Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Neo-romantic.

(1) The term is used to refer to the return to emotional expression associated with 19th-century Romanticism. In 1923 Schloezer used it to contrast Schoenberg's expressiveness with Stravinsky's neo-classicism. In works such as Hindemith's Mathis der Maler (1934–5), ‘neo-romantic’ refers to the composer's return to tonality as a structural and expressive element. In the 1940s, composers such as those of La Jeune France conceptualized their music as neo-romantic to suggest a rupture with modernist tendencies. As Baudrier put it, they wished to ‘create a new language … based on no classicism, no pre-existent structures’. They addressed ‘aesthetic problems from the social rather than individual perspective’.

Since the mid-1970s, neo-romantic has become synonymous with neo-conservative post-modernism, especially in Germany, Austria and the USA. The Horizons '83 and '84 concerts sponsored by the New York PO drew public attention to the aesthetic. Unlike works of the 1960s that cite older traditions (Kagel), neo-romantic works appeal directly to the emotions. In their Third String Quartets, for example, Rihm uses the expressive gestures of late Romantic music, ‘though with a structural thinking entirely typical of the 20th century’ (La Motte-Haber), while Rochberg writes ‘a music of remembering’ like that of Beethoven and Mahler; its movements ‘could almost be mistaken for discoveries from the past’ (Rockwell). Others, like del Tredeci and Zwilich, incorporate tonal harmony, tunefulness and forms rooted in the 19th century. By pleasing the ear, using standard orchestral forces and writing operas and symphonies embodying this aesthetic, neo-romantics have succeeded in attracting large audiences.

(2) The word is also used to describe the revival of folk culture in England from the early to the mid-20th century, including the ‘folk-inspired emancipation of English music from German hegemony’ (Trentmann). It refers to the movement's critique of modernity, obsession with nature and emphasis on community, the unconscious and pantheism. What made the return to traditional Romantic elements new in the work of such composers as Vaughan Williams, Holst, Delius and later Tippett, was their interest in communitarian ideals rather than solitary transcendentalism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

B. de Schloezer: ‘La musique’, Revue contemporaine (1 Feb 1923)

Y. Baudrier and D. Lesur: ‘Vers un nouveau romantisme’, ReM, nos.198–202 (1946), 103–6

‘Fragen an junge Komponisten’, Musica, xxxvii (1983), 415–16

J. Rockwell: All American Music: Composition in the late Twentieth Century (New York, 1983) [incl. ‘David Del Tredici: the Return of Tonality, the Orchestral Audience, and the Danger of Success’, ‘Frederic Rzewski: the Romantic Revival and the Dilemma of the Political Composer’, 71–95]

G. Groemer: Paths to the new Romanticism: Aesthetic and Thought of the American post-avant-garde as exemplified in selected tonal piano music (DMA diss., Johns Hopkins U., 1984)

W. Rihm: ‘Trois essais sur le thème de … (une conférence)’, Contrechamps, no.3 (1984), 69–82

M. Wehnert: ‘“Neo-Romantik” im 20. Jahrhundert? vom ungebräuchlichen Begriff zum Schlagwort’, Der Einfluss der romantischen Musik … im 20. Jahrhundert: Dresden 1984, 7–17

P. Dennison: ‘Tippett and the New Romanticism’, Michael Tippett, O.M.: a Celebration, ed. G. Lewis (Tunbridge Wells, 1985), 175–90

L. Inese: ‘Charakteristische Tendenzen in der Entwicklung der lettischen Musik der siebziger Jahre’, Kunst und Literatur, xxxv (1987), 395–9

J. McGuire: ‘“All in the golden afternoon”: zur Neuen Romantik David Del Tredicis’, MusikTexte, no.18 (1987), 20–22

I. Podracky: ‘Mnohovrstvovy charakter kompozicnej techniky v sucasnej slovenskej hudbe: neotonalizmus, neoromantizmus’, Slovak Music, i (1987), 3–6

M.R. Linton: George Rochberg's Concord Quartets: an Analysis of Grand Romanticism in the Twentieth Century (diss., New York U., 1988)

G. Watkins: Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century (New York, 1988), 645–51

R. Barthes: ‘The Romantic Song’, The Responsibility of Forms (Paris, 1991)

P. Cahn: ‘Zum Fortwirken von Neoromantik und Neoklassizismus nach 1945’, Hindemith-Jb 1991, 7–12

A. De Lisa: ‘Post-moderni e neo-romantici: via l'estetica, resta il potere’, Sonus [Potenza], iii/3 (1991), 3–4

‘New Tonality’, CMR, vi/2 (1992)

H. Halbreich: ‘Die Neubewertung des Begriffs “Konsonanz” jenseits des Begriffs Tonalität’, Wiederaneignung und Neubestimmung: der Fall “Postmoderne” in der Musik, ed. O. Kolleritsch (Vienna, 1993), 117–26

M.R. Campbell: Tonal Reform or Radical Tonality? a Study of Neoromanticism in American Music, with an Emphasis on the Music and Thought of George Rochberg, David Del Tredici, and Stephen Albert (diss., U. of Connecticut, 1994)

F. Trentmann: ‘Civilization and its Discontents: English Neo-Romanticism and the Transformation of Anti-modernism and Twentieth-Century Western Culture’, Journal of Contemporary History, xxix (1994), 583–625

H. de la Motte-Haber: ‘Postmodernism in Music: Retrospection as Reassessment’, CMR, xii (1995), 77–83

J. Boros: ‘A “New Tonality”?’, PNM, xxxiv (1996), 252–8

JANN PASLER

Nepal, Kingdom of (Nep. Nepal Adhirajya).

Country in Asia. It extends from the peaks of the high Himalaya in the north to the plains of the Terai in the south, bordered by India and Tibet. There are three major ethnic groups: the Indo-Nepalese, the Tibeto-Nepalese and the indigenous Nepalese, composed of peoples such as the Newars, Gurung, Tamang etc. Although Nepal is the only official Hindu state in the world, there is a strong Buddhist presence, which is often reflected in an intermingling of beliefs and practices. The physical and cultural geography of the country is extremely varied, and communication between areas is often made difficult by the topography, leading to great cultural diversity even between adjoining valleys.

I. Music in the Kathmandu Valley

II. Indo-Nepalese music

III. Traditional music outside the Kathmandu Valley

GERT-MATTHIAS WEGNER, RICHARD WIDDESS (I), CAROL TINGEY (II), PIRKKO MOISALA (III)

Nepal