Contemporary

1945 to today: serialism, electronics, minimalism and spectral music run in parallel.

Related

ModernOstinatoTape music machinesMarimba

After 1945 music no longer had a single frontier. Total serialism, electronic tape, minimal repetition and spectral analysis happened at once, and none accepted the others as the future. Postwar technology, universities, festivals and the record industry turned composition into several ecologies.

The historical setting

The end of World War II, the Cold War, decolonisation and 1968 redrew the world. Darmstadt became an avant-garde centre in 1946; IRCAM opened in Paris in 1977. Tape, synthesizers, computers and samplers entered the studio; records, radio and later networks crossed borders. American minimalism, French spectralism and Eastern European holy minimalism appeared together.

What you hear

Total serialism turns pitch, duration, dynamics and timbre into rows; Boulez and Stockhausen wrote them as tables. Electronic music splits: musique concrète cuts recorded sound; synthesizer music generates it from oscillators. Minimalism replaces development and climax with short cells, repetition and phase; spectral music derives chords and glissandi from harmonic analysis, making timbre the form. Chance and open form hand decisions to performers.

Genres and forms

Tape works, live electronics, instrument-plus-electronics, open form, graphic scores and sound installation appear; traditional genres are still written, often fragmented or placed in space. Opera and music theatre absorb multimedia; the string quartet remains a laboratory. Film, games and pop use electronics and sampling; art and commercial music share tools.

Instruments and forces

Synthesizer, sampler, computer, tape machine and mixing desk become instruments; ondes Martenot, theremin and electric guitar enter chamber music. Percussion grows, with marimba, vibraphone and metal plates carrying repetition. Spectral music asks strings for microtones and harmonics; electronic music makes loudspeaker placement part of the work.

Representative composers

• Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) pushed total serialism to its limit; the latter built an electronic studio and a music-drama cycle.
• John Cage (1912–1992) used chance, silence and 4′33″ to remove the composer's control and open the door to conceptual art.
• Terry Riley (b. 1935), Steve Reich (b. 1936) and Philip Glass (b. 1937) built minimalism from repetition, phase and modal patterns, later moving into film and opera.
• Gérard Grisey (1943–1998) and Tristan Murail (b. 1947) made timbre the structure through harmonic analysis and microtonal writing.

What to listen for

First ask what organises sound: a serial table, tape editing, a repeated cell, or a spectrum? Then listen to time: minimalism runs straight, spectral music unfolds gradually, chance changes each performance. Finally, space: do speakers, reverb and placement compose the work? Electronic and spectral works depend on recording and live space; the five examples use piano and percussion, covering minimalism, film, Messiaen and variations.

China in the same years

In China the same years include the 1949 founding of the People's Republic, the Cultural Revolution and the reform era. The modern Chinese orchestra took shape in the 1950s; in the 1980s Tan Dun, Qu Xiaosong and Chen Qigang entered the international scene, setting folk material beside modern technique. Electronic music centres and international festivals appeared in Shanghai and Beijing after the 1990s, while pop and experimental music expanded together.

Sources

• Taruskin, Music in the Late Twentieth Century（Oxford, 2010），用于核对战后流派与机构年代
• Grove Music Online 的 Serialism、Electronic music、Minimalism、Spectral music 条目，用于交叉核对
• midi-lib v1.23 catalog 的时期与许可字段，用于实例核验

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.