1. Age of Information, impact of technology
2. Major Art Trends:
- New York School (Mies van der Rohe, Mondrian)
- Abstract Expressionism (synthesis of cubism, surrealism Pollock)
- Post Abstract Expressionism (Rauschenberg, Warhol)
- Kinetic Art (Schoffer-cybernetics, computers)
- Conceptual Art
- New Realism
3. Technology, Communication as BIG BUSINESS: Age of Information
| The aftermath
of another major war had left all of Europe in a state of chaos. Composers,
eager to find some semblance of order, discovered in the music of Webern the
rationality they sought. With Webern's organizing principles serving as a
point of departure, they quickly applied his principles to all available parameters.
The advent of new technologies increased the amount of control of the composer,
and at the same time created a situation in which composers could directly
work with sound materials. However, the influence of Cage's philosophy and consideration of chance operations provided a certain flexibility in the way these operations could be handled. The relationship between the composer and performer was altered, with some composers abdicating their responsibility entirely. In short, the post-1945 era was marked by an extreme amount of experimentation in which juxtapositions of opposing styles were reconciled. Technology provided new ways of viewing composition, which was soon transferred to the acoustic domain. The post-1970's have witnessed a refinement of these practices as well as a marked move towards tonality and lyrical expression. While all through the century objective and subjective (Classical/Romantic; closed/open) points of view have been reconciled by composers in some way, a move towards Romantic expression has been characteristic of the Neo-Romantic tendencies of the past decade. Boundaries of musical expression have been expanded to include other art forms such as theatre. Cross-overs have resulted from the availability of diverse resources which composers have been quick to take advantage of. The recent advent of MIDI has made possible the interaction of humans with electronic instruments |
| 1947-48 |
Babbitt:
Three Compositions for Piano |
| 1951 |
Boulez:
Structures 1a Stravinsky: The Rake's Progress |
| 1952 |
Stockhausen:
Kreuzspiel |
| 1953 |
Stockhausen:
Kontra-Punkte Parker/Gillespie: The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever Dallapiccola: Goethe Lieder |
| 1954 |
Boulez:
Le Marteau Sans Maitre |
| 1955 |
Bill Haley:
"Rock Around the Clock" Stravinsky: Canticum sacrum |
| 1955-56 |
Stockhausen:
Gesang der Junglinge |
| 1957 |
Babbitt:
All Set |
| 1957-58 |
Cage: Piano
Concerto Bernstein: West Side Story |
| 1958 |
Varese:
Poeme electronique Cage: Aria, Fontana Mix |
| 1959 |
Schuller:
Concertino Stockhausen: Zyklus |
| 1960 |
Stockhausen:
Kontakte Penderecki: Threnody in Memory of the Victims of Hiroshima |
| 1960-61 |
Lutoslawski:
Jeux Venitiens Carter: Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras |
| 1962 |
Copland:
Connotations for Orchestra |
| 1962-64 |
Babbitt:
Ensemble for Synthesizers |
| 1963 |
Stockhausen:
Plus/Minus |
| 1964 |
Coltrane:
A Love Supreme |
| 1965 |
Rochberg:
Music for a Magic Theater |
| 1966-67 |
Stockhausen
Hymnen |
| 1967 |
Beatles:
St. Pepper Subotnik: Silver Apples of the Moon |
| 1968-69 |
Berio:
Sinfonia |
| 1969 |
Davis:
Bitches Brew Glass: Music in Fifths Davies: Eight Songs For A Mad King |
| 1970 |
Crumb:
Ancient Voices of Children |
| 1972 |
Tredici:
Vintage Alice |
| 1976 |
Tredici:
Final Alice |
| 1979 |
Sondheim:
Sweeney Todd |
| 1980 |
Penderecki:
Utrenja |
| 1983 |
Anderson:
United States |
| 1986 |
Glass:
Songs From Liquid Days |
| Thomson |
• American
music, is music written by Americans! • supports serial music, felt to be divergent from Schoenberg |
| Boulez |
• puts
down Schoenberg for his Romantic use of atonality, series; cliches |
| Babbitt |
• attacks
Boulez for his criticism of Schoenberg • in turn criticizes Boulez and his colleagues' use of series for their shortsightedness, superficiality of approach • says first steps towards total serialism were by Schoenberg while in America • promotes idea of unity in total serial concept from properties within the series, not arbitrarily applied from without |
| Stravinsky |
• On serialism:
feels most 12-tone composers are prisoners of 12, while he feels he has total
freedom with with 7 notes (also says 7 notes are enough for him to deal with) |
| Sessions |
• Changes
his tune • 12-tone now seen to be a "common practice" •only the results matter • points out practicality of electronic music appropriate for multi-serialism, though skeptical, since he couldn't forsee limitations of electronic medium • seems to think mechanical movement destroys the gesture • states a need for human element |
| Varese |
• defends
advent of electronic instruments which he supported for so long • they're not meant to replace instruments • machines only play what they've told to play • form as a result of a process • noise as a subjective point of view • Eastern/Western concepts of time-flow • disappointed with most electronic music, in that it does not make use of the medium • influence of Busoni • Babbitt wants to be over the music, while Varese wants to be in the music, let it take its own course |
| Cage |
• sounds
as music • chance as an action whose outcome is unforseen • influence of Dada (recall Thomson re Satie) • sounds as sounds • analogy of "getting rid of the glue" to let music be itself • giving up control: It's not easy to quit being European, when you've been that way for so long, but it will eventually happen |
| Carter |
• metric
modulation as transient from one state of time to another |
| Babbitt |
• "Who
Care if You Listen?" • Composers should take advantage of their isolation: proposes "Ivory tower retreat" • points out problems of acceptability of special music in a world which is hostile to it • points out advantages of scholarly research in institutions where composers will be able to take advantage of it • advocates composition as research in itself |
| Rochberg |
• University
Composer attacks Babbitt's hermetic position: its pretense to scientific status,
irrelevance to purposes of art • science is dehumanizing, and emergence of art devoid of human content is devoid of meaning • remarks on multitudes of composers writing about their own works, thereby burying them • talks about electronic music as "pure quantification and measurement of wave lengths, wave combinations, partials and time segments and sequences" |