florida state university college of music performance practice

Furthermore, the conviction known as historicism was also present in society.
Principle to historicism is the belief that history is a „discoverable reality‟ and that
creations of art have an enduring quality. 70 Beliefs of historicism around the middle of
the century were embodied and exemplified in Suzanne Langer‟s work, who believed that
art works are symbolic of human feelings, preserved through time, and await
rediscovery. 71
However, like many philosophies there are inherent paradoxes. For example, in
modernism the listener should prefer the music made new rather than of the past. 72 Many
critics of the movement would assert that instead of embracing music of a modern era
performers chose instead to make a new performance style on repertory of the past.
Richard Taruskin points out the term modernism is a misnomer because to accept that
modernism is pertaining to the present means that all humans, since we cannot live at any
other time than the present, have been part of a modernist reality. 73 Therefore, as
Taruskin exposes, modernism is more of a commitment to certain ideals than a
condition. 74
Despite these complications, this philosophy, or parts of this philosophy,
manifested itself into music circles in various ways. The focus on scientific and objective
discoveries found way in the examination of treatises, returning to urtext editions, and
recovering lost works. The obsession of finding the one true, authentic interpretation of
the composer and transmitting it rather than making an individual interpretation are all
hallmarks of modernism and positivism in music. Furthermore, there was a call for a
moratorium against pathos as represented by the expressive devices like tempo rubato
and dynamic excesses. 75 Many recent writers like Kenyon, 1988 and Taruskin, 1995,
2005, have attributed such objectivist and literalist teachings to musical personalities like
Stravinsky, Hindemith and Bartók. Together with the increasingly popular influence of
70
Roland Jackson, “Invoking a Past or Imposing a Present? Two Views of Performance Practice.”
Performance Practice Review, vol. 9.1 (Spring 1996): 2.
71
Suzanne Langer, Feeling and Form: a Theory of Art. (New York: Charles Scribner‟s Sons, 1953), 401.
72
Richard Taruskin, The Early Twentieth Century, vol. 4 of The Oxford History of Western Music (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2005), 1.
73
Ibid.
74
Ibid.
75
Taruskin, The Early Twentieth Century, 475.
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