The Postmodernism And The Civil Rights Movement

The postmodernism era started in the 1960’s and continues today. Artists are characterized as such because of their diverse orientation on a number of disciplines, like philosophy, music, art, and architecture. These are people who have consciously made an effort to move outside of mainstream of modernist music and challenged the current establishment, by doing so they created new opportunities in the music world. Postmodernist music is purposely different from other styles from the past making it an entirely new experience. It incorporated electronic music, environmental sounds, unusual instrumentation, as well as silence into compositions. Introducing all of these new sounds into music opened the door for further artistic exploration through
a composition and also highlighted the important purpose music serves in society by being a reflection of the times. Music from this time was inspired by the political unrest and drastic social change that was taking place in not only in the United States but all around the world.
The Vietnam War was one reason for many protests, and also there was an explosion of the amount of communication that was available to the average person from the expansion of the use of televisions and radios. Artists saw the effect of these protests and expressed their feelings toward it in their music. They would use literary devices like satire, irony, and occasionally blasphemy to showcase the current state of their culture. The Civil Rights Movement was also occurring during this time and the social injustice is reflected in the music. Also, the feminist movement and sexual revolution challenge gender mores and also raised awareness about the inequalities that women face every day, including in the work place. As a result of the feminist movement, more women began to participate in symphonies and other public music organizations. Rock and Roll introduced concerts as a new type of forum for discussion of current events, and also from that peace rallies and protests became
popular. One influential composer from the postmodern era is John Cage (1912-1992). He was born and raised in California, and this is also where he studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg and Henry Cowell, however, he did end up leaving California to become the music director at Merce Cunningham Dance Company. One type of music that he is known for is chance music, or some know it as indeterminate music. Chance music is a style that develops schemes to produce sounds that are not predetermined. An example of this is his composition 4” 33” because this is a silent song that relies on unplanned background noise for interest. This is also his greatest impact on music because he redefined what music is. Another composer from this era is Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016).
She was first exposed to music by listening to her grandparent’s radio and also played the piano, and when she was twelve she started to learn how to play the accordion. Later in life, she attended San Francisco State University were she was a music major and studied the French horn. Oliveros was always on the leading edge of musical experimentation and was one of the first artists to utilize improvisation. She was also very influenced by the current events and was a women’s activist. In 1970, she wrote an article for the New York times called “And Don’t Call Them ‘Lady’ Composers,” which addressed the double standard between genders in
music. A style of music that became popular during this time is the new age space music which was popularized by George Winston (1949). This type of music is a form of minimalism that consists of constant repetition of short, rhythmic, melodic and harmonic gesture to create a feeling of timelessness. He composed Autumn, December, and Winter into Spring which all are categorized as new age space music, however before Winston utilized this style it was studied by both Cage and Oliveros. Another composer from this time period is George Crumb (1929) who was born in Charleston, West Virginia in 1929. He attended the University of Illinois and studied music; he eventually worked as both a composer and as a professor. One of his greatest accomplishments is winning the 1968 Pulitzer Price for Composition, and this was awarded for his song Echoes of Time and the River. He experimented with music and included a larger range of instruments in his orchestra like the mandolin, harmonica, musical saw, and countless other oddities. However, despite embracing an experimental style, he still made his music compressible to the audience, unlike others of the time. Minimalism is a style of art that became popular during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, and a minimalistic piece of art tends to present neutral images that do not have any extreme forms of expression in them. The goal was to place the focus on the image rather than the emotion the image evokes. Two noteworthy minimalist composers of the time are Steven Reich (1936) and Philip Glass (1937). Reich was born into a Jewish American family in New Work City and went on to get an education in music from Cornell University and Julliard. He is known for his use of phase shifting which is a popular minimalistic technique that involved short musical gestures that are played in unison by many players and one by one the parts begin to change. Glass was born into a musical family and began studying math and philosophy at the University of Chicago at the age of 15 and then went to study composition at Julliard. In his music, he liked his music to be static with only a couple of repetitive patterns and subtle sound changes that created a musical atmosphere.