The period from about 1890 to 1940 saw profound changes in European and American societies and the art they created. These changes were outgrowths of trends whose beginnings we traced in Chapter 19 — trends such as the collapse of Romantic political aspirations in 1848, accelerating industrialization, and increasingly pronounced nationalism. They came to a climax in the first half of the new century, with the cataclysms of World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45).

The artists of this period responded in ways generally familiar also from the nineteenth century. Some pushed forward with ever bolder expression and technique (think of Wagner). Others searched for new vitality in modes of expression that by now seemed traditional (think of Brahms).

The first of these groups, the avant-garde modernists, riveted the attention of the artistic world in the period leading up to World War I because of the excitement (many thought scandal) generated by their experimentation and innovation. We take up these innovations in this Prelude and in Chapter 21. In Chapter 22 we consider responses between the world wars to the challenges and difficulties of this avant-garde.