Interwar Symphonies and the Imagination: Politics, Identity, and the Sound of 1933.

This article discusses two separate books that explore different aspects of music history. The first book focuses on interwar symphonies in the year 1933 and examines the works of composers such as Weill, Pfitzner, Harris, Copland, Honegger, and Price. The author argues that symphonies can provide insight into composers' relationships with society and explores the tension between the individual and the collective. The second book examines French art song from 1870 to 1914 and challenges the perception that it is inferior to other musical forms. The author explores the experimentation and significance of the genre within French musical life and presents it as a form of "new music" deserving of recognition and study. [Extracted from the article]