ABSTRACT
The accompanying reduction of supremely appealing, melodically expressive music to the category of 'kitsch' constitutes a refusal of legitimacy to all sentimental music. In Thomas Mann's novel, Adrian Leverkuhn also rejects the sentimental, when the narrator, Serenus Zeitblom, criticizes a dogmatic approach to musical composition as excessively rationalist: 'In any case not sentimental' is the response. Arnold Schoenberg's musical setting accordingly avoids any of the stylistic manifestations of objective goodness and beauty. The rituals of pagan Russia possessed an attraction as a contrast to the refinement of modern society; Sergei Prokofiev's Scythian Suite is another example of musical primitivism. Although the rhythm is the most radical element of the musical style of Le Sacre du printemps, it is not surprising that other elements exhibit a similar disintegration of order. The place of Le Sacre in modernist musical culture testifies to the extent of the nihilist mentality in modern society.
