Postmodern composers challenge traditional music norms, embracing eclecticism and unconventional techniques. They mix styles, quote existing works, and use chance operations to create unique sounds. This approach reflects broader postmodern ideas about subjectivity and fragmentation .
These techniques connect to the chapter's focus on contemporary music trends. Postmodernism's emphasis on blending genres and questioning artistic boundaries aligns with the eclectic nature of music in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Postmodern Techniques
Postmodern Philosophical and Artistic Movements
Top images from around the web for Postmodern Philosophical and Artistic Movements Georges Braque , 1910, Violin and Candlestick , oil on canvas , 60.96 cm x 50.17 cm, San ... View original
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Georges Braque , 1910, Violin and Candlestick , oil on canvas , 60.96 cm x 50.17 cm, San ... View original
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Top images from around the web for Postmodern Philosophical and Artistic Movements Georges Braque , 1910, Violin and Candlestick , oil on canvas , 60.96 cm x 50.17 cm, San ... View original
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Georges Braque , 1910, Violin and Candlestick , oil on canvas , 60.96 cm x 50.17 cm, San ... View original
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Postmodernism encompasses a broad range of philosophical and artistic movements that emerged in the late 20th century
Challenges traditional notions of objectivity, universality, and progress
Emphasizes subjectivity, diversity, and fragmentation
Questions the boundaries between high art and popular culture
Eclecticism involves drawing inspiration from a wide variety of sources, styles, and genres
Combines elements from different cultural traditions, historical periods, and artistic disciplines
Creates works that are diverse, hybrid, and often unconventional
Intertextuality refers to the complex web of relationships between texts, both literary and musical
Recognizes that all texts are influenced by and in dialogue with other texts
Encourages the reader or listener to make connections and interpret meaning based on these relationships
Postmodern Musical Techniques and Strategies
Pastiche involves imitating or borrowing from various styles or genres to create a new work
Often combines elements in a playful, ironic, or nostalgic manner
Can be used to comment on or critique the original sources (Berio's Sinfonia )
Quotation involves directly incorporating fragments of existing music into a new composition
Can range from brief allusions to extended passages
Challenges traditional notions of originality and authorship (Schnittke's Concerto Grosso No. 1 )
Deconstruction involves breaking down and reinterpreting musical structures, conventions, and meanings
Questions the stability and coherence of musical works
Reveals hidden assumptions and contradictions within the music (Derrida's concept of deconstruction)
Experimental Approaches
John Cage and His Influence
John Cage was an American composer, music theorist, and artist known for his avant-garde and experimental approach
Challenged traditional notions of music, composition, and performance
Explored the use of chance operations, indeterminacy , and silence in his works
Influenced a wide range of artists and composers across various disciplines
Aleatory music involves the use of chance or randomness in the composition or performance of a work
Can involve the use of dice, coin flips, or other chance operations to determine musical elements
Allows for a degree of unpredictability and spontaneity in the music (Cage's Music of Changes)
Indeterminacy refers to the openness and flexibility of a musical work
Leaves certain aspects of the composition or performance to the discretion of the performer
Can involve graphic notation, verbal instructions, or other unconventional forms of scoring (Cage's 4'33")
Interdisciplinary Practices
Multimedia involves the integration of multiple artistic media within a single work
Combines music with visual arts, theater, dance, literature, or technology
Creates immersive and multi-sensory experiences for the audience (Laurie Anderson's United States )
Performance art blurs the boundaries between music, theater, dance, and visual arts
Emphasizes the process and experience of the performance over the final product
Often involves improvisation, audience participation, and site-specific elements
Challenges traditional notions of the performer-audience relationship (Philip Glass and Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach)