Neoclassicism: definition

The term ‘Neoclassicism’ suggests a return to ‘classical’ values and qualities of art. Whereas
arts and architecture looks back to ancient Greece, in music the ‘classical’ model is often seen
in the 18th-century music of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven. The development of the
term ‘Neoclassicism’ is quite complex. Suffice it to say that the now common understanding
of the term crystallised in French critical discourse around the time of the First World War in
conjunction with the emergence of the Parisian avant-garde. In its post-war sense,
Neoclassicism was first used in connection with the music of Igor Stravinsky in the early
1920s. It was applied to those pieces of Stravinsky which made recognisable allusions to
characteristic clichés of 18th-century music.

Vocabulary of Neoclassicism

The term carried with itself a particular descriptive language which included adjectives such
as ‘simple’, ‘straightforward’, ‘objective’, ‘pure’, ‘concise’ or ‘economic’. It is intriguing
that this vocabulary had already been used in descriptions of Stravinsky’s earlier wartime
pieces, which made no reference to the past. Even more interestingly, the same language was
common in descriptions of contemporary avant-garde art such as the ‘cubist’ paintings of
Picasso and Braque or the poetry of Apollinaire.1

These observations allow two preliminary conclusions: the generic aesthetic tenets of
French musical Neoclassicism are common to music and other avant-garde arts and they can
be to a large extent divorced from reference to the past.

Neoclassicism as a reaction against fin-de-siècle

To understand the vocabulary of Neoclassicism correctly, three further points need to be

made:

1) Firstly, Neoclassicism was largely defined by negation. The tendency to return to the
‘classical’ qualities of art was a reaction against the formal and expressive excess of
fin-de-siècle art.
2) Secondly, Neoclassicism was never a purely aesthetic concept. As a part of French
avant-garde movement, it was in opposition to the immediately preceding era of fin-
de-siècle, its art, culture, social norms and political systems. Therefore,

1
Messing, Neoclassicism in Music, p. 108.
 3) Thirdly, Neoclassicism was never entirely devoid of ideological agenda of some sort.

French nationalism

In France, the vocabulary of Neoclassicism was often mixed with nationalist rhetoric. It was a
common perception among French musicians that the natural development of French musical
tradition was broken in the 19th century by the overriding influence of German music, namely
that of Richard Wagner. In this sense, Neoclassicism was an attempt to bypass Romanticism
and return to the pre-nineteenth-century roots of French music, which supposedly preserved
the nation’s ‘classical’ spirit.

Jean Cocteau

A characteristic mixture of nationalist rhetoric and avant-garde aesthetics can be found in

Jean Cocteau’s highly influential 1918 pamphlet Cock and Harlequin. Cocteau renounced the
‘Impressionist’ music of Claude Debussy which, he believed, was corrupted by Wagner’s
influence. In describing Impressionism as foggy, ‘blurred’ and ‘fluid’ 2, Cocteau invoked the
above discussed ‘Neoclassical’ vocabulary. He advocated the return to simplicity and clarity
of lines and design.

Cocteau saw the apostle of ‘new’ French music in the person of Erik Satie, a
composer oscillating between the realms of ‘serious’ art music and the popular musical
entertainment of cabaret and music-hall. Cocteau highlighted the ‘clarity’ and ‘simplicity’ of
Satie’s music, which he portrayed as the embodiment of French ‘classical’ spirit. In doing so,
he marginalised the ironic and subversive side of Satie’s music, informed by spirit of
DADA.3

If, then, Satie represents a particular strand of French musical Neoclassicism, this
must be strikingly different from that of Stravinsky. Satie questioned radically the traditional
notion of ‘high’ and autonomous musical art, which Stravinsky to a large extent retained. The
musicologist Jane Fulcher argued that Stravinsky was preoccupied with the ‘laws’ of musical
syntax, whereas Satie engaged in experimental play with musical meaning. 4 Fulcher describes
the latter approach to Neoclassicism as ‘critical dismantling of inherited cultural languages’.
This was achieved by experimental juxtaposition of oppositional traditions such as ‘old’ and
‘new’, ‘high’ and ‘low’, ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’, ‘tragic’ and ‘comic’, etc.
2
Cocteau, Call to Order, p. 16.
3
Fulcher, The Composer as Intellectual, p. 170.
4
Fulcher, The Composer as Intellectual, p. 155.
Jean Cocteau and Karel Teige

Let me continue by comparing Cocteau’s ideas to those of Czech avant-garde theorist Karel
Teige. In the early 1920s, Teige formulated the concept of Poetism, which influenced
significantly Czech avant-garde art of the decade. Poetism was a utopian vision of the
interpenetration of ‘art’ and ‘life’, underpinned by the belief that profound social
transformation would take place as a result of global proletarian revolution. In accord with
Marxist materialism, Poetism shifted emphasis from intellectual contemplation of art to its
sensual perception. As a result of this recourse to corporeality and sensuality, gymnastics and
sports were elevated to the realm of art.5

High vs. Low

Such re-definition of the boundaries of art was due to a crisis of art’s relevance to modern
life. It was a common perception that 19th-century art had drifted too far into the realm of
metaphysics, mythical past, Titanism of Romantic heroes and self-indulgent individualism. In
order to bring art down to earth, to make it relevant to the modern reality of human life, both
Cocteau and Teige advocated recourse to ‘low’ art such as cabaret, music hall, circus, jazz,
etc. However, their justifications of this tendency were slightly different. Cocteau argued that
‘high’ art was corrupted by Wagner’s influence whereas the forms of popular music
preserved the pure spirit of the nation. From Teige’s perspective, ‘high’ art was a product of
the ‘old’ social order whereas ‘low’ art was more likely to become part of everyday life of the
masses.

‘Structure’ vs. ‘Ornament’: Materialism, constructivism and the body

Condemning the ‘fluidity’ of Impressionism, Cocteau claimed: [QUOTE] ‘I want someone

to build me music I can live in, like a house.’ [UNQUOTE] Elsewhere he suggested that art
should take lesson from modern industry and architecture, in which he saw a ‘classical’
element:
[QUOTE] Machinery and American buildings resemble Greek art in so far as their utility endows them
with an aridity and grandeur devoid of any superfluity. [UNQUOTE]

The parallel with architecture is apt, since Teige was a fervent advocate of architectural
Purism and Functionalism. These styles were underpinned by the belief in the primacy of
‘structure’ over ‘ornament’. In Teige’s case, this duality between ‘concrete’ and ‘elusive’

5
Teige, ‘Manifest poetismu’, p. 592, translation mine.
resonates with Marx’s schema of ‘base’ and ‘superstructure’, which in turn associates the
oppositional pair of ‘body’ and ‘spirit’.
Iša Krejčí: The Notion of Modernity in Today’s Music (1928)
Teige seldom referred specifically to music, but his ideas did not pass unnoticed among
Czech composers. In 1928, Iša Krejčí wrote an article entitled ‘The Notion of Modernity in
Today’s Music’, in which he characterised ‘Neoclassicism’ in terms of Teige’s theories.
Krejčí argued that the old ‘content’-dominated ‘tendentious’ art must be replaced by
‘pure art’ which is ‘devoid of extra-artistic content’. New art was to be ‘physiological’ and
‘functional’.6 His explication of these terms accords with Teige’s ideas in three ways: the
proposed art discards all inessential elements, it appeals primarily to the body, and it is
widely accessible and collective in nature, thus serving the case of Marxist ideology.
[QUOTE] ‘Physiological art is rightfully collective, since nobody can resist the physiological effect of
rhythm or a beautiful, natural, and thus […] appealing melody. [… It] does not want to be a vehicle of
[subjective] personal expression […] but, being based on solid craftsmanship, it aspires to serve well its
social function. [… It] stems from […] today’s reality, [it serves] the needs of the time and rejects
individualism and content…’7 [UNQUOTE]
Finally, Krejčí forged a link between the above outlined tendencies and classical music:
[QUOTE] ‘[classical music] also wanted above all to be a good craft, pure music, it also drew on
contemporary popular music, its ideals being clarity and functionality.’ [UNQUOTE]
The ‘classical’ and the ‘primitive’: Emil František Burian’s Jazz (1927)
Krejčí’s emphasis on the link between classical and popular music is intriguing. The twofold
attraction to these seemingly oppositional sources has already been observed in connection
with Cocteau and Satie. In fact, both tendencies often went hand in hand, having in common
the opposition to pre-war arts and culture.
At the time, the ultimate novelty in modern popular music was jazz. In the Czech
context, jazz was most fervently advocated by the composer E. F. Burian, who was closely
affiliated with Teige’s circles. In his 1927 book entitled simply ‘Jazz’ Burian expressed the
belief that the ‘primitive’ roots of jazz, combined with a certain amount of ‘classical’ artifice
and craftsmanship would yield a new art form, a characteristic product of twentieth-century
modern urban industrial world.
Unconcerned with ethnographic authenticity, Burian celebrated the appropriation of
African row dances into the performances of the so-called ‘girls’ in American revues. He

6
Quoted in Bek, Avantgarda, p. 177. Although Krejčí’s term ‘účelný’ translates literally as ‘purposeful’, the
adjective ‘functional’ seems to be more suitable, especially since this whole idea is clearly derived from Teige’s
notion of ‘constructivism’, which found its ultimate manifestation in ‘functionalist’ architecture.
7
Quoted in Bek, Avantgarda, pp. 177–178.
admired the fusion of dance and gymnastics, machine-like precision and coordination. In his
view, American revue achieved a synthesis of music, dance and theatre, thus fulfilling the
visions of Russian theorists of theatre Tairov and Meyerhold.8
Similarly, Burian celebrated the orchestra of Paul Whiteman as a ‘classical’
continuation of the original New Orleans jazz. Jazzband music reminded Burian of Mozart’s
‘lightness of invention’.9 He also argued that, in terms of instrumentation, jazzband displayed
‘classical’ economy of means which made it capable of [QUOTE] ‘creating a form of
supreme absolute clarity and pure Mozartian texture’.10 [UNQUOTE] Burian even invoked
the use of minuet in 18th century classical music to legitimise the use of modern dances in
contemporary compositions.
Jazz and dance music
For Marxist thinkers like Burian, modern dances had particular ideological significance. In
his view, the awkward movements of Charleston subverted the neat elegance of old-
fashioned social dances thus making an ideological statement against the hypocritical
manners of decadent bourgeois society. An element of social equality was seen in the
popularity and accessibility of modern dances across all social classes. Modern dances
connoted joy, optimism, physical and mental health; they were supposed to entice hope in a
better future.
Conclusion
It may seem that I have drifted a long way from the original subject of my talk. Yet such was
the nature of the avant-garde discourse in which the idea of Neoclassicism was embedded. It
was conducted in terms of binary oppositions, putting into alignment aesthetic, philosophical,
and ideological categories, using examples and metaphors from virtually all artistic
disciplines, be it painting, architecture, theatre or film. The outcome of this research can be
summarised in three points:
1) Firstly, the deconstruction of the notion of French musical Neoclassicism shows
how deeply it was embedded in avant-garde thought and how closely it was
related to other artistic disciplines

8
Burian, Jazz, p. 57.
9
Burian, Jazz, p. 28.
10
Burian, Jazz, p. 26: ‘… jazz-band [je] jedinečným uměleckým útvarem [schopným] tvořiti formu neskonalé
absolutní jasnosti a čisté mozartovské faktury’.
 2) Secondly, my paper shows how different ideological views – nationalist Right or
Marxist Left – were mapped on the string of binary oppositions, often seeking to
legitimise radical departures from the tradition.
3) Finally, this research provides a conceptual basis for further analytical enquiry.
Since most writers only provided very generic descriptions of what the music-
specific parameters of Neoclassicism should be, discourse analysis must be
complemented by music analysis. Detailed scrutiny of ‘Neoclassical’
compositions will hopefully reveal how the generic concepts outlined in this paper
were ‘encoded’ in the medium of music.

And that, obviously, is what I will try to do in my research…

Thank you