7 - “A Crisis of Modern Music or Audience?”: Changing Attitudes to Cultural and Stylistic Pluralism (1925–30)

Summary

The late 1920s were years of transition for the musical community of Prague, as the last vestiges of the prewar rivalries receded substantially in favor of new alliances. This period also witnessed the rise of a new generation of younger composers and critics, many of whose values and aesthetic views bore only a faint resemblance to those of their forebears. During what were perhaps the most peaceful and prosperous years of the First Republic, the issue of “national music” lost much of the urgency it had carried in earlier years; only now and then did it stand as a marker by which to judge the latest modernist imports from Western Europe. Indeed, the attitude in the Prague compositional community at this time toward modernism was influenced by music from abroad as never before. Not so among the public: this new open-mindedness became a source of tension between artists and audiences, similar to crises in other European cities. Although the initial period of “nation building” had passed for First Republic society, the issue of the social responsibility of art, particularly regarding modern or even popular music, retained its focus as a priority for the younger generation. Again, the divergent views of musicians and their audiences reveals much about the cultural milieu of Prague in these years: while critics debated the social necessity for modern music, both domestic and foreign, attendance at performances dwindled to an all-time low.