Neglected 20th Century French composers

[Serial_Apologist]

Of our last two composers, annoyingly little can be found in writings beyond the 1960s, and barely anything even up to that point.

Maurice Le Roux (1923 - 1992) will be associated in the minds of forum members with one of the earliest (and best imv) recordings of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, made under his conductorship in 1957 with the ORTF Orchestra. One source includes him alongside Boulez in the serial composers emerging from Messiaen's classes in composition in the late 1940s. In France, and to movie buffs internationally, he will be known for his many fine film scores, including that of the charming film Le Ballon Rouge of 1956, on a theme in which the red balloon stands for freedom, a favourite theme for French film makers of the time, for which he wrote straightforward music, strongly in the French manner derived from Debussy's Boîte à joujoux and Désire-Emile Inghelbrecht's Nursery Suite, from which this little suite was drawn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0JHdcX6Vlw

[Serial_Apologist]

Serge Nigg (1924 - 2008) studied under Messiaen in the early 1940s, and Rene Leibowitz in 1945. Leibowitz is said to be the main teacher responsible for introducing French composers to 12-tone music; Nigg's Variations for Piano and 10 Instruments of 1946 is mentioned in Wiki as being the first work by a French composer to make use of the method, although we know, of course, that one of the variations in Koechlin's extraordinary tone poem Les Bandar Log, composed in 1940, was 12-tone serial. Nigg quickly followed Martinet down the road of political engagement, writing works that accorded with the principles of Socialist Realism, including Le Fusillé inconnue in 1949 and Chant de mineurs in 1952, of which Wiki offers the following (translated):

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=https://www.revolutionpermanente.fr/80eme-anniversaire-de-la-Chorale-populaire-de-Paris-une-histoire-etroitement-liee-au-mouvement&prev=search

Here is the 1957 Violin Concerto - Neo-Romantic but tough nonetheless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw0tq6Rs0Dc

[Serial_Apologist]

To conclude, 20th century French classical music is most commonly divided between Debussy and Ravel, and the few composers who fell under their spell until 1920; the Les Six generation of anti-romantics under the sway of Satie; Olivier Messiaen, in his own right as composer, influencer and influencee of his pupils of the 1940s; Boulez, Barraque and the school of integral serialism (initially), versus the composers of musique concrète; and the Spectralistes of the mid-1970s onwards. The middle position between these often vociferously opposed schools - one carried into our present day by Henri Dutilleux and now perpetuated by a number of figures who have sought to integrate aspects of serialism and spectralism into a modern mainstream - could I claim be said to have come out of France's development of its patchwork response to the Germanic symphonic tradition, as epitomised by Albert Roussel, whose influence extended beyond his own country, but who within France gave rise to a middle generation of eclectic symphonists whose music, whether Neo-Classical or Neo-Romantic, or expressive of spiritual or humanistic values, had both weight and a seriousness deserving of wider recognition and promotion.

[HighlandDougie]

SA

Bravissimo! You have had me (and, I hope, many others reading this thread) listening/exploring/wondering. A truly sterling effort on your part which we should all applaud.

[Serial_Apologist]

SA

Bravissimo! You have had me (and, I hope, many others reading this thread) listening/exploring/wondering. A truly sterling effort on your part which we should all applaud.

Moat kind of you to say so, HighlandDougie.

Having quickly run right through the thread I see I made some later repetitions of early entries without so intending. So, while apologising, in a way these do reflect the course of my own self-education in reading up and listening to a number of figures who had only been names to me previously.

I am sure there must be many more that I've missed, so please feel free to add any new ones you come across.

[cloughie]

Moat kind of you to say so, HighlandDougie.

Having quickly run right through the thread I see I made some later repetitions of early entries without so intending. So, while apologising, in a way these do reflect the course of my own self-education in reading up and listening to a number of figures who had only been names to me previously.

I am sure there must be many more that I've missed, so please feel free to add any new ones you come across.

You obviously floated him in the right direction!

[Serial_Apologist]

You obviously floated him in the right direction!

And offered him some moativation.

[ahinton]

And offered him some moativation.

I must echo HighlandDougie's semtiments here. Magnard is another French composer of the Debussy/Roussel/Koechlin/Schmitt/Ravel generation who deserves a contextual mention here, methinks, if you don't mind my so saying...

[Serial_Apologist]

I must echo HighlandDougie's semtiments here. Magnard is another French composer of the Debussy/Roussel/Koechlin/Schmitt/Ravel generation who deserves a contextual mention here, methinks, if you don't mind my so saying...

Not at all! That said, my main aim with this thread was to draw attention to the generation and a half after that of Magnard et al - those roughly entering the scene between the Les Six-ers and the generation that came of age in the 1940s under the spell of Messiaen and Darmstadt - few of whom ever get a mention on Radio 3, with the exceptions of Dutilleux, Jolivet and Françaix.

[ardcarp]

A couple more excellent (female) 20th cent French composers:

Fernande Decruck
Paule Maurice

[Serial_Apologist]

A couple more excellent (female) 20th cent French composers:

Fernande Decruck
Paule Maurice

Thanks ardy - I'll check 'em out