SOME MORE TROUBLING POLITICS
The authoritarian control thus vested in the text (and behind the text, in the composer) has obvious political parallels, and there is no evading its relationship to the rise of totalitarianism in postwar Europe. That relationship was not a direct or causal one. Neither brought about the other, nor does an antiromantic compositional style or performance practice necessarily commit a musician to totalitarian politics. To cite a famous counterexample, one of the most influential literalists among twentieth-century performers, the conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957), who so famously exhorted the musicians he led to play Com’è scritto (“Just as written”), was famous for his opposition to the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and later to the German dictator Adolf Hitler. Conversely, some totalitarian regimes, notably the Soviet dictatorship in Russia, would support the production of “vitalist” or neoromantic music as a palliative influence on the population.
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 Pathos Is Banned." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2024. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-008007.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 8 Pathos Is Banned. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Early Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 12 Oct. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-008007.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 8 Pathos Is Banned." In Music in the Early Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 12 Oct. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-008007.xml
