Saturday 1 February 2014

Postmodern Music


According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music:
  • is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
  • is, on some level and in some way, ironic
  • does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
  • challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
  • shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
  • questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
  • avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
  • considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
  • includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
  • considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
  • embraces contradictions
  • distrusts binary oppositions
  • includes fragmentations and discontinuities
  • encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
  • presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
  • locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

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