Modern Music and After. Directions Since 1945

This fully revised new edition re-establishes Paul Griffiths's survey as the definitive study of music since the Second World War. The disruptions of the war, and the struggles of the ensuing peace, were reflected in the music of the time: in Pierre Boulez's radical re-forming of compositional technique and in John Cage's move into zen music, in Milton Babbitt's settling of the serial system, and in Dmitry Shostakovich's unsettling symphonies, in Karlheinz Stockhausen's development of electronic music and in Luigi Nono's pursuit of the universally human, in Iannis Xenakis's view of music as sounding mathematics and in Luciano Berio's consideration of it as language. The initiatives of these composers and their contemporaries opened prospects that have continued to unfold. This constant expansion of musical thinking since 1945 has left us with no single history of music. `We live' as Griffiths says, `among many simultaneous histories'. His study accordingly follows several different paths, showing how they converge and diverge. In addition to the composers mentioned above, others whose music is discussed include Steve Reich, Jean Barraque, Elliott Carter, Olivier Messiaen, Gyorgy Kurtag, Bill Hopkins, Harrison Birtwhistle and Gyorgy Ligeti. Publication and recording details are given for the works of all these composers and many others. For its breadth and for its wealth of detail, Modern Music and After will appeal to both student and the general reader in search of a lively and comprehensive introduction to the music of our time.
Readership: Students, musicians, and general readers interested in the music of the avant-garde since 1945.

CONTENIDO:

Prelude

I. Beginning again: from 1945 to the early 1960s
Europe 1: Commencement, 1945-1951
America 1: Silencing music, 1945-1952
Europe 2: Total organization, 1949-1954
America 2: Classic Modernism
Europe 3: Achievement, 1953-1957
America 3: After silence, 1952-1961
Europe 4: Mobile form, 1956-1962
Elder responses
Europe 5: Disintegrations, 1959-1964

II. Six waves and five masters: the 1960s and 1970s
Of Elsewhen and Elsewhere
Music Theatre
Politics
Virtuosity and Improvisation
Computer music
Minimalism and melody
Five masters

III. Many rivers: the 1980s and 1990s
Strings and knots
Postlude

Repertory
Bibliography
Index