Modern Music and After

Over three decades, Paul Griffiths's survey has remained the definitive study of music since the Second World War; this fully revised and updated edition re-establishes Modern Music and After as the preeminent introduction to the music of our time. 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 reformation of compositional technique and in John Cage's development of 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 haven't yet stopped unfolding. This constant expansion of musical thinking since 1945 has left us with no singular history of music; Griffiths's study accordingly follows several different paths, showing how and why they converge and diverge. This new edition of Modern Music and After discusses not only the music of the fifteen years that have passed since the previous edition, but also the recent explosion of scholarly interest in the latter half of the twentieth century. In particular, the book has been expanded to incorporate the variety of responses to the modernist impasse experienced by composers of the 1980s and 1990s. Griffiths then moves the book into the twenty-first century as he examines such highly influential composers as Helmut Lachenmann and Salvatore Sciarrino. For its breadth, wealth of detail, and characteristic wit and clarity, the third edition of Modern Music and After is required reading for the student and the enquiring listener.

Paul Griffiths is an acclaimed writer on contemporary and classical music whose books include A Concise History of Western Music and The Penguin Companion to Classical Music. He is also known as a librettist (Elliott Carter's What Next?) and novelist. In 2002, Griffiths was honored by the French government as a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Prelude 1945 1. Rational and irrational: western Europe, 1945-50 Paris, 1945-8 - The young Boulez - Boulez's Second Piano Sonata - Other stories - Musique concrète - Variations: Nono 2. Silencing music: Cage, 1946-52 Rhythmic structuring - Towards silence - Around Cage 3. Total organization: western Europe, 1949-54 The moment of total serialism 1: Darmstadt 1949 and Darmstadt 1951 - Interlude: the patrons of modernism - The moment of total serialism 2: Paris 1952 - The human voice 1: Nono - Electronic music - The human voice 2: Barraqué 4. Classic modernism and other kinds: the United States, 1945-55 Schoenberg - Carter - Babbitt - Home-made music - Wolpe - After silence 5. The Cold War 6. Extension and development: western Europe, 1953-6 From points to groups - Systems of organization - Le Marteau sans maître - Sound and word - ...how time passes... - Statistics 1956 7. Mobile form: 1956-61 Cage - Stockhausen and Boulez - Boulez and Berio - Barraqué - Exit from the labyrinth 8. Elder responses Stravinsky - Messiaen - Varèse - Symphonists and others 9. Reappraisal and disintegration: 1959-64 Questioning voices: Ligeti, Bussotti, Kagel - Stumbling steps: Kurtág - Listening ears: Cage, Young, Babbitt - Exploiting the moment: Stockhausen - The last concert: Nono 1965 10. Of elsewhen and elsewhere The distant past - (The imaginary past) - The distant or not so distant east - Quotation - Meta-music 11. Music theatre Opera and 'Opera' - Music theatre - Instrumental theatre 12. Politics Cardew - Rzewski - The composer in the factory 13. Virtuosity and improvisation The virtuoso - Virtuosity in question - The electric musician - Improvisation 14. Orchestras or Computers Ochestras - Computer Music 15. Minimalism and melody New York minimalism - Minimalism in Europe - Melody 16. Ending 1975 17. Holy Minimalisms Pärt - Tavener and Górecki - (Messiaen) - Ustvolskaya 18. New Romanticisms Rihm - Schnittke, and the hectic present - Gubaidulina, and the visionary future - Silvestrov, and the reverberating past - Symphony? - Feldman and loss - Lachenmann and regain 19. New Simplicities Cage, or innocence - Denyer, or outsiderness - Kurtág, or immediacy - Holliger, or extremity - Sciarrino, or intimacy 20. New Complexities Ferneyhough - Finnissy - Charged solos 21. Old Complexities Carter and the poets - Xenakis and the Arditti Quartet - Nono and listening - Stockhausen and Licht - Birtwistle and ritual - Berio and memory - IRCAM and Boulez 22. Spectralisms Radulescu and Tenney - Grisey - Vivier 23. (Unholy?) Minimalisms Reich - Andriessen 24. Eclecticisms Kagel et al. - Donatoni - Bolcom and Adams - Ligeti 1989 25. Towards mode/meme Rootless routes: Ligeti - Memory's memorials: Berio and Kurtág - Remade modes: Adams, Adès, Benjamin - Pesson's past and Pauset's - Traditions' tracks: around Zorn 26. Towards the strange self Act I: Schneewittchen - Entr'acte: Kurtág's Beckett - Act II: Luci mie traditrici - Entr'acte: Birtwistle's Celan - Act III: Three Sisters - Entr'acte: Kyburz's no-one - Act IV: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern 27. Towards transcendence Gubaidulina and Christ - Haas and darkness - Harvey and the Buddha - Grisey and rebirth 2001 28. Towards change? Resources Index