
Symphonic Spectacles
Form, Identity, and Hybridity in the Early Twentieth Century
Sam Reenan(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 11. August 2025
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-19-769108-3 (ISBN)
Description
Symphonic music of the early twentieth century reflects the complex, cosmopolitan world it inhabited. In a time of waning empire, rising nationalism, and heightened sexual politics, composers in Germany, Britain, and America drew upon the compositional resources of tradition to create intensely personal symphonic spectacles. The hybrid symphonic works that flourished in this period mixed musical forms and genres freely, adapting compositional procedures for their rhetorical potential. Symphonic Spectacles investigates large-scale formal mixture in six case studies that juxtapose works of the Austro-German symphonic canon with lesser-studied pieces by a diverse array of composers, including Strauss, Beach, Ellington, and Mahler. Sam Reenan proposes a creative analytical framework rooted in the analogy between formal hybridity and intersectional identity, which affords new interpretive possibilities that integrate formal analysis with critical consideration of compositional design, reception history, and subjectivity.
Considering influential scholarship from the new Formenlehre, literary genre studies, and theories of race, gender, and sexuality, Reenan's analytical approach favors playfully creating new stories over gatekeeping bygone ones. This book combines manuscript evidence, composer commentary, historical and biographical details, and published music criticism, all factors which contribute to comprehensive formal interpretations. Symphonic Spectacles represents not only a collection of studies in hybrid symphonic form, but also a model for countercanonic means of knowledge production in the field of music analysis.
Considering influential scholarship from the new Formenlehre, literary genre studies, and theories of race, gender, and sexuality, Reenan's analytical approach favors playfully creating new stories over gatekeeping bygone ones. This book combines manuscript evidence, composer commentary, historical and biographical details, and published music criticism, all factors which contribute to comprehensive formal interpretations. Symphonic Spectacles represents not only a collection of studies in hybrid symphonic form, but also a model for countercanonic means of knowledge production in the field of music analysis.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
97
Dimensions
Height: 226 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
612 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-769108-3 (9780197691083)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2025
OUP eBook
€70.49
Available for download

E-Book
05/2025
OUP eBook
€70.49
Available for download
Person
Sam Reenan is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Miami University (Oxford, OH, USA). His work examines issues of musical form, narrative, and reception history as they intersect with aspects of identity and cultural constructions of meaning.
Author
Assistant Professor of Music TheoryAssistant Professor of Music Theory, Miami University
Content
Chapter 1: Structure, Spectacle, Symphony
Chapter 2: Genres, Systems, Networks: Intersections with Formal Analysis
Chapter 3: Form, Drama, and Gender Politics in Strauss>'s Eine Alpensinfonie
Chapter 4: Cyclic Form and Programmaticism in Beach>'s 's Black, Brown & Beige
Chapter 6: The Symphonic Voice as Woman>'s Work in Smyth>'s The Prison
Chapter 7: Repetition and Spectatorship in Coleridge-Taylor>'s Hiawatha>'s Wedding Feast
Chapter 8: Multidimensionality in Mahler>'s Eighth Symphony
Appendix: Catalogue of Published Rehearsal Numbers
Chapter 2: Genres, Systems, Networks: Intersections with Formal Analysis
Chapter 3: Form, Drama, and Gender Politics in Strauss>'s Eine Alpensinfonie
Chapter 4: Cyclic Form and Programmaticism in Beach>'s 's Black, Brown & Beige
Chapter 6: The Symphonic Voice as Woman>'s Work in Smyth>'s The Prison
Chapter 7: Repetition and Spectatorship in Coleridge-Taylor>'s Hiawatha>'s Wedding Feast
Chapter 8: Multidimensionality in Mahler>'s Eighth Symphony
Appendix: Catalogue of Published Rehearsal Numbers