THE immediate aftermath of the 1914-1918 War saw an inevitable
reorientation of musical values in Germany. It is usual to ascribe the
"silly season" to the activities of the young French composers; but
the high jinks which came from Paris were nothing in comparison with
the stupidities with which the young Germans tried to indicate the
"new music". However, there was some sense underlying the non-
sense. The situation was perfectly reasonable. The Great War and the
defeat of an arrogant nation meant that the general policy of life in
Germany had to be altogether different. Unfortunately, things went
too far, and instead of being evolutionary, they became revolutionary.
Nevertheless, this revolution made Germany into an open market for
music, and her liberality of thought towards what had become to be
recognised as "contemporary music" (its real name should have been
"temporary music") made it welcome and gave it every opportunity
to flourish. For the first time, French music was accepted as within the
canon, and taken for granted in Germany.

The period saw the rise of self-consciousness among artists. This
brought forward cliques and coteries which, in themselves, did nothing
but good because they kept up a vitalising stream of energy. They
worked, however, on certain broad principles which had little founda-
tion in fact. The musician began to humble himself. He proclaimed that
he was the servant of the people, with the duty of providing the people
with what (he said) they wanted. This kind of self-abasement main-
tained outright that the creative artist was not a superior kind of person
or being apart from his fellow creatures. Exactly who had ever so
regarded him was never explained, but the movement found quite a
large number of followers. There came into being what was known as

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