Presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services
University of California Press
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Music after the Fall
Modern Composition and Culture since 1989
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2017
About this book
"...the best extant map of our sonic shadowlands, and it has changed how I listen."—Alex Ross, The New Yorker
"...an essential survey of contemporary music."—New York Times
"…sharp, provacative and always on the money. The listening list alone promises months of fresh discovery, the main text a fresh new way of navigating the world of sound."—The Wire
2017 Music Book of the Year—Alex Ross, The New Yorker
Music after the Fall is the first book to survey contemporary Western art music within the transformed political, cultural, and technological environment of the post–Cold War era. In this book, Tim Rutherford-Johnson considers musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing connections with the other arts, in particular visual art and architecture, he expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall.
Each chapter is a critical consideration of a wide range of composers, performers, works, and institutions, and develops a broad and rich picture of the new music ecosystem, from North American string quartets to Lebanese improvisers, from electroacoustic music studios in South America to ruined pianos in the Australian outback. Rutherford-Johnson puts forth a new approach to the study of contemporary music that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique than on the comparison of different responses to common themes of permission, fluidity, excess, and loss.
"...an essential survey of contemporary music."—New York Times
"…sharp, provacative and always on the money. The listening list alone promises months of fresh discovery, the main text a fresh new way of navigating the world of sound."—The Wire
2017 Music Book of the Year—Alex Ross, The New Yorker
Music after the Fall is the first book to survey contemporary Western art music within the transformed political, cultural, and technological environment of the post–Cold War era. In this book, Tim Rutherford-Johnson considers musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media. Drawing connections with the other arts, in particular visual art and architecture, he expands the definition of Western art music to include forms of composition, experimental music, sound art, and crossover work from across the spectrum, inside and beyond the concert hall.
Each chapter is a critical consideration of a wide range of composers, performers, works, and institutions, and develops a broad and rich picture of the new music ecosystem, from North American string quartets to Lebanese improvisers, from electroacoustic music studios in South America to ruined pianos in the Australian outback. Rutherford-Johnson puts forth a new approach to the study of contemporary music that relies less on taxonomies of style and technique than on the comparison of different responses to common themes of permission, fluidity, excess, and loss.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Tim Rutherford-Johnson is a London-based music journalist and critic. He was the contemporary music editor at Grove Music Online and edited the most recent edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Music. He has taught at Goldsmiths College and Brunel University, and since 2003 he has written about new music for his blog, The Rambler.
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
vii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
List of illustrations
ix -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Acknowledgments
xi -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1. 1989 and After
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2. Mediation and the Marketplace
24 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3. Permission: Freedom, Choice, and the Body 51
51 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4. Fluidity: Digital Translations, Displacements, and
87 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5. Mobility: Worldwide Flows, Networks, and Archipelagos
120 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6. Superabundance: Spectacle, Scale, and Excess
162 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
7. Loss: Ruins, Memorials, and Documents
206 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
8. Recovery: Gaps between Past and Present
232 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Appendix 1: Recommended Listening
265 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Appendix 2: Further Reading
279 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Notes
309 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
331
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
April 15, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780520959040
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
368
eBook ISBN:
9780520959040
Keywords for this book
music theory; music criticism; musician; musical anthropology; musicians; musical theorists; cold war era music; western art; arts and entertainment; permission; fluidity; excess; remix culture; sound art; crossover work; concert hall; sampling music; string quartets; evolution of music; political and cultural influence; music composition; experimental music
