Neoclassicism

For other uses, see Neoclassical.

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Neoclassicism in music was a 20th century development, particularly popular in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers drew inspiration from music of the 18th century, though some of the inspiring canon was drawn as much from the Baroque period as the Classical period – for this reason, music which draws influence specifically from the Baroque is sometimes termed neo-baroque.

Artistic description

Neoclassicism was born at the same time as the general return to rational models in the arts in response to World War I.^{[citation needed]}

Neoclassicism can be seen as a reaction against the prevailing trend of 19th century Romanticism to sacrifice internal balance and order in favor of more overtly emotional writing.^[1] Neoclassicism makes a return to balanced forms and often emotional restraint, as well as 18th century compositional processes and techniques. However, in the use of modern instrumental resources such as the full orchestra, which had greatly expanded since the 18th century, and advanced harmony, neoclassical works are distinctly 20th century.

It is not that interest in 18th century music wasn't fairly well sustained through the 19th century, with pieces such as Franz Liszt's À la Chapelle Sixtine (1862), Edvard Grieg's Holberg Suite (1884), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's divertissement from The Queen of Spades (1890), and Max Reger's Concerto in the Old Style (1912), "dressed up their music in old clothes in order to create a smiling or pensive evocation of the past".^[2]

People and works

Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith and Sergei Prokofiev are important composers in this mode, alongside the prolific Darius Milhaud and his contemporary Francis Poulenc.

Although Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 (1917) is sometimes cited as a precursor of neoclassicism^[3], Prokofiev himself acknowledged that his composition was a 'passing phase' whereas Stravinsky's neoclassicism was by the 1920s 'becoming the basic line of his music'.^[4]

Igor Stravinsky's first foray into the style began in 1920.

Igor Stravinsky composed some of the best known neoclassical works^{[weasel words]} — in his ballet Pulcinella, for example, he used themes which he believed to be by Giovanni Pergolesi (it later transpired that many of them were not, though they were by contemporaries). Paul Hindemith was another neoclassicist (and New Objectivist), as was Bohuslav Martinů, who revived the Baroque concerto grosso form in his works.

Stravinsky's Mavra (1921–22) is regarded as the start of his neo-classicism (Walsh 2001, §5). Later examples are his Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, Symphony in C, and Symphony in Three Movements, as well as the ballets Orpheus and Apollo. Stravinsky's neoclassicism culminated with his opera The Rake's Progress, with a libretto by the modernist poet W. H. Auden (Walsh 2001, §8).

Stravinsky's rival for a time in neoclassicism was the German Paul Hindemith, who produced both chamber works and orchestral works in this style, perhaps most famously "Mathis der Maler". His chamber output includes his Sonata for Horn, an expressionistic work filled with dark detail and internal connections.

Busoni wrote in a letter to Paul Bekker, "By 'Young Classicalism' I mean the mastery, the sifting and the turning to account of all the gains of previous experiments and their inclusion in strong and beautiful forms" (Busoni 1957, 20). Roman Vlad has contrasted the "classicism" of Stravinsky, external forms and patterns used in works, with the "classicality" of Busoni, internal disposition and attitude of the artist towards works (Samson 1977, p. 28).

Neoclassicism found a welcome audience in America, the school of Nadia Boulanger promulgated ideas about music based on her understanding of Stravinsky's music. Boulanger's students include neoclassicists Elliott Carter (in his early years), Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Darius Milhaud, Ástor Piazzolla and Virgil Thomson.

Arnold Schoenberg's works after 1920 have been described as neoclassical (Rosen 1975,^{[page needed]}), because of his clear return to classical forms following his free-atonal period, beginning with the Serenade, op. 24, and the Suite for piano, op. 25.

List of neoclassical composers

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Yasushi Akutagawa
• Béla Bartók
• Grażyna Bacewicz
• Leonard Bernstein
• Nadia Boulanger
• Benjamin Britten
• Ferruccio Busoni
• Aaron Copland
• David Diamond
• George Enescu
• Manuel de Falla
• Irving Fine
• Camargo Guarnieri
• Paul Hindemith
• Arthur Honegger
• Dmitri Kabalevsky
• Stefan Kisielewski
• Ernst Krenek
• George Lloyd
• Bohuslav Martinů
• Darius Milhaud
• Carl Nielsen
• Francis Poulenc
• Sergei Prokofiev
• Maurice Ravel
• Ottorino Respighi
• Erik Satie
• Ahmed Adnan Saygun
• Dmitri Shostakovich
• Igor Stravinsky
• Virgil Thomson
• Heitor Villa-Lobos

See also

• Neobaroque
• Neoromanticism
• Neoclassical (New Age)
• Neo-classical metal

Sources

• Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.
• Busoni, Ferruccio (1957). The Essence of Music, and Other Papers, translated by Rosamond Ley. London: Rockliff.
• Prokofiev, Sergey (1991). Short Autobiography, translated by Rose Prokofieva, revised and corrected by David Mather: published in Soviet Diary 1927 and Other Writings. London: Faber. ISBN 0-571-16158-8
• Rosen, Charles (1975). Arnold Schoenberg. Modern Masters. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0670133167 (cloth) ISBN 0670019860 (pbk). UK edition, titled simply Schoenberg. London: Boyars; Glasgow: W. Collins ISBN 0714525669
• Samson, Jim (1977). Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02193-9.
• Stravinsky, Igor (1970). Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons (from the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures delivered in 1939-1940). Harvard College, 1942. English translation by Arthur Knodell and Ingolf Dahl, preface by George Seferis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-67855-9.
• Walsh, Stephen (2001). "Stravinsky, Igor", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York: Grove's Dictionaries.
• Whittall, Arnold (1980). "Neo-classical", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan.

References