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Narratives of Isolation
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Resumo(s)
The narrowing of audience appeal in modernist art has been portrayed as inescapable in writings linked to an early twentieth-century avant-garde that cultivated the ideology of aesthetic autonomy. True art was deemed incompatible with the mass culture that developed concomitantly with the process of modernisation of society. Furthermore, the rise of formalistic approaches tilted the critical focus towards the artistic object itself, rather than its ability to move an observer or listener in either rhetorical or purely emotional terms. Given its ineluctable performativity, applying to music performance this narrative of isolation from the audience seems problematic. Yet, some performers within the early twentieth-century Austro-German tradition regarded themselves as part of a modernist musical avant-garde founded, among other aspects, on the concept of aesthetic autonomy. Drawing in part from an idealised performative ethos of nineteenth-century figures associated with absolute music, they pioneered an avowedly more objective, restrained, and analytical performance style than their predecessors, purposefully programming and recording challenging repertoire instead of audience favourites. To what extent, and how, did these performers frame their relationship to the audience within a modernist ideology of aesthetic autonomy? In spite of an initially unfavourable reception, the innovative interpretative approach taken by these musicians surged in popularity from the 1920s onwards. What did this new balance between isolation and adulation entail for them, as well as for subsequent generations of modernist performers? In this paper, by relying on writings, critiques, concert programmes, and recording databases, we explore how narratives of isolation by modernist pianists in the early twentieth-century Austro-German tradition reflected a coeval avant-garde framework of aesthetic autonomy, conflicting with their actual developing reception. As their practice became conventionalised, adopted by ensuing generations, acclaimed by audiences, and spread into mainstream repertoire, the success of this avant-garde dictated the demise of its own avant-gardism in performance.
Descrição
UIDB/00693/2020
UIDP/00693/2020
Palavras-chave
Performance Studies Aesthetics Modernism Early 20th Pianists Avant-Garde