 | English Pastoral Music: From Arcadia to Utopia, 1900-1955 Subjects: Pastoral music (Secular) -- England -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Music -- England -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Covering works by popular figures like Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst as well as less familiar English composers, Eric Saylor's pioneering book examines pastoral music's critical, theoretical, and stylistic foundations alongside its creative manifestations in the contexts of Arcadia, war, landscape, and the Utopian imagination. As Saylor shows, pastoral music adapted and transformed established musical and aesthetic conventions that reflected the experiences of British composers and audiences during the early twentieth century. By approaching pastoral music as a cultural phenomenon dependent on time and place, Saylor forcefully challenges the body of critical opinion that has long dismissed it as antiquated, insular, and reactionary. Eric Saylor is a professor of musicology at Drake University. He coedited Blackness in Opera and The Sea in the British Musical Imagination . |
