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Neoclassic and Anachronistic Impulses in Twentieth-Century Music Author(S): Martha M Society for Music Theory Neoclassic and Anachronistic Impulses in Twentieth-Century Music Author(s): Martha M. Hyde Source: Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 200-235 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Music Theory Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/746024 Accessed: 03-09-2018 00:26 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: https://www.jstor.org/stable/746024?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Oxford University Press, Society for Music Theory are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Music Theory Spectrum This content downloaded from 129.74.250.206 on Mon, 03 Sep 2018 00:26:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Neoclassic and Anachronistic Impulses in Twentieth-Century Music Martha M. Hyde PREFACE The theoretical confusion surrounding neoclassicism in music mandates an introduction placing some of the various Any attempt to work out a theory of neoclassicism impulses in mu- that can be termed "neoclassical" in a general con- sic, or even to give coherent content to the term, textconfronts of historicism in the arts. After a brief review of the a long history of careless or tendentious usage. Alone confused among usages of "neoclassicism" in music, I propose sev- the other arts-architecture, painting, literature-music eral categories has helpful in talking about the uses of the past been unable to distinguish between genuine neoclassical in twentieth-century music. I identify two general modes of works and those that wear a ruffle here or perform returning a dance to the classics -antiquarianism and accommodation step there as witty gestures or momentary satires -andin an argue al- that the latter is the more important in under- lusive pantomime. This article works toward a theory standing of neo- twentieth-century music. I then describe two com- classicism inductively, through four extended analyses mon meant modes of accommodation: allegory and what, for want to illustrate four distinct impulses or strategies by which of a better early term, I call metamorphic anachronism. Allegorical twentieth-century composers have created modern interpretations works have characterized several important recent that engage or reconstruct the past without sacrificing discussions their of neoclassicism in twentieth-century music, in- own integrity in the history of styles. Because my cluding aims arethose by Burkholder and Straus. Metamorphic anach- broadly synthetic, I have chosen pieces that have been ronism, much the less direct but more important access to the past, analyzed by others, and I draw on several published involves analyses various kinds of imitation. Any imitation involves to demonstrate how representative analyses can be anachronismorganized when two different period-styles confront each into a broader and less technical understanding ofother, neoclas- but not all uses of anachronism are neoclassic (as, for sicism. example, in parodies). I then identify four general types of imitation (reverential, eclectic, heuristic, and dialectical), each a mode of metamorphic anachronism, and each illus- trated with an analysis meant less to be the last word, how- I wish to express my gratitude to David Lewin for thoughtful comments ever temporary, on its subject, than to suggest a mode of on an earlier draft of this article. attention and argument that others may want to explore. This content downloaded from 129.74.250.206 on Mon, 03 Sep 2018 00:26:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Neoclassic and Anachronistic Impulses in Twentieth-Century Music 201 THE USES OF ANACHRONISM the model composition do not recognize or engage the his- torical processes that separate them from the "Classics"; they Whenever any kind of secular canon-formation do not occurs-- strive to put anachronism to work. By contrast, the whenever any choice of authorities or models formore eithergeneral varieties ped- of musical neoclassicism explored here agogy or new artistic creation is made-T. S. Eliot's do not questionrequire any predetermined identification of classical "What is a classic?" arises inescapably.1 A classic style. What is a makespast a classic in this broader sense is being work that remains or becomes relevant and available as a chosen as a model for some sort of anachronism, some man- model, or can be made so through various techniques ner of of crossing the distance that divides the new work from accommodation discussed below. When an age or an artist its model. denies that there are classics or that they can serve as models There is one difficulty in applying the term neoclassical in (which is close to the same thing), then an old--even its a broader sense to twentieth-century music. A twentieth- classic-quarrel is joined: the ancients versus the moderns.2 century recreation of a baroque suite is neobaroque, but also Among the modernisms of the early twentieth century, music neoclassical in this broader sense. Although confusing, this is almost alone in striving to be modern as well as ancient--to is in fact ordinary usage in writing about twentieth-century be neoclassical. music. Schoenberg's Piano Suite, op. 25, unquestionably fol- Neoclassicism, of course, has another, narrower definition lows a baroque model, but is commonly grouped among than the one suggested above: the borrowing of conventions Schoenberg's neoclassical works. One might try to clear up and devices characteristic of what is generally agreed to thisbe confusing usage by restricting neoclassical to the narrow "Classical" style. Most Roman sculpture is neoclassical in sense,this reserving it for imitations of models in the classical sense of the term. So is a courthouse fronted with Doric style. I do not choose this remedy, for two reasons. First, the columns, although such a building invokes an idea of the state general sense has too much richness of implication in other that goes beyond mere style. In music, classical style disciplines.has We should not impoverish our professional dis- nothing to do with Antiquity, of course, and we would not course by cutting it off from questions like Eliot's, "What is refer to a superb sonata in the style of Haydn or Mozart aby Classic?" Second, we impoverish our understanding, even a student in a model composition course as neoclassical. of Inpieces within the narrow sense, if by emphasizing surface music, as in poetry, mere borrowing of stylistic features, how-features our terminology encourages neglect of the meaning ever successful, does not make a neoclassic, because mere of the composer's engagement with the past. In the examples borrowing does not involve an effort to resume or revive an that follow, that meaning is sometimes political, but we out-of-date tradition. The Roman bust, the courthouse, and should not simply substitute a set of political ideas for the old repertoire of stylistic conventions. Nothing said so far should be controversial. But the works and scholarship of early twentieth-century music amply illus- 1T. S. Eliot, "What is a Classic?" in On Poetry and Poets (New York: trate a confusing variety of answers to the question "What is Noonday Press, 1968), 52-74. 2Frank Kermode, The Classic (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard a neoclassic?" The clearest instance of this confusion is among University Press, 1983), 15-16. The Classic rewards close reading for those the standard surveys of twentieth-century music, which al- interested in the vagaries of musical "classics." most always include chapters entitled "Neoclassicism," This content downloaded from 129.74.250.206 on Mon, 03 Sep 2018 00:26:34 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 202 Music Theory Spectrum though seldom without some sort of disclaimer.3 No two his- Negative evaluations of neoclassicism seem to find their torians seem to agree which composers ought to be called most forceful proponents among composers, who have ar- neoclassical. Bryan Simms in his recent survey lists the prin- tistic agendas of their own that exacerbate the ambiguities cipal neoclassicists as Stravinsky, Poulenc, Milhaud, Hon- investing historical assessment. Beginning with his notorious egger, Strauss, Hindemith, Britten, and Tippett.4 Robert "Schoenberg is Dead," Pierre Boulez has relentlessly cam- Morgan omits Strauss, but adds Bart6k, Ravel (in his later paigned against the compositional schools that proliferated music), and Schoenberg (in his twelve-tone music).5 William between the wars and were "distinguished from each other Austin's even more extensive list includes, among others, only by vague poetic principles as poor in definition as in Debussy, Reger, and Prokofiev.6 Any of us so foolhardy as content."8 Composers continue to echo Boulez's attack. Not to ask students on a final exam "Name the major neoclassical that long ago-in 1971-Milton Babbitt branded neoclassi- composers of the twentieth century and defend your choices" cism a meaningless slogan, an advertising gimmick in the would have to give credit for almost any list. marketing of modern music.9 The confusion evident in historical surveys is matched by Theorists typically have taken another tack, but not a more scholars' varied accounts of neoclassicism. Some argue that fruitful one. Most have dodged the issue of neoclassicism by the ambiguities investing the term derive from semantic treating it as a matter of surface mannerisms, divorced from change, nationalistic prejudices, and the polemical torsion "real" musical concerns like compositional structure.
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