In the 19th and 20th centuries, French music achieved a unique profile and was widely acknowledged on the international scene. This success was due in part to symbolic figures such as Camille Saint-Saëns, Claude Debussy, and the “Groupe des Six,” in spite of their divergent aesthetic tendencies.

After France's loss in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, Saint-Saëns became one of the founders of the Société Nationale de Musique, with the goal of promoting French music of his time. Forty years later, the “Groupe des Six” would pursue similar objectives, but with very different aesthetic ideals. Claude Debussy had passed away three years earlier, but these young composers were already embarking on completely new musical paths. Saint-Saëns agreed with his younger colleagues about the need of foregoing the monumental bombast and Wagnerian pathos of (German-dominated) late Romanticism. But Debussy and the “Groupe des Six” were more decisive in venturing further back in time, orienting themselves toward Baroque and Classical models, which led to a flowering of neo-classicism. -Pedro Obiera