CHAPTER 9 Lost—or Rejected—Illusions
Prokofieff; Satie Again; Berg’s Wozzeck; Neue Sachlichkeit, Zeitoper, Gebrauchsmusik (Hindemith, Krenek, Weill); Korngold, Rachmaninoff, and a New Stile Antico
Richard Taruskin
Cynical modernism born of postwar disillusion was nowhere more pervasive than in theater, hitherto preeminently the art of illusion. “Illusionist,” in fact, was the name derisively given by the hardened modernists of the twenties to the traditional theater, which thought of itself as realistic. There was no contradiction, really. Precisely to the extent that it strove to convince spectators that the staged and scripted action they were witnessing was real, the realistic theater obviously traded in illusion. Not that anybody was ever really convinced, of course; but audiences were eager to play along with conventions, whether of romanticism or of realism, for the sake of the emotional payoff they received in return for their “willing suspension of disbelief, which constitutes poetic faith.”1 (The famous quoted phrase is by the English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.)
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 9 Lost—or Rejected—Illusions." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2019. <http://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-chapter-009.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 9 Lost—or Rejected—Illusions. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Early Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 22 Feb. 2019, from http://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-chapter-009.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 9 Lost—or Rejected—Illusions." In Music in the Early Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 22 Feb. 2019, from http://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-chapter-009.xml