j 2018

Playful but Animalistically Serious: Czech Interwar Music and Sport

ZAPLETAL, Miloš

Basic information

Original name

Playful but Animalistically Serious: Czech Interwar Music and Sport

Authors

ZAPLETAL, Miloš (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Czech Music Quarterly, 2018, 1211-0264

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Article in a journal (not reviewed)

Field of Study

60403 Performing arts studies

Confidentiality degree

is not subject to a state or trade secret

RIV identification code

RIV/47813059:19240/18:A0000325

Organization

Filozoficko-přírodovědecká fakulta – Slezská univerzita v Opavě – Repository

Keywords in English

Czech music; music and sport; cultural history of sport; avant-garde music
Changed: 26/3/2019 13:11, Miloš Zapletal

Abstract

In the original language

In 1938, philosopher and music theorist Theodor Adorno compared modern popular music (and mass "serious" music too) to sport, considering both detrimental symptoms of a dehumanised modernity, marked by "a strict differentiation from games" and an "animalistic seriousness". This essay shows that the interwar avant-garde Czech music, despite its clearly playful character, did not avoid this animalistic seriousness, nor did it avoid sport or jazz. Quite the opposite: it accepted them as important inspirations, or even allied cultural productions: new music, sport and jazz were the building blocks of the new culture.