Product Description

The rich dynamic of modern music stands as a continual source of intrigue and curiosity, not only to the listening public, but to the artists who create the music as well. The first edition of Modern Music: The Avant-Garde Since 1945 addressed this phenomenon, offering a keen examination of how important composers have responded to the constant flux of their cultural environs, both socially and technically. Now in a fully revised new edition, Modern Music and After: Directions Since 1945 re-establishes Paul Griffiths's survey as the definitive study of music since the Second World War.

Divided into three phases, Modern Music and After defines the distinct attitudes and ideals that characterized and shaped music over the last fifty years. The first phase, lasting until approximately 1960, was governed by hopes for a steady progressive change in the nature of music, in the routines of composing, and in music's place within society. Because of these hopes were widely shared, they encouraged an uncommon profusion of alliances. Eventually, differences among composers began to overwhelm the mutualities, and the single history of the late 1940s and 1950s was succeeded in the next two decades by a knotted convergence of styles and objectives. The third phase examines the manifestation of modern music's convoluted growth, emphasizing the extreme diversity of the comtemporary scene of the 1980s and 1990s.

From the beginning, 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, in John Cage's move into zen music, in Milton Babbitt's settling of the serial system, and in the work and theories of Dmitry Shostakovich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, Iannis Xenakis, and Luciano Berio. 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." In turn, Modern Music and After follows several different paths, showing how they converge and diverge. Having examined the main lines of musical change in the immediate post-war period, Griffiths goes on to investigate the diverse directions taken by over fifty composers since 1960, from computer music to opera, including Steve Reich, Jean Barraque, Elliott Carter, Olivier Messiaen, Gyorgy Kurtag, Bill Hopkins, Harrison Birtwistle 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 anyone in search of a lively and comprehensive introduction to the music of our time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #523409 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-11
• Released on: 2007-12-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

Review

Praise for the first edition:
"As impressive for its accuracy, as for the clarity, acumen, and wit of its writing."--Classical Music

About the Author

The author of numerous books on music, and for many years chief music critic on The Times, Paul Griffiths now writes regularly for The New Yorker. He is the author of Bartok (Master Musicians Series, J.M. Dent, 1984), Thames and Hudson Encyclopaedia of 20th-Century Music (1986), Stravinsky (Master Musicians, 1992), and a contributor to The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera (1994).

Customer Reviews

In spite of faults, it's the best on the subject.
This is pretty obviously THE book on music in the second half of this century. My own copy's pages are much thumbed, and I've used Griffith's desciptions as a guide to build my CD collection. The glaring omission (there was bound to be one at least) is Lutoslawski, one of the century's greatest and most enjoyable composers, who gets barely a mention. To Griffith's great credit, on the other hand, is his championing of Barraque, who's sometimes not even mentioned in other histories. Finally, though I think Griffiths is right to devote so much space to the big theoretical composers (Boulez, Stockhausen, Cage, Babbitt) he sometimes forgets that their music isn't always the best (Cage is barely a composer at all--more of a philosopher who makes his point with sound-events). Boulez's Le Marteau sans Maitre, for instance, is given too much prominence--it sounds really dated now (listening to it, you can just about see the Beatnicks clicking appreciatively, wearing their black berets), while the great music of Lutoslawski or Dutilleux, for instance, is barely discussed because it's less theoretically advanced. Still, Griffiths' descriptions and explanations are about as good as anyone could hope for, and the overemphases and omissions I mentioned are inevitable in writing a history like this. Like I said, this is still THE book on the subject.

excellent on both the music and the social dynamics
MODERN MUSIC AND AFTER should really be kept in print, though the market may be small, as it is the best book on the subject. It serves, among other things, as the best record guide to the post-war avant-garde that I've found, although since '95 it has become somewhat outdated.

Griffiths imbues the story of the serialist avant-garde with high drama. The hero of his story is Pierre Boulez. Messiaen is the mentor, and Stockhausen the brother, a source of friendly but intense rivalry. Schoenberg is the father figure who Boulez "kills" even as he carries on his tradition, but of course crediting Webern. The history gives a palpable sense of the excitement of this avant-garde circle, which came together at Darmstadt. Cage and his zen anarchism presents a radical challenge to the integral serialist Project, and begins to explode it.

This takes us through the 1950s. The second part of the book is equally good, as the linear sense of progress unravels in the 1960s and '70s and fragmentation sets in. A fascinating development which Griffiths documents, but does not comment on, is the resurgence of sacred music as the secular avant-garde disintegrates. The Estonian composer Arvo Part is but one example of this trend, what might be called the reassertion of the pre-modern in the context of the post-modern. The third section is not as good, and resembles other similar books in being more an encyclopedia of entries on various composers and trends. There doesn't seem to be much alternative to this for now, but it's interesting to imagine how the present period may be reconstructed in light of future developments...

In his introduction Griffiths laments the loss of a sense of shared criteria for evaluating the diverse music of the moment. But of course books like this contribute to the construction of those criteria! Peter J. Martin's SOUNDS AND SOCIETY (see my review) is an excellent analysis of how music evaluation is socially constructed -- there are no objective, inherent qualities, and so something like writing a book or even posting reviews to a website serves to shape the reception of the art. An interesting topic to pursue would be the divergent paths of Boulez and Stockhausen, with the former becoming an esteemed conductor and not only championing the avant-garde, but also turning back to the once scorned romantic tradition, while Stockhausen followed an increasingly idiosyncratic path and became a revered figure for the 90s electronica movement, a "Father of Electronic Music"!

MODERN MUSIC AND AFTER is indispensable for anyone trying to understand the rich complexities of contemporary composition. I recommend Morgan's TWENTIETH-CENTURY MUSIC (see my review) for the pre-WWII period, and Gann's AMERICAN MUSIC IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (see my review) for greater detail on the postwar U.S.

great showcase of the concepts guiding new music content
My writer brethren here neglected to mention that Griffiths in this reissue,brings us up-to-date a way of completing the tale he began over 20 years ago. Since that time composers have either grown up or become more important, some have fallen from graces completly. Brian Ferneyhough has grown up and Griffiths here gives ample evidence although brief and outlines in form, you read it,and it points you toward a greater exploration of his music. Likewise Morton Feldman became fascinated with the set of problematics concerning longer lengths in music's construction. Likewise the late Luigi Nono, this is the first real description in English of his summary work Prometeo,and gives a good perspective on him.Likewise the late Cage is discussed. Griffiths now writes for the New York Times, and he breathes some new life there of a seasoned reviewer.