Chapter 32:Postmodernism

Postmodernism

• An all-inclusive, “anything goes” trend in music

• There is no “high” or “low” are – only art

• One culture is as important as the next

• No necessary to separate classical from popular music

• A new agenda for creating music:– Each composition must has its own unique form

according to the demands and creative urges of the movement

– Music no longer goal oriented

– Use of electronic and amplified instruments

Electronic Music: From Thomas Edison to Radiohead

• Changes in the dissemination of music:– 1877: Edison patented the phonograph

– 1920: Radio

– 1936: Magnetic tape recording

– 1990’s: CD

– Today: MP3 and M4A files

• Changes to how music is created:– Electronic music produced by a synthesizer

– Musique concrète: Music in which the composer works directly with sounds recorded on magnetic tape, not with musical notation and performers

Edgard Varèse (1883-1965) and Electronic Music

• Born in France but immigrated to the US in 1915 in search of a less traditional artistic environment

• An extreme Modernist reaching forward to the Postmodernist age

• Amériques (1921): Varèse’s first work written in the US– Required a battery of new percussion instruments,

including sirens and sleigh bells

• Ionization (1931): Written for percussion ensemble– Elements of melody and harmony have been removed

Poème électronique (1958)• Combination of new electronic sounds generated by a

synthesizer with bits of musique concète, including taped sounds of a siren, a train, an organ, church bells, and a human voice– All altered or distorted in some imaginative way

• Created to provide music for a multimedia exhibit inside the pavilion of the Philips Radio Corporation at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels

John Cage (1912-1992) and Chance Music• Special affection for percussion instruments– By 1941, had collected over 300 percussion objects –

anything that might make an unusual noise

• Prepared piano: A piano outfitted with screws, bolts, washers, erasers, and bits of felt and plastic to transform the instrument from a melodic one to a percussive one

John Cage and Change Music

• Glorification of everyday noise

• The leading proponent of Chance music– Unpredictable sequence of musical events

– Allows performer total artistic freedom

– Questions the principles of Western music

• 4’33” (1952)– Consists of three movements of silence

– Heightens awareness of environmental sounds

– Ambient background noise of the room and whatever external noise may intrude by chance

John Adams (b. 1947) and Minimalism• Minimalism: A style of postmodern music that takes a

very small amount of musical material and repeats it over and over to form a composition

• Material is usually simple, tonal, and consonant

• Steady tempo creates a hypnotic effect

• Influenced by classical and popular music

• Compositions have an eclectic quality

• 2003: Received the Pulitzer Prize for On the Transmigration of Souls

• Minimalist operas: Nixon in China (1987) and Doctor Atomic (2005)

Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)• Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony

• Scored for full orchestra and 2 electronic keyboard synthesizers

• Composed of short motives that overlap

• “You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn’t?”