Postmodern music

Postmodern music is music in the art music tradition produced in the postmodern era. It also describes any music that follows aesthetical and philosophical trends of postmodernism. As an aesthetic movement it was formed partly in reaction to modernism but is not primarily defined as oppositional to modernist music. Postmodernists question the tight definitions and categories of academic disciplines, which they regard simply as the remnants of modernity.

The postmodernist musical attitude

Postmodernism in music is not a distinct musical style, but rather refers to music of the postmodern era. Postmodernist music, on the other hand, shares characteristics with postmodernist art—that is, art that comes after and reacts against modernism (see Modernism in Music). Rebecca Day, Lecturer in Music Analysis, writes "within music criticism, postmodernism is seen to represent a conscious move away from the perceptibly damaging hegemony of binaries such as aestheticism/formalism, subject/object, unity/disunity, part/whole, that were seen to dominate former aesthetic discourse, and that when left unchallenged (as postmodernists claim of modernist discourse) are thought to de-humanise music analysis".

Fredric Jameson, a major figure in the thinking on postmodernism and culture, calls postmodernism "the cultural dominant of the logic of late capitalism", meaning that, through globalization, postmodern culture is tied inextricably with capitalism ( Mark Fisher, writing 20 years later, goes further, essentially calling it the sole cultural possibility). Drawing from Jameson and other theorists, David Beard and Kenneth Gloag argue that, in music, postmodernism is not just an attitude but also an inevitability in the current cultural climate of fragmentation. As early as 1938, Theodor Adorno had already identified a trend toward the dissolution of "a culturally dominant set of values", citing the commodification of all genres as beginning of the end of genre or value distinctions in music.

In some respects, Postmodern music could be categorized as simply the music of the postmodern era, or music that follows aesthetic and philosophical trends of postmodernism, but with Jameson in mind, it is clear these definitions are inadequate. As the name suggests, the postmodernist movement formed partly in reaction to the ideals of modernism, but in fact postmodern music is more to do with functionality and the effect of globalization than it is with a specific reaction, movement, or attitude. In the face of capitalism, Jameson says, "It is safest to grasp the concept of the postmodern as an attempt to think the present historically in an age that has forgotten how to think historically in the first place".

Characteristics

Jonathan Kramer posits the idea (following Umberto Eco and Jean-François Lyotard) that postmodernism (including ''musical'' postmodernism) is less a surface style or historical period (i.e., condition) than an ''attitude''. Each philosopher interprets the term Postmodernism differently. Lawrence Kramer uses it very loosely and explains it as susceptible to mere trends. He loosely follows Jean Francois Lyotard's views of synthesizing schemes, unity coherence, generality, totality, and structure losing their authority.  These strategies of understanding are incorrigibly interdisciplinary and plural and rather see it made as a system over an ethos. Kramer enumerates 16 (arguably subjective) "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices." According to Kramer, postmodern music:

# is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
# is, on some level and in some way, ironic
# does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
# challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
# shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
# questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
# avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
# considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
# includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
# considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
# embraces contradictions
# distrusts binary oppositions
# includes fragmentations and discontinuities
# encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
# presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
# locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

Daniel Albright summarizes the main tendencies of musical postmodernism as:
#Bricolage
# Polystylism
#Randomness

Timescale

One author has suggested that the emergence of postmodern music in popular music occurred in the late 1960s, influenced in part by psychedelic rock and one or more of the later Beatles albums. Beard and Gloag support this position, citing Jameson's theory that "the radical changes of musical styles and languages throughout the 1960s renow seen as a reflection of postmodernism". Others have placed the beginnings of postmodernism in the arts, with particular reference to music, at around 1930.; .

See also

*List of postmodernist composers
* 20th-century classical music
* 21st-century classical music
* Neoconservative postmodernism

References

Sources

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Further reading

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* Berger, Arthur Asa. 2003
The Portable Postmodernist
Walnut Creek: Altamira Press. (cloth); (pbk).
* Bertens, Hans. 1995. ''The Idea of the Postmodern: A History''. London and New York: Routledge. .
* Beverley, John. 1989. "The Ideology of Postmodern Music and Left Politics". '' Critical Quarterly'' 31, no. 1 (Spring): 40–56.
* Born, Georgina. 1995. ''Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde''. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.
* Burkholder, J. Peter. 1995. ''All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowings''. New Haven: Yale University Press.
* Carl, Robert. 1990. "Six Case Studies in New American Music: A Postmodern Portrait Gallery". ''College Music Symposium'' 30, no. 1 (Spring): 45–63.
* Butler, Christopher. 1980. ''After the Wake: An Essay on the Contemporary Avant-Garde''. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press.
* Connor, Steven. 2001. "The Decomposing Voice of Postmodern Music". ''New Literary History'' 32, no. 3: Voice and Human Experience (Summer): 467–483.
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* Danuser, Hermann. 1991. "Postmodernes Musikdenken—Lösung oder Flucht?". In ''Neue Musik im politischen Wandel: fünf Kongressbeiträge und drei Seminarberichte'', edited by Hermann Danuser, 56–66. Mainz & New York: Schott. .
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* Edwards, George. 1991. "Music and Postmodernism". ''Partisan Review'' 58, no. 4 (Fall): 693–705. Reprinted in his ''Collected Essays on Modern and Classical Music'', with a foreword by Fred Lerdahl and an afterword by Joseph Dubiel, 49–60. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2008. .
* Fox, Christopher. 2004. "Tempestuous Times: The Recent Music of Thomas Adès". '' The Musical Times'' 145, No. 1888 (Autumn): 41–56.
* Gagné, Nicole V. 2012. ''Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music''. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. .
* Gloag, Kenneth. 2012. ''Postmodernism in Music''. Cambridge Introductions to Music, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. .
* Harrison, Max, Charles Fox, Eric Thacker, and Stuart Nicholson. 1999.
The Essential Jazz Records: Vol. 2: Modernism to Postmodernism
'. London: Mansell Publishing. (cloth); (pbk).
* Heilbroner, Robert L. 1961. ''The Future as History''. New York: Grove Press.
* Hiekel, Jörn Peter. 2009. "Die Freiheit zum Staunen: Wirkungen und Weitungen von Lachenmanns Komponieren". '' Musik-Konzepte'', no. 146 (July): 5–25.
* Hurley, Andrew W. 2009. "Postnationalism, postmodernism and the German discourse(s) of Weltmusik". ''New Formations'', no. 66 (Spring): 100–117.
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* Klemm, Eberhardt. 1987. "Nichts Neues unter der Sonne: Postmoderne". '' Musik und Gesellschaft'' 37, no. 8: 400–403.
* Kutschke, Beate. 2010. "The Celebration of Beethoven's Bicentennial in 1970: The Antiauthoritarian Movement and Its Impact on Radical Avant-garde and Postmodern Music in West Germany". '' The Musical Quarterly'' 93, nos. 3–4 (Fall–Winter): 560–615.
* LeBaron, Ann. 2002. "Reflections of Surrealism in Postmodern Musics". In ''Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought'', edited by Judy Lochhead and Joseph Aunder, 27–74. New York: Routledge. .
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* Mankowskaya, Nadia. 1993. "L'esthétique musicale et le postmodernisme". ''New Sound: International Magazine for Music'', no. 1:91–100.
* Morris, Geoffrey. 2009. "The Guitar Works of Aldo Clementi". ''Contemporary Music Review'' 28, no. 6 (Aldo Clementi: Mirror of time I): 559–586.
* O'Reilly, Tim. 1994.
Bad Religion Takes Postmodern Punk Mainstream
. '' The Daily Princetonian'' 118, no. 4 (3 February): 10.
* Ofenbauer, Christian. 1995. "Vom Faltenlegen: Versuch einer Lektüre von Pierre Boulez' Notation(s) I(1)". '' Musik-Konzepte'', nos. 89–90:55–75.
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* Ortega y Gasset, José. 1932. '' The Revolt of the Masses''. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company.
Online edition
* Petrusëva, Nadežda Andreevna. 2003. "Новая форма в новейшей музыке" he Formal Innovations of Postmodern Music ''Muzyka i vremâ: Ežemesâčnyj naučnyj kritiko-publicističeskij žurnal'', no. 8: 45–48.
* Pickstock, Catherine. 2011. "Quasi una sonata: Modernism, Postmodernism, Religion, and Music". In ''Resonant Witness: Conversations between Music and Theology'', edited and introduced by Jeremy S. Begbie and Steven R. Guthrie, with an afterword by John D. Witvliet, 190–211. Calvin Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Studies. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans. .
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* Sanches, Pedro Alexandre. 2000. ''Tropicalismo: Decadência Bonita do Samba''. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial.
* Siōpsī, Anastasia. 2010. "On the Various Roles of Tradition in 20th-Century Greek Art Music: The Case Study of Music Written for Ancient Dramas". In Простори модернизма: Опус Љубице Марић у контексту музике њеног времена, edited by Dejan Despić, Melita Milin, Dimitrije Stefanović, and Danica Petrović, 197–214. Naučni skupovi, no. 130; Odelenje za likovne umetnosti i muziku, no. 7. Belgrade: Srpska Akademija Nauka i Umetnosti. .
* Smart, Barry. 1993. ''Postmodernity''. Key Ideas, series editor Peter Hamilton. London and New York: Routledge. .
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* Taylor, Anthony. 2010. "John Adams' Gnarly Buttons: Context and Analysis: I". ''The Clarinet'' 37, no. 2 (March): 72–76.
* Varga, Bálint András, and Rossana Dalmonte. 1985. ''Luciano Berio: Two Interviews'', translated and edited by David Osmond-Smith. London: Boyars. .
* Wellmer, Albrecht. 1991. ''The Persistence of Modernity: Essays on Aesthetics, Ethics and Postmodernism'', translated by David Midgley. Cambridge assachusetts MIT Press. .

{{DEFAULTSORT:Postmodern Music

20th-century classical music
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