Philip Ross Bullock and Daniel M. Grimley (eds.) Music's Nordic Breakthrough: Aesthetics, Modernity, and Cultural Exchange, 1890–1930 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2021), ISBN: 978-1-78327-568-7 (hb).

Abstract

A book by the Danish critic and theorist Georg Brandes (1842–1927), known in English as Men of the Modern Breakthrough (1883), is the starting point for this volume. Described here as a ‘provocative survey of recent trends in Scandinavian literature and an impassioned call for its aesthetic renewal’ (1), Brandes was critical of its insular and backwards-looking nature, promoting a model found in the younger literary generation of the time. The current editors note the controversial nature of Brandes’s work, especially ‘its stubborn commitment to a curiously anachronistic “great male”model of authorship’(1), but rightly consider it to be a groundbreaking and significant study. Applying Brandes’s concepts to Music is the main thrust ofMusic’s Nordic Breakthrough, while removing any gender imbalance would be a natural part of any publication today. However, when you look at the chapter titles here and note the highlighted case studies, two issues emerge. The ten figures listed (in order) are: Gustav Vigeland, Einer Jónsson, Sergei Diaghilev, Konstantin Korovin, Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Jean Sibelius, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ture Rangström, Fartein Valen, and Jāzeps Vītols. Their artistic diversity, as painters, sculptors, playwrights, dramatists, poets, and composers, is striking. So too is their gender: they are all male. It seems that a ‘commitment to a curiously anachronistic “great male”model of authorship’ is alive and well, as far as the current editors are concerned. The reader may wonder if there were any female Nordic composers at this time (1890– 1930). You bet there were! A series of articles for Finnish Music Quarterly by Susanna Välimäki and Nuppu Koivisto, derived from their book project titled Sävelten tyttäret: Säveltävät naiset Suomen historiassa 1700-luvun lopulta 1900-luvun alkuun (Daughters of Music: Finnish Women Composers, from the late 18th to the early 20th centuries), discusses the lives and music of historical women composers in Finland. Neglect due to gender bias emerges as a strong theme in this survey and Brandes’s attitude in 1883 was typical of that time; but it is hard to fathom the rationale behind current editorial thinking. Moreover, with Finland being the first European country to grant equal voting rights to women (1906), the artistic ramifications of this political breakthrough should surely merit some discussion in a book such as this. There is something worryingly selective about this