Conclusion

Musicians such as Désormière, Schaeffer, Poulenc, and Messiaen explored new ways to destabilize or challenge the meanings Vichy sought to inscribe in culture, or to open up the message of iconic works in order to disrupt the regime’s increasingly compromised national cultural representations. To perceive this, it has been necessary to examine the evolving associations of musical styles as well as the material dimensions of performance, for they were both central components of the manner in which meaning was produced, particularly in the midst of politicized attempts to control it. For the Resistance, music thus magnified the regime’s evolving collaborationist goals and cultural tactics—its eventual quest to court the Germans by promoting cooperation in all areas. According to Resistance intellectuals, music could and did contribute both to a growing awareness of political realities and to the development of new cultural tactics within its ever-growing repertoire of symbolic contestation.