What is Postmodernist Music?
The term “postmodernism in music” refers to postmodern music rather than a distinct musical style. On the other hand, postmodernist art—that is, art that comes after and responds to modernism—shares characteristics with postmodernist music (see Modernism in Music). “Within music criticism, postmodernism is seen to represent a conscious move away from the perceptibly damaging hegemony of binaries such as aestheticism/formalism, subject/object, unity/disunity, part/whole,” according to Lecturer in Music Analysis Rebecca Day, “that were seen to dominate former aesthetic discourse, and that when left unchallenged (as postmodernists claim of modernist discourse) are thought to de-humanize music analysis.”
One of the most important thinkers about postmodernism and culture, Fredric Jameson, calls postmodernism “the cultural dominant of the logic of late capitalism.” This means that postmodern culture is inextricably linked to capitalism because of globalization (Mark Fisher, writing 20 years later, goes even further, basically calling it the sole cultural possibility). David Beard and Kenneth Glogg argue, drawing on Jameson and other theorists, that in the current cultural climate of fragmentation, postmodernism is not only an attitude but also an inevitable feature of music. The commodification of all genres as the beginning of the end of genre or value distinctions in music was cited by Theodor Adorno as evidence that a trend toward the dissolution of “a culturally dominant set of values” had already been identified as early as 1938.
In certain regards, Postmodern music could be classified as just the music of the postmodern time, or music that pursues stylish and philosophical directions of postmodernism, yet considering Jameson, it is clear these definitions are deficient. As the name proposes, the postmodernist development framed part of the way in response to the goals of innovation, yet as a matter of fact postmodern music is more to do with usefulness and the impact of globalization than it is with a particular response, development, or demeanor. According to despite private enterprise, Jameson, “It is most secure to accept the idea of the postmodern as an endeavor to think the present generally during a time that has failed to remember how to think generally in any case”.
Postmodernist Music Origin
Music antiquarians routinely differ on dates and periodization in Western Traditional Music, however the ongoing general agreement is that we are, right now, partaking in the Postmodern Time of Music. The term Postmodernism initially came into utilization during the 1970s to depict melodic, creative, and philosophical patterns that started around 1945. Postmodernist music developed the trial patterns of the pioneer time frame, yet in addition went about as a response against those examinations, bringing about a different cluster of compositional plans. A typical subject all through postmodern music was to challenge what music ought to be, and what it very well may be.
Postmodernist Music History
Postmodern music is a specific subgenre that emerged in the latter half of the 1960s largely as a result of the significant social shifts that were taking place at the time. This kind of music adheres to the same concepts and points of view that are found in other areas of postmodernism. The absence of a single defining structure or ideology is embraced by the postmodern philosophy and art movement. Postmodern musicians frequently draw stylistic inspiration from a wide variety of contradictory areas. Postmodern poets and musicians naturally disregard formal rules that they believe limited the creative potential of written verse in the past, and the same holds true for postmodern music.
Because many pieces of postmodern music borrow artistic elements from a variety of sources, it can sometimes be difficult for music scholars to pinpoint a definitive description of postmodern music. Even redefining the criteria used to initially assign music its artistic value can be a goal for some musicians. A single piece of postmodern music can be written in multiple distinct cultural styles. It may also feature unusual lyrics or sound effects, as well as shifting major and minor keys. This style of music uses a wide variety of instruments, and postmodern musicians frequently use technology as a medium for their work.
Types of Postmodernist MusicÂ
Postmodernist composers generally gravitate toward three main paths. The first is total compositional control through Electronic Music and Total Serialism. The second is insignificant control through purposely randomized techniques like Possibility Music and, in the long run, Moderation. The third path aims to return to emotional expression through music that is typically categorized as Neo-romantic while also creating a pastiche of modern and traditional styles.
- Total Serialism
Arrangers of Complete Serialism went on in the atonal style made by Arnold Schoenberg. They applied elements like rhythm and dynamics to the serialist methods of pitch selection. Post-tonal theory was also influenced by total serialism thanks to the development of pitch-class sets, which are specific groupings of pitches derived from the twelve chromatic scale pitches. With pitch-class sets, pitches at this point not required alphabetic or syllabic names like “C” or “do,” however were diminished rather to numbers, further eliminating relationship with practical resonance. A number was assigned to each of the twelve chromatic pitches in the octave: C is zero, D is two, D-sharp/E-flat is three, E is four, and so on. The tone matrix for Milton Babbitt’s Philomel can be found here. For this situation, a tone network comprises of a mathematical reordering of the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale, and can be perused either on a level plane or in an upward direction.
- Electronic music
Electronic music composers started experimenting with new recording technologies and electronic instruments because they wanted complete control over the sounds. New and exciting timbres could be created with cutting-edge electronic instruments like the theremin and, later, synthesizers. Composers found new ways to experiment and take control of sounds with magnetic tape, which was first used for musical purposes in the 1950s. Composers were able to record instruments, speech, and ambient sounds. They were also able to cut and splice tape together to make sounds that weren’t possible with traditional acoustic instruments. Composers were able to synthesize digital instruments and program their performances thanks to the continued development of audio technology. This opened up a new world of imaginative musical potential that has grown over the decades. The need for live performers was reduced in tape and computer music, and performances could go beyond what the human body can handle. As in Babbitt’s Philomel, which utilizes a synthesizer, pre-recorded voice on tape, and a live singer, composers also combined acoustic instruments with electronic music.
- Chance Music
Writers of chance music, otherwise called aleatoric music and indeterminacy, surrendered the control looked for by serialist authors, and made music in light of “possibility,” or to some degree randomized, occasions. Writer John Enclosure utilized various strategies to make his aleatoric music, putting together a large number of his cycles with respect to his encounters with Eastern way of thinking. The I-Ching, an ancient Chinese divination book, is used to outline potential pitches, rhythms, and dynamics in Cage’s “Music of Changes.” A pass on is then moved to decide the decisions of which pitches, rhythms, and elements to utilize. Although the process may appear to be very similar to total serialism on the surface, Cage’s intention was for the composer to give up their ego and control in order to realize a form of creation that was independent of their own biases or habits. Other ways that composers tried to let the performers take control of a musical performance were to write down a few instructions and let the performers figure out how to interpret them at the time.
Postmodernist Music Period
One creator has proposed that the rise of postmodern music in famous music happened in the last part of the 1960s, affected to some degree by hallucinogenic stone and at least one of the later Beatles collections. Facial hair and Glogg support this position, referring to Jameson’s hypothesis that “the extreme changes of melodic styles and dialects all through the 1960s are currently viewed as an impression of postmodernism”. Others have dated the inception of postmodernism to the arts, specifically music, around 1930.
Postmodernist Music Characteristics
Attributes:
- A break and an expansion of innovation artistically
- Incongruity
- Limit deleted among at various times styles; they meet in one
- Challenges the limits between ‘high’/elitist and ‘low’/egalitarian styles
- No worth of underlying solidarity
- Keeps away from summed up structures, severe classes
- Music: remembered for social, social, and political settings
- Authentic citation and reference
- Weighty utilization of innovation to create music, electronic essence
- Embraces logical inconsistencies
- Doubts double resistances
- Fragmentary, spasmodic
- Pluralistic
- Various implications and numerous transience’s
Postmodern musical artists
- Frank Zappa
- John Zorn
- Beck
- the Bloodhound Gang
- Philip Glass
- John Adams
- Steve Reich
- Meredith Monk