A NEW ATTITUDE TOWARD THE “CLASSICS”?

ex. 9-2b Serge Prokofieff, Love for Three Oranges, Act III, scene 3, fig. 391 (the second princess begs for water)
Unlike so many modernist classics, then, The Love for Three Oranges is easy to enjoy once the shock of its novelty has worn off. It was one of the harbingers of that revolution in taste, begotten (it is true) of misery, that cultivated hygienic belly laughs to replace the neurasthenic wheezing of prewar “decadence,” a therapeutic against late, late romanticism’s gangrenous grandiosity. From this standpoint the emblematic moment, just as it was for Gozzi, is the scene of the hypochondriac Prince’s cure in act II. At the sight of Fata Morgana’s knobby knees and withered behind, the Prince goes into gales of laughter, represented in the music by a little set piece over an ostinato (Ex. 9-4a), and with the Prince’s “ha-ha-ha-HA” an inevitable parody of the opening unison in… need it be named?
- 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. 27 Jan. 2021. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-009003.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 27 Jan. 2021, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-009003.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 27 Jan. 2021, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-009003.xml