Political Battlefields in French Musical Education: Provincial Conservatories Under the Nazi Occupation and Vichy Regime
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Political Battlefields in French Musical Education: Provincial Conservatories under the Nazi Occupation and Vichy Regime by Jessica H. Grimmer A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Music Musicology) at The University of Michigan 2020 Doctoral Committee: Professor Jane Fulcher, Chair Professor Joshua Cole Professor Charles Garrett Professor Steven Whiting Jessica H. Grimmer [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0320-1812 © Jessica H. Grimmer 2020 DEDICATION To my parents, Joseph and Joanne McCafferty. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to the many mentors, colleagues, friends and family whose support, encouragement, and advice I have fortunate enough to receive during the course of researching and writing this dissertation. I thank my dissertation committee for their insight and advice: Charles Hiroshi Garrett, Steven Whiting, and Joshua Cole. I especially thank my dissertation advisor and committee chair, Jane Fulcher, for her guidance throughout my time at the University of Michigan. Her expertise in the field, excellent writing opinions, and steadfast encouragement allowed this project to reach fruition. The faculty, colleagues, and friends at the University of Michigan have all offered their kind support. I would like to expressly thank James Borders, Gabriela Cruz, Aleksandra Vojcic, Andrew Kohler, Amy Petrongelli, Ethan Allred, Jessica Getman, Anne Heminger, Megan Hill, Elizabeth McClain, Patricia Moss, Austin Stewart, Kristen Clough, Nee Chucherdwatanasak, Lisa Decenteceo, Alyssa Wells, and Lena Leson. I also thank the wonderful faculty at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music: Edward Nowacki, Stephanie Schlagel, bruce mcclung, Mary Sue Morrow, Matthew Peattie, and Jonathan Kregor. The support of many colleagues abroad made this project possible. I thank Mayette Bonnal and Marylis and Francois Raoul-Duval for their generosity in allowing access to the letters and manuscripts of their father, Joseph Ermend Bonnal. Likewise, I iii thank Albert Kouzoubachian, who kindly shared materials and memories of his brother, violinist and resister Marc Kouzoubachian. The insights of Emmanuel Hondré into the system of the Conservatoire have been immeasurably helpful. I am grateful to the staff at the Archives Nationales de France in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, the Orléans Métropole Archives Municipales et Communautaires, the Archives Municipales d’Avignon and the helpful direction of Martine Bricard, the Lille Archvies Municipales, the Bayonne Archives Municipales et Départmentals, the Archives Toulouse, and the Archives Musicipales de Lyon, especially Anne Marie Delattre. Research for this dissertation was made possible by support from the Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant, the University of Michigan’s International Institute Fellowship, and the American Musicological Society’s M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet Travel Grant, for which I am truly grateful. I thank my parents, Joseph and Joanne McCafferty, my sister and her husband, Maureen and Zack Biesinger, and my husband, Joseph Grimmer, alongside my extended family. Last but not least, thanks to the amusing free-range chickens outside the Archives Nationales for the lunchtime distractions. iv PREFACE The endeavors of the Vichy Regime and Nazi Occupation to regulate the arts and education in France, exemplified in this study by the conservatoire system, illustrates a fierce battle for control of France’s cultural identity. Efforts to contort France’s long- standing institutions and remake them in the image of the newly installed governing bodies were met with mixed reactions by artists and the public. Naturally, reactions reflect the ideologies associated with particular groups and were strongly tied to political identity often expressed by municipal leadership. Educational institutions embedded in particular locales demonstrated ties to the ideologies of their surroundings. This dissertation examines the histories of the musical conservatories in Bayonne, Orléans, Lille, Avignon, Toulouse, and Lyon, along with the experiences of their faculty and students, during this brief but tumultuous era. These institutional histories, and the experiences of the individuals surrounding them bring to light the life of the arts in provincial France along with the human tolls of living under an ultimately collaborationist regime in a dangerous time. They also reinforce the importance of the particular and the local. Despite the seven decades since Vichy’s fall, researching and writing this time period remains a sensitive subject for many in France. Quarrels remain among the descendants of prominent musicians, tossing the accusation of “collaborationist” across generational divides. This dissertation does not seek to make heroes or villains of figures v that populate its pages. However, as the rhetoric of fascism, anti-Semitism, and racism rears its ugly head anew, the histories referenced here serve as a stark reminder of the amount any society stands to lose from hateful ideologies. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii PREFACE v LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF APPENDICES xii ABSTRACT xiii INTRODUCTION 1 French Musical Life (1940–1944) in Scholarly Literature 7 Scope and Structure of Comparative Study 15 CHAPTER I 23 Musical Institutions and Authority in Wartime France: The Conservatoire System and the Conservatoire de Paris France’s Conservatory System 26 State Oversight under Vichy 32 The Paris Conservatoire (1940–1944) 43 Looking from Paris to the Provinces 61 CHAPTER II 64 The Occupation Arrives: The Occupied Zone, 1940–1942 Bayonne, Orléans, Lille BAYONNE 68 The École de Musique de Bayonne 72 Ermend Bonnal as Director and Inspector 78 New Directions and Difficulties in Bayonne 81 ORLEANS 84 Reopening the Conservatoire Nationale d’Orléans 87 Conservatoire Daily Operations and Budgetary Concerns 94 Société des Concerts du Conservatoire d’Orléans 97 vii LILLE 100 Conservatoire Nationale de Musique de Lille 105 Across the Demarcation Line 112 CHAPTER III 114 Playing On Under Vichy: The Unoccupied Zone, 1940–1942 Avignon, Toulouse, Lyon AVIGNON 117 The École de Musique d’Avignon 121 Operations and Inspections 125 Faculty Struggles and Skirmishes 126 The Burdens of War 132 TOULOUSE 135 The Conservatoire Nationale de Musique de Toulouse 139 Toulousian Student Life 141 The Politics of Faculty Policy 143 LYON 147 The Conservatoire Nationale de Musique de Lyon 150 Jewish Professors at the Conservatoire de Lyon 155 Academic Pursuits 157 CHAPTER IV 160 Continued Hardships and New Resistance: The Occupied Zone, 1942–1944 Bayonne, Orléans, Lille BAYONNE 163 Maximum Compression at the École de Musique 166 Daily Operations at the École de Musique 169 Inspector Bonnal’s Continuing Disputes 172 Postwar Scars and Surprises 177 ORLEANS 182 The Conservatoire d’Orléans in Decline 184 Security Concerns at the Conservatoire d’Orléans 187 Continued Hardships and Declines at the Conservatoire 189 LILLE 193 Daily Operations of the Conservatoire de Lille 195 Resistance within the Conservatoire de Lille 198 Lille Liberated 202 Continuity and Change in the Occupied Zone 204 viii CHAPTER V 207 Total Occupation to Liberation: The Newly Occupied Zone, 1942–1944 Avignon, Toulouse, Lyon AVIGNON 211 Daily Operations at the École d’Avignon 214 The Allies Take Avignon 220 The École after the War 223 TOULOUSE 224 Courses Continue at the Conservatoire de Toulouse 227 Relationship with the Toulousian Municipal Government 232 Toulouse Liberated 235 LYON 236 Jewish Students at the Conservatoire de Lyon 237 Marc Kouzoubachian 238 Interference at the Conservatoire de Lyon 240 The Allies Arrive 242 Lasting Scars of War 244 Post-war Disclosures and Recognition 246 CONCLUSIONS 249 Adherence and Resistance within the Field and Institutions APPENDICES 258 Appendix A: Armistice Agreement Between the 259 German High Command of the Armed Forces and French Plenipotentiaries, Compiègne, 22 June 1940 Appendix B: Establishment of the Vichy Government and Act No. 2 264 BIBLIOGRAPHY 266 ix LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE page Introduction 1: Four Areas for Comparative Study 17 2: Zones of France pre-November 11, 1942 19 Chapter I 3: Succursales and Écoles 1942 30 4: Ministers of Education under Pétain 33 5: Oversignt of the Succursales and Écoles 37 6: Carcopino letter hiring Ermend Bonnal 39 7: Note on the Delegation to Lyon 47 8: Claude Delvincourt in 1932 52 Chapter II 9: 1942 Requisition of the Synagogue by Wehrmacht Soldiers 70 10: Designation and duration of courses in Bayonne, 1939 73 11: Joseph-Ermend Bonnal with his daughter and student, Marylis 80 12: Damages on the Rue Jeanne d’Arc, Orléans’ main artery 85 13: Photo of Occupants in front of the Statue of St. Joan of Arc 86 14: List of Conservatoire d’Orléans Personnel 88 15: René Berthelot in 1971 90 16: Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, 9 Mai 1941 concert 98 17: Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, 41–42 season 99 18: July 1942 questions for Jewish families dossier 104 19: Professors du Lille,, 1938–1939 School Year 109 Chapter III 20: Palamarès for the 1939–1940 School Year 124 21: Advertisement for Faculty Concours 127 22: Vaucluse Propaganda Poster 134 23: Inscription of oboe students, 1936–1945. 142 24: Directory listing of Toulouse Conservatoire Faculty 1940–1941 143 25: Lyon Conservatoire Faculty, May 1940 151 26: Sampigny, Trillat, and Witowski in 1920 153 27: Ennemond Trillat during his WWI service 154 28: Fanny Zay Removal, 3 October 1940 155 x Chapter