Resonant Recoveries: French Music and Trauma Between the World Wars

French modernist composers used their musical activities to process the trauma of World War I, turning them into locations for managing and performing trauma. Jillian C. Rogers' book "Resonant Recoveries" argues that music therapy was a crucial means of consolation for musicians and their audiences, helping them remember lost loved ones, perform grief, create healing bonds of friendship, and find solace in soothing sonic vibrations and rhythmic bodily movements.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 400 pages
\n Publication date: 17 March 2021
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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French musicians in the interwar period grappled with the profound impact of trauma and the losses incurred during World War I. Almost all of them were directly affected by the war, whether they fought in the trenches, worked in military hospitals, or mourned the loss of a friend or relative who had been wounded, killed, or taken prisoner. In her book "Resonant Recoveries," author Jillian C. Rogers explores how French modernist composers responded to this unprecedented experience of violence by transforming their musical activities into spaces for managing and performing trauma.

Through a comprehensive analysis of archival materials, French medical, philosophical, and literary texts, as well as the music produced between the wars, Rogers presents World War I as a pivotal moment in the history of music therapy. By utilizing music to remember lost loved ones, express grief, cultivate healing bonds of friendship, and find solace in the soothing vibrations and rhythmic bodily movements, musicians and their audiences reconfigured music into an embodied means of consolation—a healer of wounded minds and bodies.

This in-depth account of the profound impact that postwar trauma had on French musical life makes a compelling case for the significance of addressing trauma, mourning, and people's emotional lives in music scholarship. Access to this title is open and available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. It can be read for free at Oxford Scholarship Online and is also offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

\n Weight: 674g\n
Dimension: 244 x 168 x 36 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780190658298\n \n