both musical and artistic style feature heavily. Particularly, I examine Satie’s score, noting especially the influence of popular music, Vincent d’Indy, and Igor Stravinsky on Satie’s style. Additionally, I look at Picasso’s set and costume designs, noting the importance of Cubism and primitivism and the political associations these movements carried. Because of Parade’s significance in the academic literature and the individual fame of its collaborators, a wealth of primary and secondary source documents pertaining to the ballet exist in publication and in online archives, some in the original French and others in English translation. These documents include Cocteau’s prolific writings about Parade in numerous publications, including articles for magazines like Vanity Fair and in his book Le Coq et l’Arlequin, as well articles and letters written by Satie which offer insight into his views on art and politics. Additionally, a considerable amount of correspondence is available between the collaborators, as well as published notebooks from Rome, where the collaborators, excluding Satie, worked on the ballet in the Spring of 1917. Cocteau’s writings offer a clear picture of his aesthetic ideals in Parade. Immersed as he was in the Parisian art world, I also provide an 2 analysis of the contemporary art movements that influenced Cocteau, and show how they informed Parade and Cocteau’s aesthetic ideals. Thoroughly analyzing the cultural politics and ideological atmosphere of wartime Paris, Fulcher makes a compelling case that Satie’s use of style in the music of Parade bears with it ideological implications associated with his Left-wing politics. This is contrasted with Cocteau’s politically