Contents

Music in the Early Twentieth Century

HYSTERIA

Chapter:
CHAPTER 1 Reaching (for) Limits
Source:
MUSIC IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
Author(s):
Richard Taruskin

But now we are broaching a far more important reason why the end of Elektra deserves comment—one that has little or nothing to do with the artifices of musical maximalism per se, but lots to do with their pretext. Within the modernist narrative itself, the pretext of artistic innovation is always progress, liberation, and the authentic value that only the renewal of methods and resources can confer. In the case of Elektra, and perhaps even more in that of Salome, the destructive power the title characters wield over the men in their lives, read in the context of the contemporaneous social emancipation of women, is nowadays often read as a feminist allegory as well.

Citation (MLA):
Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Reaching (for) Limits." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2025. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-001015.xml>.
Citation (APA):
Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 1 Reaching (for) Limits. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Early Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 7 Feb. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-001015.xml
Citation (Chicago):
Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Reaching (for) Limits." In Music in the Early Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 7 Feb. 2025, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-001015.xml
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