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The Future of Music History Proposal for a Conference Paper “… That France Is Not Insensitive to the New Birth of Finland”

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The Future of Music History Proposal for a Conference Paper “… That France Is Not Insensitive to the New Birth of Finland” The Future of Music History Proposal for a conference paper “… that France is not insensitive to the new birth of Finland”: Association Française d’Expansion et d’Échanges Artistiques as an advocate of French music in post-World-War I Finland Helena Tyrväinen The First World War brought about a breakdown of great empires in favour of small nation-states and the expiration of many previous political associations. In my paper I will investigate how, and with what consequences, the ties emerged that connected the musical cultures of such small nation-states on the new international scene. My case in point is independent Finland, born in 1917 as a result of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution. Her new position was influenced by the expiry of the role of its former imperial and cultural capital St. Petersburg, the defeat of Germany, which had intervened in the Finnish war of independence, and the failure of the Franco-Russian diplomatic and military alliance. The Association Française d’Expansion et d’Échanges Artistiques (AFEEA) was founded in Paris in 1922 in the nationalist climate of ideas following World War I under the protection of the French ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Public Education. Its purpose was to extend France’s artistic influence in the world. Using as my example the cooperation between AFEEA’s director Robert Brussel, a music critic of Le Figaro, and Wentzel Hagelstam, the first cultural attaché of independent Finland to France, I ask to what extent Finnish musical life might thereby have become a playground of French chauvinism. I will show that the French-Finnish liaison of the 1920s built to a great extent on pre- war identities and political convictions. Owing to AFEEA’s support via Hagelstam, Finnish performances of the celebrated French operas Carmen (1926–1936) and Samson et Dalila (1924) became possible and gained influence in the country at a moment when the Finnish Opera was about to go bankrupt. On the other hand, economic considerations limited the possibilities of inviting French musicians (such as Mme Croiza, Alfred Cortot and Rhené- Baton) to perform in Finland: extensive tours taking in several countries were necessary for that purpose, but the pre-war Helsinki–St. Petersburg–Moscow route was no longer available. Brussel’s tireless activity in favour of Finnish musical life hardly speaks of chauvinist motives. Documentation concerning Finland supports Bernard Piniau’s claim (1999) that nationalist aspirations triumphed in the 1930s together with the organisational reform of the AFEEA renamed the Association Française d’Action Artistique. The declining economic situation was a prime reason for such a development. This interpretation corresponds with the overall evolution of the French-Finnish political relations at a moment when the German tie with Finland was deepening. Bio Helena Tyrväinen PhD studied musicology at Columbia University (undergraduate studies), École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris (F. Lesure), and the University of Helsinki (PhD directors Alfonso Padilla and Jim Samson, Towards the Kalevala Suite: Identity, Eclecticism and French Trace in the Music of Uuno Klami, diss. in Finnish, Finnish Musicological Society, 2013). A researcher and Musicology teacher at the University of Helsinki, she specialises in transcultural questions, Finnish-French and Franco-Nordic music relations, the role of cultural capitals, and the music of the Finnish composer Uuno Klami (1900–1961), on which subjects she has published research articles in Finnish, French and English. She has received grants from several Finnish foundations, been a Board member of the Finnish Musicological Society, organised conferences in Helsinki, St. Petersburg (with Janna Kniazeva at the Russian Institute of Art History) and Paris (‘France dans la musique nordique – Relations musicales franco-nordiques 1900– 1939’, 1999; with Antonin Servière, Veijo Murtomäki and Jean-Pierre Bartoli, Jean Sibelius: Modalité, langage, esthétique, 2007), presented papers in Australia, Europe (IMS 2002, 2007, 2012), Northern Africa, Russia and the USA and edited scientific anthologies. In 1994–1998 she participated in the NOS-H-financed Nordic research project ‘France in Nordic Music 1900–1939’. Before her musicological career she studied piano at the Helsinki Sibelius Academy and was director and piano teacher at the Centre of Helsinki Music School, which she founded. .
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