Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World’s Fair
Title Details

416 Pages

22.8 x 15.2 cm

55 b/w illus.

Series: Eastman Studies in Music

Series Vol. Number: 32

Imprint: University of Rochester Press

Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair

by Annegret Fauser

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
  • Reviews
Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair explores the ways in which music was used, appropriated, exhibited, listened to, and written about during the six months of the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, thereby revealing the role and the sociopolitical uses of music in France and, more generally, Europe during the late nineteenth century.

The 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris has become famous as a turning point in the history of French music, and modern music generally. For the first time, Debussy and his fellow composers could be inspired by Javanese gamelan music, while the Russian concerts conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov brought recent music by the Mighty Five to Parisian ears.
But the 1889 World's Fair had much wider musical and cultural ramifications; one contemporary described it as a "gigantic encyclopedia, in which nothing was forgotten." Music was so pervasive at the 1889 Exposition Universelle that newspaper journalists compared the sonic side of the affair to a "musical orgy." Musical encounters at the fair ranged from bandstand marches to folk and non-Western ensembles to symphonic and operatic premieres by Massenet to the mass-marketed Edison phonograph.
A rich and vivid literature [from newspaper columns to memoirs that are plumbed here for the first time] comments about this sonic landscape, reflecting the reactions and responses of composers [Saint-Saëns], writers [Judith Gautier], and journalists [Gaston Calmette].
Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair explores the ways in which music was used, appropriated, exhibited, listened to, and written about during the six months of the Exposition Universelle. It thereby also reveals the role and the sociopolitical uses of music in France and, more generally, Europe during the late nineteenth century.

Annegret Fauser is Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her many publications include books on French Wagnerism, Massenet's opera Esclarmonde, and French orchestral songs from Berlioz to Ravel.
Exhibiting Music at the Exposition Universelle
Opera, Ballet, and the Politics of French Identity
The Republic's Muse: Augusta Holmes's Ode triomphale
French Encounters with the Far East
Belly Dancers, Gypsies, and French Peasants
The Marvels of Technology

ANNEGRET FAUSER, Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Music, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Meticulously documented, beautifully illustrated, and always intriguing. . . . A thoroughly enjoyable read and a first-rate scholarly achievement. . . . Beautifully produced." Lesley A. Wright, MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES
"Engravings, caricatures from the illustrated press, and period photographs . . . bring the Fair remarkably alive." Jann Pasler, JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
"Annegret Fauser has written a valuable book. . . showing how the exposition promoted French music of the previous decades and offered concerts of world music and dance by performers from such distant places as Romania, Egypt, Vietnam, and Java. Both French historians and world historians will derive much benefit from the volume." William Weber, JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY
"Thoroughly researched and excellently illustrated. . . . Fauser has done us all a service in clearly presenting the musical and moral complexities of such a mammoth enterprise. . . . Thoughtful, lively book." Roger Nichols, BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
"Original and insightful. . . . [The presentation] is glossy, spacious and consistent, with scrupulous referencing and clear translations." Helen Julia Minors, NINETEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC REVIEW
"Fauser offers a 'thick history' in every sense, rich in individual arguments, plurality of points of view, and layers of information and analysis. This is a truly wonderful book, which may cause something of a minor revolution in how we understand nineteenth-century French music and listening cultures." Tamara Levitz, H-NET April 2006

Hardcover

9781580461856

October 2005

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Ebook (EPDF)

9781580466417

October 2005

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Title Details

416 Pages

2.28 x 1.52 cm

55 b/w illus.

Series: Eastman Studies in Music

Series Vol. Number: 32

Imprint: University of Rochester Press