Revealing Masks: Exotic Influences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theater

W. Anthony Sheppard

ISBN 10: 0520223020 / ISBN 13: 9780520223028

Published by University of California Press, 2001

About this Item

Fine, fresh copy in fine, crisp dust jacket. First printing. Hardcover. xv+350 pp. with bibliography, index. Illustrations. A consideration of a wide-ranging constellation of important musical works of ritualized performance in 20th century music. The author is especially interested in the use of the "exotic" in techniques of masking and stylization , identifying Japanese Noh, medieval Christian drama, and ancient Greek theater as the most prominent exotic models for the creation of modern "total theater". The work draws on an extraordinarily diverse---and in some instances little known---range fo music and theater pieces, citing the works of Stravinsky, Britten, Hogegger, Davies, Bernstein, Lloyd Weber, and Madonna; also cited are artists in literature, dance, and theater such as Yeats, Claudel, Brecht, Isadora Duncan, Ida Rubinstein, and Edward Gordon Craig.

Seller Inventory # E33417

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Revealing Masks: Exotic Influences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theater
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520223020
• ISBN 13: 9780520223028
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition.
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Theatre

About this title

Synopsis

W. Anthony Sheppard considers a wide-ranging constellation of important musical works in this fascinating exploration of ritualized performance in twentieth-century music. Revealing Masks uncovers the range of political, didactic, and aesthetic intents that inspired the creators of modernist music theater. Sheppard is especially interested in the use of the "exotic" in techniques of masking and stylization, identifying Japanese Noh, medieval Christian drama, and ancient Greek theater as the most prominent exotic models for the creation of "total theater."

Drawing on an extraordinarily diverse―and in some instances, little-known―range of music theater pieces, Sheppard cites the work of Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten, Arthur Honegger, Peter Maxwell Davies, Harry Partch, and Leonard Bernstein, as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Madonna. Artists in literature, theater, and dance―such as William Butler Yeats, Paul Claudel, Bertolt Brecht, Isadora Duncan, Ida Rubenstein, and Edward Gordon Craig--also play a significant role in this study.

Sheppard poses challenging questions that will interest readers beyond those in the field of music scholarship. For example, what is the effect on the audience and the performers of depersonalizing ritual elements? Does borrowing from foreign cultures inevitably amount to a kind of predatory appropriation? Revealing Masks shows that compositional concerns and cultural themes manifested in music theater are central to the history of twentieth-century Euro-American music, drama, and dance.

About the Author

W. Anthony Sheppard is Assistant Professor of Music at Williams College.