The Composer's Voice? Compositional Style and Criteria of Value in Weill, Krenek and Stravinsky

Abstract

This article focuses on three twentieth-century composers – Weill, Krenek and Stravinsky – whose stylistic ‘voices’ underwent radical changes during their compositional careers. It reflects on how these transformations have been received by critics and musicologists, and asks how far the criteria of value found within musicological and compositional practice have been contingent upon the requirement that composers possess a distinctive, and original, personal style.