Honegger and France

Recently, I've become interested in Honegger's work, especially his orchestral works and symphonies. I've noticed that his music not only has a rather dark character to it in many places, but it doesn't sound very "French" to me, either. I know Honegger was Swiss, but he was born in France and lived there for a long time. Since he would have been exposed to a lot of French music, wouldn't his music bear French influence? (I'm sure it's there, but I don't hear a lot of it.) Am I just listening to the wrong pieces, or is my interpretation of what sounds "French" warped? lol when I think of French music I think of the sweet, rich music of Debussy, Ravel and Chausson. But Stravinsky also lived in France for a period of time, and his pieces sound radically different from those by Debussy or Ravel. Many of Honegger's pieces sound kind of Stravinskian to me, so is it just a matter of style, not a matter of French influence? o.O Thank you for reading a stupid question.

I think you are maybe erroneously expecting to hear more Impressionism, when Honegger was born later, and lived later than either Debussy or Ravel.

If you listen to the music of Milhaud, who is the exact contemporary of Honegger, you will also not hear that "sweetness" you ascribe to French music.

I would say that your idea of what "French music" should sound like is probably limited by restricting it to those composers you named. Poulenc is quite French, but sounds nothing like Ravel nor Debussy.

Come to think of it, some Ravel and Debussy completely lacks that "sweetness" you describe as well. Try the Ravel Trois Chansons de Mallarm

Honegger is amazing. Really, you should look up the symphonies and piano pieces. Really cool stuff. Honegger for me always sounded a little "in between" French and German romantic/expressionism/impressionism. Like a more modern version of Janacek, with a different spin.

Yeah, as QCC mentioned Debussy and Ravel may not be the closest "musical relatives" to Honegger, even if I do think they share some "french" attributes. In addition to the other composers of the french group "Les Six" (Poulenc, Auric, Milhaud, Honegger, Durey, Tailleferre) you may also find some similarities to Satie, who was considered some sort of father figure for Les Six. They were french, but quite critical of Impressionism, often being a lot more simple, direct and almost "blunt" (although almost never to the degree of Satie). I can very well see how it reminds you of Stravinsky, who certainly also shared some of these aspects.

You get all these "clouds" and "veils" in a lot of impressionist music, especially by Debussy, whereas Satie, Stravinsky and Les Six often have very clear contours and cuts. But of course that's a generalisation.

Yeah, as QCC mentioned Debussy and Ravel may not be the closest "musical relatives" to Honegger, even if I do think they share some "french" attributes. In addition to the other composers of the french group "Les Six" (Poulenc, Auric, Milhaud, Honegger, Durey, Tailleferre) you may also find some similarities to Satie, who was considered some sort of father figure for Les Six. They were french, but quite critical of Impressionism, often being a lot more simple, direct and almost "blunt" (although almost never to the degree of Satie). I can very well see how it reminds you of Stravinsky, who certainly also shared some of these aspects.

You get all these "clouds" and "veils" in a lot of impressionist music, especially by Debussy, whereas Satie, Stravinsky and Les Six often have very clear contours and cuts. But of course that's a generalisation.

Ah. So it's more a question of what period the music is from, really. I knew that Satie was close to Les Six, but since I haven't listened to a lot of Satie, I didn't really compare the two lol. Thanks, all for clarifying.