Composers such as Picasso or Stravinsky after the First World War were not a return to the status quo before Cubism or before the new music but a continuation of modernism by other means. Reference back to the classical tradition (or traditions) by such artists and composers did not mean imitation or academicism but necessarily involved a profound alteration of the classical content and form. The complex theme, 'classicism in modern art and music 1914-1935', which is.