This sound here is something that goes on to really define the role of a jas jas musician, jas artist, for the coming century. A lot of these african americans were keen too, if you like, channel a more historic, aristocratic sense of power in their music. And i think that's why they came up with names like duke ellington and count basey,. The queen's absolutely ma rainy beste smith, my rainy bessy smith, we can'tor forget.
Modernism is a cultural and philosophical movement that emerged in the West during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It’s a complex hydra-headed beast that was pervasive in the arts, but also spread through modern industrial societies influencing architecture and science.
As part of a series of programmes on BBC Radio 3 and 4 celebrating modernism, Kirsty Wark presents an introduction to modernism – how and why did it arise at this time, and its legacy today. She is joined by the cultural historian Matthew Sweet who is presenting a 10-part series for BBC Radio 4 on a crucial year for modernism: 1922 – The Birth of Now.
Suzanne Hobson, from Queen Mary University of London, is an expert on modernist literature, and examines the defining characteristics of the genre, while the musician Soweto Kinch discusses the impact of modernism on music, especially the development of jazz, and how it plays out today.
While innovations in the arts including stream of consciousness, atonal music and abstract art are the headline acts for modernism the academic Charlotte Sleigh looks more closely at what was happening in the sciences, and how innovations in physics, psychology and technology changed the way people experienced the world.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Image: Modulor le Corbusier. Cover template.