MODERN AND POSTMODERN ERAS (1882-1971) Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (1895-1978) William Grant Stil Suite for Violin and Piano en (1898-1937) George Gershwin Porgy and Bess me (1899-1940) Silvestre Reweltas Homage to Federico Garcia Lorca een (1900-1990) Aaron Copland ‘Appalachian Spring em (1912-1992) John Cage ‘Sonatas and Interludes ec (1915-1959) Billie Holiday Biles Blues es (1918-1990) Leonard Bernstein West Side Story George Crum> (b, 1928) Caballito negro John Williams (b. 1932) Raiders of the Last Ark Avo Part (b. 1935) — Gantate Domino canticum novum John Corighiano (b. 1938) Prelude: Mr. Tambourine Man 0b Dylah (0.1941) Mr Tambourine Wan Joh ASOMS (01947) Doctor Atomic Bright Sheng (b. 1955) ta China Dreams Jennifer Higdon (b, 1962) blue cathedral 181914 First World War begins (US. enters in 1917) 111929 Great Depression begins. 11939 Second World War begins (U.S. enters in 194). 181958 First mass-produced stereo recordings released, 181974 First home computers produced. 181975 Vietnam War ends. ‘Soviet Union is dissolved, 19911 ‘Terrorists attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 2001 8 "Tunes introduced. Barack Obama elected first African American president, 2008Music as Modern and Postmodern ~ “The entire history of modem music may be said to be a history of the gradual pull-away from the German musical tradition of the past century” Assn COnAND | Modernisms and Postmodernisms ‘Much of the last century has been characterized by artists’ self-conscious attempts to make their art “modern,” not only expressing their own creative vision but sug, gesting progressive directions for others to follow. Because ofthis, there have been many purposeful departures from tradition, which have often been labeled with | a variety of “isms’—Expressionism, futurism, Fauvism, serialism, neo-Classicism, ‘ind so on, What these “isms” all have in common is a concern with “making art whew” However, the particular strategies through which individuals tried to make music modern were often quite different. This is why it can be useful to think of ‘multiple musical “modernisms,” each serving different creative purpose. We will examine several of them in the chapters to come. Most modernists did share a wish to reject nineteenth-century models and a suspicion of “popular” or mass culture, And starting in the mid-twentieth cen- tury, some artists reacted to these concepts by introducing approaches that have ‘he powerul abstaction of cone tobe called “postmodern.” As with modernism, there are several strands of ES Eee postmodernist music. However, we should keep in mind that the distinction be- " {ween modernist and postmodernist is sometimes hard to draw. It might be most Useful to think of music since 1900 as being characterized by a wide variety of approaches through which composers have struggled with the balance berween tradition and innovation, between the creative intensity of “high art” and the imperative of audience accessibility, and between individual expressive goals and community relevance EARLY MODERNISM Just as Buropean and American societies saw great changes in the era from 1890 to 1940, so did the arts witness a profound upheaval. A first wave of “modern- jst’ attitudes took hold just before the advent of the First World War (1914-18), when European arts tried to break away from overrefinement and to capture the Tpontaneity and the freedom from inhibition that was associated with primitive life (though artists often had a very idealized notion of “exotic” cultures outsideEurope; sce illustration on p. 264). Likewise, some com- posers turned to what they perceived as the revitalizing, vigorous energy of non-Western rhythm, seeking fresh concepts in the musics of Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe, In the years surrounding the war, two influential arts movements arose: futurism, whose manifesto of 1909 declared an alienation from established institutions and a focus on the dynamism of twentieth-century life; and Dadaism, founded in Switzerland in 1916. The Dadaists, mainly writers and artists who reacted to the horrors of the war's bloodbath, rejected the concept of art as some: thing to be reverently admired. To make their point, they produced works of absolute absurdity. They also reacted against the excessive complexity of Western art by trying to recapture the simplicity of a child’s worldview. Follow- ing their example, the French composer Erik Satie (1866- 1925) led the way toward a simple, “everyday” music. The Dada group, with artists like Marcel Duchamp, merged into the school of surrealism, which included Sal- vader Dali and Joan Mir6, both of whom explored the world of dreams. Other _Pieaten 1681-1972 saat modern artincluied Cubism, the Parisbased style of paimingingeomet- Giatayes © patterns embodied in the works of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan ris; and Expressionism, which made a significant impact on music of the early twentieth century Three Musicians, by Pablo Expressionism pressionism, their German counterparts preferred digging down to the depths of the psyche. As with Impressionism (Chapter 40), the impulse for the Expressionist ea ee yas ach as Bavard Munch (amous for The Scream) influenced the composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and his disciples Seem nee esau wl a eters He rane Kala), sa he Impressionist painters influenced Debussy. Ce ae prion favored hyprezpresve harmonics extraordinarily wide leaps in the melody, and the use of instruments in their ex: treme registers. Expressionist music soon reached the boundaries of what was pos. sible within the major-minor system. Inevitably, it had to push beyond. Schoenberg I ras cating sonal musi. Analy tirely rejected the framework of key. Consonance, according to Schoenberg, was no longer capable of making an impression; atonal music moved from one level of dissonance to another, functioning always at maximum tension, without areas Mnel@ Schoener xr of relaxation. He eve oped a unifying principle through a technique [ya1oj'enigniyreminis. of relation. He. ENE a eweve ones of the chro- are caa Mes Te| In His Own Words | GG From Schoenberg | PART 6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND | earned that tradition is 2 | home we must ove and forgo. toe Fes composer | ‘Changing meter Neo-Classicism (One way of rejecting the nineteenth century ‘asain es of revering Beethoven and Wagner, as the Romantics had done, composers began to emulate the great musicians of the early eighteenth century—Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi—and the detached, objective style often associated with their music, Neo- Classical composers turned away from the symphonic poem and the Romantic attempt to bring music closer to poetry and painting. They preferred absolute to program music, and they focused attention on crafismanship and balance, a positive affirmation of the Classical virtues of objectivity and control but also of twentieth- century ideals of progress through science. They revived a number of older forms such as toccata, fugue, concerto grosso, and suite, while retaining the traditional symphony, sonata, and concerto, They valued the formal above the expressive; ac cordingly, the new classicism, lke the old, strove for purity of line and proportion. The Americas and the Avant-Garde ‘As Buropeans rejected their own Romantic past, Americans saw the opportunity to take the lead in defining the future in the new ‘American century.” The cul- tural diversity of North America provided many resources to inspire modernist ‘musicians, and their different backgrounds and goals—both creative and social- politicalbrought them to a variety of styles (some incorporating folk music, blues, and jazz) that we will explore. 'As in previous movements, modernism was both a reaction against the past and a distillation of it. The movement transformed a culture and allowed for end- less experimentation. One of the elements of modernist art and music is the con- cept of the avant-garde, a French term originally used to describe the part of an army that charged first into battle. Artists who identify as avant-garde distinguish themselves from traditional “high culture” and from mass-market taste, seeking to explore true creativity by breaking from social and artistic conventions. FEATURES OF EARLY MUSICAL MODERNISM “To study music, we must learn the rules. To create music, we must break them.” — Nuon Bouancen The New Rhythmic Complexity “Twentieth-century music enriched the standard patterns of duple, triple, and qua- druple meter by exploring the possibilities of nonsymmetrical patterns based on ‘odd numbers: five, seven, eleven, or thirteen beats to the measure, In nineteenth- century music, a single meter customarily prevailed through an entire movement ‘or section, Now the metrical flow shifted constantly (changing meter), sometimesMUSIC AS MODERN AND POSTMODERN PRELUDE 6 with each measure. Formerly, one rhythmic pattern was used at a time, Now com- posers turned to polyrhythm, the simultaneous use of several rhythmic patterns. —Polyrhythm ‘As a result of these innovations, Western music achieved something of the com: plexity and suppleness of Asian and Aftican rhythms. This revitalization of rhythm is one of the major achievements of early twentieth-century music. ‘Composers also enlivened their music with materials drawn from popular styles. Ragtime, with its elaborate syncopations, traveled across the Atlantic to Europe. The rhythmic freedom of jazz. captured the ears of many composers, who strove to achieve something of the spontaneity of that popular style The New Melody and Harmony Nineteenth-century melody is fundamentally vocal in character: composers tried to make the instruments “sing,” In contrast, early twentieth-century melody is not conceived in relation to the voice but is more instrumental, abounding in wide leaps and dissonant intervals, Twentieth-century composers have greatly expand: ‘ed our notion of what a melody is, rejecting the neatly balanced phrase repetitions of earlier music and creating tunes and patterns that would have been inconceivable a century ago. No single factor sets off early twentieth-century music from that of the past more decisively than the new concep- tions of harmony, The triads of traditional harmony gave way to stacked chords with more and more notes added, eventu- ally forming highly dissonant chords of six or seven notes; these created multiple streams of harmony, or polyharmony. "The new sounds burst the confines of traditional tonality and called for new means of organization, extending or replacing, the major-minor system. ‘The history of music has partly been the history of a steadily increasing tolerance on the part of listeners. Through- ‘out this long evolution, one factor remained constant: a clear distinction was drawn berween dissonance (the element of tension) and consonance (the element of rest). Consonance Treeguar lines and sudden ‘was the norm, dissonance the temporary disturbance. In many twentieth-century leaps, like thse in twentieth- Works, however, tension became the norm. Therefore, a dissonance can serve even century melodies, chraste2s asa final cadence, provided itis less dissonant than the chord that came before; in Suan ‘Arches National relation to the greater dissonance, its judged to be consonant. Twentieth-century composers taught listeners to accept tone combinations whose like had never been heard before, Orchestration ‘The rich sonorities of nineteenth-century orchestration gave way to a leaner, brighter sound, played by a smaller orchestra. The decisive factor in the handling of the orchestra was in using instrumental color not so much for atmosphere as for bringing out the lines of counterpoint and of form. The string section, with its warm tone, lost its traditional role as the heart of the orchestra; attention wasPi PART 6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND Obistening Activity Previewing early twentieth- ‘century styles, Abstract expressionism Pop art ‘The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry (b. 1929) ‘and completed in 2003, is considered a masterpiece of postmader architecture. focused on the more penetrating winds. The emphasis on hythm brought the percussion group into greater prominence, and the piano, which in the Romantic era was preeminently a solo instrument, found a place in the orchestral ensemble. THE POSTMODERN TURN Just as early twentieth-century artists, writers, and musicians rebelled against the extreme of Romanticism, so too did mid-twentieth-century artists strive to find new means of expression that turned against the principles of modernism. No cone agrees on how to define postmodernism, but this movement encompasses the introduction of popular elements into art; combinative techniques like collage, ppastiche, or quotation; and traditional and classical elements. In short, postmod. ernism opens broad possibilities for artistic expression, and considers all creative efforts, highbrow ot lowbrow, to have equal potential for greatness. One stunning, architectural example is Frank Gehry’s design for the Welt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the interpretation of which has ranged ftom a blossoming flower to a sailing ship (see below). ‘A trend away from objective painting led to abstract expressionism in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. In the canvases of painters such as Robert Motherwell and Jackson Pollock, space, mass, and color were freed from the need to imitate objects in the real world, The urge toward abstraction ‘was felt equally in sculpture, evident in the work of artists such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. At the same time, a new kind of realism appeared in the art of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and the movement known as pop art, which drew its themes from modern urban life: machines, advertisements, comic strips, movies, photography, and familiar objects connected with every- day living, Postmodernism embraces a complex approach to gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity in art. African American artist Faith Ringgold, known for her “story- book” quilts that feature narrative paintings with quilted borders, depicts black musicians in the context of life in the 1920s and 30s in Jazz Series (see p. 263). Postmodern ‘musicians have also used quotation, creating something ‘unique from the known and familiar (ike Jasper Johns's flags; see p. 269)—this is true in vernacular traditions such as hip-hop as well. Postmodern literature takes many forms and ap: proaches. Among the writers you might know are Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five, 1969), Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969), Toni Morrison (Beloved, 1987), and Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, 1989). Indeed, even popular works such as J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books (1997-2007) spin out postmodern themes that establish the mythic Harry among our su- petheroes of today.Postmodernism in Music While a few composers continued the path set out by modernists toward ever stricter organiza: tion in music, others looked toward freer forms and procedures. The antirational element in art— stressing intuition, change, and improvisation— was favored by composers such as John Cage, who wrote chance, or aleatoric, music that left decisions determining the overall shape to the per- former of to chance. Just as in the visual arts, the distinctions between elite and popular music are shrinking, We will hear, for example, how John Corigliano uses the popular poetry of folk singer Bob Dylan as the starting point for his own song cycle; and we will see how the film scores of John Williams have entered the realm of art music. “The globalization of society has hugely impacted musical composition, open- {ing up a world of expression that draws on non-Western music and on the rich her- itage of African American and Latin American styles, as we will note in the works of Still, Copland, Revueltas, and Gershwin, among others. American composer George Crumb experiments with radical approaches to form and sound, while at the same time looking back to earlier influences. Others, like the Estonian Arvo Part, have reverted to a minimalist musical style built on small, repetitive ideas—a concept shared by hip-hop and rock. ‘Multimedia and performance art pull together visual, aural, spoken, and dra ‘matic modes of expression to challenge our notions of any one genre. The term “happening” was coined in the 1960s to describe a semi-improvised multimedia ‘event that often depended on audience participation. All these techniques, and many more, make up the palette of the contemporary composer, New Technologies “The most important development in art music during the mid-twentieth century was the advent of electronic music. Two trends emerged simultaneously in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Musique concréte, based in Paris, relied on sounds made by any natural source, including musical instruments, that were recorded onto mag netic tape and then manipulated by various means. Blectronische Musik originated in Cologne, Germany, and was explored by Karlheinz Stockhausen among others; this method used only electronically produced sounds. By the 1960s, compact and affordable synthesizers suited for mass production were being developed by Rob- tert Moogand Donald Buchla, butit was a recording called Switched-On Bach, made in 1968 by Walter Carlos (a transgender musician now known as Wendy Carlos), that catapulted the synthesizer and the genre of electronic music to instant fame. "The Moog synthesizer was quickly adopted by musicians in a variety of commer cial traditions and for film scores, including Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980). ‘In 1983, the Yamaha DX7, one of the best-selling synthesizers of all time, was Jasper John's (b. 1930) ‘collage Three Flags (1958) superimposes thre canvasses to play with how the viewer perceives a familiar image ‘Musique concréte Synthesizers.Robert Moog, ceator ofthe Mong synthesizer ‘mipt Digital synthesizers listening Activity Early to later twentieth century Baie PART 6 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND By the way... Can the Computer Compose Music? Many composers today apply computing technology to their compositions, allowing the ‘computer to participate in performance or to alter sounds, human or otherwise. Com- poser, record producer, and multimedia artist Brian Eno coined the term “generative fusie” for a computer-based approach that produces ever-changing music, using tech nology to grow “ttle seeds.” As for who gets the credit, he claims that "the basis for ‘computer work is predicated on the idea that only the brain makes decisions and only the index finger does the work.” Programs are now capable of complex functions that allow ‘computers to interact in live performance based on external stimuli and to improvise on fexisting material. Mathematical algorithms and geometric fractals can be used in the ‘compositional process, placing the computer in the role of either creator or participant inthe creative process. The bottom line, however, is that the computer does need human assistance to write its programs and to select how it will contribute—its only in sci-fi J movies like 200: A Space Coysey tat the computer is all powerful unveiled. During that same year, a standardized communications protocol known as the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was officially adopted and in- ‘corporated into all new music synthesizers, allowing composers to record data such as pitch, duration, and volume on the computer for playback on one or more synthesizers. By the mid-1980s, digital sampling synthesizers, capable of recreat- ing a realistic sounding grand piano, trumpet, violin, bird call, car crash, or any other sound that can be sampled, became accessible to the average musician. With the affordability of digital synthesizers and personal computers, and their ability to ‘communicate with one another, the digital revolution took the world of electronic music by storm. Mauch of the music we hear today as movie and TV soundtracks is electron cally generated, although some effects resemble the sounds of conventional instruments so closely that we are not always aware of the new technology. Pop- ular-music groups have been “electrified” for some years, but now most of them regularly feature synthesizers and samplers that both simulate conventional rock and instruments and produce altogether new sounds, as well as electronic re- sources like Autotune to help them manipulate vocal and instrumental pitch either in the studio or in performance. CRITICALTHINKING 1. In what ways did modernist ideals influence music of the early twentieth century? 2. How does postmodernism differ from modernism? In what way has it shaped recent musical trends?