The War on Music

Reclaiming the Twentieth Century

By: John Mauceri

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

A prominent conductor explores how aesthetic criteria masked the political goals of countries during the three great wars of the past century.

This book offers a major reassessment of classical music in the 20th century. John Mauceri argues that the history of music during this span was shaped by three major wars of that century: World War I, World War II, and the Cold War.

Probing why so few works have been added to the canon since 1930, Mauceri examines the trajectories of great composers who, following World War I, created voices that were unique and versatile, but superficially simpler. He contends that the fate of composers during World War II is inextricably linked to the political goals of their respective governments, resulting in the silencing of experimental music in Germany, Italy, and Russia; the exodus of composers to America; and the sudden return of experimental music—what he calls “the institutional avant-garde”—as the lingua franca of classical music in the West during the Cold War.

©2022 John Mauceri (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Hang on till the second half

The first part of this is rather platitudinous, so an older person like myself probably will know it all. But the second half is quite informative.

I learn to appreciate classical music from the XX century

Thanks for the review of the WSJ I bought this book both in audible and written , It’s like a musical trip , while reading it i stopped to hear the music the author was talking about and appreciate it so much , it’s a extremely good book.

The most important book on music in a century!

Superbly well researched and brilliantly stated! EVERY composer & conductor in the world needs to read (or listen to) this book. With enlightening detail, Maestro Mauceri sums up perfectly what has been stated up to date on the tragedy of what we still call "The Twentieth Century," providing scintillating new insight and information I have never seen anywhere else. He addresses a situation that I personally witnessed in a concert hall, believing it to be unique -- indicating to me that it may be a universal experience -- where a patron, just as he describes in this book, became visibly agitated, panicky, and had to crawl from the center of an aisle, excusing himself as he rushed from the hall. When he later returned, he explained that the "music" was creating such an uncomfortable feeling to his psyche, he had to get as far away from it as possible for fear of losing his mind. As an American composer visiting Germany, I felt intimidation -- being in the land of the great composers -- until musicians of high renown approached me, stating: "We [all] hate the music being written by students from the conservatories and universities here." Mr. Mauceri perfectly explains the logical reason for this. There is no connection between the composers from the great land of composers to their predecessors. Indeed, they were forced into exile. Most importantly, EVERY sincere composer alive today needs to read this priceless work, in order to gain the permission needed to ignore the false conditions forced (by symphony orchestras and institutions of learning alike) requiring all composers -- to be called such -- to follow meaningless "rules" forbidding them to compose music in the way it was composed by all great composers before the 20th Century. When Arnold Schönberg sought to emancipate the dissonance he did NOT -- ever -- intend to imprison, murder or destroy the consonance, or any other form of music. Maestro Mauceri masterfully explains the fallacy of the current and far too extended mistaken turn classical music fell into, over a hundred years ago, and gives the best argument to date for ending the war. It is a war against ourselves and the casualties are pointless. Having read other books cited along with hearing countless lectures as well as multiple journeys through Leonard Bernstein's Norton Lectures, this book is the most intelligent and penetrative elucidation on the subject at hand. It should be translated into every. language as it has the power to redeem a great art that has been under attack far too long. It is, in my opinion, the most important book about music for our times.