Jean Cocteau and Georges Auric: The Poésie and Music That Shaped Their Collaboration in the Mélodies, Huit poèmes de Jean Cocteau (1918) Deborah A Moss BMus (Hons) MMus A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Kingston University March 2021 Abstract Jean Cocteau and Georges Auric: The Poésie and Music That Shaped Their Collaboration in the Mélodies, Huit poèmes de Jean Cocteau (1918) Georges Auric (1899–1983) was the preferred musician of the author, impresario, cinematograph and artistic innovator Jean Cocteau (1889–1963). This was borne out by their fifty-year friendship and working relationship. Auric composed the soundtracks for all of Cocteau’s films. Their long-term alliance was based on mutual admiration and a shared transdisciplinary artistic aesthetic, motivated at the start by a desire to initiate a post-First World War new French musical identity. The collaboration did not fulfil the generally accepted understanding of the term, that of working simultaneously and in close proximity. Their creative processes were most successful when they worked individually and exchanged ideas from a distance through published correspondence and articles. Jean Cocteau’s creative practice spanned all of his artistic disciplines except music. Indeed, he chose not to be restricted by the limitations of any particular art form. Yet, he had a strong musical affinity and music was integral to the shaping of his diverse productions. He longed to be a musician and relied on Georges Auric to fill the musical void in his artistic practice. This thesis explores two mélodies, Hommage à Erik Satie and Portrait d’Henri Rousseau, the first and last, in Auric’s song series Huit poèmes de Jean Cocteau (1918)—one of his early collaborations with Cocteau. I analyse the word/music relationships from a transdisciplinary perspective, based on the interart work of Daniel Albright (1945–2015), Peter Dayan and Nicholas Cook, together with my interpretation of Cocteau’s concept of poésie, as an alternative applied methodology. 2 Table of Contents Abstract 2 List of Figures 5 List of Musical Examples 8 List of Tables 10 List of Abbreviations 10 Notes on Text 11 Acknowledgements 12 PART I: CRITICAL, CREATIVE AND COLLABORATIVE CONTEXTS Chapter 1: Introduction: Huit Poèmes de Jean Cocteau, a Musical Collaboration: Aims and Objectives 14 Primary Sources 25 Cocteau and Auric: Secondary Sources 27 Secondary Interart Sources 31 Chapter 2: Jean Cocteau’s Musical Practice Introduction 33 Cocteau’s Early Musical Influences 38 Cocteau’s Musicality 40 Cocteau, Satie and Les Six 45 Cocteau as Composer 48 Music in Cocteau’s Texts 51 Musicality in Cocteau’s Drawings 75 Cocteau in Performance 80 Cocteau and Jazz 88 La toison d’or: A Recorded Jazz Performance 102 Chapter 3: Georges Auric (1899–1983): Cocteau’s Musical Collaborator Introduction 113 Auric’s Early Influences 115 Auric, Cocteau and Satie 116 Auric and Cocteau 118 Auric and Cocteau as Collaborators 130 Conclusion 156 PART II: ESTABLISHING THE METHODOLOGY Chapter 4: Constructing an Analytic Method: Poésie as Cocteau’s Creative Practice and Auric’s Use of Poésie Introduction 161 Roots of Poésie 162 Cocteau’s Poésie 163 Principles of Poésie in Cocteau’s Own Words 167 Functions of Poésie 183 Poésie in Relation to Other Interart Concepts 193 Poésie as a Conceptual Framework 199 The Concept of Openness 216 Early Poésie in Cap de Bonne-Espérance (1919) 220 The Alexandrine Form 229 Cocteau’s Poésie and Personal Mythology: The Invisibility of his Creative Process 235 Poésie as Source and Outcome 237 Poésie Inside/Outside 238 3 Chapter 5: Le Potomak: poésie de roman Introduction 242 Le Potomak: Cocteau’s Defining Moment 245 The Genesis of Les Eugènes 251 Eugènes as Poésie: The Visual Expression Text 282 Editions of Le Potomak 287 Structure of Le Potomak 293 Temporal Signposts Within the Text 306 Conclusion 313 PART III: ANALYTIC AND INTERPRETIVE PERSPECTIVE Chapter 6: Hommage à Erik Satie: Poésie in Practice 316 Hommage à Erik Satie 320 From Poem to Music 322 Hommage à Erik Satie: Poetic Structure 331 Harmonic and syllabic progressions in Auric’s word setting of Hommage à Erik Satie 337 Auric’s Use of Satie’s ABCD Quaver Motif as a Structural Device 345 Auric’s Poésie 364 Auric’s Use of Syncopation as a Structural Device 370 Non-Syncopated Motifs Used as Syntax: Imitative or Opposing Relationships 380 Conclusion 385 Chapter 7: Portrait d’Henri Rousseau (Number VIII) 388 The Poem 393 From poem to music 402 From Hommage à Erik Satie to Portrait d’Henri Roussea 425 Chapter 8: Conclusion: Poésie As an Expression of Transdisciplinarity in the Huit Poèmes de Jean Cocteau 429 Bibliography 435 4 List of Figures Figure (A) Pitch Notation According to the Piano Keyboard. 11 Figure 1.1 Autograph Manuscript, c.1946, entitled ‘Jean Cocteau’. 17 Figure 2.1 Title page of draft copy of Le Coq et l’Arlequin, sent to Henri Collet, signed by Cocteau as chef d’orchestre (1919). 47 Figure 2.2 Jean Cocteau drawing of Les Six, Georges, Francis, Darius, Louis, Arthur, Germaine, including himself. n.d. 48 Figure 2.3 Fragment of Cocteau’s handwritten extract of Le Potomak on manuscript paper (n.d.). 59 Figure 2.4 Fragment of Cocteau’s handwritten notes of Le Potomak on manuscript paper (n.d.). 60 Figure 2.5 Facsimile of Cocteau’s handwritten sketch of Avec des si (1960). 63 Figure 2.6 Jean Cocteau, La Partie d’échecs (n.d.). 64 Figure 2.7 Le Prince Frivole (1910), contents page listing Songs of the Frivolous Prince. 65 Figure 2.8 Fly leaf for Le Prince Frivole (1910), including an extract from Mozart Piano Sonata no.11 (K. 331). 66 Figure 2.9 Toute une époque (1910), with musical extract by Reynaldo Hahn (1874– 1947). 67 Figure 2.10 Dedication to Les Six in Vocabulaire 1922). 70 Figure 2.11 Pour Reynaldo Hahn (Poèmes de jeunesse épars, 1916). 74 Figure 2.12 Memories of the Ballets Russes: Stravinsky at the piano, playing Le Sacre du Printemps 76 Figure 2.13 At the time of Les Six (n.d.), private collection. 77 Figure 2.14 Les Six and Jean Cocteau on the Eiffel Tower (1920). 77 Figure 2.15 Auric at the piano. 78 Figure 2.16 Christian Chevallier, Christian Chevallier prince de jazz français, 1956, Record sleeve, Columbia. 78 Figure 2.17 Mozart at the piano. 79 Figure 2.18 Jean Cocteau at the piano with Arthur Honegger and Andrée Vaurabourg (holding the violin) (1929). 82 Figure 2.19 Andrée Vaurabourg at the piano with Arthur Honnegger and Jean Cocteau (holding the violin), Paris 1925. 82 Figure 2.20 Cocteau playing the piano at the fifties anniversary celebration of Maxim’s restaurant (1949). 83 Figure 2.21 Cocteau on drums, probably during an improvised jam session in 1958. 85 Figure 2.22 Cocteau and Les Six, 1921. 86 Figure 2.23 Théâtre-Bouffe programme, from Théâtre Michel, May 1921. 96 Figure 2.24 Concert programme Salle Gaveau, 18 December 1929. 112 5 Figure 3.1 Letter from Jean Cocteau to Georges Auric (1952). 120 Figure 3.2 Facsimile of Letter from Jean Cocteau to Georges Auric, 1952. 121 Figure 3.3 Auric’s letter addressed to Cocteau, Issoire, Summer 1917. 148 Figure 4.1 Epigraph on Jean Cocteau’s tombstone. 180 Figure 4.2 Space-time continuum as ‘single red line’, showing poésie as node of impact across multiple potential interfaces. 186 Figure 4.3 Nexus of functions of poésie: arrows indicate verb as interface. 187 Figure 4.4 Diagram of reciprocal relationship between creator and receiver. 195 Figure 4.5 Basic conceptual integration network. 209 Figure 4.6 Préambule, Le Cap de Bonne-Espérance (1919). 223 Figure 4.7 Tentative d’évasion, Cap de Bonne-Espérance (1915–1917). 227 Figure 5.1 First note from Cocteau to André Gide with a Eugène (1913). 254 Figure 5.2 Second Note from Cocteau to Gide with a Eugène. 255 Figure 5.3 Mortimer’s Dream. 259 Figure 5.4 Jean Cocteau receiving a visit from the Eugènes at Offranville. 267 Figure 5.5 Cocteau drawing, La Croix de Fer (the Iron Cross). 271 Figure 5.6 Jean Cocteau, Les Eugènes de guerre. 271 Figure 5.7 First page of letter from Jean Cocteau to Andre Gide with Eugène cartoon. 273 Figure 5.8 Picture of Cocteau’s inherited hook nose, reproduced in his Eugène cartoon. 274 Figure 5.9 Cocteau’s drawing of the messenger of the Eugènes and the first female Eugène. 277 Figure 5.10 Le Potomak drawing. 278 Figure 5.11 The potomak’s aquarium. 279 Figure 5.12 Hydra Cœlenterate. 279 Figure 5.13 ‘I am a lie that always speaks the truth’ (1936). 284 Figure 5.14 Cocteau’s Plan for Le Potomak. 292 Figure 5.15 Musique. Rien ne trouble les Mortimer. 299 Figure 5.16 Cortège, musical fragment, Le Potomak. 301 Figure 5.17 Les femmes humeuses. 304 Figure 6.1 ERIK SATIE: L’INSTANT MUSICAL. Vernissage de l’exposition, 19 November 1916. 326 Figure 6.2 Hommage à Erik Satie – First version (musical references in red). 327 Figure 6.3 Hommage à Erik Satie – Song version with English translation. 328 Figure 6.4 Henri Rousseau, Inscription pour la Rêve (1910). 330 Figure 6.5 Internal word/syllabic structure of poem showing horizontal and vertical relationships. 335 6 Figure 6.6 Repetitions of syllable seau in Hommage à Erik Satie to show subversion of temporal experience through aural memory. 336 Figure 6.7 Auric’s musical setting of Hommage à Erik Satie based on verse structure with an example of a fragment of poésie delineated in red 347 Figure 6.8 Structural diagram of Hommage à Erik Satie showing syllabic syncopation as structural device.