Music 2711F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Ostinato, Reichsmusikkammer, Degenerate Music
Document Summary
Branded music that was intellectual, leftist or written by jews degenerate . Sough to remove modern art from german life, didn"t like overthinking of art. Scores of music and articles by these composers. Anxiety about threat of outside german values. Orff: carmina burana german neo-paganism intended to suit nazi"s preferences. Strauss: president of reichsmusikkammer- great power of german music scene for a time. Olive messiaen, quartet for the end of time (1940) Written for fellow prisoners: cello, violin, piano, clarinet. Atonal work with cycles of rhythms and pitches. See love of nature in birdsong quotation: beauty of natural world. Independent treatment of pitch and rhythm including cycles of ostinato. Non-retrograde able, palindromic rhythms: patterns one forward and backward, captures idea of perfection of universe. Shift center of art music from germany to america. Politics impacted music in profound ways in 20th c. Nazi"s transformed germany from cultural center to cultural backwater.