Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 392 pages
- Published by: Oxford University Press, USA; 2Rev Ed edition December 3, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0198165110
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0198165118
-
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 1.3 pounds
Product Review
`as impressive for its accuracy, as for the clarity, acumen, and wit of its writing' Classical Writing
`any reader, enthusiast or specialist, will find much to interest and provoke. This book is probably the best of its kind in English today.' Tempo
`Griffith's impressive book offers a comprehensibleroute-map through this jungle.' BBC Music
`Griffiths is great about a whole host of composers he admires any reader, enthusiast or specialist, will find much to interest and provoke. This book is probably the best of its kind in English today.' Ian Pace, Tempo - Quarterly Review of Modern Music, April '96
`Griffiths is so fluent, so practised a writer in this field that it is understandable if the closest he gets to sceptical disengagement is in suggesting that a composer leaves critics, and even musicologists, lost for words.' Arnold Whittall, The Musical Times/April 1996
`Important
History of post-war music.' The Musical Times
`this is more than just a second edition; it's a total rewrite of the previous text Although the structure of the first two parts is similar to that of the 1981 version, almost every section and subsection has been expanded and new musical examples have been added. The new Part III, "Many Rivers," is a sampling of some composers and topics in the music of the last twenty years.' Jaco van der Merwe, South African Music Teacher - January 1997
Book Description
This fully revised new edition re-establishes Paul Griffiths's survey as the definitive study of music since the Second World War. 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 and in John Cage's move into 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 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'. His study accordingly follows several different paths, showing how they converge and diverge. In addition to the composers mentioned above, others whose music is discussed include Steve Reich, Jean Barraque, Elliott Carter, Olivier Messiaen, Gyorgy Kurtag, Bill Hopkins, Harrison Birtwhistle 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 both student and the general reader in search of a lively and comprehensive introduction to the music of our time.
Reader Reviews
This certainly is the book to get the low-down on contemporary music. However, here a few points of interest: Firstly, I think the most glaring omission is Louis Andriessen, who not only co-wrote The Apollonian Clockwork, but has also composed some of the most important and exciting non-Webernian music around. What is especially important about Andriessen is that his own 'minimal' style is fully aware of the Modernist heritage at the same time as it critiques or refutes it, as oppoesed to others who just dismiss it outright and have no real understanding of post-Webernian serialism. Also, Andriessen's continuing political ideals make him an interesting study in current musico-poltical relations (now that most are dead: Nono, Cardew; or just write rubbish: Henze). In fact, while I am no authority on comtemporary Dutch music, I certainly know no more about it through reading this book. Which brings me to my second point: the Anglo-West Europe-American-centricity. Not only does he leave out the Netherlands, Finland, Scandinavia, South America, as well as the bizarre history of post-war Polish music, but also Australia and (South East) Asia. Now while I am no doubt partisan, his only mention of Australia is one line about the Elision Ensemble in relation to Richard Barrett, Chris Dench, and Finnissy. I think Australia has some of the best composers anywhere (Liza Lim, for instance), writing from a variety of perspectives and a fuller account of these place-specific musics would have interesting, for instance examination of Australia's liminal position between Europe and Asia and how that affects attitudes to composition. While his bit on Part is a witty piece of pomo gaming, he sometimes trips himself up in his pomo considerations (as other reviewers have pointed out): for instance, he says that the postmodern condition entails the loss (both through desire and circumstance) of the dominant-central figures crucial to the Modernist project (eg. Boulez) because there are now 'many streams' instead of a river, but he then later complains that no new 'Generals' have stood up to replace the these old ones in terms of central importance to the musical world. In this way, he doesn't really trace many new paths in his last section, but simply rings up his old mates (Boulez, Birtwistle, Berio, Stockhausen, Ligeti, etc) and asks them what they've been up to recently. But, then again, that is really what the book is for and it does it admirably. And not only is his championing of Barraque timely, but Bill Hopkins too, whose music I was unaware of until reading his bit. One hopes there will be a 3rd edition after most of the 'peace-time Generals' are gone and a final summation of the lasting effects of the immediate post-war project can take place. Until then this is the book to read if you want to know about the good-old music with no tunes that we all love. Also the Strings and Knots is organised in reverse alphabetical (very postmodern!)
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