ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Elsa Barraine's success at turning to a traditional form, without resorting to Stravinskian neoclassicism, and the aesthetic possibilities of symphonic writing for a part-Jewish, French composer on the eve of war. In light of Barraine's musical aesthetic, her use of forms in the Deuxieme symphonie, which would on a formal level appear to connect the work to neoclassicism, may initially seem odd. Barraine's Deuxieme symphonie can be interpreted as a powerful, yet sombre, commentary on the political context of 1938, thus of its own time. Yet, rather than being a neoclassical engagement with symphonic form, the work also fits within a much more extended temporal tradition of using the symphony as a cathartic genre. Symphonic form, with its traditional associations with political commentary and catharsis, allowed Barraine–who was of Jewish descent on her paternal side–to express her fears over the rise of anti-Semitism and the growing inevitability of conflict.
