Neoclassic Objectivism Meets Catholic Ritual: The Musical Philosophy of Joseph Samson

Abstract

Catholicism, as is well known, had a significant place in the intellectual origins of Neoclassicism in interwar Paris, notably through the figure of Jacques Maritain. What about the other side of the relationship, the ramifications of Neoclassicism in Catholic art, including church music? A strain of austere impersonality goes back a long way in Catholic discourse on the aesthetics of religious art; how did this tradition relate to, and interact with, the anti-Romantic turn to ‘objectivity’ after the War? I consider that question through the writings of the choirmaster and composer Joseph Samson (1888–1957), whose voluminous writings and archive reveal a close attention to new ideas coming out of Paris. Samson’s conception of ritual ‘objectivity’ shows how closely the agendas of sacred music and Neoclassicism could coincide, while underscoring the multi-stranded complexity of anti-Romantic discourse in the interwar era.