Neue Sachlichkeit North and South – Transforming Music during the European Interwar Years (and Beyond)

This three-day conference seeks to investigate the influence of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement in music Europe during the interwar years. In fields such as architecture and visual arts its presence in many countries is well-documented. However, musicologists have mostly regarded the Neue Sachlichkeit movement as a German-centered phenomenon. This despite the fact that in the field of music – here understood broadly as including both composition, performance, and listening – the Neue Sachlichkeit had a considerable impact throughout Europe. The rejection of an antecedent Expressionistic aesthethic, the fascination for mechanical music and reproduction media (gramophone, radio), as well as the plead for an objective (non-personal) interpretation in the musical performance, were issues that resonated in many countries, although sometimes under different theoretical and terminological umbrellas.

The focus of this conference is on whether such events in various European countries should be framed as more or less casual occurrences during an interim period of abundant aesthetic and ideological trends and imputs, or whether one can speak of a more pervasive phenomenon of which the Neue Sachlichkeit is one of the more prominent manifestations?

Abstracts

 The abstracts that will be presented on the conference. .pdf

Conference program

The conference is open for the public and free of admission. No registration needed.
The program

Piano concert 10 April at 18.00

At Wednesday evening from 18.00 Anna D’Errico will give a  piano recital with music by Ferruccio Busoni, Hilding Rosenberg, Anton Webern, Luigi Dallapiccola, Maurice Ravel.

Location

The confence will be held at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura.The easiest way to get there from the Central station is to take bus 69 to the bus stop "Ambassaderna" and from there walk to  Gärdesgatan 14.

Questions

For further information, please contact Benedetta Zucconi:  benedetta.zucconi@oru.se