Modern and Postmodern Western Music - Essay Example

Modern and Postmodern Western Music “Postmodernism” is a very complex term to define. Simply put, postmodernism depicts the age after modernism in terms of reaction to the phenomena in modern era. Postmodernism can be defined through the comparison with modernism in every term of media. Comparing the two eras it can be said that modernism was focused on the reinvention of the language of any media including painting, music, literature, and so on whereas postmodernism concentrated on recycling the language of those media.1 Postmodern era is concerned with more advance technicalities putting forth the hybridism, relativism, heterogeneity, aesthetic hedonism, anti-essentialism and the rejection of grand narratives.2 The era of modernism is characterized by the movements involving revolution of visual arts, music, literature, and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards. Modernism redefined the art in every facet through increased emphasis on impression. The perspective of observation gained importance over the perspective of standard perception. The reinvention was also evident through the reducing distinction between genres, increased reflexivity, and rejection of formal elaboration. Postmodernism also obeys these rules of reinvention but unlike modernism it finds the ways to celebrate them. While the focus of modernism was literary and art historic sources, postmodernism focused on history and sociology, i.e., the more pressing topics of daily life of people.3 While modernism was the concept of new beginning postmodernism refers to the nurturing and progressing of those new findings. Postmodern era takes a more world wide view in contrast to modern era and unlike the emphasis on reality in modern era, postmodernism promotes fiction as reality and removes the barrier between imagination and practicality.4 “Modernism” and “postmodernism” concepts are also found to reflect in the music of the respective era. Musical modernism was characterized by the desire for or belief in progress and science, anti-romanticism, surrealism, political advocacy and general intellectualism. Modern music always tried to break the common practice in search of something new. Musical modernism was defined by Botstein (n.p.)5 as a concept of modernity characterized by positivism, mechanization, urbanization, mass culture and nationalism. The aestheic reaction to all these development was reflected in the modern music. While considering the history of modern music it is often said to be influenced by the ones developed in ancient Greece. Evidences were also found that the Church music in Western Europe was dominated by the Greek music practices and systems. But it is seen that the modern music actually reached its graceful self only after removing all the traces of Greek influence from it.6 The modernism in music showed very distinct characteristics which made it different from its previous musical eras. The major characteristics of modern music were the use of sound based composition, extended techniques and sounds, speech and singing and expansion on abandonement of tonality. In terms of sound based composition the modern music took liberty to use almost any kinds of sound, even the noise like factory or mechanical sounds.7 This liberal use of sounds in the music truly characterized the revolutionizing approach of modern music tending to break the concepts of the previous age. The excessive use of instruments and and speakers in the musical composition was a uniqueness of the modern era citing a shift from the premodern softer tone of music.8 The use of extended techniques in terms of percussion orchestra, string instruments, piano, etc. gave a more theatrical appearance to the music. The justly tunes microtonal music was also the characteristic of modern music. The most unique character of modern music was the use of speech in the music.9 The song with intermittent speeches received instant popularity in the modern era of music. Atonality, polytonality, twelve tone techniques, tone cluster, dissonant counterpoint, serialism, etc. are the contributions of modernism to the history of music. In spite of its instant popularity modern music received some harsh criticisms also. According to Cavell (187)10 the excessiveness in all aspects of modern music sometimes have made the music incomprehensible to the audience and grew various complexity. Several works of modern age composers are found in history. One of such great composer was Cecil Taylor who literally revolutionized jazz music in the modern era. Cecil Taylor was born in 1929 and was drawn to music since his childhood. He was the proponent of the free jazz music.11 His music was extremely influenced by the African American music styles but still showed great influence on jazz. The use of instruments like piano, percussion instruments, etc. all were present in his music compositions. He was trained in traditional formal music but his creations showed significant shift from those lessons. His music was labelled to be atonal which was later became an important characteristic of modern music. He created an excellent blend of European techniques and energy with African American traditional music style.12 Taylor also blended folk music style into in compositions and tried to cross the boundaries of music. This was another sign of modern musical era to cross the borderline to reach the realm of atonality.13 Taylor’s creation of free jazz showed some marked similarities with the contemporary European conventional jazz musicians. Atonality is the basic one of these similarities the things oversimplified and intervallic. Atonality was used in terms of tone clusters in both musics in tone-color and sound-mass compositions as a coloristic element.14 Both the types of music showed fragmentation of the older longer forms into newer smaller modules. The longer forms have been considered to be old fashioned at that time and were out of use. The next characteristic was the destruction of constant 4/4 pulse of the bass and drums and replacement of the same with more subjective overall perception of information density.15 This new attempt gave rise to the serialized music with specific and unconventional rhythms. This had farther blurred the boundary in music. Thus the loss of the older structure was evident from the newer forms of jazz. Unlike the older structures the newer forms lacked traditional meter, form, constant tempo, and motivic development to create a more aesthetic result. The traditional twelve tone pieces used in jazz music were also missing in the free jazz composed by Taylor. The works by Taylor had new organizational principles based on energy dimension.16 Thus the entire discussions on Taylor’s compositions are able to shed light on the characteristics of such compositions as the examples of modernism in music. Another remarkable example of modern music era was the work by Ray Charles in his album “Modern sounds in country and western music” released in 1962. This album was also a presentation of jazz music but with a touch of country soul. In this way it tried to overcome the boundary in music and showed the characteristic of modernism in music. The album was recoded to blend both country and jazz genre through the transformation of country songs into the light jazz environment.17 The country and soul music blended in the album was an example of unique cross over as prior to this album the soul and country music were considered to be completely separate genre with racial barrier between them. This album not only broke that barrier but also recognized the artistic freedom of a black musician. Keeping pace with the reinvention style of modernism in music the album truly contributed in the social and political contexts and thus reflected the concept of modernism in it.18 The postmodern musical era on the other hand was the embodiment of the age after the modern age. It is characterized by the eclecticism in musical form and genre. Like the modernism in music, postmodernism also crosses musical boundaries frequently but its style of crossing is even more subtle with the use of jump cut sectionalization such as blocks. The post modern music shows a combination of traditional harmonic practice and colorful orchestration.19 The use of symphony and choral forms are also common in postmodern music unlike the modern music which was completely devoid of these practices. The postmodern music is considered to be the more comprehensive and easier form of music compared to the modern music. The rock and folk music as used in postmodern era have become more acceptable to the audience compared to the harder modern music.20 The perception of the audience that listening to and understanding music needs certain amount of expertise, was removed with the advent of postmodern music which was comparatively easier to understand with some lesser amount of knowledge. Postmodern music was based on the idea of coexistence of various styles together in a single work. Examples of such polystylistic works such as “Open House” in 1975, “The Ghost of Versailles” in 1992, John Zorn’s works, etc. clearly demonstrate these mixed styles. “Open House” showed the mix of atonal expressionism with late Romantic symphony. Light waltz, jazzy musical theatre like movement in sound resulting in the composition similar Bach excellently demonstrated the characteristic mixing tendency of postmodern music.21 “The Ghost of Versailles” mixed the styles of 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in the composition with the reference from European Opera tradition and quotation from the early operas.22 The works by John Zorn cover even larger areas of music. He not only mixes the classical and popular music styles but also include soundtracks from movies, Indian and Japanese music, etc. in his works.23 Another very important development in the postmodern music is the application of computer and television. In case of television, MTV can be cited as a very good example which is the embodiment of the fragmentation and editing of the postmodern music. It shows absolutely stunning application of jump cut collage system with stream of consciousness presentation.24 The hedonistic approach is evident from the presentation of MTV and the medium is able to provide steadily with the postmodern musicians the works taking place throughout the world. Thus the medium enables them to mix and match the music styles from the entire world.25 The application of computer systems to the composition of music almost revolutionized the entire music world. It is an indispensable part of the postmodernism in music. It works as a very convenient tool to model new music styles and create new music pieces with the application of techniques of mix and match and thus made remixing a characteristic of the postmodern music which was absent in the era of modernism. The methodology of new creations using computer applications also contains postmodern elements like quotation, heterogeneity and commodification of cultural phenomena.26 With the increased dependence on the computer technology writers like Richard (26)27 expressed concern about the cultural influence of music. According to him computer music is an obvious expression of postmodernism and needs considerable attention from philosophical and cultural perspectives. Only the psychological and sociological approach and criticism of the dependence of technology are not enough to address the entire issue.28 An example of the postmodern music can be cited in terms of the popular rock band “Pink Floyd”. Rock music is an example of postmodern music characterized by psychedelic and space rock music. The eclectic music style of Pink Floyd was evident from the philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation and innovative album cover.29 The postmodern extravagance was demonstrated through these applications. The use of instruments, smoother and soothing sound, experimentation with psychedelic sound and the worldwide success of Pink Floyd all evidenced the postmodern characteristics of technology dependence, mixed and soothing music and crossing of the barrier.30 Thus to conclude the decision it can be said that both the modernism and postmodernism have some distinct similarities in their musical styles but the postmodernism showed some visible differences also from the modern musical era. The harder, less understandable music of modern era gave way to smoother and more easily understandable music in postmodern era. Application of technology and mix and match of different music styles are the distinguishable features absent in the modern era. The distinction truly depicted that the modern era was the age of reinvention and revolutionizing the concept whereas the postmodern era of western music is the era of recycling and compiling the entire existing knowledge of music. Works Cited 1) Botstein, Leon. Modernism. The new grove dictionary of music online ed. L. Macy. 2003. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 2) Cavell, Stanley. Music Discomposed. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976. 3) Christgau, Robert. The genius at work. Rolling Stone. 2004. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 4) Erway, C.Chris. Cecil Taylor, free jazz, and modern western music. N.d. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 5) Hurd, R. Wesley. Postmodernism. McKenzie Study Center. 1998. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 6) Inart 55: History of electroacoustic music, postmodernism. Penn State. N.d. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 7) Pasler, Jann. Postmodernism. The new grove dictionary of music online ed. L. Macy. 2003. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 8) Kiesewetter, Raphael Georg and Robert Muller. History of the modern music of western Europe. USA: T.C. Newby, 1848. 9) Klages, Mary. Literary theory: A guide for the perplexed. USA: Continuum Press, 2007. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 10) Harry Partch. N.d. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 11) Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd Online. N.d. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). 12) Richard, Dominique M. Computer music and post-modern: A case of schizophrenia. Computer Music Journal. 18.4 (1994): 26-34. 13) Russolo, Luigi. The art of noises. 120 Years of Electronic Music 2005. Available at: (accessed on 01 October 2008). Read More