Henri Dutilleux plaque outrage

[makropulos]

The mayor of the 4th arrondissement in Paris has refused permission for a plaque to be placed on Dutilleux's house on the grounds that he was a "collaborator" - a claim supported by the the most feeble "evidence" (Dutilleux wrote a score for a film about sport in 1941).

James Jolly:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/blog/the-gramophone-blog/a-posthumous-insult-to-composer-henri-dutilleux?pmtx

Norman Lebrecht:

http://slippedisc.com/2015/03/uproar-as-paris-refuses-to-honour-a-french-composer/

Understandable outrage has inspired an online petition at change.org (link in both of the above). Dutilleux was, among other things, a member of the Front National de la musique - one of the most important musical Resistance groups.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

- signed.

[Richard Barrett]

Outrage, yes... Lebrecht has "uproar" though which is typically and amusingly hyperbolic. It's not as if hundreds of thousands of French music lovers have taken to the streets. If Dutilleux was a collaborator then surely Messiaen was much more of one.

[makropulos]

Outrage, yes... Lebrecht has "uproar" though which is typically and amusingly hyperbolic. It's not as if hundreds of thousands of French music lovers have taken to the streets. If Dutilleux was a collaborator then surely Messiaen was much more of one.

Quite. Virtually every composer who worked in France at the time is vulnerable to accusations, but many fewer appear to have been active in supporting the Vichy regime. (Put over-simply, Messiaen kept his head down and hoped the problem would go away - not a heroic stance perhaps, but not culpable either).

[Honoured Guest]

If Dutilleux was a collaborator then surely Messiaen was much more of one.

That would be relevant if the mayor of the 4th arrondissement in Paris has permitted a plaque for Messiaen.

[Flosshilde]

That would be relevant if the mayor of the 4th arrondissement in Paris has permitted a plaque for Messiaen.

The Eglise de la Sainte Trinité in Paris, where he was organist from 1931 - 1992, has a plaque. No idea if the Mayor (present or past) of the 4th arrondissement had anything to dco with it.

[french frank]

Interesting bit in Wikipedia about the legal ownership of the title Front national since 1999. Hardly possible that there was an ignorant confusion of the names, as I had at first wondered.

[makropulos]

That would be relevant if the mayor of the 4th arrondissement in Paris has permitted a plaque for Messiaen.

There are Messiaen plaques in several places - and quite right too - including a splendid one at the Trinité (9e). Nothing in the 4th arrondissement (Messiaen lived briefly in the 4e during his student years at the Conservatoire). I hope there may be a plaque on his home at rue Marcadet (18e) one of these days.

[vinteuil]

.

http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2015/03/17/polemique-sur-une-plaque-a-paris-pour-le-compositeur-henri-dutilleux_4595284_3246.html

[Nick Armstrong]

- signed.

Ditto - plus a burst of birdsong direct at M. Girard via https://twitter.com/cgirard

[Serial_Apologist]

Quite. Virtually every composer who worked in France at the time is vulnerable to accusations, but many fewer appear to have been active in supporting the Vichy regime. (Put over-simply, Messiaen kept his head down and hoped the problem would go away - not a heroic stance perhaps, but not culpable either).

What was Messiaen interned for then?

[Alain Maréchal]

Who collaborated with whom, when, and why, are still intricate subjects; being a junior minister in the Petain regime didn't hinder Francois Mitterand's subesequent career.
I am inclined to attribute M. le Maire's actions to stupidity and ignorance, both powerful drivers (plus, possibly, some pressure from somewhere).

[Nick Armstrong]

I am inclined to attribute M. le Maire's actions to stupidity and ignorance

[makropulos]

.
http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/articl...5284_3246.html

That's very interesting - thanks for the link.

It looks as if it's not M. Girard we should be blaming for this fiasco, but a city-wide committee that decides on these matters, ruling that it is not an opportune moment. What insulting nonsense.

[makropulos]

What was Messiaen interned for then?

He was a French soldier fighting the Germans before the fall of France in May/June 1940 and was a prisoner of war in 1940-41.
What's being talked about here is the next four years - those of the German Occupation of Paris.