European Perspectives on the New Objectivity Movement: Entanglements of Music, Poetics, and Ideas in the Interwar Years

This edited volume offers a new perspective on the new objectivity movement in music during the interwar period, challenging the view of it as a solely German or Berlin-based movement. Unlike architecture or visual arts, musicology has rarely applied the term beyond Germany. Yet, new objectivity in music—spanning composition, performance, and listening—had significant European expressions. Key features included a rejection of expressionism, interest in mechanical reproduction (radio, gramophone), and objective performance styles. Through historiographical analysis and diverse case studies from several European countries, the book presents the movement as a broader, locally rooted phenomenon reflecting a shared Zeitgeist. It explores how these ideas emerged independently across national contexts, offering new insights into the cultural and political dynamics of the period. By examining aesthetic, institutional, political, and performative dimensions, the book invites a rethinking of new objectivity as a transnational and multifaceted phenomenon, and proposes its relevance as a tool for historiographical inquiry in music studies.

Benedetta Zucconi is Assistant Professor in Musicology at the University of Cagliari. Her research interests focus on the history of sound technology and music media, the cultural history of music, music theatre and the European historical avant-garde in music.

Ulrik Volgsten is Professor of musicology at Örebro University, Sweden. He has held positions at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm University. His research is concerned with the conceptual history of Western music (composer, work, listener), philosophy of music, with a special focus on musical communication in different media and the role of vitality affects.