Sunday, November 07, 1999
Defining categories of modern music
BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Because today's composers are continuously stretching boundaries, it's hard to put labels on new music. Minimalist composer John Adams, for instance, crosses over into neoromanticism in pieces such as Harmonielehre (1985).
Below are some general categories to help define some of the many types of 20th-century music, with emphasis on the second half of this century.
• High Modernism: After World War II, a group of composers continued the atonal, 12-tone work begun by Schoenberg. This European-influenced, intellectual style dominated American classical music from the '50s to the '70s.
The ultimate avant-garde practiced total serialism — meaning they organized not only the pitches in a tone row, but many other aspects of the music, including rhythm, duration and dynamics.
Composers include Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Milton Babbitt. The latter two were also pioneers in electronic music.
Elliott Carter, 90, also developed highly organized, complex music, although he did not use serial (12-tone) techniques.
French composer Olivier Messiaen defies categorization. His music is extremely complex, showing a fascination for exotic, Eastern rhythms and modes (scales), birdsong (that he collected), and exuding a spirituality that is attributed to his Catholic faith.
• Mavericks and Pioneers: John Cage (1912-92) was one of America's most radical composers. He was tuned into Eastern philosophies and introduced the concept of chance, music composed with coin-tossing procedures from I Ching, the Chinese Book of Changes.
His revolutionary piano piece, 4'33” features a pianist who does not play a note for four minutes and 33 seconds. The music, Mr. Cage said, “are the sounds that happen to be in the environment.”
Mr. Cage's work is reflected in works today by performance artist Pauline Oliveros, whose eclectic style embraces mixed media, improvisation, electronic sounds, dance, film, theater and audience participation. Meredith Monk is also celebrated for her multimedia theater pieces.
Perhaps the most famous rule-breaker was Charles Ives (1874-1954). Other free spirits include Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Harry Partch and Conlon Nancarrow.
• Minimalism: As modern music became more complex, some composers reacted with a new simplicity. Minimalism is based on the hypnotic repetition of small patterns over long periods.
Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass belong to this founding group of minimalists. Mr. Glass was one of the first to experiment with theater pieces using repetitious practices in Einstein on the Beach (1975).
In the '90s, a new school, dubbed “Totalism,” emerged in the United States. Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, who helped found the Bang-On-a-Can Festival in New York, practice minimalist techniques, but with a more complex layering of sounds and rhythms.
For instance, Mr. Gordon's music is rooted in minimalism and alternative rock and is aggressive and, at times, assaultive.
• Neoromanticism (or postmodernism) — Neoromanticism embraces tonality and uses traditional musical forms (such as sonata, concerto, symphony and opera). Chances are you've heard some of these composers at the symphony, because orchestras are more willing to program this accessible music.
Samuel Barber (1910-81), known for his Adagio for Strings used in the movie Platoon, was criticized by modernists for composing music that was personal and romantic. Today his music is widely admired, and a host of others employ romantic elements in their music: John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, John Adams, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Joan Tower, Jacob Druckman, Alvin Singleton, John Harbison, Joseph Schwantner and Richard Danielpour.
• Jazz-Classical fusion: George Gershwin was one of the first Americans to blur the line between classical and jazz in Rhapsody in Blue, but many others have explored what composer Gunther Schuller calls “Third Stream” music.
Composers (of the past and present) who integrate jazz, rock and other kinds of popular music include William Grant Still, Leonard Bernstein, William Bolcom, Aaron Jay Kernis and Michael Daugherty.
• Mysticism: A generation of Eastern European composers sought ways to express forbidden, often religious ideas in their music. Their style is spiritual and tonal, with music moving slowly with subtle rhythmic and harmonic changes.
The pure intervals give the music a medieval sound and the mesmerizing quality and folklike melodies give it popular appeal. Composers include the Estonian Arvo Part, the Polish composer Henryk Gorecki and Englishman John Tavener.
• East-West fusion: A new breed of young Chinese-born composers are synthesizing elements of Eastern and Western music and pairing ancient instruments with modern ones. Bright Sheng, whose opera The Song of Majnun was commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago, is conducting a residency at Miami University this weekend. (See concert list).
Other Chinese-American composers include Tan Dun, Zhou Long and Chen Yi, the first woman to receive a master's degree in composition in China.
From Japan, Toru Takemitsu (1930-96) is widely admired for his orchestral music which blends East and West traditions, as well as his writing for native Japanese instruments. His accessible style is often described as neo-impressionistic.
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