Modernity a La Mode

8/16/2019 Modernity a La Mode

1/45

Modernity à la mode: Popular Culture and Avant-Gardism in Erik Satie's "Sports etdivertissements"Author(s): Mary E. DavisSource: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 430-473Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/742422 .

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2/45

Primary

Sources

Modernity

a

l a

m o d e :

P o p u l a r

C u l t u r e

a n d

Avant-Gardism

n

E r i k

S a t i e ' s

S p o r t s

e t

divertissements

Mary

E.

Davis

With the

premiere

of the ballet

Paradeat the

Theitre

du

Chatelet

in

May

1917,

Erik

Satie took his

place

in the

6lite

echelon of the Parisian

avant-garde.

Commissioned

by

the

fashionableBallets

Russes,

the work

drew

Satie into

an

intensive collaborationwith

Jean

Cocteau,

L

onide

Massine,

and Pablo

Picasso and involved

him

in the

development

of a

distinctively

contemporary

aesthetic

of dance.

The

group,

exhorted

by

Cocteau to "bevulgar," reated a ballet that wassimultaneouslywhimsi-

cal and

radical,

a work that

took its themes

and

materials rom

everyday

life,

rejecting opulence

and

fantasy

n

favor of

a

coarse

mix

of

popular

cultureand

contemporary

art.'

In

his

mundane

story

of a street-fair

sideshow,

Cocteau featuredcharactersand acts modeled

recognizably

n

entertainmentsof the

day,

including

a

Chinese

conjurer,

a

pair

of acro-

bats,

and

a

Little

American

Girl reminiscent

of

the

film

star

Mary

Pick-

ford. Massine'sathletic

choreography

mimicked the

magic

acts,

dances,

and tumblingroutines of the circus and even includedthe slapstickan-

tics of a

larger-than-life-sized

orse,

manned

by

two dancers.Picasso's

costumes

and

decors transferred

he

angularity

and distorted

perspectives

of Cubism to

the ballet

stage,

most

aggressively

n

the

ten-foot-tall,

three-dimensionalconstructions

worn

by

the

Managersappearing

be-

tween the acts.

Satie's

score owed as much to the cabaret

as the concert

hall,

blending

ragtime

with

fugue

and

counterpoint

to offend

a

range

of

musical

constituencies,

from devotees of

Scheherezade

o fans of

The

Rite

of Spring.

n

short,

Parade's

opularizing

tance was

shockingenough

to

prompt

an

uprising

n

the

theater,

as some

membersof the

opening-

night

audience

jeered

the work and derided

its creators as "sales

boches"

-a

particularly biting

insult

in France at the

height

of World War

I.2

At

the same

time, however,

the ballet's

transgression

of the boundaries

of

high

art and low culture was

viewed in

progressive

circles as a

harbinger

of

modernism;

indeed,

scandal

in

the theater

conveyed

the

imprimatur

430


3/45

Modernity

a

a

mode

431

of

avant-gardismnstantly

and

incontrovertibly.

Parade's

egacy

as a

counter-establishment

work of

vanguard

art was sealed

after one

perfor-

mance,

and with

his

collaborators,

Satie

was

guaranteed

a

position

in

the

new

artistic order.

The

generally

hostile

press

reviews of Parade idiculedSatie's

score

as a

grand

hoax. The mainstreamreaction

was voiced

by

the music critic

in

the

newspaper

Le

Figaro,

who accused Satie of

taking

laborious

pains

to

"reproduce

he

burlesque

effects that

a

dozen

fairground

musicians

can

produce

without

effort."3

Even

sympathetic

critics could find

nothing

good to say:Jeand'Udine, forexample,complainedin the Le courrier

musical

hat

he

searched

n

vain for

something

likable

in

the

music but

could

find

"nothing, nothing,

nothing"

in

this

"bad

oke."4

More

pointed

was the

commentary

of

Jean

Marnold,

who,

asserting

n the

Mercure

de

France hat Satie

had

"turned

his back on the

dreamsof

beauty

which

cradledhis adolescence

in

orderto dedicate himself

entirely

to

blague

and

even

fumisterie,"

nvoked terms

generally

used

to describethe

high

jinks

of

Montmartrecabaret

entertainmentsto

denigrate

the

score.5

Jean

Poueigh, writingin Le carnetde lasemaine,complainedsnidelythat Satie

"knowshow

to

put

humor

everywhere

except

in

his

music."6One

impor-

tant

critic, however,

took

a

different

view.

In

a

now

famous

program

note

for

Parade,

published

n

the week before the

premiere,

Guillaume

Apollinaire

heralded

Satie

as

an "innovative

musician,"

a

composer

of

"astonishingly xpressive

music,

so clear and

simple

that it seems to re-

flect

the

marvelously

ucid

spirit

of France."

Parade,

he

proclaimed,

em-

bodied the best of

the

French

past

as

well

as

the

promise

of the nation's

cultural

future,

a fusion whose

importance

he

signaledby invoking

the

contemporarypolitical phraseesprit

nouveau

as a

motto

for the work as a

whole.7

In a

stroke,

Apollinaire

thus lifted Satie to

a

place

of

importance

in

the

reconfigured

antheon

of French

culture,

anointing

him as a

mod-

ern

musical

representative

of

the national

heritage.

This

view

was

rein-

forced the

following

year

with

the

publication

of Cocteau's

manifestoLe

coq

et

l'arlequin

nd remainsa cornerstoneof

Satie's

reputation

to

the

present day.

Apollinaire'spaean

to Parade eflected

a

dramatic hift in his

opin-

ion of Satie:only a fewyearsearlier, n a newspaperarticle of May 1914,

he

had

summarily

dismissed he

composer

as

a

peripheral

igure

who

had

"blazed

no

new

trails."8

ndeed,

Satie had

struggled

after the

publication

of his

Gymnopidies

in

1888,

and in

frustration

he

entered the Schola

Cantorum in

1905,

at the

age

of

forty,

to

take

a

degree

in

counterpoint.

"I

was

tired,"

he wrote to his brother Conrad at

the

time,

"of

being

re-

proached

for

an

ignorance

of

which,

in

truth,

I

believed

myself

guilty."9

Study

at the Schola

proved

not

only

remedial but

revitalizing,

its

yield


4/45

432

The

Musical

uarterly

a

body

of

piano

works in which

Satie

explored

a

variety

of new

composi-

tional approachesand techniques. Playfully ntegratingmusicand text,

these

groundbreaking ompositions-with

fanciful titles such as

Descrip-

tions

automatiques,

mbryons

esseches,

nd

Chapitres

ournes n toussens

-established

the

idiosyncratic

and

witty

tone now

considered

the hall-

mark

of

Satie's

style.1'

Even

as

Apollinaire's

1914

column went to

press,

Satie was

putting

the

finishing

touches

on the

most

ambitious

of these

piano

pieces, Sports

et

divertissements,

hich

beneath a

deceptively simple

surface et forth

nothing less than a new aesthetic of music. In an idiomof self-evident

familiarity,

Sports

t

divertissements

resented

two

complementary

nno-

vations,

suggesting

ways

in which

visual art and

language

could

engage

with music

and

also

new

ways

in which the trends

of

popular

culture and

the traditions

of

high

art

could be

juxtaposed.

These

qualities, together

with a

distinctive

elegance,

irony,

and

politically

inflected

mode

of ex-

pression,

epitomize

the

cutting edge

of

Parisianculture

in

1914,

which

was itself a

stimulus

to

twentieth-century

artistic

developments

on

the

broadestscale.

The

following

analysis

aims

to

illuminate the

radical

sen-

sibilitiesof this

seemingly

frivolous

work,

positing

that

although

Satie's

reputation

within

avant-garde

art

circles was establishedwith

Parade,

the

salient featuresand artisticstance that made the ballet so momen-

tous

had been

developed

and

perfected

three

years

earlier,

n

Sports

t

di-

vertissements.

A

captivating

work of

visual as

well

as

musical

art,

Sports

t divertisse-

ments s

an

album

combining

twenty

brief

piano pieces

and

humorous

texts by Satie with correspondingdrawingsanddesignsby the Parisian

illustratorCharles

Martin.

Completed

in

1914

but

only

published

after

World War

I,

it

was

largely gnored

by

critics

and

the

generalpublic

but

circulated

quietly

and

widely

among

musicians

and connoisseurs.

n

these

circles,

the work

inspired

commentary

assigning

t

significance,

much of it informed

by

the same

spirit

of culturalnationalism

tapped

by

Apollinaire:

Darius

Milhaud,

for

example,

judgedSports

t

divertissements

to

be

"one

of the most

characteristic

worksof the French

school,""''

while Satie'sfirstbiographer,Pierre-DanielTemplier,considered t repre-

sentative of "Satie's

pirit

and

the

spirit

of

French

music,"

all of it

"prodi-

giously

alive."'2

The earliest

comment,

and the most

intriguing,

s

Satie's

own;

in

the ironic

preface

o the albumhe describes

t

as

a "work

of

fan-

tasy,"

adding

that "no more should be read into it."

His

teasing

remark is

a

goad

to examine

Sports

et

divertissements

with a

searching

and

skeptical

eye,

a

task that

when undertaken reveals

a

carefully

couched

agenda.


5/45

Modernity

a

a

mode

433

First,

Sports

t divertissements

roposes

an art based on the

interplay

and

equilibrium

of

sound,

visual

art,

and

language.

This interaction is

legible

on

two

separate

but

related

levels-namely,

in

the connection of

the musical score

to

Martin'sartwork

and,

within

Satie's

score

itself,

in

the

relationshipsamong

music, text,

and

notation.

The

conception

is

one

of thematic interaction and

referentiality,

he

goal

a transformation

of the

individualelements

into

a more

expressive

whole: the

Wagnerian

Gesamtkunstwerk

omes

immediately

to

mind.

While

Satie

no

doubt

took

pleasure

n

mocking Wagner,

the

impulse

to connect

disparate

ex-

pressiveforms n Sports t divertissemeritsorelikelystemsfrom his own

considerable nvolvement

with

contemporary

rt

and literature.

An

ex-

acting calligrapher,

e

was

known as

much

for

his critical and ironical

writings

as

for his

musical

compositions,

and

he

socializedand collabo-

rated

mostly

with writersand

artists-including

Picasso,

Man

Ray,

Con-

stantin

Brancusi,

Andre

Derain,

and FrancisPicabia.For his

part,

Satie,

who

rarely

commented

on

his

musical

aesthetic,

insisted that

"painters

...

taught

me

the most about

music,"'13

nd

proclaimed

n a

sketchbook

annotation that "musical volution" was"always hundredyearsbehind

pictorial

evolution."14

Wagner notwithstanding,

Satie consideredthe

marriage

f

music

to

the other arts a natural

and

personal goal.

Moreover,

Satie aimed not to imitate

Wagner

but to deflate the

very

concept

of

"serious" rt

he

so

thoroughly

exemplified.

Determined

to "break

way

from

the

Wagnerian

adventure"

nd

to create a music

"without

sauerkraut,"

e

premised

his own

Gesamtkunstwerk n the

witty

recasting

of the

relationship

between modern art music and

popu-

lar

culture."

Satie had

begun

to

test these

boundariesas

early

as

1903,

recycling

a

group

of

his cabaret

pieces

into

Troismorceaux n

forme

de

poire,

a

loosely

connected suite of seven

piano

duets.

Only

the

third

and

fifth

duets

in

this

group

were

newly

composed;

he remainder

drawon

his

popular-music

ompositions

from the

previous

decade,

including seg-

ments

of the

incidental

pieces

Danse

(1890),

Le

fils

des

etoiles

(1891),

and

The

Angora

Ox

(c. 1901),

as

well as

the caf6-concert

songs

"Le

Veuf"

(1899),

"Le

roi soleil de

plomb"

(c.

1900),

and

"Imperial-

Napoleon"

(c.

1901).

Followingthis experiment,Satie exploredvariouswaysof integrat-

ing

high

art-as

representedby

the

learned

techniques

and

forms of

French art

music,

along

with

its idealized

qualities

of

clarity,

simplicity,

and structural balance-with

melodic

and

harmonic materials

derived

from

contemporary

Parisian

entertainments,

including

music-hall

tunes,

sentimental waltz

melodies,

operetta

airs,

and traditional French

folk

songs.

The

source

of

this

mingling

of

high

and low often has been

traced


6/45

434

TheMusical

uarterly

to

Satie's

biography,

ince from the late 1880s

through

the

1900s

he

was

at home equallyin the city's6lite music establishmentand its popular

entertainment

venues and was

composing

art

music

as well

as waltzes

and cabaret

songs.

Indeed,

it was in the

sphere

of

popular

music

that

Satie firstwon some

measureof

recognition.

As the

composer

and au-

thor

Alexis

Roland-Manuel

recalled,

Satie was known

in

the "most

m-

portant"

Parisian

music store

simply

as the creatorof

"somewaltzesand a

cakewalk";

ven

at the time of his death

in

1925,

his

neighbors

n

the

Parisian uburbof

Arcueil,

where he had lived since

1898,

recognized

him as a popular-music omposer.16Biographicaldetail has thusbeen

perceived

as

corresponding

o artistic

practice:participating

imultane-

ously

in

high

art

and low

culture,

Satie

is seen

to

personify

the aesthetic

his

music

promotes.

In

Satie's

quest

to

yoke

elements of

high

and low

culture,

Sports

t

divertissements

epresents

a

point

of

culmination,

the moment at

which

the

challenge

of

these boundariesevolves

from

stylistic

feature to raison

d',tre.17

The

shift is obvious in the

very

presentation

of the

work:over-

sized at

approximately

eventeen inches

square,

bound

in

heavy

paper,

and backed

by flyleaves

in

an

art d6co

motif,

Sports

t divertissements

makes

a

first

mpression

as

a

luxurious,

collectible book.

Martin's

wenty

full-page

llustrations

are

colored

by

hand

in

the labor-intensive tencil-

ing technique

known as

pochoir,

nd Satie'sscore is

presented

n

lavish

facsimile. His musical notation

is

dramatic,

lowing,

and

medievalizing,

with

stylized

notes

in

black on

red

staves,

no

barlines,

and

text

inserted

in

careful

calligraphic cript.

Moreover,

n

its

format the album

promotes

the

sophisticated

theme of

correspondences

mong

artforms:

or each

subjectthere is a title pagewith a smallengravingdepictingthe topic

in

miniature;

he reverseside of this

page

contains Satie's

score,

which

combines music with brief textual

narratives;

nd the

page

facing

the

score contains

a

full-page

color illustration

of the

theme

by

Martin

(see

Fig.

1).

In

the content of the

album,however,

popular

hemes

and materi-

als hold

sway.

Indeed,

Sports

t divertissements

s

explicitly

about

popular

culture,

taking

as its

topic

the

pastimes

of

contemporary

Parisian

ociety,

ranging romrealsports,such as tennis andgolf, to social sports,such

as

flirting

and

dancing

the

tango.

In

this,

the work

joins

an

early-

twentieth-century

rend most

famouslyrepresented

n two

productions

mounted

by

the Ballets

Russes,

namely

Claude

Debussy's

eux

of

1913

and

Darius Milhaud's

Le

train bleu of

1924.18

In

Jeux,

the

metaphor

of

a

tennis

match is

employed

to

convey

a

commentary

about

erotic social

play,

while

in Le

train

bleu,

tennis

and

golf figure prominently

in a

light-

hearted

representation

of

the fashionable set on

a Riviera

holiday.

Both


7/45

Modernity

i

a

mode

435

works

portray

aspects

of

contemporary

ife in their

costumes and

decors,

as

well

as

in

the athletic

choreography

of,

respectively,

Vaslav

Nijinsky

and his sister

Bronislawa

Nijinska.19

n

spite

of

their

connection to the

everyday,

Satie observedthat realism

was

hardly

the

objective

of

these

stylized

works:

reviewing

Jeux

for

the Revue

de

la

Socite'

internationale

e

musique,

he

quipped

that under

the

"rules

of Russiantennis" "the net is

done

away

with,

the

ball

is

replaced

by

a

football,

and the use of the

rac-

quet

is

banned."20

Fashion

and

Magazine

Culture

In

the case of

Sports

t

divertissements,

he

disjunction

between

high

art

appearance

and

popularizing

tyle

and

subject

matter reflectsthe creative

role

played

by

the

album's

publisher,

Lucien

Vogel.21

n

the

vanguard

of

the

early-twentieth-century

raphics

revolution

that

transformed he

popularpress,

Vogel

founded the

sophisticated

and

extravagantly

llus-

trated art and fashionjournalLagazettedubon ton and is best known to-

day

as

the

creatorof the Frenchnews

journal

Vu,

which served as the

prototype

for

Life

magazine.22

He

published

a

range

of

other

periodicals

as

well

as

collectible books

and,

occasionally,

a musicalscore.

In

the

early

part

of the

century,

Vogel's

most

widely

circulated

pub-

lications included

L'illustration

es

modes

and

Femina,

glossy

fashion

jour-

nals

not

unlike

today's

Vogue

or Glamour.There can be no

doubt

that

the

concept

for

Sports

t divertissements

ame

straight

rom the

pages

of

these

magazines.

Even the title of the work

originates

here:

the

phrase

"sports

t divertissements"was

a

widely

used

advertising

slogan designed

to attract the

newly

developing

touristclass to

trendy

European

resorts

and

can be

found

regularly

n

ads

in

the women's

press

(see

Fig.

2).

While

the

haute

monde

had

long

made the seasonal

roundsto

Dieppe,

the

Riviera,

and

St.

Moritz,

t

was

only

around

1910 that the

opportu-

nity

for such

excursionsextended to a broader

egment

of

society,

thanks

largely

to

improvements

n

rail

transportation

nd

the

introduction

of

the

automobile.

Further,

as the

popularity

of

sports

increased

n

the

early

partof the century,so did the desire to travelto placeswheresporting

activities could be

pursued.By

taking

a commercial

catchphrase

or a

ti-

tle,

Sports

t

divertissements

ignaled

its link to the

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sea-

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spring

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stylishly

clothed

and


8/45

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f the

Department

f

Printing

nd

Graphic

Arts,

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Houghton

Library,

arvard

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eprinted

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permission

f the

Department

of

Printing

and

Graphic

Arts,

The

Houghton

Library,

Harvard

University.

coiffed women

engaging

in

sports

and

socializing

at

chic resorts.The

spring1913 issue of Femina, orexample,devoted to "[m]odes, ports,

et

plaisirs

de

plein

air,"

advertised ts

focus on

"games

and

outdoor ife"

and

promised

coverage

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footing"-the

daily

promenade

n

the

Bois

de

Boulogne

that was

de

rigueur-as

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"tennis,

golf,

the

horses,

yachting,

climbing:

all the

sports

n

which

the

modern woman

freely

gives reign

to

activity

and

grace."

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featuring

a

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golfer,

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sports

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gardenparties,

partiesday

and

night."

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activities were evoked "with

pencil

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masters

of the

genre,"

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pho-

tographs"

nd

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rticles,"

ach written

by

a

woman and

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pastime.i3

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magazines

erved as the

specific

model for

Sports

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comparison

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tables of con-

tents for

Sports

t divertissementsnd the

special

spring

1913 issue

of

Femina

proves

especially

revelatory

see

Fig.

3).

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publications


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Figure

b.

Femina,

pring

913:Table

of

Contents.

Reprinted

y permission

f the Bib-

liotheque

ationale e France.


12/45

440

TheMusical

uarterly

share

subjects,

ncluding

tennis,

golf, yachting,

horse

racing,

oudoor

parties,andevening balls.In addition,Sports tdivertissementsollows

the

magazine

ormat,

treating

the

subjects

separately:

hus,

Femina's able

of

contents,

like that

of

Sports

t

divertissements,

nnounces "Le

tennis,"

"Le

golf,"

"Le

yachting,"

and so forth. Even the

presentation

of each

sub-

ject

of

Sports

t

divertissements

irrors he

magazine

model:

Femina's lab-

orately

scripted

titles,

each embellishedwith an

emblem of the

activity

at

hand,

are

echoed

in

Satie's careful

calligraphy

nd Martin's

mall ab-

stract

designs

(see

Fig.

4).

In

addition

to the

realistic

portrayals

f

active

women modelingcurrent ashions,the magazine preadusually ncludes

some

full-page

color

illustrations,

designed

as much to evoke

mood and

milieu as to

represent

tems of

clothing.

These

illustrations,

which

in-

clude

captions

and

descriptive

texts,

are

strikingly

imilar n

style

to

both the

large

illustrationsand the

brief

texts of

Sports

t

divertissements.

A

typical

example

is

provided

by

the illustration itled

"L'heureux

ain-

queur," ublished

n

the

same issue of

Femina:

t is an

after-tennisscene

showing

a man

who has

just

left the court

being

served tea

by

two ele-

gantly

dressedwomen. The

accompanying

ext describes he victor in

modem and ironic terms:

"Winded,

his hands in his

pockets,

he listens

with

complaisant

disinterestto the

congratulations

f

his

admirers...

who

hope

to

tango

with him

that

night

at the casino"

(see

Fig.

5).

Topics

of

Sports

t

divertissements

ot

included

in

either the summer

or

winter

special

issues

generally

turn

up

in

the

magazine hrough

the

course of the

publication

year.

The Venetian

carnival,

or

example, rep-

resented

in

Sports

t

divertissements

y

"Lecarnaval" nd "La

comedie

italienne,"

s

a

pervasivetopic,

covered

in

breathless

reports

rom Venice

aswell as in updateson high-society"carnival" arties n Parisand re-

views of artistic

events based

on the traditionsof the commedia ell'arte.

For one 1913 carnival

party

"in the

best

taste,"

gardens

of the Parisian

hostess

were

transformed nto "the Venice

of

Tiepolo

and

all

the

Orient,

with

its

fantasy

of

rich

tapestries

and

shocking

colors,"

and

entertain-

ment was

provided

by

a

group

of socialites

acting

out the roles of

Pierrot,

Harlequin,

and

Columbine.24

Charles Martin and

the

Changing

Art of

Fashion

The

reliance of

Sports

t

divertissements

n

magazine

culture is

especially

compelling

when

we

consider the

involvement of the

artist,

Charles

Martin.One of the

top

fashion illustrators

n Paris n the first

decades

of

the

century,

Martin

spent

his careeralmost

entirely

in the

sphere

of

pop-

ular and commercialart.25

He

made

his

reputation

at the

Gazette

du

bon

ton,

where

Vogel

employed

him

as

part

of the

seven-man creative team


13/45

Modernity

a

mode

441

Figure

.

Caption

or

"Le

Yachting,"

rmina,

pring

913.

Reprinted

y

permission

f

the

Bibliotheque

nationale de France.

responsible

or

producing

he

magazine's

llustrations.26

artin'sashion

drawingsnd interiordesigns, ublishedwidely n magazinesndbooks,

werenotedfor

theircharacteristic

it and

elegance;

n

1923the art

criticLeonMoussinac escribedheir

"charm,

antasy,

umor,

nd

irony"

s

perfectly

eflective f

the

times.27

ndeed,

hrough

is

contribu-

tions to the

Gazette,

s

well as to Frenchwomen's

magazines

uchas

Ffmina

ndL'illustrationes

modes,

rt

ournals

ike

Les

euillets

'art,

and

the

American

magazines

ogue,

Vanity

air,

and

Harper's

azaar,

Martin

wasa

key

arbiter

f

sophisticated

ontemporarytyle

n

the

years

ur-

roundingWorldWarI.

Viewed

against

his

backdrop,

Martin's rtworkor

Sports

t

diver-

tissementsomes nto focusas a distinctive vocationof the trends nd

mannerismshat

prevailed

n

early-twentieth-century

rance.Based

n

the

popularizing

diom

of

fashion,

which

by

definitionunifies

practical,

commercial,

nd

artistic

ssues,

he

illustrations

pen

the

way

to consid-

erations

f the

cultural, ocial,

and

political

matters

f

the

day.

n

partic-

ular,

Sports

t

divertissements

ttests to the

improving

status

of women

duringheseyears, eflectinghegrowth f theirpoliticalandeconomic

strength,

heir

ncreasingmobility

nd

athleticism,

ndthe revisions

in

theirsocial

standing

nd

customs.While

suggestive

f

these

develop-

ments,

Martin'sllustrationsboveall

highlight

he

importance

f

fashionas a medium or the

expression

f

significant

hifts

n

national

values.

In

France,

he

statusof

women

had

begun

o

change

n

the

1880s,

whensomeof the most

oppressive

estrictions f the

Napoleonic

Civil


14/45

442

TheMusical

Quarterly

...... .....

• i~ii%<

iii•:

<

i?:

<

::i•,::~

::::,~i:


15/45

Modernity

'

a

mode

443

claiming

the virtues of

motherhood,

patrie,

and

pot-au-feu-these

early

feminists set the

stage

for

today's

women's movement.29Almost simulta-

neously,

education

reformsallowed women

their firstaccess to

public

secondary

schools,

permitting

some

female students to

prepare

or

the

baccalaur

t,

the

requirement

or

entry

into the

professions

and

higher

education.30

By

1900,

female

graduates

of

the

public

secondary

chools

were

filling

positions

in

fields

formerly

restricted o

men,

including

medi-

cine,

law,

and

the

sciences.31

During

these same

years, technological improvements,

and

espe-

cially the developmentof effective mass transitsystems,made women

more

mobile and

efficient,

freeing

a

portion

of their time for

participa-

tion

in

a wider

variety

of activities.

Largely

an

urban

phenomenon,

pub-

lic

transportation

between

cities

by

train

or

omnibusand within Paris

by

M

etro made leisure

a

feature

of life. Athleticism became a fashionable

and

legitimate

interest;

whether

riding

on horseback

hrough

the

Bois de

Boulogne

or

dancing

the

tango

in

Parisian

nightclubs,

women became

increasingly

active.

Critics

viewed all of these

developments

as a mis-

guidedappropriation f maleprerogatives, hreateningboth the social

and the sexual

status

quo.

They

derided the

growing

numbersof

women

who

engaged

in

horseback

riding

as unfeminine

"Amazons,"

while

re-

serving

their harshestwordsfor the

many

female

bicyclists,

who

enjoyed

not

only independence

but a

legitimated opportunity

o wear

trouserlike

"culottes."

The

contemporary

ashion writerOctave

Uzanne,

for exam-

ple,

maintained

that the

"last

appearance

of

feminine

modesty disap-

peared"32

hen women took to their

bicycles,

while more

sensationalist

newspapers eported

related "accessesof sensual madness" nd an

epi-

demic of

"sportive

masturbation."33

Not

all women

were

ready mmediately

or

the

pants-wearing

plea-

sures

of

horse and

bicycle

riding,

but

the more

widespreadassumption

of

new

rules

and

activities

augured

a

general

if

less radical

overhaul

of fash-

ion. Within a

decade of the

century's

urn,

women

had

purged

their

closets of the

fussy

and

restrictivecouture

dresses ashionable

n

the

1890s,

filling

the

emptied space

with

simplified

garmentsappropriate

o

the

modern world.

World War

I

catalyzed

hese fashion

changes,

giving

rise to what we now considerdaytimedressfor women. Practicaland

comfortable

clothing

became a

necessity

for

those

working

in

offices

and

factoriesafter

troop

mobilization

n

France,

and shorter

designs

al-

lowing

freedom of

motion

quickly gained

popularity.

The

most

penetrat-

ing

influence on

fashion

during

these

years,

however,

was the

explosion

of

women's

sports

into

a

widespread

phenomenon.

Rendering

turn-of-

the-century

horsewomen and

bicyclists

tame

by

comparison,

the

new

generation

of

sportswomen

played

tennis and

golf,

swam,

skated,

and


16/45

444

TheMusical

uarterly

skied in

unprecedented

numbers

and with

intensity,

as an article in

Femina xplained: "Yesterday,iding, golf, tennis, a little physical'cul-

ture' at

home

more

than

satisfied heir

appetite

for

exercise.

Today,many

among

them are

beginning

not

to be

happy

with

these harmless

games

...

the

passion

for

high sport

bites them one

by

one.

They

want

racing,

jumping..,

all the

formsof athleticism.

They

dream

only

of

matches,

championships,

records,distances,

and

heights.

They

have

kept

the

title

of 'amateur.'But

they

have

developed

a

professional

heart."34

The

vogue

for

sport

introduced

a

boyish

ideal of

beauty,

based

in

athleticismand slenderness.Characterized y VictorMargueritten the

scandalousnovel La

gargonne,

he

look was lean and

straightened,

he

suggested

exual

ambiguityemphasizedby

short and bobbed

hairstyles.35

Fashion,

too,

became more

androgynous,

ince

sport popularized

he

wearing

of

pants

and introduced

more casual tailored

garments

nto the

daytime

wardrobe.

Epitomized

by

the

garqonne-inspired

esigns

of the

couturiereGabrielle

"Coco"

Chanel,

the

sport-influenced

ashion aes-

thetic of

the

1920s

remains

popular

oday.36

As

fashion

changed,

so

did

its

representation

n

illustrations.

A

once-vigorous

art

form,

with a

pedigree

n France

dating

to the sixteenth

century,

ashion illustrationhad declined over time into a dull brandof

repetitive draftsmanship.

By

the

late nineteenth

century,

draband undis-

tinguished

illustrations eatured

a

parade

of

stiffly

posed

women in

vaguely elegant

interiorsor luxuriant

parks;

he

fashion

plate

was over-

due for

a makeover.

Twentieth-century

artists,

aced with the

challenge

of

capturing

both the

spirit

and

the

fashion

of the new

age,

turned

to

outside sources or

inspiration.

Eastern raditions

proved

especially

influ-

ential, particularly sexpressed n the Japaneseprintsknown asukiyoe

and

in the

productions

of the

Ballets

Russes.37

Above

all, however,

the

impetus

or

change

came from

the

designer

Paul

Poiret,

the

luminary

of

Parisiancouturebefore

World War

I.38

Poiret's

ignaturegarment,

a

tubular

dressthat

closely

followed

the

natural

shape

of the

body,

revolu-

tionized women's

ashion

by rendering

corsetsand other restrictive

un-

dergarments

bsolete.39

Even

more

shocking

was

Poiret'sbold

use

of

color: intense

pinks,

yellows,

and

blues

replaced

the

reigninggrays

and

"morbidmauves,"which he rejectedas "soft,washed-out,and insipid."40

To market

his new

look,

Poiret commissioned

rom

progressive

artistsof

the

day

a series

of

extravagant

imited-edition

albums

promot-

ing

his clothes

and

introducing

a

fresh

approach

to

fashion

art.4'

The

inaugural

volume,

Les robesde

Paul

Poiret,

with illustrations

by

Paul

Iribe,

appeared

in

1908,

presenting

two fundamental innovations.42

First,

the models

in

Iribe's ten

fashion

plates

are

not

simply

garbed

in

Poiret's

designs,

but are

expressively grouped

in

combinations

suggesting


17/45

Modernity

a

mode

445

action,conversation,

r

introspection;heypromote

oth

clothing

anda

lifestyle

or the

new

century.

econd,

o

capture

he

impact

of

Poiret's

bold

colors,

ribe

evived

he ancient

stenciling

echnique

known

as

pochoir.

Used

traditionally

o

produce

laying

ards

nd the

popular

prints

known

as

images 'ipinal,

he

pochoirprocess

was

rejected y

the

fashion

press

because f

its

intricate nd abor-intensiveature.43

With

his

book or

Poiret,

however,

ribe

stablished

he hand-colored

ochoir

print

as the benchmark

or

upscale

ashion

llustration,

shering

n a

new eramarked

y

the fusion

of fashion

andart.

Thedevelopmentf illustrationhatIribehad initiatedwascur-

tailed

during

he waras

magazines

uspended ublication,

ut it resumed

with

vigor

n

the 1920s.

Art

kept

pace

with the new fashion dealsof an-

gularity

nd

minimalism,

ndrealism

n

illustration

as

rejected

n

favor

of

a moreevocative

tyle

n

which

the

equation

f

elegance

with

elonga-

tion

in

fashion ook

precedence

ver

the

detailed

portrayal

f

clothing.

Figures, ackgrounds,

nd

clothing

tself

were

distorted

o achieve e

look;

illustrators

xaggerated

he slimmer

emale

body,

educing

models o

stretched-outmpressions.olors, oo,changedwiththe times,and

while

pochoir

emainedhe standard

echnique

or

6lite

illustrations,

he

palette

xpanded

o

emphasize

ntensifiedhades s

well

as muted

pastels.

Fashion

in

Sports

et divertissements

The

parallel

volutions

f fashionand illustration

n the

early entury

explicitly haped

CharlesMartin's

onception

n

Sports

t

divertissements.

This is critical

n

light

of the little

recognized

act that Martin

reated

not

one but

two

complete

etsof illustrationsor the album: he first n

1914,

when

Satie

composed

is musical core

and

texts,

andthe second

in

1922,

ust

as the albumwas

going

o

press.

The

original

drawings

e-

main

virtually

nknown,

ince the

1922

llustrations ere

he basis

or

the

publication.44

hese two versions f the

drawings

or

Sports

t diver-

tissements,

s

might

be

expected,

eflect

echnicaland

stylistic

develop-

ments

n

fashion llustrationhat occurred etween

he

eve

of the war

andthe

1920s:

while the

original

llustrationsre

whimsically

ealistic

linedrawings,herevisionsollowpostwarrendsn theirabstract,eo-

metric

tyle

andtheirmoreelaborate

resentation

s

engraved

ochoir

prints.

A

comparison

f the

original

ndthe

revised llustrations

or

"Le

golf"

illuminates

this

stylistic

shift as well as the

change

it

portends

n

the

relationship

of

Martin'sart to Satie's music

and texts

(see

Fig.

6).

The

original

drawing

s

a careful

rendering

of the

images

evoked

in

Satie's

score,

the

text of which

reads:


18/45

446

TheMusical

Quarterly

Figure

a. Charles

Martin,

Le

Golf,"

1914.

Reprinted

y

permission

f the

Depart-

ment

of

Printing

nd

Graphic

Arts,

The

Houghton

Library,

arvard

niversity.

Figure

b. Charles

Martin,

Le

Golf,"

evised

922.

Reprinted

ypermission

f

the De-

partment

f

Printing

nd

Graphic

Arts,

The

HoughtonLibrary,

arvard

niversity.


19/45

Modernity

la mode

447

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Figure

c.

Satie,

"Le

Golf."

Reprintedby permission

of

the

Department

of

Printing

and

Graphic

Arts,

The

HoughtonLibrary,

arvard

niversity.

The

colonel

is dressed n

shocking green

"Scotch

Tweed."

He will

be victorious.

His "caddie"ollows

him

carrying

is

"bags."

The

clouds are amazed.

The

"holes"are all

trembling:

he colonel

is here

Now he takes his swing:

His

"club"

lies

nto

pieces

Martin's

llustration

ncludes

portrayal

f the

colonel;

his

caddy

tands

behindwith the

golfbag

strapped

cross

is

chest,

and the cloudsmen-

tioned

n

the text are

clearly

visible.Most

notable,however,

s Martin's

portrayal

of the humorous

central event of the text: the

colonel's

club

breaking

nto

pieces

as he

makes his shot. Satie's musical

score, too,


20/45

448

TheMusical

uarterly

evokes

these

images explicitly,

particularly

hrough

the use

of

a vacillat-

ing chromaticdescent to represent he "tremblingholes"and an ascend-

ing

flourish

based

on

quartal

harmonies,

marked

ortissimo,

o

represent

the

breaking

club.

Satie

meticulously

coordinates

these

musical

gestures

and textual

events

in his

score;

moreover,

he musical

notation

provides

a

visual

metaphor

or both the

shaking

holes

and

the

club

breaking

n

the

air.

With

Martin's

graphic

representation,

Satie's music

and

texts

create

a

tripartite

and

interrelated

rendition

of the

story.45

n

contrast,

the

revised

illustration

or

"Le

golf"

shows

no direct

connection

to

either

Satie's

text or music.

The

drawingportrays

neither

the

central

characters

nor the

events of

the

narrative,

but

instead focuses

on

an

elegantly

posed

woman

on a

golf

course,

suggesting

only

a more

generic

connection

to

the

game.

The

interest

of the

revision,

then,

lies not

in

its

relationship

to the

text,

but

in its inherent

artistic

concept,

which

reflects

the

influ-

ence

of cubism

as

interpreted

by

the

fashion

press

in its

overlapping

ri-

angular

hapes

and multilinear

perspectives.

Comparison

of

the illustrations

also illuminates

the

changing

posi-

tion

of

women

and the

related

adjustment

of

fashion

in

pre-

and

postwar

France.Perhapsmost obviously, n the originalplate a trio of well-

dressed

women

looks

on

with amusement

as

the colonel

makes

his

shot;

dressed

n

floor-lengthgowns

and

stylishly

current

hats,

they

are

not

players

but

a

passive

audience

for

the

game.

In

contrast,

the

woman

front

and center

in

the

revised

illustration

eems

to

be

confidently

se-

lecting

a

club for

her

shot,

as

her

male

partner

ooks on.

Though

the

evocation

of

her

clothing

is

heavily

stylized

(to

the

point

of

trans-

parency)

it should

be noted

that

the

short

sleeves

and

plunging

neckline

of her garmentwouldallowmobility,while her gloves wouldboth pro-

tect

the

hand

and

permit

a

steady

grip.

Martin

here

reflects

a

social

real-

ity,

since

in

the

years

between

the

creation

of

the

original

and

revised

drawings

he

popularity

of

golf

among

women

increased

remendously.

Again,

magazine

culture

provides

a

gauge:

while

F.mina

described

he

sport

in 1913 as the

pursuit

of

a

"passionate

lan,"

by

1921

it

sponsored

an

annual

national

tournament

or women

with

prizes

ncluding

a

silver

cup,

cash,

and

jewelryby

Cartier.46

The

differing

aesthetic

values

of

Martin's

original

and

revised

illus-

trations

for

Sports

t divertissements

urther

uggest

a

radical

change

in

his

artistic

view

between

1914

and

1921,

one

very

much

in

keeping

with

broader

trends

in fashion

illustration.

While

the first

drawings,

created

when

Vogel

conceived

the

idea

of

an

album

based

on fashion

magazines,

remain close

to

the

example

of

illustrations

for

the

Gazette

du bon

ton

and

represent

clothing

with

a

mix of

attention

to detail

and

whimsical

fantasy,

the

revisions

are

marked

by

the

self-conscious

disjunction

of


21/45

Modernity

la

mode

449

fashion

and

reality

characteristicof

the

postwaryears.

Martin seems

to

have viewed the

revisions

primarily

as an

opportunity

to

create

a

rendi-

tion of the

subjects

evoking

the

atmosphere

f

fashion

in the

1920s,

in

which,

as we have

seen,

sport

and

entertainment were

defining

ele-

ments. It

seems

likely

that he

simply

wanted to

keep

currentwith

trends

in

fashion and

illustration;

after

all,

the

original

drawings

were

eight

years

out of date.

Finally,

n

weighing

the

relevance of

magazine

culture

to

Sports

t

divertissements,

t

is

particularly ignificant

to

discover

that in

1920

Vogel

commissionedSatie to composea workspecifically orpublicationin his

magazine

L'illustrationes modes.

The

resultant

song,

"Danseuse,"

etting

a text

by

Cocteau,

appeared

n

the November

issue

of the

magazine

with

two

illustrationscreated

by

Martin

(see

Fig.

7).

The

publication presents

further

compelling

evidence of Satie's involvement

in

the

workings

of

popular

culture and

suggests

hat

he had a

more

extensive

relationship

with

Vogel

and

Martin than has been

recognized.47

Satie and the Materialsof PopularMusic

If

popular

culture is

implicated

n

both

the

format and

artworkof

Sports

et

divertissements,

ow

is

it

manifested n

the musical

score?

Many

factors

come

into

play,

but one

feature

n

particular-the

implication

of

popular-

music

materials-is

especially noteworthy.

The

use

of

these

materials

n

Sports

t

divertissements

epresents

both

the

continuation

of

a

traditionand a

point

of

departure

or

Satie.

Central to his

compositionalapproach

rom at

least

the

Trois

morceaux

en

forme

de

poire

of

1903,

the

integration

of

popular

music,

folk

songs,

and art

music

becomes

prevalent

beginning

in

1912.

Satie's

particular

approach

s

rooted

in

popular

Parisian

entertainments of

the

early

cen-

tury,

specifically

n the

Montmartre

abaretswhere he

earned a

meager

living

from

1888 into the

early

1900s.

An

accompanist

for the

singers

and

shadow

plays

that were the

mainstays

of

cabaret

entertainment,

he

plied

his trade

at the

Chat

Noir,

the

Auberge

du

Clou,

and the

Caf6

de

la

Nouvelle

Athenes before

beginning

a

collaborationwith

one

of

the

most sought-afterperformersn Paris, he poete-chansonnierincent

Hyspa.48

Hyspa's

pecialty

was

the

chanson

parodique,

n

which

well-known

tunes were

refitted

with

new,

typically

satirical

or

politically

provocative

texts.

Funny

in

their

own

right,

these

parodies

could

accrete

additional

levels of

humor

through

the

interplay

of

the new

words

with the

original

lyrics

(lodged

in

the

memory

of

the

listener),

as

well

as

through

the

quo-

tation of

familiar

melodies. Since one

key

to

the

humor in

these

works


22/45

450

The

Musical

uarterly

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23/45

Modernity

la mode

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Modernity a La Mode

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