A History of Twentieth-Century Music in a Theoretic-Analytical Context

A History of Twentieth-Century Music in a Theoretic-Analytical Context is an integrated account of the genres and concepts of twentieth-century art music, organized topically according to aesthetic, stylistic, technical, and geographic categories, and set within the larger political, social, economic, and cultural framework. While the organization is topical, it is historical within that framework. The goal is to provide a theoretic-analytical basis that will appeal to those instructors who want to incorporate into student learning an analysis of the musical works that have reflected cultural influences on the major musical phenomena of the twentieth century. Focusing on the wide variety of theoretical issues spawned by twentieth-century music, A History of Twentieth-Century Music in a Theoretic-Analytical Context reflects the theoretical/analytical essence of musical structure and design. It does not attempt to be a complete survey, but comments on every historic period with selected works.

The essence of the book stems from a coherent study of the theoretical concepts and analytical issues that had evolved during the two waves of modernism. This requires an understanding of the historical and cultural issues intertwined with the musical tendencies. Musical issues interwoven with political, cultural, and social conditions have had a significant impact on the course of twentieth-century musical tendencies and styles.

Probing more deeply into theoretical issues of the modern era also requires a more comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to contemporary art music. This book explores the means by which the harmonic structures of the traditional major/minor scale system have evolved into a new musical language, and how this language reflects the larger social conditions and pressures of the changing times. The compositions in twenty-two chapters are selected to reveal more profound correspondences between the more global political, social, and cultural contexts and the new musical language. The organization of A History of Twentieth-Century Music in a Theoretic-Analytical Context is a reflective and in-depth study of the two fundamental waves of modernism in the twentieth century.

Elliott Antokoletz is Professor of Musicology at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.