Music and Decadence in European Modernism: The Case of Central and Eastern EuropeDecadence is a crucial yet often misunderstood aspect of European modernism. This book demonstrates how decadence as an idea, style or topic informs Central and Eastern European music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Combining close analysis with hermeneutic interpretation and cultural critique, Stephen Downes examines works by composers including Wagner, Richard Strauss, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Mahler and Bartók, considering structural and expressive forms of decay, deformation, mannerism, nihilism, sickness and convalescence. Drawing upon critical and cultural theory, these musical works are contextualized, relating the relationship of music and musical discourse to wider cultural discourses. The study will enhance the understanding of musical forms and aesthetics for the reader. Exploring crucial aspects of modernism and the place of music in the development and diversity of decadence, Downes refines and redefines our understanding of musical modernism. |
Contents
Pessimism and nihilism 63 | 63 |
Degeneration and regeneration 126 | 126 |
Deformation and dissolution 174 | 174 |
Mannerism and avantgarde 224 | 224 |
Convalescence and primitivism 279 | 279 |
Bibliography 332 | 332 |
| 361 | |
Common terms and phrases
Abgesang Adorno aesthetic Alban Berg Arnold Schoenberg artistic augmented triad avant-garde bars Bartók Baudelaire Beethoven's Béla Bartók Brünnhilde Brünnhilde's Byron cadence California Press Cambridge University Press Chopin chord chromatic chromaticism composer contrast crucial cultural decadence decay deformation degeneration Dionysian dissolution dissonant dominant Elektra erotic essay evokes Example expressive F minor final flat sixth function harmonic heard identified intensification Jugendstil Karłowicz Karol Szymanowski kitsch leading-note leads London Mahler major Manfred manifest Mann melancholic melodic modern motif motivic move movement Nietzsche Nietzsche's Nietzschean Nineteenth-Century opening Opera Parsifal pessimism pessimistic Piano poetic Polish post-Wagnerian Prelude Rachmaninov redemptive relationship Richard Strauss Richard Wagner romantic romanticism Russian Salome Salome's scene Schoenberg Schumann Scriabin second subject semitonal Siegfried sonata song Steigerung structure style subdominant sublime submediant symbolic Symphony Szymanowski Taruskin theme tonal tone tonic tragic trans transfiguration transformation Tristan Twilight Wagner Wagnerian wave form Wotan Young Poland