Intellectual Currents
This section focusses on the historical, sociological, philosophical, economic, political, and scientific context of modernism. Entries cover individuals, coteries, movements, and events. The primary criterion…
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Futurism
Futurism emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century as a movement that explicitly conceptualized the process of literary and artistic experimentation as part of…
Boulanger, Lili (1893–1918)
Lili Boulanger was a French composer and the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in musical composition. Born into a musical family and…
Messiaen, Olivier (1908–1992)
Olivier Messiaen was one of the foremost composers of the twentieth century, with a distinctive compositional style of great emotional intensity. This style drew on…
Maeterlinck, Maurice (1862–1949)
Maurice Maeterlinck was a Flemish francophone writer, who spent most of his life in France and whose prolific oeuvre entails poetry, plays, and essays. In…
Satie, Erik Alfred Leslie (1866–1925)
Erik Satie’s compositions, writings, and humor played an important role in many modernist movements of the twentieth century. Experimenting with simple forms, neoclassicism, mysticism, satire,…
Segalen, Victor (1878–1919)
Physician, musician, archaeologist and sinologist, essayist, novelist, poet, librettist, and world traveller whose works were largely published after his death, Victor Segalen has achieved largely…
Diaghilev, Serge (1872–1929)
Impresario, critic, curator, and founder-director of the Ballets Russes (1909–1929), Serge Diaghilev was a towering figure and pioneer of early 20th-century modernism. Through his various…
Casella, Alfredo (1883--1947)
Alfredo Casella was an Italian composer, the leading member of the generazione dell’ottanta who were all born in the 1880s and who turned away from…
Sacharov, Alexander (1886–1963) and Von Derp, Clotilde (born von der Planitz) (1892–1974)
Alexander Sacharov and Clotilde von Derp formed one of the most celebrated dancing couples of the early 20th century. Born into different cultural contexts and…
Goleizovsky (Goleizovskii), Kas’ian Yaroslavich (1892–1970)
A Russo-Soviet choreographer, dancer, and artist, Kas’ian Goleizovsky was exposed to various art forms from early childhood: dance at the Bolshoi ballet school; fine and…
Spencer, Penelope (1901–1993)
The career of the English “creative” dancer, choreographer, teacher, and dance writer Penelope Spencer spanned the period between the World Wars. Spencer’s versatile training and…
Martinů, Bohuslav (1890–1959)
Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959). Czech composer of Austro-Hungarian, Czechoslovak and American citizenship. He left his native Polička in Eastern Bohemia in 1906 to study violin at…
Lutyens, Elisabeth (1906–1983)
(Agnes) Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE, was an English composer, credited with helping to establish the twelve-tone method of serialism in Britain. Lutyens’s first major composition using…
Nobre, Marlos (1939–)
Marlos Nobre is a Brazilian composer, pianist, and conductor. His music presents a unique characteristic that combines Brazilian features with advanced compositional techniques. His pluralistic…
Nijinsky, Vaslav (1889–1950)
Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian dancer and choreographer of Polish descent. He achieved international renown as the star of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes Company between…
Krenek, Ernst (1900–1991)
Ernst Krenek, twentieth-century composer, was born in Vienna in 1900. Krenek composed over 240 works from 1917 until 1989, and his career includes works in…
Vicente Emilio Sojo (1887--1974)
Vicente Emilio Sojo was born in Guatire, Miranda State, on December 8, 1887, the son of Francisco Reverón and Luisa Sojo. Self-taught composer, conductor, choirmaster…
Sojo, Vicente Emilio (1887–1974)
Vicente Emilio Sojo was born in Guatire, Miranda State, Venezuela on 8 December 1887, a son of Francisco Reverón and Luisa Sojo. He was a…
Honegger, Arthur (1892–1955)
Composer Arthur Honegger was one of a group of six young French composers, known as Les Six, in the forefront of post-WWI Parisian musical modernism.…
Busoni, Ferruccio (1866--1924)
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, transcriber, editor, and writer on music who spent most of his career in Germany. A child prodigy who…
Fuller, Loie (1862–1928)
Loie Fuller was a founding figure of modern dance. After an early career in American vaudeville, she moved to Paris where she created a new…
Ballets Russes
Founded by the Russian impressario Sergei Diaghilev in 1909, the Ballets Russes played a role of fundamental importance in the development of early twentieth-century modernism.…
Music and Dance
The histories of modernist music and dance are vast and inextricably related, so much so that it is as daunting to consider them in tandem…
Spectralism
Spectralism is a tendency in contemporary art music that takes the material attributes of sound as the point of departure for composition. Originating in France…