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Originally Posted by richardbailey  I think that understanding the terms is easiest when seeing how they are applied to architecture. Historically, a modern building is comprised of various functional shapes. Post-modern architecture incorporates design elements from earlier stylistic eras (sticking doric columns on the front of a building which is otherwise just a big block of concrete and steel - often seen on banks and museums).
While aleatoric and minimalist musics did chronologically follow modernism (late 19th and early 20th centuries), hence the "post", I think it would be more correct to label works that mix stylistic and formal elements from various musical eras as "post modern".
Remember that most of the terms that are used to historically classify western art music (Baroque, Classical, Impressionist, etc.) are derrived from other disciplines (such as art) and applied after the fact.
As for the previous post, IMHO there isn't a single genre or period in the history of music that hasn't produced both the stinkers and the sublime. To each his/her own. |
to tack on to this, musicologically speaking: "posts" (post- this/that) is a misnomer because stylistic strains can and do coexist. There was a lot of great music that was performed and written during JS Bach's time period that, for all intents and purposes, strikes our ears as "classical" and very rarely as baroque.
brass-tacks definition, although clearly under (rather pointless) debate:
modernism--in music--is an advance in technique beyond tonality or towards a new set of rhythmic variations, or something along those lines. "Post" may be too, but "post" often sets to "deconstruct" something: that is, the piece is a commentary on... itself... in the case of John Adams, much of his music comments on the process of listening.
ie, you are a listener in a concert hall in a city who is a listener in a concert hall in a city you are a listener in a city in a concert hall: you're to be made much more aware of artificiality in quote unquote pomo music. (to that extent cage may be the first postmodern...for what it's worth, which is, eh. or maybe even ives... these are very american traits.
fyi, before bashing all of this music, check out some John Adams beyond short ride on a fast machine. the wound dresser/on the transmigration of souls have two of the most beautiful and heartbreaking tpt. solos in them. Gekker plays the first on the major recording, and I assume Smith does the other one. Just breathtaking, and very emotionally affecting. As far as the full orchestra goes, I expect his symphony, naiive and sentimental music, to enter the mainstream rep in the next ten years. He's moved beyond "minimalism," even if the standard Grout n' Grove definition of him is twenty years behind.
We are in a web forum posting on a board about music that is being posted on in a board on a web forum...