![Igor Stravinsky LOC 32392u](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Igor_Stravinsky_LOC_32392u.jpg)
Neoclassicism in music was a twentieth-century trend, particularly current in the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
, in which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of "
classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aestheti ...
", namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint. As such, neoclassicism was a reaction against the unrestrained emotionalism and perceived formlessness of late
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, as well as a "call to order" after the experimental ferment of the first two decades of the twentieth century. The neoclassical impulse found its expression in such features as the use of pared-down performing forces, an emphasis on rhythm and on
contrapuntal
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
texture, an updated or expanded tonal harmony, and a concentration on
absolute music
Absolute music (sometimes abstract music) is music that is not explicitly 'about' anything; in contrast to program music, it is non- representational.M. C. Horowitz (ed.), ''New Dictionary of the History of Ideas'', , vol.1, p. 5 The idea of abs ...
as opposed to Romantic
program music
Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program note ...
.
In form and thematic technique, neoclassical music often drew inspiration from music of the 18th century, though the inspiring canon belonged as frequently to the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
and even earlier periods as to the
Classical period—for this reason, music which draws inspiration specifically from the Baroque is sometimes termed ''neo-Baroque'' music. Neoclassicism had two distinct national lines of development, French (proceeding partly from the influence of
Erik Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...
and represented by
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
, who was in fact Russian-born) and German (proceeding from the "
New Objectivity
The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...
" of
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni (1 April 1866 – 27 July 1924) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. His international career and reputation led him to work closely with many of the leading musicians, artists and literary ...
, who was actually Italian, and represented by
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...
). Neoclassicism was an aesthetic trend rather than an organized movement; even many composers not usually thought of as "neoclassicists" absorbed elements of the style.
People and works
Although the term "neoclassicism" refers to a 20th-century movement, there were important 19th-century precursors. In pieces such as
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
's ''À la Chapelle Sixtine'' (1862),
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...
's ''
Holberg Suite
The ''Holberg Suite'', Op. 40, more properly ''From Holberg's Time'' (Norwegian: ''Fra Holbergs tid''), subtitled "Suite in olden style" ( no, Suite i gammel stil, links=no, italics=no), is a suite of five movements based on eighteenth-century ...
'' (1884),
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
's divertissement from ''
The Queen of Spades'' (1890),
George Enescu
George Enescu (; – 4 May 1955), known in France as Georges Enesco, was a Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history, Enescu is featured on the Romanian five lei.
Biog ...
's ''Piano Suite in the Old Style'' (1897) and
Max Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University ...
's ''Concerto in the Old Style'' (1912), composers "dressed up their music in old clothes in order to create a smiling or pensive evocation of the past".
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
's
Symphony No. 1 (
1917
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...
) is sometimes cited as a precursor of neoclassicism. Prokofiev himself thought that his composition was a "passing phase" whereas Stravinsky's neoclassicism was by the 1920s "becoming the basic line of his music".
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
also introduced neoclassical elements into his music, most notably in his orchestral suite ''
Le bourgeois gentilhomme
''Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'' (, translated as ''The Bourgeois Gentleman'', ''The Middle-Class Aristocrat'', or ''The Would-Be Noble'') is a five-act ''comédie-ballet'' – a Play (theatre), play intermingled with music, dance and singing – wri ...
'' Op. 60, written in an early version in 1911 and its final version in 1917.
Ottorino Respighi
Ottorino Respighi ( , , ; 9 July 187918 April 1936) was an Italian composer, violinist, teacher, and musicologist and one of the leading Italian composers of the early 20th century. List of compositions by Ottorino Respighi, His compositions r ...
was also one of the precursors of neoclassicism with his ''
Ancient Airs and Dances
''Ancient Airs and Dances'' ( it, Antiche arie e danze) is a set of three orchestral suites by Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, freely transcribed from original pieces for lute. In addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, Respighi ...
'' Suite No. 1, composed in 1917. Instead of looking at musical forms of the 18th century, Respighi, who, in addition to being a renowned composer and conductor, was also a notable musicologist, reached back to Italian music of the 16th and 17th century. His fellow contemporary composer
Gian Francesco Malipiero
Gian Francesco Malipiero (; 18 March 1882 – 1 August 1973) was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.
Life Early years
Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gia ...
, also a musicologist, compiled a complete edition of the works of
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered ...
. Malipiero's relation with ancient Italian music was not simply aiming at a revival of antique forms within the framework of a "return to order", but an attempt to revive an approach to composition that would allow the composer to free himself from the constraints of the sonata form and of the over-exploited mechanisms of thematic development.
[, cited from .]
Igor Stravinsky's first foray into the style began in 1919/20 when he composed the ballet ''
Pulcinella
Pulcinella (; nap, Pulecenella) is a classical character that originated in of the 17th century and became a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry. Pulcinella's versatility in status and attitude has captivated audiences worldwide and kept t ...
'', using themes which he believed to be by
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi
Giovanni Battista Draghi (; 4 January 1710 – 16 or 17 March 1736), often referred to as Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (), was an Italian Baroque composer, violinist, and organist. His best-known works include his Stabat Mater and the opera ''L ...
(it later came out that many of them were not, though they were by contemporaries). American Composer
Edward T. Cone
Edward Toner Cone (May 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American composer, music theory, music theorist, pianist, and philanthropist.
Life and career
Cone was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He studied composition under Roger Sess ...
describes the ballet “
travinskyconfronts the evoked historical manner at every point with his own version of contemporary language; the result is a complete reinterpretation and transformation of the earlier style". Later examples are the
Octet
Octet may refer to:
Music
* Octet (music), ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble
** String octet, a piece of music written for eight string instruments
*** Octet (Mendelssohn), 1825 compos ...
for winds, the
"Dumbarton Oaks" Concerto, the
Concerto in D, the
Symphony of Psalms
The ''Symphony of Psalms'' is a choral symphony in three movements composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1930 during his neoclassical period. The work was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orch ...
,
Symphony in C, and
Symphony in Three Movements
The Symphony in Three Movements is a work by Russian expatriate composer Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky wrote the symphony from 1942–45 on commission by the Philharmonic Symphony Society of New York. It was premièred by the New York Philharmoni ...
, as well as the opera-oratorio ''
Oedipus Rex
''Oedipus Rex'', also known by its Greek title, ''Oedipus Tyrannus'' ( grc, Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, ), or ''Oedipus the King'', is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. Originally, to the ancient Gr ...
'' and the ballets ''
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
'' and ''
Orpheus
Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jaso ...
'', in which the neoclassicism took on an explicitly "classical Grecian" aura. Stravinsky's neoclassicism culminated in his opera ''
The Rake's Progress
''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings ''A Rake's Progres ...
'', with a libretto by
W. H. Auden
Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...
. Stravinskian neoclassicism was a decisive influence on the French composers
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...
,
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...
,
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 to ...
and
Germaine Tailleferre
Germaine Tailleferre (; born Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse; 19 April 18927 November 1983) was a French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as ''Les Six''.
Biography
Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse was born at Sai ...
, as well as on
Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Jan Martinů (; December 8, 1890 – August 28, 1959) was a Czech composer of modern classical music. He wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. He bec ...
, who revived the Baroque
concerto grosso The concerto grosso (; Italian for ''big concert(o)'', plural ''concerti grossi'' ) is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the '' concertino'') and full orchestra (the ''ripieno'', ''tut ...
form in his works. ''Pulcinella'', as a subcategory of rearrangement of existing Baroque compositions, spawned a number of similar works, including
Alfredo Casella
Alfredo Casella (25 July 18835 March 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.
Life and career
Casella was born in Turin, the son of Maria (née Bordino) and Carlo Casella. His family included many musicians: his grandfather, a f ...
's ''Scarlattiana'' (1927), Poulenc's ''Suite Française'', Ottorino Respighi's ''Ancient Airs and Dances'' and ''
Gli uccelli
''The Birds'' ( it, Gli uccelli) is a suite for small orchestra by the Italian composer Ottorino Respighi. Dating from 1928, the work is based on music from the 17th and 18th-century and represents an attempt to transcribe birdsong into musica ...
'', and Richard Strauss's ''
Dance Suite from Keyboard Pieces by François Couperin'' and the related ''
Divertimento after Keyboard Pieces by Couperin'', Op. 86 (1923 and 1943, respectively). Starting around 1926
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...
's music shows a marked increase in neoclassical traits, and a year or two later acknowledged Stravinsky's "revolutionary" accomplishment in creating novel music by reviving old musical elements while at the same time naming his colleague
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music ed ...
as another Hungarian adherent of neoclassicism.
A German strain of neoclassicism was developed by Paul Hindemith, who produced chamber music, orchestral works, and operas in a heavily contrapuntal, chromatically inflected style, best exemplified by ''
Mathis der Maler
''Mathis der Maler'' (''Matthias the Painter'' is an opera by Paul Hindemith. The work's protagonist, Matthias Grünewald, was a historical figure who flourished during the Reformation, and whose art, in particular the Isenheim Altarpiece, inspi ...
''.
Roman Vlad
Roman Vlad (29 December 1919 – 21 September 2013) was a Romanian-born Italian composer, pianist, and musicologist.
Biography
Born in Cernăuți, Bukovina (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine), he studied with Titus Tarnawski and Liviu Russu in Romania ear ...
contrasts the "classicism" of Stravinsky, which consists in the external forms and patterns of his works, with the "classicality" of Busoni, which represents an internal disposition and attitude of the artist towards works. Busoni wrote in a letter to
Paul Bekker
Max Paul Eugen Bekker (11 September 1882 – 7 March 1937) was a German music critic and author. Described as having "brilliant style and ..extensive theoretical and practical knowledge," Bekker was chief music critic for both the ''Frankfurt ...
, "By 'Young Classicalism' I mean the mastery, the sifting and the turning to account of all the gains of previous experiments and their inclusion in strong and beautiful forms".
Neoclassicism found a welcome audience in Europe and America, as the school of
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
promulgated ideas about music based on her understanding of Stravinsky's music. Boulanger taught and influenced many notable composers, including
Grażyna Bacewicz
Grażyna Bacewicz Biernacka (; 5 February 1909 – 17 January 1969) was a Polish composer and violinist. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the ...
,
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer.
Biography
Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James Char ...
,
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...
,
Francis Chagrin
Francis Chagrin (born Alexander Paucker, 15 November 1905 – 10 November 1972), was a composer of film scores and popular orchestral music, as well as a conductor. He was also the "organizer and chief moving spirit" who founded the Society for ...
,
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...
,
David Diamond,
Irving Fine
Irving Gifford Fine (December 3, 1914 – August 23, 1962) was an American composer. Fine's work assimilated neoclassical, romantic, and serial elements. Composer Virgil Thomson described Fine's "unusual melodic grace" while Aaron Copland noted ...
,
Harold Shapero
Harold Samuel Shapero (April 29, 1920 – May 17, 2013) was an American composer.
Early years
Shapero was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1920. He and his family later moved to nearby Newton. He learned to play the piano as a chi ...
,
Jean Françaix
Jean René Désiré Françaix (; 23 May 1912, in Le Mans – 25 September 1997, in Paris) was a French neoclassicism (music), neoclassical composer, piano, pianist, and orchestration, orchestrator, known for his prolific output and vibrant style.
...
,
Roy Harris
Roy Ellsworth Harris (February 12, 1898 – October 1, 1979) was an American composer. He wrote music on American subjects, and is best known for his Symphony No. 3.
Life
Harris was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on February 12, 1898. His ancestry ...
,
Igor Markevitch
Igor Borisovich Markevitch (russian: Игорь Борисович Маркевич, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', uk, Ігор Борисович Маркевич, ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian- ...
, Darius Milhaud,
Astor Piazzolla
Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed ''nuevo tango'', incorporating elements from ...
,
Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University.
Life
Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Ha ...
,
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem (October 23, 1923 – November 18, 2022) was an American composer of contemporary classical music and writer. Best known for his art songs, which number over 500, Rorem was the leading American of his time writing in the genre. Althou ...
, and
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...
.
In Spain,
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first hal ...
's neoclassical
Concerto for Harpsichord, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, and Cello of 1926 was perceived as an expression of "universalism" (''universalismo''), broadly linked to an international, modernist aesthetic. In the first movement of the concerto, Falla quotes fragments of the 15th-century
villancico
The ''villancico'' (Spanish, ) or vilancete (Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, Pedro ...
"De los álamos, vengo madre". He had similarly incorporated quotations from 17th-century music when he first embraced neoclassicism in the puppet-theatre piece ''
El retablo de maese Pedro
' (''Master Peter's Puppet Show'') is a puppet-opera in one act with a prologue and epilogue, composed by Manuel de Falla to a Spanish libretto based on an episode from ''Don Quixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes. The libretto is an abbreviation of ch ...
'' (1919–23), an adaptation from
Cervantes's ''
Don Quixote
is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
''. Later neoclassical compositions by Falla include the 1924 chamber cantata ''Psyché'' and incidental music for
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Barreda González de Henao Ruiz de Blasco y Riaño (, ; ; 17 January 160025 May 1681) was a Spanish dramatist, poet, writer and knight of the Order of Santiago. He is known as one of the most distinguished Baroque w ...
's, ''El gran teatro del mundo'', written in 1927. In the late 1920s and early 1930s,
Roberto Gerhard
Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder (; 25 September 1896 – 5 January 1970) was a Spanish Catalan composer and musical scholar and writer, generally known outside Catalonia as Roberto Gerhard.Malcolm MacDonald. 'Gerhard, Roberto' in ''Grove Music Onl ...
composed in the neoclassical style, including his Concertino for Strings, the Wind Quintet, the cantata ''L'alta naixença del rei en Jaume'', and the ballet ''Ariel''. Other important Spanish neoclassical composers are found amongst the members of the Generación de la República (also known as the
Generación del 27
The Generation of '27 ( es, Generación del 27) was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. ...
), including
Julián Bautista
Julián Bautista (21 April 1901 – 8 July 1961) was a Spanish composer and conductor. He was a member of Generation of '27 and the Group of Eight, the latter of which also included composers Jesús Bal y Gay, Ernesto Halffter and his brother ...
,
Fernando Remacha,
Salvador Bacarisse
Salvador Bacarisse Chinoria (12 September 18985 August 1963) was a Spanish composer.
Bacarisse was born in Madrid and studied music at the Real Conservatorio de Música there, as a student of Manuel Fernández Alberdi (piano) and Conrado del Camp ...
, and
Jesús Bal y Gay.
A neoclassical aesthetic was promoted in Italy by Alfredo Casella, who had been educated in Paris and continued to live there until 1915, when he returned to Italy to teach and organize concerts, introducing modernist composers such as Stravinsky and
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
to the provincially minded Italian public. His neoclassical compositions were perhaps less important than his organizing activities, but especially representative examples include ''Scarlattiana'' of 1926, using motifs from
Domenico Scarlatti
Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti (26 October 1685-23 July 1757), was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the deve ...
's keyboard sonatas, and the ''Concerto romano'' of the same year. Casella's colleague
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (3 April 1895 – 16 March 1968) was an Italian composer, pianist and writer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In ...
wrote neoclassically-inflected works which hark back to early Italian music and classical models: the themes of his ''Concerto italiano'' in G minor of 1924 for violin and orchestra echo
Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...
as well as 16th- and 17th-century Italian folksongs, while his highly successful Guitar Concerto No. 1 in D of 1939 consciously follows
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
's concerto style.
Portuguese representatives of neoclassicism include two members of the "Grupo de Quatro",
Armando José Fernandes and Jorge Croner de Vasconcellos, both of whom studied with Nadia Boulanger.
In South America, neoclassicism was of particular importance in Argentina, where it differed from its European model in that it did not seek to redress recent stylistic upheavals which had simply not occurred in Latin America. Argentine composers associated with neoclassicism include
Jacobo Ficher
Jacobo Ficher (russian: Яков (Хакобо) Фишер; 15 January 1896 – 9 September 1978) was an Argentine composer, violinist, conductor, and music educator of Russian birth.
Life
Ficher was born in Odessa, Russia, to Alexander Ficher, ...
, ,
Luis Gianneo
Luis Gianneo (9 January 1897 – 15 August 1968) was an Argentine composer, pianist and conductor. As music educator, he was the teacher of composers Ariel Ramirez, Juan Carlos Zorzi, Marta Lambertini, , and Rodolfo Arizaga, among others. Foun ...
, and
Juan José Castro
Juan José Castro (March 7, 1895September 3, 1968) was an Argentine composer and conductor.
Born in Avellaneda, Castro studied piano and violin under Manuel Posadas and composition under Eduardo Fornarini, in Buenos Aires. In the 1920s he was a ...
. The most important 20th-century Argentine composer,
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentinian composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas.
Biography
Ginastera was born in Buen ...
, turned from nationalistic to neoclassical forms in the 1950s (e.g., Piano Sonata No. 1 and the ''Variaciones concertantes'') before moving on to a style dominated by atonal and serial techniques. Roberto Caamaño, professor of Gregorian chant at the Institute of Sacred Music in Buenos Aires, employed a dissonant neoclassical style in some works and a serialist style in others.
Although the well-known ''
Bachianas Brasileiras
The ''Bachianas Brasileiras'' () (an approximate English translation might be ''Bach-inspired Brazilian pieces'') are a series of nine Suite (music), suites by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, written for various combinations of instrum ...
'' of
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...
(composed between 1930 and 1947) are cast in the form of Baroque suites, usually beginning with a prelude and ending with a fugal or toccata-like movement and employing neoclassical devices such as ostinato figures and long pedal notes, they were not intended so much as stylized recollections of the style of
Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
as a free adaptation of Baroque harmonic and contrapuntal procedures to music in a Brazilian style. Brazilian composers of the generation after Villa-Lobos more particularly associated with neoclassicism include
Radamés Gnattali
Radamés Gnattali (27 January 1906 – 3 February 1988) was a Brazilian composer of both classical and popular music, as well as a conductor, orchestrator, and arranger.
Biography
Radamés Gnattali was born in Porto Alegre (the capital of Rio Gr ...
(in his later works),
Edino Krieger
Edino Krieger (17 March 1928 – 6 December 2022) was a Brazilian avant-garde composer, conductor, record producer and musical critic.
Life and career
Born in Brusque, Santa Catarina, the son of the composer and band leader Aldo Krieger, he s ...
, and the prolific
Camargo Guarnieri
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (February 1, 1907 – January 13, 1993) was a Brazilian composer.
Name
Guarnieri was born in Tietê, São Paulo, and registered at birth as Mozart Guarnieri, but when he began a musical career, he decided his first name ...
, who had contact with but did not study under Nadia Boulanger when he visited Paris in the 1920s. Neoclassical traits figure in Guarnieri's music starting with the second movement of the Piano Sonatina of 1928, and are particularly notable in his five piano concertos.
The Chilean composer
Domingo Santa Cruz Wilson was so strongly influenced by the German variety of neoclassicism that he became known as the "Chilean Hindemith".
In Cuba,
José Ardévol
José Ardévol (13 March 1911, in Barcelona – 7 January 1981, in Havana) was a Cuban composer and conductor of Spanish derivation.
As a child, Ardévol studied under his father, Fernando, who was a musician and conductor. He emigrated to Cub ...
initiated a neoclassical school, though he himself moved on to a modernistic national style later in his career.
Even the atonal school, represented for example by Arnold Schoenberg, showed the influence of neoclassical ideas. After his early style of 'Late Romanticism' (exemplified by his string sextet ''
Verklärte Nacht
''Verklärte Nacht'' (''Transfigured Night''), Op. 4, is a string sextet in one movement composed by Arnold Schoenberg in 1899. Composed in just three weeks, it is considered his earliest important work. It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's poe ...
'') had been supplanted by his
Atonal period, and immediately before he embraced
twelve-tone
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law o ...
serialism, the forms of Schoenberg's works after 1920, beginning with opp. 23, 24, and 25 (all composed at the same time), have been described as "openly neoclassical", and represent an effort to integrate the advances of 1908 to 1913 with the inheritance of the 18th and 19th centuries. Schoenberg attempted in those works to offer listeners structural points of reference with which they could identify, beginning with the Serenade, op. 24, and the Suite for piano, op. 25. Schoenberg's pupil
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg ( , ; 9 February 1885 – 24 December 1935) was an Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School. His compositional style combined Romantic lyricism with the twelve-tone technique. Although he left a relatively sma ...
actually came to neoclassicism before his teacher, in his
Three Pieces for Orchestra, op. 6 (1913–14), and the opera ''
Wozzeck
''Wozzeck'' () is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama ''Woyzeck'', which the German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at h ...
'', which uses closed forms such as suite, passacaglia, and rondo as organizing principles within each scene.
Anton Webern
Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...
also achieved a sort of neoclassical style through an intense concentration on the
motif. However, his 1935 orchestration of the six-part
ricercar
A ricercar ( , ) or ricercare ( , ) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. The term ''ricercar'' derives from the Italian verb which means 'to search out; to seek'; many ricercars serve a preludial functi ...
from Bach's ''
Musical Offering
''The Musical Offering'' (German: or ), BWV 1079, is a collection of keyboard canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick the Great (King Frederick II of P ...
'' is not regarded as neoclassical because of its concentration on the fragmentation of instrumental colours.
Other neoclassical composers
Some composers below may have only written music in a neoclassical style during a portion of their careers.
*
Arthur Berger (1912–2003)
*
Carlos Chávez
Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by nativ ...
(1899–1978)
*
Salvador Contreras
Salvador Contreras Sánchez (10 November 1910 – 7 November 1982) was a Mexican composer and violinist, a member of the Grupo de los cuatro.
Life
Contreras was born in Cuerámaro, Guanajuato, the son of José Contreras and Nemoria Sánchez. H ...
(1910–1982)
*
Pierre Gabaye
Pierre Gabaye (February 20, 1930 - November 1, 2019) was a French composer.
His musical education began at age seven on piano, which led him to pursue a career as a pianist and composer in both the classical and jazz spheres. He studied piano wit ...
(1930-2019)
*
Harald Genzmer
Harald or Haraldr is the Old Norse form of the given name Harold. It may refer to:
Medieval Kings of Denmark
* Harald Bluetooth (935–985/986)
Kings of Norway
* Harald Fairhair (c. 850–c. 933)
* Harald Greycloak (died 970)
* Harald Hardrada ...
(1909–2007)
*
Giorgio Federico Ghedini
Giorgio Federico Ghedini (11 July 189225 March 1965) was an Italian composer. In addition to orchestral works, in 1949 he premiered a one-act opera based on the American novella '' Billy Budd'' by Herman Melville.
Life
Ghedini was born in Cuneo ...
(1892–1965)
*
Vagn Holmboe
Vagn Gylding Holmboe (, 20 December 1909 – 1 September 1996) was a Danish composer and teacher.
Life
Vagn Holmboe was born in Horsens, Jutland, into a merchant family of dedicated amateur musicians. Both parents played the piano. His fath ...
(1909–1996)
*
Stefan Kisielewski
Stefan Kisielewski (7 March 1911 in Warsaw – 27 September 1991 in Warsaw, Poland), nicknames Kisiel, Julia Hołyńska, Teodor Klon, Tomasz Staliński, was a Polish writer, publicist, composer and politician, and one of the members of Znak, one ...
(1911–1991)
*
Iša Krejčí (1904–1968)
*
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study ...
(1900–1991)
*
Marcel Mihalovici
Marcel Mihalovici (Bucharest, 22 October 1898 – Paris, 12 August 1985) was a French composer born in Romania. He was discovered by George Enescu in Bucharest. He moved to Paris in 1919 (at age 21) to study under Vincent d'Indy. His works include ...
(1898–1985)
*
Giorgio Pacchioni
Giorgio Pacchioni (born July 16, 1947) is an Italian performer, professor, and composer.
Life
He has held the chair of recorder at the Conservatorio G.B. Martini in Bologna (Italy) from 1977 to 2006, when he retired and moved to Ubatuba (Brazi ...
(b. 1947)
*
Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 3 March 2003) was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). ...
(1904–2003)
*
Gabriel Pierné
Henri Constant Gabriel Pierné (16 August 1863 – 17 July 1937) was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist.
Biography
Gabriel Pierné was born in Metz. His family moved to Paris, after Metz and part of Lorraine were annexed to Germ ...
(1863–1937)
*
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...
(1875–1937)
*
Knudåge Riisager
Knudåge Riisager (6 March 1897 in Kunda, Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia follow ...
(1897–1974)
*
Albert Roussel
Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His ...
(1869–1937)
*
Alexandre Tansman
Alexander Tansman ( pl, Aleksander Tansman, link=no, French: Alexandre Tansman; 12 June 1897 – 15 November 1986) was a Polish composer, pianist and conductor who became a naturalized French citizen in 1938. One of the earliest representatives of ...
(1897–1986)
*
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten ...
(1905–1998)
*
Dag Wirén
Dag Ivar Wirén (15 October 1905 – 19 April 1986) was a Swedish composer.
Life
Wirén was born at Striberg near Nora. His father had a roller blind factory, and there were various musical activities in the family home; he took piano lessons, ...
(1905–1986)
See also
*
Neoromanticism
*
Neotonality Neotonality (or Neocentricity) is an inclusive term referring to musical compositions of the twentieth century in which the tonality of the common-practice period (i.e. functional harmony and tonic-dominant relationships) is replaced by one or seve ...
Sources
*
*
* Reprinted in ''Essential Cowell: Selected Writings on Music by Henry Cowell 1921–1964'', edited by Richard Carter Higgins and Bruce McPherson, preface by Kyle Gann, pp. 299–303. Kingston, New York City: Documentext, 2002. .
*
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*
*
*
*
*
Footnotes
Further reading
*
*
*
*
* .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neoclassicism (Music)
Interwar period
20th-century classical music