1 George Rochbergs Music for the Magic Theater: Beyond Discontinuity, Beyond Postmodernism Mark A.

Berry Scholars have begun to challenge the standard interpretation of George Rochbergs Music for the Magic Theater as a radical form of postmodern discontinuity by analyzing formal connections between its musical quotations. Their work reveals the need for an alternative interpretive framework to postmodernism, and this paper shows how a contextual approach guided by Rochbergs own aesthetic concerns not only strengthens previous analytical findings but also moves us further beyond the limitations of the postmodern rubric. In the late 1950s, Rochberg formulated his concept of space-form to reassert the composers control over expressive sound objects, employing it in his 12-tone works as a corrective to the formal incomprehensibility of indeterminacy and serialism. By 1965, he also began to invoke John von Neumanns notion of a cognitive alpha language to justify using music from past historical periods as another solution. Music for the Magic Theater represents Rochbergs attempt to incorporate this alpha-language pluralism into a space-form framework. The composer treats originally composed atonal outbursts and tonal quotations from Mahler, Mozart, and Miles Davis as distinct sonic units, and creates relationships between them with timbral, textural, and motivic techniques similar to those found in his dodecaphonic music. From this perspective, Music for the Magic Theater is not discontinuous postmodern pastiche but is part of Rochbergs ongoing aesthetic project to

2 address the perceptual challenges posed by contemporary compositional methods. This interpretation re-orients discussion on the piece away from an abstract postmodern categorization and toward its place within the vivid historical context surrounding its composition.