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In Reply to: RE: It usually means... posted by D Harvey on July 05, 2016 at 16:03:06
It turns out even a more elaborate term like "post-Webern modernism" doesn't really mean an aesthetic or style of music that came after Webern, but rather is more often used as a derogatory term to refer a specific handful of composers some critics don't like, Boulez, Stockhausen and Cage in particular.
These labels are often used to lump certain composers (who are often very different from each other in many ways) together in neat little boxes, as in the serialists, the atonalists, the avant-gardists, the aleatoricists, the micro-tonalists, the electronic composers, etc. They can be used legitimately to put an actual movement in historical context, but often they seem to be used merely as a facile way to dismiss a large and varied body of music in a belittling way.
Follow Ups:
I admit that I mostly use the term in a derogatory way (not always however!), but I disagree with your observation that the term is MOST OFTEN used that way by most people. (And if you truly are right, then I'm glad to hear it!) And in fact, I myself consider folks such as Boulez and Babbitt in the line of post-Webernist composers - Stockhausen and Cage, not so much. The reason is because Boulez and Babbitt brought the type of serialism which Webern employed to more aspects of music than just the pitches in a very rigorous and intellectual fashion (some folks have observed that some of this music is, more or less, "pre-composed" in the sense that every aspect has been serialized), whereas other composers who came after Webern (but who were not post-Webernists in their compositional processes) could get surprisingly similar results simply by introducing the element of chance into their music.As for Slonimsky's "Lexicon of Musical Invective", I would advise a GREAT DEAL of caution in reading that book if you don't already know it. Slonimsky writes as if the great composers always have had this roaring critical blast which stands in the way of every one of their new works getting a fair hearing. But in fact, there was PLENTY of new music in the 18th and 19th centuries which was received rapturously on its first appearance, and Slonimsky would have us believe that ALL new music could never get a fair shake.
Sure, there will always be a misfit listener or two who will criticize EVERY new work, no matter what it is. (And I think Slonimsky includes some damning critical notices of Rachmaninoff's music too - and not just the First Symphony.) But these stray voices do NOT necessarily represent the preponderance of the audience and critical reaction to new music (at least prior to serialism!). IMHO, Slonimsky stacks the decks in a very misleading way.
Edits: 07/06/16
I wasn't rea)y referring to you. Referring to "the something-ists" is a common technique critics use to put artists in a convenient little box that suits their purposes, often but not exclusively to demean them without having to delve into too many inconvenient details. Virgil Thomson used the term "the far outs" to cover a lot of this territory.
Keep fighting the good fight my friend!
dh
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