Overview

Music Divided explores how political pressures affected musical life on both sides of the iron curtain during the early years of the cold war. In this groundbreaking study, Danielle Fosler-Lussier illuminates the pervasive political anxieties of the day through particular attention to artistic, music-theoretical, and propagandistic responses to the music of Hungary's most renowned twentieth-century composer, Béla Bartók. She shows how a tense period of political transition plagued Bartók's music and imperiled those who took a stand on its aesthetic value in the emerging socialist state. Her fascinating investigation of Bartók's reception outside of Hungary demonstrates that Western composers, too, formulated their ideas about musical style under the influence of ever-escalating cold war tensions. Music Divided surveys Bartók's role in provoking negative reactions to ""accessible"" music from Pierre Boulez, Hermann Scherchen, and Theodor Adorno. It considers Bartók's influence on the youthful compositions and thinking of Bruno Maderna and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and it outlines Bartók's legacy in the music of the Hungarian composers András Mihály, Ferenc Szabó, and Endre Szervánszky. These details reveal the impact of local and international politics on the selection of music for concert and radio programs, on composers' choices about musical style, on government radio propaganda about music, on the development of socialist realism, and on the use of modernism as an instrument of political action.

Full Product Details

Author:   Danielle Fosler-Lussier
Publisher:   University of California Press
Imprint:   University of California Press
Edition:   Annotated edition
Volume:   7
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.499kg
ISBN:  

9780520249653

ISBN 10:   0520249658
Pages:   252
Publication Date:   24 May 2007
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Preface Note on Hungarian Pronunciation 1. Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and the Demise of Hungary's Third Road 2. A Compromised Composer: Bartok's Music and Western Europe's Fresh Start 3. Bartok Is Ours : The Voice of America and Hungarian Control over Bartok's Legacy 4. Bartok and His Publics: Defining the Modern Classic 5. Beyond the Folk Song; or, What Was Hungarian Socialist Realist Music? 6. The Bartok Question and the Politics of Dissent: The Case of Andras Mihaly Epilogue East: Bartok's Difficult Truths and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Epilogue West: Bartok's Legacy and George Rochberg's Postmodernity Appendix 1: Compositions by Bartok Broadcast on Hungarian Radio, 18 September to 1 October 1950 Appendix 2: Biographical Notes Notes Selected Bibliography Index

Reviews

A nuanced analysis ... Demonstrates with great clarity relationships between aesthetic questions and broader political and social issues. --European History Qtly

A nuanced analysis ... Demonstrates with great clarity relationships between aesthetic questions and broader political and social issues. European History Qtly 20100420

Author Information

Danielle Fosler-Lussier is Assistant Professor of Music at The Ohio State University.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions