The 1913 premier of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris caused controversy that nearly turned into a riot in reaction to the avant-garde choreography depicting a pagan human sacrifice. Some historians believe this controversy to have been fueled both by those who were shocked and outraged by its forwardness, as well as by progressives who were angered that Stravinsky had not been unconventional enough. This tension reflects a fundamental question that continues to apply to art today; should art be beautiful?
Today, we see art not only as functional, such as music made for dancing or symbolic painting of biblical scenes made to guide the viewer in devotion, but as expressions of human emotions, passions, and ideals. In music, these ideas are often conveyed through melodies and harmonies that we perceive as beautiful. Even the use of harsh sounds and tension to convey dark moments in the music are followed by structured resolution, while negative emotions such as sadness are portrayed with a gracefulness that leaves us affected but aesthetically pleased.
However some music, such as the style known as serialism, represented by composers like Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alan Berg, eschew tonality and seem directionless and confusing. Rather than the intimacy heard in the music of Chopin and Rachmaninov, we hear an inhuman, machinelike production of seemingly random sounds, the sequence of which are, in the strictest form of serial music, produced by the application of a formula. Yet given the naissance of serialism during the industrial revolution, in the days leading up to World War I, there appears to be meaning in this.
The early days of the twentieth century saw a boom in productivity and standard of living, but also a dehumanization of the masses as hundreds of thousands of unskilled, nameless factory laborers performed tasks once carried out by skilled craftsmen. What’s more, the dangerous working conditions and menial pay provided for these workers showed no regard for their lives, favoring rather efficiency and profit. This seems to parallel the dehumanization of music seen in the haunting sounds of serial music.
The First World War also had an effect on 20th perceptions of art. The use of chemical weapons and machine guns rid war of any romantic pomp and circumstance once portrayed by artists. Rather, artists saw thousands of young men slaughtered at a time with artillery shells and sarin gas over what amounted to several yards of territory, and were left to explain a calamity that amounted only to brutal senselessness.
In many cases, the solution to this was to remove predictability and even beauty from art. The Fountain by Marcel Duchamp is an example of a 20th century art form known as Dada that arose as a reaction to the horrors of the First World War. This piece is actually nothing more than a photograph of a urinal. However, when viewed in the light of Dada’s intended rebellion against the values of the society that had so brutally purged it’s youth, this piece can be understood as making about as much sense as trench warfare.
One does not have to look hard to find beautiful artistic masterpieces. Yet not all ideas that artists seek to express are beautiful. Just as the pagan sacrifice depicted in the Rite of Spring was wild and unconventional, its artistic realization should be as well. While beauty is indeed desirable, truly great art should strive to be meaningful.
