At the same time,
performances of Bach and seventeenth-and eighteenth-century music became
more and more frequent; and more intimate relationship with the artists
of other countries, repeated visits of the great _Kapellmeister_,
foreign virtuosi and composers (especially Richard Strauss), and,
lastly, of Russian composers, completed the education of the Parisian
musical public, who, after repeated rebukes from the critics, became
conscious of the awakening of a national personality, and of an
impatient desire to free itself from German tutelage. By turns it
gratefully and warmly received M. Bruneau's _Le Reve_ (1891), M.
d'Indy's _Fervaal_ (1898), M. Gustave Charpentier's _Louise_ (1900)--all
of which seemed like works of liberation. But, as a matter of fact,
these lyric dramas were by no means free from foreign influences, and
especially from Wagnerian influences. M. Debussy's _Pelleas et
Melisande_, in 1902, seemed to mark more truly the emancipation of
French music. From this time on, French music felt that it had left
school, and claimed to have founded a new art, which reflected the
spirit of the race, and was freer and suppler than the Wagnerian art.
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