Interwar symphonies and the imagination : politics, identity, and the sound of 1933 / Emily MacGregor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacGregor, Emily Jean, 1987- author.

Series:

Music in context

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Symphony--20th century.

Symphony.

Music--Social aspects--History--20th century.

Music.

Music--Political aspects--History--20th century.

Nineteen thirty-three, A.D.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 269 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

The symphony has long been entangled with ideas of self and value. Though standard historical accounts suggest that composers' interest in the symphony was almost extinguished in the early 1930s, this book makes plain the genre's continued cultural dominance, and argues that the symphony can illuminate issues around space/geography, race, and postcolonialism in Germany, France, Mexico, and the United States. Focusing on a number of symphonies composed or premiered in 1933, this book recreates some of the cultural and political landscapes of an uncertain historical moment-a year when Hitler took power in Germany, and the Great Depression reached its peak in the United States. Interwar Symphonies and the Imagination asks what North American and European symphonies from the early 1930s can tell us about how people imagined selfhood during a period of international insecurity and political upheaval, of expansionist and colonial fantasies, scientised racism, and emergent fascism.

Contents:

Between Europe and America : Kurt Weill's Symphony in a Suitcase

Listening for the Intimsphäre in Hans Pfitzner's Symphony in C♯ Minor : Berlin

Liberalism, Race, and the American West in Roy Harris's Symphony 1933 : Boston - New York

Aaron Copland's and Carlos Chávez's Pan American Bounding Line : New York - Mexico City

Arthur Honegger's 'modernised Eroica' : Paris - Berlin

The Right Kind of Symphonist : Florence Price and Kurt Weill New York & Chicago 1933-1934 - London.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Jan 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009172776 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.