ABSTRACT
The survey of French music in the 1930s has sought to convey, after Martin Cooper, the sense on the one hand of 'tradition': neoclassicism and orientalism, and on the other, of relative 'innovation': spirituality and humanism. Harry Halbreich sums up and contextualizes Arthur Honegger's significant choral/orchestral landmark of 1931, the Cris du monde. In so doing, he also provides a useful way into the study of French music of the 1930s and at least a partial response to the initial question which might be asked: how are these problematic years most appropriately characterized? The 1929 saw the death of Vincent d'Indy, old-guard of the Schola Cantorum, together with first performances of Honegger's Cris du monde, Olivier Messiaen's orchestral Offrandes oubliees and chamber vocal work La mort du nombre, Albert Roussel's ballet Bacchus et Ariane and Third Symphony. Edgard Varese returned to France from 1928 to 1933 where he quickly re-established himself, taught Andre Jolivet and doubtless heard Messiaen's music.
