I found this memoir by the Polish composer, Alexandre Tansman, at
http://www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/PMJ/issue/1.1.98/tansman_part2.html#recollections[start]
The name, École de Paris, is just an expression but has no aesthetic meaning. Obviously those of us who were members of École de Paris shared the same preoccupations—the preoccupations of our generation. We had certain things in common, such as our friendships and our attraction to France. Each of us followed his own path, however, and came from a different country of origin. I brought with me my love of Polish folklore. Mihailovici used sources from his native Romania. Martinu never completely abandoned the Czech folklore. Harsanyi had the Hungarian perspective and Tcherepnin, the Russian. What united us, however, was that we were all from the same generation and we were exploring the same compositional techniques—a sign of the time. We would share our scores with one another with frank and open discussions but we had no group motto.
Tibor Harsanyi was an extremely proud and generous man but very shy. He was a very great musician and it is regrettable that his music has been forgotten and has fallen from fashion at this time, particularly in France. In my opinion it is very unfair. He was more of a westerner than Bartók or Kódaly. He was trained in Paris in the circle of Roussel and Ravel, but there remained certain rhythms and thematic gestures that reflect his Hungarian roots. Among his most beautiful works is Le petit tailleur [1939], which is quite remarkable. Also there is his viola sonata. All that I knew by Harsanyi was always first class. I believe that we had considerable esteem for one another. I doubt that we ever had any aesthetic discussions. Those of us in the so-called École de Paris shared essentially the same views. I think we were in agreement. Each followed his own path but there are a number of paths to the truth.
[end]
