Everything about Neoclassicism Music totally explained
» For the subgenre of darkwave, see Neoclassical (Dark Wave).
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
Neo-classicism was born at the same time as the general return to rational models in the arts in response to
World War I. Smaller, more spare, more orderly was conceived of as the response to the overwrought emotionalism which many felt had herded people into the trenches. Since economics also favored smaller ensembles, the search for doing "more with less" took on a practical imperative as well.
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. 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 isn't that interest in 18th century music wasn't fairly well sustained through the 19th, 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." (Albright, 2004). It was that the 20th century had a different view of 18th century norms and forms, instead of being an immediately antique style contrasted against the present, 20th century neo-classicism focused on the 18th century as a period which had virtues which were lacking in their own time.
People and works
Igor Stravinsky,
Paul Hindemith,
Sergei Prokofiev,
Béla Bartók are usually listed as the most important composers in this mode, but also the prolific
Darius Milhaud and his contemporary
Francis Poulenc.
Neoclassicism was instigated by
Igor Stravinsky, according to himself, but attributed by others to composers including
Ferruccio Busoni (who wrote "Junge Klassizität" or "New Classicality" in 1920),
Sergei Prokofiev,
Maurice Ravel, and others.
Igor Stravinsky composed some of the best known neoclassical works — 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
L'Histoire du Soldat is thought of as a seminal "neo-classical piece", as are his
Dumbarton Oaks Concerto and his "Symphonies of Wind Instruments", as well as his
Symphony in C. Stravinsky's neo-classicism culminated with his opera
Rake's Progress, with the book done by the well known modernist poet,
W. H. Auden.
Stravinsky's rival for a time in neo-classicism was the German Paul Hindemith, who mixed spiky dissonance, polyphony and free ranging chromaticism into a style which was "useful," a style that became known as
Gebrauchsmusik. He produced both chamber works and orchestral works in this style, perhaps most famously "Mathis der Maler". His chamber output includes his Sonata for French Horn, an expressionistic work filled with dark detail and internal connections.
Sergei Prokofiev's
Symphony No. 1 (
1917), which remains his most popular work (according to the
Prokofiev Page (External Link
)), is generally considered to be the composition that first brought this renewed interest in the
classical music era in audible form to a wide public.
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." (p.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).
Neo-classicism found a welcome audience in America, the school of
Nadia Boulanger promulgated ideas about music based on their understanding of Stravinsky's music. Students of theirs include neo-classicists
Elliott Carter (in his early years),
Aaron Copland,
Roy Harris,
Darius Milhaud,
Ástor Piazzolla and
Virgil Thomson.
Arnold Schoenberg has also sometimes been associated alongside Neoclassicism, not due to his harmonic palette but rather his clear return to classical forms and his adherence to them throughout his life, such as the Sonata-Allegro form of the first movement of his
Piano Concerto.
In Spain virtuosic harpsichordist
Wanda Landowska began a revival of baroque music playing a modernized version of the baroque harpsichord in Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Spanish composer
Manuel de Falla, being influenced by Stravinsky also began to turn "back to bach". His harpsichord concerto, Mov. 1 is more of an anti-concerto that redefines the baroque ideas of soli/tutti use. It also quotes a 16th century song by Jan Vazquez and uses thematic material from it throughout the concerto.
People often Referred to as Neoclassical Composers
Further Information
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