Six French composers' homage to Haydn: an analytical comparison enlightening their conception of tombeau Jean-Philippe Soucy Schulich School of Music, McGill University Montreal, Quebec A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts © Jean-Philippe Soucy 2009 Table of contents Acknowkdgemen~ _____________________________________________________ Abstract_____________________________________________________________ii Inuoduction __________________________________________________________ 1 1 Review ofliterature 7 1.1 The six composers 7 1.2 The tombeau 23 1.3 Haydn and France 24 1.4 Musical periodicals in France 25 1.5 French society, culture and politics 26 1.6 Analysis strategies 27 11 The collective homage: a helping handfrom the past 29 2.1 The 1910 issue of RSIM 29 2.2 The Bossuet of France 36 2.3 There and back again: a short history of the French tombeau 40 111 A nation's suuggle for musical originality 46 3.1 The Italian and German cultural invasions 46 3.2 Seeking French models: a political venture 53 3.3 Early music revival and birth of French neoclassicism 58 IV Analysis ofthe tombeaux 64 4.1 Putting Haydn's name in music 65 4.2 Borrowing from "Ies maitres anciens" 69 4.3: Elements of ingenuity: defining a new French style 80 Conclusion 93 Annex 1: Sur Ie nom d'Haydn (Debussy) 96 Annex 2: Prelude elegiaque (Dukas) 98 Annex 3: Theme varie (Hahn) 100 Annex 4: Menuet (d'Indy) 102 Annex 5: Menuet sur Ie nom d'Haydn (Ravel) 103 Annex 6: Fugue (Widor) 105 Bibliography 107 Acknowledgements My thanks go first and foremost to my supervisor, Professor Don McLean. I feel honoured and privileged to have had the opportunity, from the seminar he gave that bore the idea of this thesis until now, to hone my analytical skills with him. I am grateful to him for taking time from his very tight schedule to read and edit my drafts and to give me those precious one-hour briefings that guided me through my first major graduate work. Equally important to the redaction of this thesis were the McGill library staff, in particular David Curtis and Cynthia Leive who helped me solve the riddle of Galatea and answered my many questions during my reasearch. I thank them also for allowing me into the library outside regular hours during the summer. I am further indebted to two people who took time to give me advice on the history chapters, an area about which I knew nothing prior to my thesis research, namely Catrena Flint de Medicis and Irene Brisson. I am also grateful for all the great teachers of the theory department at McGill, especially Professor William Caplin who helped me understand his fantastic theory of formal functions and Professor Carmen Sabourin who clarified my initial vision of the fundamentals of harmony. I thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for granting me funding during the first two years of my master's degree which allowed me to concentrate on music, and leave aside dentistry. I also received funding through McGill's Sarah Berlindt fund, which helped me tremendously with my studies, and for which support I remain most grateful. I would never forgive myself if I did not write here the names of the people at the Conservatoire de musique de Quebec who gave me an unconditional love for music performance and theory: Noella Genest, Irene Brisson, Armando Santiago, Pierre Genest and Roger Bedard. Without their help and guidance, I would not be blessed with that musical curiosity that every music theorist has. Last but certainly not least, I am truly lucky to have around me fantastic friends who helped me getting through the long and harsh days of writing. My thanks go to Meghan Goodchild for her help in the formal analysis chapter, Jamshed Turel for helping me rid my writing of many gallicisms, Andrew Deruchie for going through my brief history of French music and giving me great pointers, Julie Pedneault for helping me finding a way to put all my analysis results together more effectively, and all the other great people who accompanied me in my three years at McGill. Abstract In 1909, the Revue musicale mensuelle de la Societe lnternationale de Musique (RSIM) asked six French composers (Debussy, Dukas, Hahn, d'Indy, Ravel and Wid or) to commemorate Haydn's centennial anniversary of death by each creating a piano piece that incorporated a theme built with a letter-note correspondence on the word "Haydn". In the context of the French fin-de-siecle search for musical identity, this collective tombeau represents a unique opportunity to discover what characteristics were important to them. My analysis of the pieces reveals five common elements: enharmonic reinterpretation as a means of exploration of foreign keys, large scale registral connections, dissonant chords for colour, ingenious means of creating unity, and use of past genres and form. The influence of Italian and German culture, as well as French music history and politics are also evaluated. The tom beaux reveal how central the concept of the music of the past was to French composers at the tum of the century and how it pointed the way to post-war neoclassicism. Resume En 1909, la Revue musicale mensuelle de la Societe Internationale de Musique (RSIM) demanda asix compositeurs franc;ais (Debussy, Dukas, Hahn, d'Indy, Ravel et Widor) d'ecrire chacun une piece pour piano dans Ie but de commemorer Ie centieme anniversaire de la mort d'Haydn. Leurs pieces devaient incorporer un theme impose bati via une correspondance entre des notes et les lettres du mot "Haydn". Dans Ie contexte de la quete d'identite des Franc;ais de la fin du 1ge siecle, ce tombeau collectif represente une occasion unique de decouvrir que lIes caracteristiques musicales leur etaient importantes. L'analyse de ces pieces a permis d'isoler cinq elements communs: reinterpretation enharmonique comme moyen d'exploration de tons eloignes, liaison de registres agrande echelle, utilisation d'accords dissonants dans Ie but d'obtenir une certaine couleur, moyens ingenieux de creer l'unite et usage de formes et de genres issus du passe. L'influence des cultures allemande et italienne ains] que celle de l'histoire musicale de la France et de sa politique sont egalement evaluees. Les tombeaux revelent l'importance qu'occupe la musique du passe pour les compositeurs franc;ais au toumant du 20e siecle et comment cette musique prepare l'avenement du neoclassicisme d'apres-guerre. 11 Introduction In 1910, the Revue musicale mensllelle de la Societe Internationale de Musique (RSIM) published a series of articles commemorating the 100th anniversary of Haydn's death. 1 The piano pieces preceding the articles are particularly interesting as they were written for the occasion by six renowned French composers: Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, Vincent d'Indy, Reynaldo Hahn, Maurice Ravel and Charles-Marie Widor. This collective homage provides a unique opportunity for scholars not only to compare works by these composers, but also to place them in the social and political context of the time. The first part of this introduction raises the questions evoked by this anniversary. The gathering of these six musicians resembles the meeting of distant family members at a funeral. They were brought together in unity for the remembrance of Haydn, but expressed their individuality through their music, as they had different characters, wealth, opinions and personalities. Their divergences partially explain their vastly contrasting pieces, although they were raised in the same country, were taught by the same musical tradition (at the Conservatoire de Paris), lived in the same era and had the same compositional task before them, with an imposed theme. There are also other explanations for the differences between the works of the Haydn homage, however, and I will show them later on. Creating a piece of art in commemoration of someone is an old French tradition, dating back to the baroque era, called tombeau.2 It is the sole unifying factor for the pieces: all of them claim to serve the memory of "papa Haydn". The tombeau must also express the musician's grief for the departed through his art, which poses the problem: how can one express their individuality while including enough characteristics from the personality or style of the honouree to ensure its recognition through the work? The tombeau has thus a double aspect: defining, or at least hinting at, the styles of both the author and dedicatee. This duality warrants the blending into a unified whole of the composer's present stylistic characteristics and his knowledge of the honoured Haydn. The importance of this tribute is heightened by its timing, just before the foundation of the Societe musicale independante3, when Paris was bustling with cultural activity, but also consumed by doubt as to what "true French music" was. The Haydn tombeaux may tell a lot 1 The anniversary was actually on May 31 st 1909, but the homage was published on January 15th 1910. 2 Michael Tilmouth and David Ledbetter: "Tombeau", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 26 April 2008, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com:80/subscriber/article/grove/music/28084. 3 It was founded in 1910 (Michel Duchesneau, L'Avant-garde musicale et ses societes aParis de 1871-1939. Sprimont: Mardaga, 1997). about what these six French artists thought constituted French style and what the future of French music might be, but they also most unexpectedly and, in all probability, involuntarily, give us their creators' opinion on their own future using a looking-glass oriented towards the past. The motivation for the Haydn tombeau calls for further reflection: why did the RSIM request these honourific pieces? There is an obvious answer: to salute one of the greatest figures in the high classical era.