L’ÉMIGRATION MUSICALE POLONAISE À PARIS PENDANT L’ENTRE-DEUX-GUERRES: ARTISTES – ÉVÉNEMENTS – CONTEXTES

In the nineteenth century, the French capital was a travel destination for Polish musicians, especially in the 1830s and ‘40s, when, after the fall of the November Uprising, nearly the entire political, intellectual, and artistic elite of the Congress Kingdom made its way there. A second important wave of emigration was during the interwar period (1918–1939). There was a large group of Polish artists in Paris at this time—composers, singers, instrumentalists. In 1926, they founded the Association des jeunes musiciens polonais, whose aim was to organise artistic events, as well as provide material aid to its members. An entire corps of distinguished musicians passed through the Association, and honorary patrons included, among others, Nadia Boulanger, Robert Brussel, Maurice Ravel, and Albert Roussel. The Association’s activity was an unprecedented campaign that permitted the younger generation of Polish musicians to emerge in the international arena. In terms of numbers, the interwar musical emigration exceeded all previous influxes. It also had fundamentally different aims. Unlike the 1830 emigration, caused mainly by political repression (one manifestation of which was the closing of the Warsaw Conservatory), it was based on purely artistic motives. Polish musicians came to the French capital to study, hone their métier, gain experience and, simultaneously, shape a new face of Polish music, which at the time was undergoing a transformation. While still strongly rooted in tradition, it was urgently seeking new means of expression, as well as liberation from Romanticism’s legacy. When Poland regained its independence in 1918, the question of national identity took on particular importance, and contacts with French culture showed young artists new directions in the search for their own artistic path. The aim of this article is to examine Polish musicians’ interwar activity in Paris, based on a broad aesthetic, social, and cultural context. Poles made the best possible impression on the French audience, and their artistic activities became part of the city’s musical landscape. Au 19e siècle, la capitale française fut une destination de voyage pour les musiciens polonais, en particulier dans les années 1830 et 1840 lorsque, après la défaite de l’insurrection de Novembre, une grande partie de l’élite politique, intelectuelle et artistique du Royaume du Congrès s’y soient rendus. Une seconde vague d’émigration eut lieu entre les deux guerres (1918–1939). Ceci e