The War on Music: Reclaiming the Twentieth Century

A prominent conductor explores how aesthetic criteria masked the political goals of countries during the three great wars of the past century.

This book offers a major reassessment of classical music in the twentieth century. John Mauceri argues that the history of music during this span was shaped by three major wars of that century: World War I, World War II, and the Cold War.

Probing why so few works have been added to the canon since 1930, Mauceri examines the trajectories of great compos...