Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the World Wars by Jillian C. Rogers

Abstract

Reviewed by: Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the World Wars by Jillian C. Rogers Sharon L. Fairchild Rogers, Jillian C. Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the World Wars. Oxford UP, 2021. ISBN 978-0190658298. Pp. 364. Resonant Recoveries makes valuable contributions to the fields of musicology and music therapy by examining how French musicians during and after World War I used music to cope with the traumas they experienced. Rogers intentionally focuses on the emotional lives of composers and performers. She analyzes how music functioned in musicians' lives not only in coping with trauma, but also by supporting recovery and healing, by memorializing lost loved ones, and providing release via humor. In addition to music research, the book includes investigations in the fields of the history of psychology, medicine, and literature. It is a cultural history of French musical modernism that contrasts with previous representations of the period as les années folles dominated by jazz, dance music, musical theater, and surrealism. Through imagining what musicians must have been experiencing emotionally, Rogers provides an intimate understanding of famous musicians and artists of the period such as Ravel, Satie, Debussy, Stravinsky, Cocteau, and Boulanger. Rogers' overarching premise is that the trauma musicians experienced during the war led them to feel music as an embodied, therapeutic means of coping, and she analyzes how this manifested itself in four ways. Rogers first examines the subject of trauma and how it was viewed in the past. In an era that did not recognize post-traumatic stress disorder, society privileged a heroic self-sacrificing version of masculinity, while the expression of trauma and emotion was suppressed. Yet, while early musical pieces reflected these values, musician-soldiers found that performing or listening to music during the war provided a means to express their repressed trauma. Secondly, the author examines the late 19th century development of the field of music therapy during which psychologists discovered that trauma could be treated by vibratory sounds and music. Musical rhythm became recognized as being beneficial for physical and mental health. Through a study of musician-soldiers' letters, diaries, and other documents, Rogers shows that French musicians were aware of these theories; they frequently described their musical experiences during the war as a consolatory, vibrational therapeutic medium that impacted them physically. Another way that modernist composers found solace was through a particular style that Rogers examines in several music scores. This is the style dépouillé, found in works by Ravel, Satie, Poulenc, Stravinsky, and others. Rogers characterizes their compositions as having a repetitive, ostinato, rhythmic style, which helped mourning musicians process grief and satisfied their need for stability, regularity, and comfort. Artists also found that performing and composing music enabled them to memorialize and sense the presence of lost loved ones. Lastly, modernist composers and playwrights created spaces for healing laughter in musical-theatrical performances. Starting with Dada and Surrealism, Rogers examines collaborative projects of [End Page 219] artists such as Stravinsky and Cocteau whose humorous and absurd musical productions provided places in which to process wartime trauma. The innovative approach of this book is especially notable for its compassionate portrayal of the formerly overlooked emotional struggles of this generation of musicians. [End Page 220] Sharon L. Fairchild Texas Christian University, emerita Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French