In the Second Half of the
Twentieth Century
Total control
• Radical objectivism — extension of serial technique
• Integral serialism — precompositional control of
interfacing musical components
• Interrogates the intention of musical “expression”
• Demands machinelike accuracy from performers
Extended techniques
• Expansion of timbral possibilities with existing
instruments
• Long history of special effects in scoring — mutes,
stopped horns, different bow placements and col legno,
Sprechstimme, etc.
• Leads to invention of new notations
• Often justified by textual/programmatic considerations
Electronic music
• Electronic capability responding to different issues
– invention of new sounds
– complete control of musical organization
• Tape music
– new sounds — musique concrète, synthesized tones
– organization — overdubbing, tape loop
• Computer-generated music
– new sounds — increased manipulation of timbre
– organization — programmed form
• Music without performers — or performers in
ensemble with recorded music
Indeterminacy
• Also called aleatory music or chance music
• Composer cedes some aspects of music to
– uncontrolled circumstances
– performers’ decisions
• Two types of indeterminacy
– controlled sound but indeterminate structure
– controlled structure but indeterminate sound
• John Cage, 4'33": Is the music
– silent?
– ambient sound?
– listeners’ thoughts during performance?
Postmodernism
• Reaction to modernism
• Rejects progressive view of history
• Mistrusts objectivism, rejects science and technology as
best sources of solutions to all problems
• Pluralism
– no single governing epistemology
– multiculturalism
– eclecticism in artistic style — diversity and fusion
Minimalism
• Emphasizes process over product, duration over
development
• Artistic material consists of small units
• form developed by
– repetition
– cycling or phasing
• Favors attentive but not necessarily analytical listening
Mixed-media and performance-oriented
music
• Multimedia composition (or improvisation)
– often takes advantage of technology
– high interest factor for audiences
– encourages programmatic topicality
• Performance art
– features performer improvisation
– often multimedia
– engaging for audience
• “New Romanticism” — characterized by approachable
sound, integration of art forms, expressive content
Some jazz styles after the 1940s
• Bebop (bop)
– free treatment of harmony — increased dissonance
– extreme virtuosity
• Cool jazz
– less intense than bebop
– mellower, ensemble-based sound
• Free jazz
– independent of established harmonic progressions
– exploitation of extended techniques
• Fusions
– third stream — jazz and classical music
– jazz-rock
Rock and roll
• First popular genre in Western tradition also supported
by greatest wealth base, the American middle class
• Derived from union of rhythm and blues and countrywestern folk traditions
• Topical appeal to teenage audience
• Supported dance
• Social commentary — especially generational issues
• Dependent on recording industry and broadcast media
• Rapid development of different styles — postmodern
manifestation
Questions for discussion
• At what periods in the Western musical tradition have there
been notable emphasis on developing timbres as part of the
compositional palette? Are there significant parallels
between those periods and the twentieth century?
• How did the development of recording alter the positions
of composer, performer, and listener in comparison to
earlier eras?
• Do developments since 1950 demand rethinking of the
definition of music?
• Can the position of popular music in the United States after
World War II be paralleled to any earlier developments in
the Western musical tradition?