The early, mid, and late 20 th century post-war period was characterized by a mix in traditional and modern music styles. Composers embraced the traditional style less, evinced by the limited consensus on aesthetic, purpose, and style. Audiences were more appealed by modern complexities, with increased demand for performers to perfect the quality of their songs. Post tonal styles, radical avant-garde, and neo-tonal, and tonal music were more embraced by composers. Musicians, such as Benjamin Britten and Oliver Messiaen adopted the new styles of composing music.
What does patronage look like in the 20 th and 21 st century?
In the 20 th and 21 st centuries, composers adopted new means of earning a living. For instance, Copland and Stravinsky supported themselves through royalties, live performances’ income, and commissions. In Europe, composers ceased from seeking patronage and were instead supported by annual subsidies, radio stations, art agencies, and grants. In France, West Germany, and Poland, the government supported musicians, as fulfillment of promoting their countries’ culture. For instance, the Shostakovich in the Soviet Union was permitted by the government to write anti-Stalinist poems, and Krzysztof Penderecki was supported by the Poland national government to perform at the Warsaw Autumn Festival of Contemporary music. Moreover, universities in Canada and the United States increasingly employed musicians to teach experimental, avant-garde, and traditional music. For instance, the University of California employed Schoenberg, and Princeton University employed Milton Babbitt as a music and mathematics professor.
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What does it mean to create avant-garde?
Avant-garde music was created through the use of several techniques, such as serial composition, applications of chance and indeterminacy, use of electronic music, and creation of songs using collage and quotations of past music. Music composers used the twelve-tone approach, untraditional music instruments, and structures that related wholes to parts of songs. For instance, John Cage’s Ionization , Third Construction in Metal , and Imaginary Landscape evinced Sonatas and Interludes, Music of changes, and Sonata V techniques. Music composers used the prepared piano technique, where pieces of wood, screws, and bolts were inserted between piano strings, which resulted in complex, delicate percussive sounds, which resembled drums, gongs, and woodblocks. Indeterminacy was created by some music elements being unspecified by musicians, while in chance technique, parts of music is determined by chance, as evidenced by John Cage’s Variations .
Writing on music-Musicology, composers themselves, important debates
In the post-war era, writing on music diversified from the traditional classical music to popular music, such as jazz, disco, soul, and punk. Musicians such as Harry Partch incorporated new sonic music by combining Western harmony and equal temperament pitches, inspired by rural American, African American, and Chinese music. Music composers used new instruments, such as marimbas, cloud-chamber bowls, modified guitars, electric pianos, mandolin, harmonica, and tape recorders to deliver their works, as evinced in The Bacchae by Euripides and Good Vibration s by Beach Boys ( Grout, Burkholder, & Palisca, 2019) . Finally, performers completely controlled their music, through rhythms evidenced in shadings of intensity, pitch, and timbre.
Music and Politics/Culture
Music was used to cautiously advance nationalism in the 20th century, with governments supporting pieces of works that promoted socialist realism, their agendas, and overt-flag waving. For instance, the Germany government supported the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, which advanced serialism. Music composers, such as Schoenberg and Hindemith used the serialism technique to educate listeners on leftist ideologies, nationalism, and fascism, as evinced in String Quartet No. 3 by Milton Babbitt and Pierrot lunaire by Schoenberg.
Popular vs. Classical Music
In the 20 th century, popular and classical music were characterized by variant polystylism, minimalism, mixed media, and neo-romanticisms techniques. Notable post-war events, such as European communism collapse, new conflicts, rise of a global economy, and growing equality propelled new songs, such as jazz, rock, blues, disco, and punk ( Grout, Burkholder, & Palisca, 2019) . Popular music was untutored, preached nihilism, and addressed issues such as gender, race, and sexuality. Other genres, such as hiphop, and contemporary Christian music also erupted post the World I and II eras. Classical music also embraced the minimalism technique, as evinced by Ligeti’s Atmospheres , which uses familiar and simple ideas, avoidance of narrative texts, and use of violins and woodwinds.
Connection between composers-personal, stylistic
Composers used postmodern styles in their compositions, through stylistic allusions and polystylism. Music composers, such as Alfred Schnitkke evinced the latter technique in their compositions, such as the Concerto Grosso No. 1 . Musicians also embraced the polytonality style in their compositions, which combined timbral effects and modern serial music, as evinced in John Coriglino’s The Ghost of Versailles and The Red Violin .
Reference
Grout, D. J., Burkholder, J. P., & Palisca, C. V. (2019). A history of western music (10th ed.).
