ABSTRACT
The unaccompanied flute solo opening Claude Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune provoked with its tritone outline, if not a call to arms, then at least a sensuous invitation to travel. From May to November 1931, the Exposition Coloniale Internationale was held in Vincennes, on the outskirts of Paris, and Jolivet attended this exhibition on 25 June. Andre Jolivet was one of many French composers who drew extensively on non-Western musical cultures. Though Boulez's dislike of Jolivet's music is well documented, the approaches of the two composers to non-Western musical influences have striking commonalities and reveal similar anxieties. Jolivet wrote in his programme note for Cinq incantations that 'the flute is the supreme musical instrument, because it is fuelled by the breath, which comes from deep within the human being'. Lucie Kayas insists that 'no picturesque exoticism' is present in this work, echoing Jolivet's discomfort with this discredited notion.
