(Post)Modern Music

            Dissecting the schematic differences between modernism and postmodernism, the differences became clearer. While I grasped the notions that modernism is about order and a plan and postmodernism is much freer and fluid. These differences are apparent in art, like we discussed in class, but also in music.

After Dr. Cummings played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, I gave thought to the differences between modernism and postmodernism. For the centuries before modernism, composers tried to make their music sound as tonal (easy and pleasing to the listener by using simple harmonies and chord progressions) and structured as possible. As modernism rose to the foreground of the 20^th century psyche, composers “dare to individuate [themselves]” (Nietzsche 22). As Nietzche says,  “history is the storage closet where all the costumes are kept. [Society] notices that none really fits…” (22). These composers tried to deviate from the standard of the classical composers and began integrating elements from the then burgeoning jazz. Using the new elements of jazz, modernist composers began constantly trying to out modernize themselves with new scales, modes, and melodic phrases. Furthermore, with the advent of vinyl recordings and the ability to mass-produce words and music, composers also used their music to convey new ideas and tell stories in a way Bach preludes or concertos never could.

Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” (bottom of paragraph) illustrates the modern mindset of breaking away from the past. It’s much different than the orchestral pieces of classical music before it and it tells the story of the sexual interactions a goat has after its nap.

As we said in class, postmodernism is in reaction to the modernist mindset of constantly changing and progressing. Postmodern music was just that. There was little form like a verse or chorus and the chord structure was whatever the artist wanted. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (performed by the cast of Wayne’s World) is a great example of the freeform attitude that postmodernism embodied. Its lack of form and structure and sporadic bursts of opera, hard rock, and classical music really make it postmodern.