Beauty in Music

This book is interdisciplinary in nature and examines the debate over beauty in twentieth-century art. It synthesizes artistic phenomena and composers’ aesthetic attitudes considering the ideological and social contexts of music from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The proposed historiographical structure is based on the premise that diverse artistic phenomena and aesthetic attitudes can be interpreted in relation to the concept of beauty, which was largely “banished” in the twentieth century. Jarzębska addresses the debates over models of musical culture in the interwar period, inspired by the ideas of national and progressive music. She also explores issues related to musical life, which in the postwar period was influenced by the Iron Curtain and , at the turn of the second millennium by postmodern philosophy and the rise of rock culture.

Alicja Jarzębska, is a full professor at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, specializing in music history and theory. She has lectured at instituitions such as the State University of New York, Universität Regensburg, Universität Salzburg, and Kamensky University in Bratislava. She has conducted a series of lectures at the University of Poznań, the Academy of Music in Cracow, and the University of Music in Warsaw. She is the author of several books, including Stravinsky. His Thoughts and Music (2020).