In 1859, at a conference of musicians in Leipzig, the representatives of a musical ‘party of progress’ under the leadership of Liszt gave itself the name New German School in conscious opposition to Brahms and his followers, who were still committed to composing in the spirit of the classical style. During his sojourn in Weimar (1848–61), Liszt had gathered around him several musicians who thought of themselves as progressives, including Bülow and Cornelius, and had conducted performances of new works by Berlioz and Wagner which, along with his own symphonic poems, promoted and successfully established a new musical sensibility which can be briefly described as programme music and musical drama. Liszt’s opponents disdainfully referred to this new sensibility as Zukunftsmusik or ‘Music of the Future’. An abortive manifesto published in 1860 even went so far as to describe it as ‘contrary to the innermost essence of music’.

Styles & Forms | Late Romantic | Classical
Arts & Culture | Brass Bands | Late Romantic | Classical