In the first decade of the twentieth-century, many composers rejected the principles of tonality and regular beat. This signaled a dramatic challenge to the rationalist and linear conceptions of music that had existed in the West since the Renaissance. The ‘break with tonality’, Neo-Classicism, serialism, chance, minimalism and the return of the ‘sacred’ in music, are explored in this book for what they tell us about the condition of modernity. Modernity is here treated as a complex social and cultural formation, in which mythology, narrative, and the desire for ‘re-enchantment’ have not completely disappeared. Through an analysis of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Boulez and Cage, 'the author shows that the twentieth century composer often adopted an artistic personality akin to Max Weber’s religious types of the prophet and priest, ascetic and mystic. Twentieth Century Music and the Question of Modernity advances a cultural sociology of modernity and shows that twentieth century musical culture often involved the adoption of ‘apocalyptic’ temporal narratives, a commitment to ‘musical revolution’, a desire to explore the limits of noise and sound, and, finally, redemption through the rediscovery of tonality. This book is essential reading for those interested in cultural sociology, sociological theory, music history, and modernity/modernism studies.

This book analyzes the history of contemporary or 'new' music in the twentieth-century through the lens of the sociology of modern culture, linking the paradoxical aspects of twentieth-century music to the central processes in modern culture that are analyzed by sociology and social theory.

Composers on Modern Musical Culture focuses on issues of composition and style through a collection of original writings by major 20th century composers. Students are engaged by the wide spectrum of issues and composers that are represented.

This collection brings fresh perspectives to bear upon key questions surrounding the composition, performance and reception of musical modernism.

Publisher Description

Offering complete, accurate coverage in a tightly condensed, simple format, this comprehensive exploration of modern music (to 1998) deals primarily with the music itself and musical ideas. It puts the whole century in a unified concept, helping readers make sense out of the heterogeneity. It explains the overall development of 20th century music in relation to the past and to two big cycles of contemporary music; and encompasses classical and experimental traditions as well as popular elements, media, multi-media, and theater. Twentieth-Century Music and the Past. THE BREAKDOWN OF TRADITIONAL TONALITY. The Sources. The Revolution: Paris and Vienna. THE NEW TONALITIES. Stravinsky and Neo-Classicism. Neo-Classicism and Neo-Tonality in France and Outside of France. National Styles. Musical Theater. ATONALITY AND TWELVE-TONE MUSIC. The Viennese School. The Diffusion of Twelve-Tone Music. THE AVANT GARDE. Before World War II. Technological Culture and Electronic Music. Ultra-Rationality and Serialism. Anti-Rationality and Aleatory. The New Performed Music: The United States. Post-Serialism: The New Performance Practice in Europe. POST-MODERNISM. Beyond Modern Music. Back to Tonality. Pop as Culture. Media and Theater. Music Examples. For courses anyone interested in 20th Century Music, Modern Music, or the History of Music.