COMPLETE WORKS

This sixth volume of the Complete Works constitutes the first critical edition of the only two musical biographies that Romain Rolland published in book form, among a significant production of portraits of musicians published in the press and then in collections between 1899 and 1911. The volume proposes to put in perspective, not really two biographies, but rather two musical encounters which remain among the most popular, even today, of Rolland's works and which exemplarily express, through the diversity of their approaches, the singular gift of empathy that their author knew how to show towards great men in general, and musicians in particular.

“For a moment, the name Romain Rolland was familiar to the Parisian public as that of a learned musicologist” (Stefan Zweig). Rolland himself grasped the importance of his thesis in the history of musicology in France, a discipline then in full development. Its originality lies in the discovery of forgotten sources by the great Italian composers, collected during his stays in Rome and Florence, and in the link between scholarship and musical practice. The young writer’s musical tastes (Wagner, Mozart) shine through the pages, as does his judgment on the literary qualities of libretti, a debate that remains relevant today. This edition, faithful to Romain Rolland’s text, aims to make the critical apparatus more accessible.

Musicians of Yesteryear (1908) and A Musical Journey to the Land of the Past (1919) had delighted Stefan Zweig, a great connoisseur of classical and romantic music. In these two volumes, which form a large diptych, Romain Rolland evokes famous musicians—Lully, Gluck, Handel, Bach, Telemann, Mozart—and lesser-known figures—Rossi, Kuhnau, Graun—with equal passion. In these collections of essays that have significantly contributed to the Baroque revival, the great French historian embarks on a long journey to resurrect, with his lively pen and elegant erudition, artists who today belong to the pantheon of European music.

Romain Rolland brings together here texts published between 1899 and 1907 concerning 19th-century French and foreign composers (from Berlioz to Lorenzo Perosi, from Wagner and Richard Strauss to Saint-Saëns and Debussy). These are complemented by a comparison, a favorite of the author, between French and German musical arts, as well as a study of the Parisian musical scene of recent decades (teaching institutions, concert societies, and audiences). Meticulous research prioritizes access to duly referenced sources, and the depth of the psychological portraits, along with the warmth of the author's personal judgments, lends these pages of Rolland a unique appeal.

Nearly 150 articles by Romain Rolland on music, published between 1894 and 1939 in France and abroad, are gathered here, with the exception of texts published in collections released during the author's lifetime (Musicians of Yesteryear, Musicians of Today, Musical Journey to the Land of the Past). From early music to various contemporary works, from French to Italian music, as well as Germanic scores (from the 17th century to Richard Strauss, by way of Beethoven and Wagner), these meticulously annotated and indexed pages allow the reader to appreciate Rolland's vast erudition as well as the richness of the artistic context in which he worked.

It is as a memoirist that Romain Rolland, at the end of his life, undertakes the portrait of the man who was his publisher and his young mentor. In the mirror of the afterlife held up to him by the brief life of Charles Péguy, he not only reflects on the meaning of a friendship that, stronger than rivalries and disagreements, survived the misfortunes of the times; he also retraces the beginnings of the intellectual epic of his century. In doing so, he offers posterity a vibrant introduction to the study of the multifaceted work of the founder of the Cahiers de la Quinzaine. His Péguy thus becomes the final book of a writer who, having moved from an active social life to the voluntary seclusion of Vézelay, rediscovers himself through another version of himself.

A great reader of Shakespeare, Goethe, Hugo, Renan, Péguy, and Rousseau, Romain Rolland left behind a body of critical work of paramount importance. Engaging in dialogue with writers from around the world, he found in them a part of himself, since these fellow travelers belonged to the same intellectual family. Through a wide variety of approaches—a writer's biography (Life of Tolstoy), chronicles, prefaces, and even an anthology (Immortal Pages of Jean-Jacques Rousseau)—these texts, published between 1900 and the 1930s, allow us to grasp Rolland's conception of literature. For him, the writer must turn away from all forms of despair to celebrate life, and thus restore meaning to the world.

Gandhi, Ramakrishna, and Vivekananda are now part of our shared memory. But when, in the 1920s, Romain Rolland undertook the story of their lives, the latter two were known in France only to a small circle of Hinduism specialists, and the first had not yet emerged as the leader of the anti-colonial struggle. Acting as a bridge between the Indian and French worlds, Rolland presented them to the general public with his characteristic portraiture, while also revealing his own social and spiritual aspirations. This Indian period in his life cannot be separated from the need for new values felt by many intellectuals in the aftermath of the tragedy of the First World War.

The texts presented here focus primarily on Romain Rolland's relationship to faith: whether it be the hero's faith in an ideal or that of Empedocles and Spinoza, it is enriched by the "oceanic feeling" to be experienced as a divine force, akin to religious sentiment. The collection forms a cohesive whole where essays, biographical and autobiographical narratives, correspondence, and notes jotted down on the spot resonate with one another, revealing a multifaceted man. A learned intellectual and memoirist who shares his most intimate thoughts, a historian searching for his family history to better understand himself, Romain Rolland thus offers the reader the rich complexity of a vibrant mind rooted in the real world.