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6.1 Overview of Contemporary Music History
In one sense, contemporary music history can be summarized as modernism (1900s – 1950s) followed by postmodernism (1960s – Present).
Dates are highly approximate. This is one understanding of the development of contemporary music, and other interpretations are certainly possible.

Approximate Approximate The classical music “story” Other happenings

dates contemporaneous
streams
1600ish to the Traditional Tonality is a vibrant and developing tradition at least until the middle of the twentieth century. Contrary to much
present tonality scholarship, I do not believe that composers such as Shostakovich and Vaughan Williams represent
“anachronisms.” Rather, the tonal works of Mahler and Sibelius flow forward into a continued vibrant tradition of
tonal composition. Shortly after the inheritors of the tonal tradition reached the end of their productivity around
the middle of the century, new (independent?) streams of tonality developed as a reaction to the experimental
tendencies of “serious” music.
1890ish – • Futurism During this highly experimental period, many composers sought the • World War I, the first modern war,
1920ish • Impressionism “future” of music: has a profound cultural impact
• Primitivism • Debussy through the modal scales and non-Western influences of • Ragtime develops into early New
EXPERIMENT Impressionism Orleans jazz (Also called “classic”
• Expressionism
FREEDOM • Stravinsky through the rhythmic primitivism of his Diaghalev ballets, or “Dixieland”)
“ROMANTIC” and
• Schoenberg (later Webern and Berg) through atonal expressionism.
• In America, Henry Cowell and Charles Ives experiment with new
harmonic and rhythmic resources
1920ish – • Neoclassicism This period saw a consolidation of certain experimental tendencies • World War II
1945ish • Serialism from the first part of the century: • New Orleans jazz becomes Swing,
• Nationalism • Stravinsky and Ravel experimented with Neoclassicism, attempting which leads to the Big Band era
CONSOLIDATE to find a way forward by incorporating the order and balance of • Records and later radio give the
STRUCTURE earlier eras. entire United States a “shared”
“CLASSICAL” • The serialist experiments of Schoenberg became conslidated into a cultural experience
“school” in the works of Webern and Berg. (2nd Viennese School)
• Many nationalist movements came to the forefront in the years
leading up to and surrounding WWII: Ives and Copland in America;
Vaughan Williams, Holst, and Walton in England; Strauss in
Germany; Prokofiev and Shostakovich in Russia; Bartók in Hungary,
etc.

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Feezell. All Rights Reserved.

1945ish – • Total serialism While the tradition of tonality continues to grow and develop, the • Cold War, etc.
1960ish • Indeterminism experimental or “modern” tradition reaches chaos from two opposing • Jazz relegated to “art music”
directions: heard by few people, as Rock n’
• Texture music
ULTIMATE 1. Composers such as Messiaen (one piece only), Milton Babbitt, and Roll becomes the most popular
EXPERIMENT Pierre Boulez attempt total control by serializing all musical music among white listeners;
parameters, not just pitch (total serialism) blues and R&B develop in
2. Other composers, in particular John Cage, release control to chance popularity within the African-
STRUCTURE or performer choice to varying degrees (indeterminism or chance American community
“CLASSICAL” music)
The end result of both approaches is a music whose aural perception
VS. belies the complexity and subtlety of the underlying constructive
techniques. In the end, both musics give the illusion of chaos.
FREEDOM Simultaneously, electronic music becomes a viable art form, and some
“ROMANTIC” composers take advantage of timbre and texture as a foreground element
(1960ish Threnody by Ligeti).
1960ish – • Minimalism While the experimental tendencies of serialism and indeterminism continue, • Peace movements and Vietnam
1980ish • Neoromanticism and the last of the “direct” links to the tonal tradition end their careers (or • Man on the moon (1969)
lives), composers begin new paths to tonality: introduces a new era of
• Polystylism
TONAL • Minimalism (Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, later John Adams) technological progress
BACKLASH uses ostinato and limited harmonic resources to create highly stable • Interest in non-Western musics
(some would say repetitive) tonal structures increases in America and
• Neoromanticism (ex: George Rochberg) renews interest in lyrical Europe
tonality in the vein of the nineteenth-century tradition • Popular music increasingly
• Polystylistic composers such as Schnittke intentionally juxtapose styles fractured
within single pieces or even movements
1980ish – • Postminimalism • John Adams combines minimalism with development techniques from • Cold War ends; Berlin Wall
2000ish • New Complexity / the tonal tradition to create postminimalism torn down 1989
Avant-garde • Some composers seek intellectual rigor in the form of extremely • Rapid advances in technology
CONSOLIDATE complex rhythmic and pitch patterns and healthcare
• Continued
• Electronic music comes into its own as the computer develops • Unprecedented prosperity and
neoromanticism
• Composers like Corigliano develop intensely personal neoromantic need
• Electronic music styles • Proliferation of musical styles
• Timbral music • “Art music” takes freely from a variety of influences and cultures; non-
Western composers such as Takemitsu and Tan Dun increase in
influence.
2000ish – • Decategorization “Anything goes”; Personalized media experiences & intensive cross-fertilization render stylistic classifications
Present moot. Could this signal the end of historical progression in art music? If so, is “art” music dying? Or having a
rebirth?

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Feezell. All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2010 by Mark Feezell. All Rights Reserved.