New Attitudes of Professional Music Listeners in Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s

Szabó, Ferenc János (2025) New Attitudes of Professional Music Listeners in Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s. In: European Perspectives on the New Objectivity Movement. Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, pp. 231-255. ISBN 9783031982606; 9783031982613

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Abstract

This chapter examines interwar writings by Hungarian composers Sándor Jemnitz and Tibor Polgár on gramophone technology, recording and mechanical music. Despite their differing musical backgrounds—Jemnitz trained under Schoenberg and Reger, while Polgár worked in radio and film music—both engaged critically with the aesthetic and technical implications of recorded sound. Polgár’s detailed record reviews, grounded in score-based analysis and medium-specific evaluation, reflect a shift towards a more objective listening practice. Jemnitz, conversely, viewed mechanical music as an emerging art form but questioned its authenticity and expressive limitations. Their writings reveal evolving conceptions of musical objectivity and listening in the age of electrical recording, highlighting both enthusiasm and scepticism towards the gramophone’s impact on musical experience.

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