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Neo-Mythologism in Music: From Scriabin and Schoenberg to Schnittke and Crumb.

Article Excerpt
Neo-Mythologism in Music: From Scriabin and Schoenberg to Schnittke and Crumb. By Victoria Adamenko. (Interplay Series, no. 5.) Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2007. [xv, 299 p. ISBN-13: 9781576471258. $36.] Illustrations, music examples, bibliographic references, index.

This is an ambitious interdisciplinary undertaking that brings together various aspects of music, mythology, semiotics, philosophy, religion, and anthropology. The subject is complex and, at times, speculative, but Victoria Adamenko's lucid writing and thoughtful organization of the book, with detailed subheadings, make the reader's job much easier.

The author introduces the concept of neo-mythologism in order to shed negative implications that are occasionally associated with myth (for example, myth as an obsolete and untrue view of the world). She defines neo-mythological as "newly constructed .... desirable, vital--that is, culturally inspiring" as opposed to "those myths in need of de-mythification" (p. 2). According to Adamenko, "neo-mythologism is a trend rather than an artistic movement in the conventional sense, such as expressionism or symbolism" (p. 3); therefore, it can manifest itself in the works of vastly diverse composers. Indeed, it is difficult to find a more divergent group of twentieth-century composers than those chosen by Adamenko for her study: Scriabin, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Berg, Crumb, Stockhausen, Schnittke, Denisov, and others.

From the outset, Adamenko...

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