Postmodernism: The Evolution of Music

1. Chapter 32:Postmodernism

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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?”