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. Admiral Cras served as a model officer and elite commander. France's musical community also mourned Jean Cras' passing. Dozens of newspapers, professional journals and more popular magazines devoted extensive articles to his passing, detailing his life, work and the significance of his contribution to the artistic life of the nation. Rear-Admiral Cras left his family only a small inheritance, the customary pension for military widows, and very modest royalties from his inventions and compositions. In Jean Cras' case, the pretext of resentment toward Breton nationalism could have played a considerable role in his eclipse. Along aesthetic lines, Cras' music faced the problem of being tonally anachronistic at a time when l'avant-garde controlled much of European artistic life and, as Eugen Weber claims, 'the avant-garde is always right.
