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The Schola Cantorum, early music and French political culture, from 1894 to 1914 /

This dissertation is based on the study of over 340 performances of early music given by the Parisian Schola Cantorum and its sister association, the Chanteurs de Saint-Gervais, between 1894 and 1914. The first chapter explores performance trends for this repertoire in isolation. Chapter 2 is an attempt to root out personal reasons for the changes in Schola programming, and also provides a sketch of the community that was behind the institution. The next chapter considers how Schola programming may have been affected by changes to the institution's mandate, goals, and relationship to the Conservatoire and other Republican institutions. The circle widens in Chapter 4, with a discussion of the relevance of Bordes's revival to sacred music reform. In the final chapter, the Schola's revival is placed in the broader context of French fin-de-siecle politics and nationalism in particular. / This dissertation provides a new assessment of Charles Bordes and Vincent d'Indy's respective biographies and demonstrates that many of the right-wing programming tendencies at the Schola should be attributed to Bordes. The importance of personal networks is emphasized in most of the dissertation. In addition to providing information on an unprecedented number of Schola concert types, this dissertation identifies the importance of looking to revivals of seventeenth-century music after 1898. For this repertoire provided an analogue for Ferdinand Brunetiere's ideas of an ideal, seventeenth-century French. An important shift in concert type and repertoire after 1904 provides a new window on d'Indy biography and underscores the transformation of the French public's musical values around the same time. The Schola's role in the reform of sacred music has been over estimated. The papal motu proprio of 1903 only reiterated instructions on sacred music previously handed down by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1894 and it was probably not directed specifically at the Parisian Schola Cantorum. The Schola's concerts of early music became sites for the expression of cultural difference. Much like many concerts exclusively devoted to this repertoire---and unlike many events that combined early and contemporary music---the "Frenchness" expressed at these events was intended to remain beyond the grasp of the average French citizen.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.102800
Date January 2006
CreatorsFlint, Catrena M.
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageDoctor of Philosophy (Schulich School of Music.)
Rights© Catrena M. Flint, 2006
Relationalephsysno: 002591216, proquestno: AAINR32180, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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