CU on the Weekend: Jazz, Dada and the Music of Paris after World War I

Professor Keith Waters
College of Music

In this lecture, music Professor Keith Waters will invite us to explore Parisian music after World War I. The music combined a wildly diverse range of artistic influences, including futurism, Dadaism and jazz, as well as popular music from the fairgrounds, circus and music hall. Musical collaborations with artists Pablo Picasso and Raoul Dufy, and poets Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Cocteau all helped shape a musical aesthetic that fluctuated, in the words of one journalist, “between cubism and vaudeville.”

At the forefront was a group of six composers, Les Six, whose works used these popular music influences but ingeniously transformed them. The lecture will focus on the music of this group, and will include live performances of songs by Francis Poulenc, Louis Durey and Arthur Honegger, as well as Darius Milhaud’s 1923 chamber work, La Création du Monde, one of the first concert works with distinct jazz influences.

More information: https://www.colorado.edu/outreach/ooe/cu-weekend/jazz-dada-and-music-paris-after-world-war-i