Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie - Softcover

Perloff, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198163983 ISBN 13: 9780198163985

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

This book examines the early twentieth-century movement that was sparked by the premiere of Erik Satie's ballet Parade in May 1917. Perloff argues that Satie and his colleagues, including Darius Millhaud, Francis Poulenc, Max Jacob, and Jean Cocteau, led French music away from Impressionism by infusing their compositions with French and American popular idioms. They also adopted aesthetic principles of parody, diversity, nostalgia, and repetition from the Parisian cabaret, cafe-concert, circus, fair, and music hall. With their collaborators Pablo Picasso, Fernand Legér, and Francis Picabia, they shared a radical disregard for traditional divisions separating popular and classical forms of creative expression.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author
Nancy Perloff is Edward A. Dickson Fellow in Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Review

`At last we have a clear picture of who could have heard what, and when, and it is for her strengths as a meticulous cultural historian that Dr Perloff deserves to be remembered ... provides a useful compendium of information on one of the most intriguing periods in French music.'
Times Literary Supplement

`Raising a question mark, there are perceptive comparisons which suggest that Satie had modelled his prose on Alphonse Allais; some quotations from Satie's unpublished cafe-concert pieces and more than enough other gems to recommend this book. It adds quite a lot to an English language
understanding of this always lively period.'
Musical Times

`For those hooked on the period from Art Nouveau to Art Deco there is plenty to browse on.'
The Dancing Times, February 1992

`A great value of this book lies in its description of many items that have not previously been cited in the scholarly literature ... it is to Perloff's great credit that she has provided a wealth of significant new evidence, much of which she immediately puts to excellent use, especially in
the early chapters. This book and Volta's "Album des Six" will enrich the knowledge of anyone interested in Parisian musical culture of the early twentieth century.'
Carl B. Schmidt, University of the Arts, Notes, September 1992

'To read Perloff's systematic analysis of Parade's Imusical language is to reconceive the ballet as a complex juxtaposition of many theatrical spectacles ... impressive and very interesting research'
Nancy G. Moore, Dance Research, Volume XI, Number 1, Spring 1993

'the overall impression given by Perloff's impressive and very interesting research is that, in her analysis of French 'nostalgia'. she has revealed an important distinction between the various avant-gardes of the First World War period, one that has everything to do with national identity,
its loss, and the desire to retrieve it'
Nancy G. Moore, Dance Research, Volume XI, NUmber 1, Spring 1993

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0198163983
• ISBN 13: 9780198163985
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 238