Sacred Sounds, Secular Spaces provides the first fundamental reconsideration of music's role in the relationship between the French state and the Catholic Church in the Third Republic, revealing how composers and critics from often opposing ideological factions undermined the secular/sacred binary through composition and musical performance.
In this deeply researched study, Jennifer Walker shows how in the 1890s masses and concerts were held to honor Saint Genevieve, drawing anti-clerical intellectuals among a rapt bourgeois audience to honor the capital city's patron saint. The book will fascinate readers by opening up new perspectives on Parisian life in the Third Republic.
