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Scientific Journal

Contemporary Music

Postwar Musical Modernism in East and West

· · Musicologica 1/2019, Contemporary Music

This essay outlines the role of modernist musical techniques in the postwar period and, more specifically, considers their function as a symbol for cultural opposition in communist countries. It defines a particularly influential technique in modernist music, examines several reasons why this technique was appealing to postwar composers, and compares the practice of this music in East and West.

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On Musical Material: Serialism and “Materialdenken”

· · Musicologica 1/2018, Contemporary Music

Writings about the material of music have been a part of European music theory for nearly 2000 years, but they were especially prominent in theoretical writings that accompanied the serial music of the 1950s and 60s. In their efforts to dismantle traditional compositional techniques and build a new music from the most basic elements, many postwar composers and theorists seized upon the concept of musical material and invested it with the intellectual concerns of their time. Theories of musical material are, therefore, both essential to an philosophical content. The value of such theories can be found in what they tell us about the period and what they impel us to ask further.

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Jazz Inspirations in the 20th Century Classical Slovak Music – the Music of Alexander Moyzes and His Successors

· · Musicologica 1/2014, Rock Pop Jazz, Contemporary Music

The generation of Slovak composers known as Slovak Musical Modernism, who emerged in the late 1920s and during the 1930s, adopted a concept of creative synthesis of the national sources (especially inspirations from folk music) with the influences of European impressionist and expressionist music. One of the Slovak Musical Modernism composers was Alexander Moyzes (1906-1984). The jazz elements that appeared in his early compositions were an exceptional impulse and response to the avant-garde musical milieu of the 1920s’ Prague, where Moyzes studied. However, such compositions met with sharp objections from the music critics in Bratislava. This not only turned Moyzes away from using jazz elements for the rest of his compositional career, but was also followed by their long-term absence in Slovak music for stylistic and political reasons. Although a short revival occurred when some of Slovak Music’s avant-garde emerged in the 1960s (Jozef Malovec and Tadeáš Salva, for example), jazz did not become a legitimately accepted source of new creative projects until the next generation of postmodern composers in the last quarter of the 20th century. Its shaping personalities, such as Peter Martinček, Norbert Bodnár and Peter Breiner, erased the traditional and conventional boundaries between the musical genres in contemporary Slovak music.

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New Art

· · Musicologica 1/2012, Contemporary Music

Listeners’ perceptions of music changed during World War II and the Cold War owing to the political conditions. Musical styles of the nineteenth and twentieth century were appreciated by listeners whereas other alternative modern styles (serialism, punctualism, sonorism, aleatoric music, dodecaphony, contemporary alternative improvised music…) seemed obscure. Modernism has not been publicly accepted but postmodernism which begins with minimal music, retro style, new simplicity, performance art, body art and conceptual art has been accepted. Sociological, aesthetical, philosophical and musical analyses are the foundation for complete understanding of music reception. Marketing is influential and has changed the listener’s perception in the twenty-first century from elite snobbism to cultural omniconsumption.

Die Perzeption des Zuhörers hat sich im Laufe des zweiten Weltkrieges und des kalten Krieges geändert genauso wie sich die politische Bedingungen und Funktionen geändert haben. Die musikalische Stile des 19. und 20. Jahrhundert waren on den Zuhörern anerkannt während die restliche alternative moderne Stile (Serialismus, Punktualismus, Sonorismus, aleatorische Musik, Dodekafonie, gegenwärtige alternative improvisierte Musik…) waren nur wenig bekannt und unbegreiflich für die Zuhörer.  Die Öffentlichkeit hat Modernismus nicht entgegengenommen, doch die Postmoderne, die fängt mit Minimal Musik an, nutzt Retro-Stile, neue Einfachheit, Performance-Art, Body-Art und Konzeptual-Art, war angenommen. Soziologische, ästhetische, philosophische und musikalische Analyse sind die Grundlage für das volle Verständnis der Rezeption und Perzeption der Musik. Marketing beeinflusst stark die Wahrnehmung des Zuhörers im 21. Jahrhundert und ändert diese von dem erstklasse Snobismus zur Kultur des Konsums.

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