"An Anatomy of Modernism": Marion Rous and "What Next in Music?"
Publisher
The University of Arizona.Rights
Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.Abstract
A pianist and pedagogue whose career spanned much of the twentieth century, the name of Marion Rous has until now only gained the occasional cursory mention in an index or appendix. In particular, previous scholarship has all but completely overlooked the contributions of Rous as a figure linked to the music appreciation movement, evidenced mainly through her career-defining lecture-recital “What Next in Music?” This program focused on modernist European piano repertoire and was the centerpiece of Rous’ New York debut at Aeolian Hall in January of 1924. Inaugurated in 1916 when Rous was a faculty member at the Peabody Institute, “What Next in Music?” first garnered national attention at Rous’ presentation at the 1919 Biennial Convention of the National Federation of Music Clubs in Peterborough, NH, a success that earned her national renown and years of nationwide touring. From that point onwards, Rous’ lecture recital elicited responses and reviews from many of the most prominent musical minds in America during the first two decades of the twentieth century, including Harvey Gaul, George Pullen Jackson, and W. J. Henderson. This study traces for the first time the history, reception, and development of “What Next in Music?” from these early manifestations through to Rous’ 1924 New York debut at Aeolian Hall and to the lecture’s retirement in 1927. These years demonstrate the manifestations of a lecture recital that brought the analytical yet approachable presentation of modernism to a wide populist audience. Rous emerges as a case study in the unlikely intersection of modernism and the music appreciation movement, thus adding to our understanding of an intersection later witnessed more prominently in the work of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. Furthermore, this study unearths for the first time the career of a hitherto neglected figure of twentieth-century modernism and American musical life.Type
textElectronic Thesis
Degree Name
M.M.Degree Level
mastersDegree Program
Graduate CollegeMusic