Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Events in the Life of Dane Rudhyar
- Introduction
- Part 1 Autumnal Decay: Seed Ideas
- Part 2 Wholeness: The Scope of the Orient
- Part 3 Rawness and Vigor, Innocence and Experience: An American Synthesis
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
- Endmatter
- Eastman Studies in Music
Chapter Nine - New World
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Events in the Life of Dane Rudhyar
- Introduction
- Part 1 Autumnal Decay: Seed Ideas
- Part 2 Wholeness: The Scope of the Orient
- Part 3 Rawness and Vigor, Innocence and Experience: An American Synthesis
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
- Endmatter
- Eastman Studies in Music
Summary
American Synthesis
Rudhyar envisaged a cultural shift grounded in a universal conception that had much to learn from both the Western and non-Western approaches, “through a sameness of purpose … as a basis for the re-valuation of all Western ideals, and the building of a new culture, blossoming out of inter-racial co-operation.” He believed that the American ideals of brotherhood and solidarity could potentially transform differences, conflicts, and antagonisms into sociocultural harmony. One of the study objectives he wished to undertake through his project for the 1928 Guggenheim application was “establishing the fundamental relationship existing between Eastern and Western music, and providing a basis for the understanding of the forces moulding even today the future of American music.” An early article published in 1918 in the journal Le Canada dealt with the future of Western civilization in a mélange of despair, anticipation, and aspiration:
Aujourd’hui une civilisation humaine agonise. Prenez-en les fantômes et refaites le Futur. C’est de l’union des Celtes et des Slaves—de l’abstraction et de la passion—que naître cet Avenir. Créez-le.
L’Europe est trop vieille. Elle vous enverra des prophètes, peut-être des initiateurs, synthèse de … [illegible] Ame dispersée. Elle n’a plus assez d’instinct, assez de “tempérament” pour que d’elle surgisse la foule de Réalisateurs, qui seule peut établir les bases profondes de la civilisation future.
(Today a humane civilization is in agony. Take away its phantoms and remake the Future. It is from the union of the Celts and the Slavs—of abstraction and passion— that this Future should arise. Create it.
Europe is too old. She will send you prophets, perhaps initiators, synthesis of … [illegible] scattered Soul. She no longer has enough instinct, enough “temperament” in order that from her there should arise the crowd of “Realisators,” which alone may establish the deep foundations of the future civilization.)
Speaking of cultural prophets who initiate a reestablishment of a new future on the grounds of what was left and lost, he dreamed of a potent and sound race capable of uniting l’abstraction with la passion.
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- Information
- Dane RudhyarHis Music, Thought, and Art, pp. 160 - 198Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2009