Abstract
British music-theatre works of the 1960s and early 1970s largely avoided direct engagement with contemporary political topics. Intriguing in this light is Michael Hall’s recent proposition that Brecht’s music theatre set the terms for younger British composers’ experiments with the genre. Brecht proved a complicated model, however, because of composers’ anxieties about music’s capability to convey sociopolitical messages, and their reluctance to accord popular music a progressive function. The entanglement of Vietnam War activism and rock music forms the backdrop for analyses of two works that do address Vietnam directly: Anthony Gilbert’s The Scene-Machine and George Newson’s Arena (both 1971)–both of which also pass pointed comment on different popular-music traditions. Both works highlight the difficulty in emulating Brecht’s model in an era when the concept of ‘the political’ was being significantly redefined, and the cultural gap between activist cadres and the wider population was unprecedentedly visible.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 433-471 |
| Number of pages | 39 |
| Journal | Journal of the Royal Musical Association |
| Volume | 143 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Oct 2018 |
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Politics and the Popular in British Music Theatre of the Vietnam Era. / Adlington, Robert.
In: Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 143, No. 2, 05.10.2018, p. 433-471.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Politics and the Popular in British Music Theatre of the Vietnam Era
AU - Adlington, Robert
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of the Royal Musical Association on 05 Oct 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02690403.2018.1507121
PY - 2018/10/5
Y1 - 2018/10/5
N2 - British music-theatre works of the 1960s and early 1970s largely avoided direct engagement with contemporary political topics. Intriguing in this light is Michael Hall’s recent proposition that Brecht’s music theatre set the terms for younger British composers’ experiments with the genre. Brecht proved a complicated model, however, because of composers’ anxieties about music’s capability to convey sociopolitical messages, and their reluctance to accord popular music a progressive function. The entanglement of Vietnam War activism and rock music forms the backdrop for analyses of two works that do address Vietnam directly: Anthony Gilbert’s The Scene-Machine and George Newson’s Arena (both 1971)–both of which also pass pointed comment on different popular-music traditions. Both works highlight the difficulty in emulating Brecht’s model in an era when the concept of ‘the political’ was being significantly redefined, and the cultural gap between activist cadres and the wider population was unprecedentedly visible.
AB - British music-theatre works of the 1960s and early 1970s largely avoided direct engagement with contemporary political topics. Intriguing in this light is Michael Hall’s recent proposition that Brecht’s music theatre set the terms for younger British composers’ experiments with the genre. Brecht proved a complicated model, however, because of composers’ anxieties about music’s capability to convey sociopolitical messages, and their reluctance to accord popular music a progressive function. The entanglement of Vietnam War activism and rock music forms the backdrop for analyses of two works that do address Vietnam directly: Anthony Gilbert’s The Scene-Machine and George Newson’s Arena (both 1971)–both of which also pass pointed comment on different popular-music traditions. Both works highlight the difficulty in emulating Brecht’s model in an era when the concept of ‘the political’ was being significantly redefined, and the cultural gap between activist cadres and the wider population was unprecedentedly visible.
KW - music theatre
KW - Vietnam war
KW - protest
KW - popular music
KW - Brecht
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85054846962&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02690403.2018.1507121
DO - 10.1080/02690403.2018.1507121
M3 - Article
VL - 143
SP - 433
EP - 471
JO - Journal of the Royal Musical Association
JF - Journal of the Royal Musical Association
SN - 0269-0403
IS - 2
ER -