Download Chapter 16: American Modernism and Postmodernism

Chapter 32:
Postmodernism
Postmodernism
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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:
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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?”