Contemporary Music: Theoretical and Philosophical Perspectives

Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
List of Music Examples......Page 10
List of Figures and Tables......Page 12
Contributors......Page 14
Preface......Page 20
Introduction: Contemporary Music: Theory, Aesthetics, Critical Theory......Page 22
PART I: Theoretical Perspectives and Retrospectives......Page 38
1 The Principles of Music and the Rationalization of Theory......Page 40
2 Atonal Harmony: From Set to Scale......Page 72
3 In Search of Lost Harmony......Page 98
4 Against a Theory of Musical (New) Complexity......Page 110
5 Heterogeneity: Or, On the Choice of Being Omnivorous......Page 120
6 Varèse, Serialism and the Acoustic Metaphor......Page 138
7 ‘I Open and Close’?......Page 154
8 A Period of Confrontation: The Post-Webern Years......Page 164
PART II: Philosophical Critiques and Speculations After Adorno......Page 194
9 A Philosophy of Totality......Page 196
10 Possibilities for a Work-Immanent Contemporary Musical Logic......Page 204
11 Postmodernism and the Survival of the Avant-garde......Page 226
12 Material Constraints: Adorno, Benjamin, Arendt......Page 250
13 Towards an Aesthetics of Risk......Page 270
14 Music and Social Relations: Towards a Theory of Mediation......Page 280
PART III: Creative Orientations......Page 298
15 Music, Ambiguity, Buddhism: A Composer’s Perspective......Page 300
16 Artistic Orientations and the Limits of Explanation: An Interview with Pierre Boulez......Page 326
17 Failed Time, Successful Time, Shadowtime: An Interview with Brian Ferneyhough......Page 340
18 Sound Structures, Transformations, and Broken Magic: An Interview with Helmut Lachenmann......Page 352
19 Hunting and Forms: An Interview with Wolfgang Rihm......Page 370
Postlude: Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm and the Austro-German Tradition......Page 382
Index of Names......Page 392
Index of Subjects......Page 400