The spiritualiste connection
stylistic affinity and structural homology between Bergson and Debussy
Keywords:
Spiritualiste, Debussy, Bergson, Bourdieu, HomologyAbstract
This article proposes some reasons for the striking similarity many authors have found between Claude Debussy's music and Henri Bergson's philosophical writings, by situating them in the spiritualiste movement. With the aid of Bourdieu's field theory, Bergson’s and Debussy’s leading positions as spiritualistes are shown to be homologous. Eschewing institutional and political power and instead focusing on creative works that emphasized individual freedom, the philosopher and the composer took relatively autonomous positions with high symbolic capital in their fields. The alignment of their positions may explain the stylistic, substantive, and functional connections others have perceived in their works.
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References
Bergson, Henri. “Introduction to Metaphysics.” Reprinted in Henri Bergson: Key Writings, edited by Keith Ansell Pearson and John Mularkey, 274-284. New York: Continuum, 2002.
Bergson, Henri. Mélanges. Edited by André Robinet. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1972.
Bergson, Henri. “Une lettre de M. Bergson.” Le Figaro Feb. 28, 1914: 1.
Bergson, Henri. Matière et mémoire: essai sur la relation du corps à l’esprit. Paris: Alcan, 1896.
Bergson, Henri. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience humaine. Paris: Alcan, 1889.
Bernard-Krauß, Geneviève. Hundert Jahre französiche Musikgeschichte in Leben und Werk Paul Le Flems. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Bourdieu, Pierre. The Field of Cultural Production. Translated by Randal Johnson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Homo Academicus. Translated by Peter Collier. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990.
Bourdieu, Pierre. La distinction: critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Les éditions du minuit, 1979.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc Wacquant. An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Branger, Jean-Christophe. “Charpentier, élève de Massenet: sous l’influence et le regard du prophète. In Gustave Charpentier et son temps, edited by Michela Niccolai and Jean-Christophe Branger, 33-70. Saint-Étienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne, 2013.
Caillard, Francis, José de Bérys, and Raphaël Cor ed. Le Cas Debussy. Paris: Bibliothèque du Temps présent, 1910.
Carpenter, Alexander. “Schoenberg’s Vienna, Freud’s Vienna: Re-examining the Connections between the Monodrama Erwartung and the Early History of Psychoanalysis,” Musical Quarterly 2010(1): 141-166.
Cor, Raphaël. Essais sur la sensibilite contemporaine: Nietzsche, de M. Bergson à M.
Bazaillas, M. Claude Debussy. Paris: Lux Ardens, 1912.
Cowart, Georgia. The Oridings of Modern Musical Criticism: French and Italian Music, 1600-1750. Ann Arbor: UMI Press, 1981.
Debussy, Claude. Monsieur Croche et autres écrits. Edited by François Lesure. Paris: Gallimard, 1971.
Digéon, Claude. La crise allemande dans la pensée française, 1870-1914. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959.
Donnellon, Deidre. “Debussy as Musician and Critic.” In The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, edited by Simon Trezise, 43-58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Emmanuel, Maurice. Pelléas et Mélisande de Debussy. Paris: Mellottée, 1927.
Fulcher, Jane. French Cultural Politics and Music: from the Dreyfus Affair to the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Gallagher, Idella. Morality in Evolution: The Moral Philosophy of Henri Bergson. New York: Springer, 1970.
Gonin, Philippe. Vie et oeuvre de Paul Le Flem (1881-1984). Paris: Septentrion, 2001.
Grayson, David. “The Genesis of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.” Ph.D diss, Harvard University, 1983.
Hanotaux, Gabriel. “Les philosophes et la mode.” Le figaro Feb. 27, 1914: 1.
Harrison, Jane E. “Fashionable Innovation: Debussysme in Early 20th-Century France. Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2011.
Herlin, Denis. “An Artist High and Low: or Debussy and Money.” In Rethinking Debussy, edited by Elliot Antokoletz and Marianne Wheeldon, translated by Victor Giroud, 149-202. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Inghelbrecht, Germaine and D.E. Inghelbrecht. Claude Debussy. Paris: Costard, 1953.
Huebner, Steven. French Opera at the Fin de Siècle: Wagnerism, Nationalism, and Style. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Kennaway, James. Bad Vibrations: The History of Music as a Cause of Disease. Surrey: Ashgate, 2012.
Knight, David. The Age of Science: The Scientific World-view in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
Lalo, Pierre. “La musique.” Le temps (Jan. 30, 1906).
Le Flem, Paul. “Propos impromptu de Paul Le Flem.” Le courrier musical de France 18 (1967): 70-74.
Le Flem, Paul. “Dans le souvenir de Debussy.” Undated radio transcript. Located at the Fonds Paul Le Flem, Médiathèque Mahler, Paris.
Lockspeiser, Edward. Debussy: His Life and Mind, 2nd ed., 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Gabriel Marcel, “Bergsonisme et musique,” La revue musicale (Mar. 1, 1925): 219-229.
Pasler, Jann. Composing the Citizen: Music as Public Utility in Third Republic France. Berkley: University of California Press, 2009.
Pasler, Jann. “A Sociology of the Apaches: ‘Sacred Batallion’ for Pelléas.” In Berlioz and Debussy: Sources, Contexts, Legacies, edited by Barbara Kelly and Kerry Murphy, 149-166. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007.
Pasler, Jann. “Debussy, Jeux: Playing with Time and Form.” 19th-Century Music 6, no 1 (Summer 1982): 60-75.
Perloff, Nancy. Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991.
Petit, Raymond. “L'identité des formes du langage sonore et de la pensée.” La revue musicale (Feb. 1, 1925): 152-156.
Potter, Caroline. “Debussy and Nature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, edited by Simon Trezise, 137-151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Potter, Laurence M. The Crisis of French Symbolism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1990.
Pudal, Romain. “Enjeux et usages du pragmatisme en France (1880-1920): Approche sociologique et historique d'une acculturation philosophique.” Revue française de sociologie 52(4) (2011): 747-775.
ӬRavel, Maurice. A Ravel Reader. Edited and translated by Arbie Orenstein. New York: Dover, 1990.
Rings, Steven. “Mystères limpides: time and transformation in Debussy’s ‘Des pas sur la neige…’” 19th-Century Music 32(2) (2008): 178-209.
Reigle, Robert. “Reconsidering the Idea of Timbre: A Brief History and New Proposals.” In Musicult’14 Music and Cultural Studies Conference Proceedings, 233-243. Istanbul: Dakam, 2014.
“Review of William James and Henry Bergson by Horace Meyer Kallen.” The North American Review 201 no. 710 (1915): 94-97.
Shanahan, Daniel. “Debussy’s Forms of Deception: Toward a Theory of Implication, Tension, and Attraction in the Préludes.” Ph.D. diss, Trinity College, Dublin, 2011.
Silvermann, Debora. Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siècle France: Politics, Psychology, and Style. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989.
Trilling, Johannes. Untersuchungen zur Rezeption Claude Debussys in der zeitgenössischen Musikkritik. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1983.
Bergson, Henri. Mélanges. Edited by André Robinet. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1972.
Bergson, Henri. “Une lettre de M. Bergson.” Le Figaro Feb. 28, 1914: 1.
Bergson, Henri. Matière et mémoire: essai sur la relation du corps à l’esprit. Paris: Alcan, 1896.
Bergson, Henri. Essai sur les données immédiates de la conscience humaine. Paris: Alcan, 1889.
Bernard-Krauß, Geneviève. Hundert Jahre französiche Musikgeschichte in Leben und Werk Paul Le Flems. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Bourdieu, Pierre. The Field of Cultural Production. Translated by Randal Johnson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Homo Academicus. Translated by Peter Collier. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990.
Bourdieu, Pierre. La distinction: critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Les éditions du minuit, 1979.
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc Wacquant. An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Branger, Jean-Christophe. “Charpentier, élève de Massenet: sous l’influence et le regard du prophète. In Gustave Charpentier et son temps, edited by Michela Niccolai and Jean-Christophe Branger, 33-70. Saint-Étienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne, 2013.
Caillard, Francis, José de Bérys, and Raphaël Cor ed. Le Cas Debussy. Paris: Bibliothèque du Temps présent, 1910.
Carpenter, Alexander. “Schoenberg’s Vienna, Freud’s Vienna: Re-examining the Connections between the Monodrama Erwartung and the Early History of Psychoanalysis,” Musical Quarterly 2010(1): 141-166.
Cor, Raphaël. Essais sur la sensibilite contemporaine: Nietzsche, de M. Bergson à M.
Bazaillas, M. Claude Debussy. Paris: Lux Ardens, 1912.
Cowart, Georgia. The Oridings of Modern Musical Criticism: French and Italian Music, 1600-1750. Ann Arbor: UMI Press, 1981.
Debussy, Claude. Monsieur Croche et autres écrits. Edited by François Lesure. Paris: Gallimard, 1971.
Digéon, Claude. La crise allemande dans la pensée française, 1870-1914. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959.
Donnellon, Deidre. “Debussy as Musician and Critic.” In The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, edited by Simon Trezise, 43-58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Emmanuel, Maurice. Pelléas et Mélisande de Debussy. Paris: Mellottée, 1927.
Fulcher, Jane. French Cultural Politics and Music: from the Dreyfus Affair to the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Gallagher, Idella. Morality in Evolution: The Moral Philosophy of Henri Bergson. New York: Springer, 1970.
Gonin, Philippe. Vie et oeuvre de Paul Le Flem (1881-1984). Paris: Septentrion, 2001.
Grayson, David. “The Genesis of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.” Ph.D diss, Harvard University, 1983.
Hanotaux, Gabriel. “Les philosophes et la mode.” Le figaro Feb. 27, 1914: 1.
Harrison, Jane E. “Fashionable Innovation: Debussysme in Early 20th-Century France. Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State University, 2011.
Herlin, Denis. “An Artist High and Low: or Debussy and Money.” In Rethinking Debussy, edited by Elliot Antokoletz and Marianne Wheeldon, translated by Victor Giroud, 149-202. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
Inghelbrecht, Germaine and D.E. Inghelbrecht. Claude Debussy. Paris: Costard, 1953.
Huebner, Steven. French Opera at the Fin de Siècle: Wagnerism, Nationalism, and Style. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Kennaway, James. Bad Vibrations: The History of Music as a Cause of Disease. Surrey: Ashgate, 2012.
Knight, David. The Age of Science: The Scientific World-view in the Nineteenth Century. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986.
Lalo, Pierre. “La musique.” Le temps (Jan. 30, 1906).
Le Flem, Paul. “Propos impromptu de Paul Le Flem.” Le courrier musical de France 18 (1967): 70-74.
Le Flem, Paul. “Dans le souvenir de Debussy.” Undated radio transcript. Located at the Fonds Paul Le Flem, Médiathèque Mahler, Paris.
Lockspeiser, Edward. Debussy: His Life and Mind, 2nd ed., 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Gabriel Marcel, “Bergsonisme et musique,” La revue musicale (Mar. 1, 1925): 219-229.
Pasler, Jann. Composing the Citizen: Music as Public Utility in Third Republic France. Berkley: University of California Press, 2009.
Pasler, Jann. “A Sociology of the Apaches: ‘Sacred Batallion’ for Pelléas.” In Berlioz and Debussy: Sources, Contexts, Legacies, edited by Barbara Kelly and Kerry Murphy, 149-166. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007.
Pasler, Jann. “Debussy, Jeux: Playing with Time and Form.” 19th-Century Music 6, no 1 (Summer 1982): 60-75.
Perloff, Nancy. Art and the Everyday: Popular Entertainment and the Circle of Erik Satie. Oxford: Clarendon, 1991.
Petit, Raymond. “L'identité des formes du langage sonore et de la pensée.” La revue musicale (Feb. 1, 1925): 152-156.
Potter, Caroline. “Debussy and Nature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Debussy, edited by Simon Trezise, 137-151. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Potter, Laurence M. The Crisis of French Symbolism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1990.
Pudal, Romain. “Enjeux et usages du pragmatisme en France (1880-1920): Approche sociologique et historique d'une acculturation philosophique.” Revue française de sociologie 52(4) (2011): 747-775.
ӬRavel, Maurice. A Ravel Reader. Edited and translated by Arbie Orenstein. New York: Dover, 1990.
Rings, Steven. “Mystères limpides: time and transformation in Debussy’s ‘Des pas sur la neige…’” 19th-Century Music 32(2) (2008): 178-209.
Reigle, Robert. “Reconsidering the Idea of Timbre: A Brief History and New Proposals.” In Musicult’14 Music and Cultural Studies Conference Proceedings, 233-243. Istanbul: Dakam, 2014.
“Review of William James and Henry Bergson by Horace Meyer Kallen.” The North American Review 201 no. 710 (1915): 94-97.
Shanahan, Daniel. “Debussy’s Forms of Deception: Toward a Theory of Implication, Tension, and Attraction in the Préludes.” Ph.D. diss, Trinity College, Dublin, 2011.
Silvermann, Debora. Art Nouveau in Fin-de-Siècle France: Politics, Psychology, and Style. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989.
Trilling, Johannes. Untersuchungen zur Rezeption Claude Debussys in der zeitgenössischen Musikkritik. Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1983.
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Published
2015-11-23
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Harrison, Jane Ellen. 2015. “The Spiritualiste Connection: Stylistic Affinity and Structural Homology Between Bergson and Debussy”. Música Em Contexto 9 (1):55-88. https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/Musica/article/view/19589.
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