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Of swollen, myopic beetles, giant frogs, and other creatures: Epigonism and its modernist metamorphoses in critical evaluations of Max Reger

2000; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01411890008574782

1547-7304

Antonius Bittmann,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

Abstract Fostered by a new historical awareness in the early nineteenth century, the epigone emerged as one of modernism's most celebrated emblems. While thriving particularly on modernism's highly ambiguous relationship with tradition, its chameleon‐like adaptability to all spheres of culture and human existence rendered the epigone an ideal carrier employable by any of the most controversial modernist ideologies. As both an illustrious standard‐bearer of the modernists and one of their favorite whipping boys, Max Reger and the reception of his work are to be located at the heart of these controversies. Although critical evaluations of his music reveal a plethora of aesthetic, sociological, and political underpinnings—ranging from modernism's ubiquitous Great Genius imperative to apocalyptic visions of cultural and physical degeneration and the extremes of racist elitism and fascism—the various reception strands may be seen to center around the concept of epigonism and its multifaceted metamorphoses. To the extent that recent assessments of the composer mirror the overall orientation and sometimes even certain linguistic particulars of fin‐de‐siècle music criticism, however, my discussion of Max Reger assumes the character of a case study with larger implications: it reveals how heavily current notions of nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century historiography may still be burdened by early‐modernist polemics.