ABSTRACT

This chapter talks about a composer, scientist, inventor, philosopher and Rear-Admiral Jean Cras was a French musician. But this French musician was also Proper Breton. By sixteen, Cras had exhausted the musical resources accessible to him in Brest and, once a naval cadet, musical opportunities became severely restricted by schoolwork and his apprenticeship aboard the training vessels. Unfortunately, only a few of Cras' letters to Duparc survived the fire which consumed the Duparc manor in 1935. For Jean Cras was not only Henri Duparc's 'spiritual son' in the musical context; he considered him a third son, as his wartime letters demonstrate. As one traces Cras' artistic development, his lack of self-confidence must be queried. Cras has worked with the utmost intelligence. In both philosophical and practical terms, Jean Cras' artistic preferences relied exclusively on the degree of affinity he felt toward a work of art and, by extension, toward the character of its creator.