Déconstruire d'Indy

Abstract

In this article, I throw new light on Vincent d'Indy's reputation before 1900 by examining what his disciples have ignored, including little-known works, and by deconstructing attitudes accumulated over time. In fact, d'Indy was much less marginal and removed from republican institutions and their ideologies than we have been led to believe. His actions and works reveal a man who built alliances that served the State as well as the composer. Winning the City of Paris prize taught d'Indy early in his career the power of his difference. In the 1880s and 1890s, the State recognized that d'Indy could help it confront those controlling the conventions impeding musical progress, particularly the monopolies of the Academie des Beaux-Arts over major prizes and the Conservatoire over advanced musical education. His differences also helped bridge conflicts within Republican institutions : within the « family » of the Conservatoire (e.g. Franck vs. Massenet); between the Conservatoire under the musically conservative Thomas and the government under the politically moderate Ferry; then between Thomas and a Ministry determined to change the Conservatoire's curricula. At the Schola after 1900, while he conducted the appearance of war with the Conservatoire, downplaying what they shared, he put into place educational reforms conceived while working on the committee to reform the Conservatoire. In misconstruing the nature and function of political differences in France and their relationship to reputation-building strategies, we risk substituting ideology and our own projections of its meaning for the composer's importance in French musical life of the Belle Epoque.