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Making sense out of postmodern music?

Garth Alper a a Assistant Professor of Music, University of Louisiana, Lafayette Online Publication Date: 01 December 2000

To cite this Article Alper, Garth(2000)'Making sense out of postmodern music?',Popular Music and Society,24:4,1 14 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/03007760008591782 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007760008591782

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Making Sense Out of Postmodern Music?

Garth Alper
The postmodern sensibility as expressed in music is reflective of the spirit of the late twentieth century. This Zeitgeist is largely shaped by the domination of television, radio, and the Internet as primary information sources. These media, while capable of disseminating tremendous amounts of information, often do so without offering context or a sense of depth. The term "postmodern" is used here to describe an aesthetic seen in the arts from approximately 1960 to the present. The conspicuous use of genre mixing, irony, humor, and self-parody, and the exploration of the surface characteristics of an artwork, often identify this aesthetic. The present essay will examine a sampling of music that reflects this aesthetic. Until now, many writers on postmodern music have approached the subject from a largely subjective viewpoint. This practice seems to be linked with an apparent aversion to assign a fixed definition to the term "postmodern." The subjective approach has reshaped our critical thinking about what is valuable in art and has yielded multiple readings of single works of art. However, the present study suggests an alternate approach to the study of postmodern musican approach that uses a more objective lens. I hope to show that by exploring the characteristics common to many works informed by the postmodern aesthetic, new light can be shed on the aesthetic itself. This approach may also broaden the base of listeners for this music and act as a gate through which they may approach some of the other writings on the subject. This essay will approach postmodern music from the standpoint of genre mixing, one of its prominent characteristics. Postmodern music often explores the confluence of genres previously thought incompatible. The boundaries between popular music (with many of its roots in African and Latin American music) and what is commonly considered "art music" (with many of its roots in European culture) are often intentionally and unintentionally blurred, crossed, or obliterated. Even though European music has reflected some mixing of cultures for hundreds of years, and some composers in the first half of the twentieth century have made use of genre mixing, there are notable distinctions that set postmodern music apart from music that came before the 1960s. Technology

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has brought easy access to hundreds of styles of music from all around the globe. While baroque, classical, romantic, and modern composers may have had access to some music from outside their own ethnic experience, such access cannot compare to the access that is presently available through recordings, the airwaves, and the Internet. The multiplicity of styles that are available creates a different work environment for present day composers and has helped to nurture a postmodern sensibility in their works. The survey of nine songs that comprises the bulk of this study will demonstrate these points. The tendency of composers to mix genres can be viewed from three different angles: (1) as an attempt to reflect in their music the manner in which incongruous ideas and information are broadcast in the presentday media; (2) as a reflection of the increased integration of diverse musical practices; and (3) as a reflection of the fading distinction between "high art" and popular culture. Through the study of genre mixing, this research will examine a cross section of recent works that exemplify these ideas. One way in which composers mix dissimilar genres is through the use of collage, a deliberate and repeated attempt to disrupt the narrative structure of a song. In much the same way in which a channel-surfing television viewer can see successive fleeting glimpses of a golf tournament, a music video, the Teletubbies, graphic news coverage of a war, and a Spanish-language quiz show, a postmodern musical composition might successively (and perhaps even simultaneously) utilize elements of rap, Viennese waltz, Gregorian chant, and Irish folk music. Genre mixing often manifests itself through the use of multicultural references. This may be a reflection of an increased awareness of multiple cultures brought about by television and rapidly changing radio formats. The present practice of mixing music that has a European pedigree with rock, rap, jazz, and various world music styles continues to loosen the hegemony that European music has held for hundreds of years. Music that exhibits a postmodern sensibility also tends to display historically anomalous styles in individual works. Eighteenth-century fugal techniques are conjoined with rock while cello quartets perform heavy metal. While there have been some earlier examples of works that combine varied cultural and historical references, there appears to be a notable increase in the number of such works since the 1960s. In the modern aesthetic (before postmodernism), artistic creation was often governed by idealistic principles. Lofty aspirations were seen in all of the art forms. Architects believed they could rid society of its ills through modern architecture while poets, writers, and visual artists strove to create art that could lead themselves and others to states of near

Making Sense Out of Postmodern Music?

ecstasy. But from the 1960s until now, these high-minded aspirations have been gradually replaced by a growing expression of cynicism in the arts. In music, this trend has manifested itself with the movement away from twelve-tone and serial techniques and toward the merging of varied musical systems, genres, and historically disparate styles (including modern concepts) into single compositions. Genre mixing is only one of several tendencies that help to identify music that exhibits a postmodern sensibility. A brief review of other common musical postmodern characteristics immediately follows. The use of irony, humor, and self-parody: With the disillusionment of modernism came the urge to parody the modernists' perceived self-importance and arrogance, which was crystallized by Pierre Boulez's statement: "Every musician who has not feltwe do not say understood, but indeed feltthe necessity of the serial language is USELESS!" (Schwartz and Godfrey 82). While Boulez may have been prone to the use of polemics, his statement does indicate at least the appearance of arrogance. Many modernists also appeared uninterested in drawing audiences to hear their works. The reaction to this extreme seriousness of purpose is often expressed in ironic, humorous, and selfparodying works. And while the postmodernists certainly didn't invent irony, humor, and self-parody in music, these are characteristics that are widely seen in their compositions. The return to tonality: Once the breakdown of tonality had been completed, there was seemingly no direction in which to travel but back to tonality. Linked to the postmodern composers' desire to eschew the perceived arrogance of the modern composers was their desire to attract an audience to their work. Garry Clarke notes: "The simplicity was often deceptive but was, nevertheless, a logical reaction to the overriding complexity that could make modern music such an agonizing experience for musicians and the public alike. Composers made communication an important priority and did care if the audience listened" (Clarke 162). The exploration of "surface": Postmodern visual artists are, as a rule, less interested in underlying formal structure than are modernists, and more interested in the surface features of an artwork. Andy Warhol's multiple-image silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe are commonly used as an example of this concept. Not only is there a visual shallowness to the work, but the decision to use a pop icon as a subject is emblematic of the postmodern consciousness. Likewise, a postmodern composer is often concerned more with the exploration of sonic textures and color (surface) than with the traditional use of classical forms. This tendency has been partially driven by (and drives) the new sonic possibilities allowed

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for by synthesizers, samplers, and the "discovery" of instruments from non-European cultures. A Survey of Recent Postmodern Music That Uses Genre Mixing and Collage Steve Reich endorsed the production of the CD Reich Remixed, in which various DJs use digital samples of his work as source material for hip-hop mixes. The DJ D*Note mixes genres in a strongly postmodern manner through the sampling of the archetypal minimalist work "Piano Phase" for his dance mix "Phased and Konfused." D*Note samples the opening melody of "Piano Phase" and, through the use of MIDI sequencing, adds varied sonic textures in the form of contrapuntal melodies and rhythms. The first sequenced additions to the original melody pay homage to the minimalist aesthetic. "Phased and Konfused" begins with a highly consonant counterpoint of carefully chosen synthesized textures. These textures appear to have been chosen, in part, as a contrast to the sonic qualities of the sampled acoustic piano. New sequenced synthesized textures are gradually added to the mix, and subsequently a booming bass and mechanized sequenced drumbeat commonly associated with hip-hop music appear. The bass and drum patterns are altered, removed, and re-added several times throughout the remainder of the work. Instead of overpowering the other textures that have been added to the original sample, this signature hip-hop sound becomes yet another texture entwined around the ostinato. In addition to the continual addition and subtraction of sonic material to the ostinato, the timbre of the ostinato itself changes numerous times. Even though the sonic textures of hiphop and minimalism would seem to be at odds with each other, "Phased and Konfused" merges these genres in a way that finds much common ground. Hip-hop composers, concerned with marketing their music to DJs, make conspicuous use of bass-heavy mixes and drum machines. Minimalists often aim for more delicate sonic textures that allow for the emergence of slowly unfolding changes in the music. Yet the repetitious nature of both genres is exploited by D*Note in creating an aesthetically unified work. Foes of minimalism have been critical of its lack of depth, harmonic interest, and variation. A defender of postmodern technique would argue that making classically based aesthetic judgments on contemporary art makes no more sense than criticizing a Mozart piano sonata for lacking an urban twentieth-century sensibility. In sampling a minimalist work, D*Note skims and re-uses the surface of an already arguably shallow work, a signpost of postmodernism. Postmodern music reflects our Zeitgeist in the same manner that Mozart's music reflected his. The study of

Making Sense Out of Postmodern Music?

surface features in the arts is part of current artistic practice and is provoking needed discussions about contemporary culture. * * * * * "2010," a work by Cornelius, fuses Bach's "Little Fugue in g minor" with techno, a contemporary dance form that relies primarily on sequencing and sampling. The work opens with a computerized voice harmonizing the word "twenty-ten." A sample of an applauding audience acts as a link between the opening statement and a sample of an announcer's voice stating "maestro please." There is a historical disconnection between the computerized voice and the staid sampled announcement, which is suggestive of a 1950s radio program. This acts as foreshadowing for the greater historical disconnection between the convergence of Bach and techno that follows. Cornelius's sequencing of the "Little Fugue in g minor" is done in a manner that partially obfuscates the fugal nature of the work. The fusing of the fugue and techno masks the depth of Bach's work and appropriates the notes of the piece for use as sonic texture. The timbre chosen for the fugue's opening is suggestive of a video game's internal synthesizer. The brisk speed at which the sequenced fugue is played back aids in its transformation into a study of surface characteristics. The sixteenth-note passages move closer to being a blur than a melody. This texture, combined with the texture of the sequenced drums, illuminates one way in which postmodern genre mixing can impact the original intent of a work. The depth of the Bach fugue is not destroyed, but is assigned a diminished role in a new statement. Cornelius's appropriation of Bach treads deeper into postmodern territory than Switched on Bach by Wendy Carlos did in the 1960s. In Carlos's work, a larger degree of restraint was visited upon Bach's music. The meaning of Bach's compositions remained largely intact in the face of the radical new performance medium used. In Cornelius's piece, the use of sequenced drums and other sound effects greatly diminishes the purity of the fugue. Similar to Carlos, Cornelius uses the technology of his time not only as a new way to hear Bach but also as way to create a sense of irony. The sampled applause at the end of the piece also puts numerous spins on the work. The audience obviously didn't hear the work, and the work wasn't created in real time. Cornelius appears to be mocking the seriousness with which Bach has been approached in the traditional concert hall setting by splicing an adulatory reaction onto the end of this irreverent treatment of Bach, and simultaneously poking fun at himself.

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* * * * * In the previous piece, a baroque fugue was used as part of the raw material for a popular, contemporary treatment. In an inversion of that process, the group Apocalyptica has taken material from the heavy metal group Metallica, arranged it for four cellos, and brought a classical consciousness to it. The instrumentation of the piece "One" as originally performed by Metallica consists of drums, bass, two guitars, and vocals. Rock-ballad sections using distortionless guitar alternate with distorted power chords throughout much of the piece. Except for the shortening of some sections, the Apocalyptica version is an exact transcription of Metallica's "One." The arrangement stays true to the melodies, harmonies, and shifting time signatures. As a result, the listener's attention moves to the instrumentation and performance practices of the group. The shift from standard heavy-metal instrumentation to instruments strongly associated with classical chamber and orchestral music is enough to move Apocalyptica's version into the realm of postmodern genre mixing. One of the guitar parts on the original is played by pizzicato cello in the remake and the melody and bass are performed arco. When all four cellos enter using bows, the texture and performance practices suggest a classical string quartet. There is a strong historic and, at times, humorous disjunction between the sound of the group and the material. The case for instrumentation as a sufficient condition to indicate postmodern genre mixing becomes more compelling as the cellos are used to mimic the timbre of heavy-metal power chords. The cello quartet does a remarkable job of capturing the attitude and essence of heavymetal music. Similarly, the cello soloing in its upper range is able to capture the sonic characteristics and wailing energy of a heavy-metal guitar solo. * * * * * Carla Bley's "Wolfgang Tango" deftly incorporates Argentine tango and Viennese waltz into a collage housed in a slightly modified European chamber-music instrumentation that uses jazz and twentieth-century-inspired harmony. Bley relies on the piano as the primary accompanying instrument. Numerous combinations of strings, winds, and electric bass alternate in the primary melody role as well as additional accompanying roles. The harmonic movement throughout the work remains consistently angular while other musical characteristics

Making Sense Out of Postmodern Music?

vary. A drum set (an African-American invention) and the electric bass are subtly merged into the chamber-group texture. The classically inspired orchestration is combined with contemporary jazz voicings on the piano and a harmonic motion suggestive of a jazz progression. The mixing of styles becomes most evident during the improvised electric-bass solo. Jazz instrumentation, jazz concepts, classical orchestration, and tango rhythms all merge in a natural manner. Immediately following the bass improvisation, Bley merges Viennese waltz rhythms and textures with harmonies similar to those previously heard, before exploring nearly atonal harmonies with the strings and piano. The mixture of these seemingly disparate elements creates subtle, humorous juxtapositions. Even before Gunther Schuller coined the phrase "third stream" in the late 1950s, a number of composers had been experimenting with the confluence of jazz and classical music. However, very few of these mixtures were created by composers who had a true grasp of both the classical and jazz languages. Carla Bley not only demonstrates an understanding of both musical worlds, but also merges them in a way that pokes fun at both the European classical tradition's self-reverence and the Argentine Tango's sense of drama. "Wolfgang Tango" is performed with a subtly exaggerated sense of dynamics and dramatic pauses that go on a fraction of a second too long. This sly sarcasm, as well as the humorous melodies, harmonies, and orchestration, help bring this third-stream piece into the postmodern realm. * * * * * "Aquilarco #9" by Giovanni Sollima combines mbira, violins, electric bass, and distorted electric guitar in an additive-rhythm, postclassical melange. An ostinato on mbira begins the work, followed by cello, violin, and viola. The strings enter in a time signature of 5/8 + 3/8 + 4/8, which was originally hinted at by the mbira. Once the time signature has been securely established, the strings begin to take on a more syncopated character. Shortly after the increased syncopation, an acoustic bass is replaced by an electric bass, which gives "Aquilarco #9" more of a pop flavor. When the electric guitar enters, the melodic and rhythmic character is suggestive of a 1970s progressive rock piece, though the texture here is decidedly more delicate. There is a similarity in instrumentation between "Aquilarco #9" and Carla Bley's "Wolfgang Tango." Both Sollima and Bley start with classical chamber-group instrumentation and add instruments from American jazz and rock idioms (in Bley's case, electric bass and drums, and in Sol-

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lima's, electric bass, electric guitar, and synthesizer). These pieces both pose problems in categorization. The CD from which "Aquilarco #9 comes is being marketed as a classical product. Yet, much of the music on it contains a considerable amount of pop, rock, and world music influence. As is the case with much new music, "Aquilarco #9" defies any easy categorization. While this piece could be played on numerous radio formats, many classical stations might not find it suitable due to the incorporation of a distorted electric guitar into its sonic texture. Likewise, Bley's CD is being marketed as jazz, but it seems very unlikely that the CD will find its way onto many jazz play lists. Its predominant texture arises from its classical instrumentationnot from the use of bass and drums or from the jazz-inspired harmony. An in-depth study of the marketing quandaries that are posed by postmodern genre mixing is beyond the scope of this essay. However, the trends taking place in music are largely a reaction to changes taking place in radio and other media. The music that is reflective of these trends can sometimes be so eclectic that it has a difficult time finding its way back into the media that helped spawn it. Assuming that postmodern music continues to flourish, and composers continue to write music that is intended to find an audience, these issues of marketing will deserve careful attention in the future. * * * * * "I'll Be Missing You," a work by Sean "Puffy" Combs, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, couples Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" with rap and the pop/rock hit "Every Breath You Take," by the Police. Rap music customarily relies on explosive, sequenced rhythm tracks as background for strongly rhythmic wordplay. However, in the first section of "I'll Be Missing You," Combs uses Barber's "Adagio for Strings," a work with little rhythmic pulse, as a background for rap that's notable for its slow, rhythmless cadence. In the second portion of the piece, Combs uses a looped sample of the Police's "Every Breath You Take" as a background for rap wordplay with the rhythmic force more commonly associated with rap music. Combs's rap music and the Police's pop/rock have much more in common than Samuel Barber's work has with either of these two pieces. Both rap and rock are descendants of the blues. Barber (though an American) wrote music which was more closely aligned with the European classical aesthetic. "Adagio for Strings" was written for performance in the concert hall but ironically has itself become a piece of popular music due to its use in numerous movie soundtracks. Another level of irony

Making Sense Out of Postmodern Music?

arises from the fact that the piece is sometimes considered a neoromantic work, one of the twentieth-century stepping stones toward postmodernism. Combs's use of "Adagio for Strings" takes the work much further from its cultural origins. Rap originated in the South Bronx and its original success was due to its ability to convey the anger and frustration of young urban African Americans. That Combs would choose to merge rap with Barber speaks to how the linking of previously uncombined genres has now become much more commonplace. The Combs piece is also emblematic of the blurring distinction between "high art" and popular culture. Samuel Barber can now be heard in Lincoln Center, in the movie Platoon, and on the booming car stereos of millions of young adults. A large portion of twentieth-century popular music performed and listened to by whites has been based on African-American musical invention. By composing rap music that uses samples of music from the white classical tradition, Combs (an African American) has turned this tendency upside down, and in the process demonstrates one way in which irony can be produced from postmodern genre blending.
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"Com'U Ventu" by Agricantus combines MIDI-sequenced bass and drums with traditional vocal chants and instruments performed by nomad musicians of Mali. The piece successfully merges staples of Euro-American pop music with African culture to create a unified mixture in a work that gained a substantial level of popularity in Europe. "Com'U Ventu" begins with a sequenced ostinato in a synthesized techno style. After a few measures (0.07), the chanting of the Malian musicians enters and is quickly followed by a sequenced drum part (0.11) and hip-hop style bass (0.21). The melodic and rhythmic content of the synthesized ostinato and bass mesh so convincingly with the chanting that it is easy to overlook the large historical and cultural gap between techno and Malian nomadic music. The seamlessness results, in part, from the choice of the tonal center as defined by the synthesized bass. When the chant is superimposed over the bass part, a new mode is created. Yet the resulting mode of this combination sounds completely believable. The ostinato establishes the modal center as C and revolves around the notes C, Db, Eb, and Bb. The beginning of the Malian chant uses the notes Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, and Bb. Since the bass ostinato anchors the piece in C, the resulting mode is C Locrian (C, Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, and

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Bb). In bar 17 (0.40), a wind instrument (or possibly a synthesizer) gives the work a strong Arabic/North African flavor by using only the 1, b2, b3, and b7 of the mode. The use of these mode degrees in the synthesized bass creates a techno flavor. However, these same notes when played a few octaves higher on an instrument with a decidedly Arabic timbre create a startlingly different ethnic reference. Shortly before a female vocalist from Agricantus enters with the main theme of the piece, a new chant (0.55) utilizing the notes C, G, and Bb enters. While these three notes aren't enough to establish a new mode, the use of the G signals a shift away from Locrian. The vocalist enters (1.04) and completes the shift in modality from Locrian to Dorian (or Aeolianthere is no sixth in the new melody). Once the female vocalist enters, synthesizer parts drop out and reappear. The most prevalent texture (the Dorian section) is broken up with fairly short contrasting sections. The Malian singers are intermittently featured singing background chants and sometimes displayed in the foreground. Unlike many of the works in this survey, the merging of genres in "Com'U Ventu" is not undertaken for the purpose of producing irony. Instead, it is representative of how interest in a growing number of diverse cultures has had an impact on contemporary music. In turn, such work is finding its way into popular culture, feeding the trend further.
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Ken Valitsky makes use of vivid collage techniques and genre mixing in "Black Velvet Elvis and the 900 Foot Jesus." In describing the composition, Valitsky notes: "I decided to exploit some of the cliches normally associated with the banjo. Very traditional and humorous banjo licks are placed within unusual contexts which give them a fresh perspective" (liner notes). The work begins with a recording (sample?) of an audience applauding and a voice of a performer saying: "Thank you so much and howdy" (0:27). The greeting is followed by a noise that's a cross between a scream and a distorted electric guitar (0:29). After this introduction, a bluesy, relaxed, down-home banjo (0:30) is accompanied by a very strange mix of synthesized bass, unidentifiable percussion, and backwards-sounding samples. This segment of the collage is followed by one second of fast bluegrass fiddle (1:26), followed by fast finger-picking banjo and accompanied by an atypical rock beat. Added to the texture is what sounds like a short loop of a sample of other instruments. The banjo's key and rhythm are completely unrelated to the sonic backdrop, creating a clash between the familiar (the banjo part) and the unfamiliar (a peculiar atonal and arhythmic background).

Making Sense Out of Postmodern Music?

11

The next portion of the collage (2:19) pits a slower banjo against shifting backgrounds of backward samples and other unusual, unidentifiable sound effects. These shifting backdrops continue until the banjo breaks into the theme from The Beverly Hillbillies (3:31) with a raucous accompaniment of sequenced drums, samples, and sound effects. A synthesized explosion (4:17) ends the section and a texture reminiscent of an earlier collage portion returns. A few disjunct pieces are inserted, the recorded applause returns (5:35), and a cliche" bluegrass ending (5:41) is followed by a sampled "thank you, thank you so much" (5:43). Throughout the piece, the familiarity of the banjo is subjugated and absorbed by the peculiar, shifting sonic backdrops. The banjo, as performed in this piece, is representative of America's southern and Appalachian cultures. With well-known banjo techniques framed in amorphous backgrounds, the banjo takes on multiple meanings: it remains a symbol of rural culture; it represents a caricature of that culture (The Beverly Hillbillies theme); and it takes on a new role as one of many elements in a late twentieth-century work while simultaneously acting as a foil to the contemporary sonic backdrops. Thus "Black Velvet Elvis and the 900 Foot Jesus" brings a postmodern attitude to modernism, bluegrass, and the blues. * * * * * Most of the fragments contained in John Zorn's two-minute-and-fifteen-second collage "Snagglepuss" have some degree of jazz influence. However, "Snagglepuss" lacks the gestalt of a jazz piece. The edges between the thirty-seven sections of the short work are so jagged that any attempt to place this piece in the jazz category is quickly defeated. The piece moves so quickly from one disjunct fragment to the next that the resulting work couldn't be thought of as jazz, but only postmodern pastiche. Virtually all styles of jazz have a set of performance practices that help to identify them as a particular form of jazz. Even free jazz pieces lacking a predetermined chord progression retain an organic unity that "Snagglepuss" conspicuously lacks. Much of the humor in the work comes from the construction of the collage. The following chart describes the first 46 seconds of the piece.

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Seconds into work 1-2 3-10 10-14 15 15.5 16 17-18 18-19 19-23 23-27 28-39 40-41 42 43 44 45-46

Description loud, honking free jazz syncopated funk with synthesized clavinet group anarchy guitar slide piano chord saxophone mouthpiece squawk fast swing (drums only) electric bass solo fast free jazz atonal solo piano blues shuffle drum solo strummed bass guitar "wolf whistle" on guitar piano glissando NBC audio logo

The melodies, textures, and performance techniques within many of these individual cells are humorous by themselves. The connection of these notably disparate cells heightens the humorous effect. Despite the piece's whimsical mood, there remains an underlying tension caused by the believability of the jazz snippets. The seriousness of purpose illustrated by the ensemble's grasp of numerous jazz styles is at odds with the iconoclastic treatment that the music receives. The result is similar to quickly moving from one station to another on a radio that only receives jazz programming. Thus, the bits of jazz in Zorn's work take on at least three meanings simultaneously: (1) as broken fragments of a musical art form, (2) as a music that has a subservient role in a new art form, and (3) as a representation of the fragmented manner in which information is often disseminated in our present day media.

Conclusions One of the aims of this study is to examine postmodern music from the standpoint of some of its prominent characteristics. I'm fairly certain that some postmodern theorists would argue that the attempt to find objective characteristics in postmodern art of any kind is a meaningless

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13

endeavor. But while theories can be extremely useful in explaining the workings of societies, compositions, subatomic particles, and countless other items, there are always limitations to what they can tell us. Postmodern theory is no different. This essay is indebted to the postmodern thinkers who have developed these theories. But to deny that these theories can be combined with attempts at partial objectivity would be carrying them to their illogical extremes. There have been lively and useful discussions in arts scholarship and criticism outside of music that have used analyses similar to the one found in this study. Some writers feel that the use of irony is wearing thin and that the purpose of recycling and recombining previously dominant genres is to cover up for a dearth of worthy new ideas. Other critics have praised the inclusion of diverse cultures and historically disparate genres that create multiple codings in postmodern art. Assuming that the postmodern sensibility continues to become more strongly entrenched in the music world, we can expect to see the music criticism debate catch up with the dialogues taking place in other art media. At times, this debate itself is also informed by the postmodern sensibility. Some writings express a diverse set of opinions and often seek to express irony and even humor. Despite the protests of some postmodern theorists and those resistant to change in the conservatories and academies, there is plenty of room for a multiplicity of opinions and for a multitude of ways in which to study the art and music of the postmodern era. As for the music itself as seen in this survey, it is unarguably representative of a movement. One of Gunther Schuller's comments on thirdstream music is remarkably applicable to the development of postmodern music:
The course of the music is not normally determined in the academies or by established institutions. Rather, the music develops at a grassroots level, is subject to all manner of subtle sociological, economic, and even political pressures, and is often influenced by fads and fashions, by accidents of timing and fate, and by population shifts and other factors. In other words, these cross-fertilizations do occur in free and unpredictable patterns whether anyone approves of them or not. (122)

Indeed, the use of genre mixing and collage that is found throughout this survey is reflective of the dominant means of communication since the late twentieth century. And these communication media are intractably connected to the "sociological, economic and political pressures" that are exerted upon musical composition. "(F)ads and fashions" play a

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notable role in this music, as popular-music trends blend with classical, jazz, and world music. Perhaps the part of Schuller's statement that is least relevant to this discussion is the word "subtle." The developments that have taken place in the Internet, television, radio, and other modes of contemporary communication make their influence felt in ways that are anything but subtle. The large aesthetic distance between late modern and postmodern music is a reflection of the not-so-subtle influence that these media have had on our culture.

Works Cited Clarke, Garry E. "Music." The Postmodern Moment: A Handbook of Contemporary Innovation in the Arts. Ed. Stanley Trachtenberg. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1985. Schuller, Gunther. Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller. New York, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986. Schwartz, Elliot, and Daniel Godfrey. Music Since 1945: Issues, Materials and Literature. New York: Schirmer Books, 1993. Valitsky, Ken. Emergency Music Collection. Composers Recordings Inc., 1998.

Discography Agricantus. Best of Agricantus. World Class Records, 11308-2 (1999). Apocalyptica. Inquisition Symphony. Mercury, 314 558 300-2 (1998). Bley, Carla. Fancy Chamber Music. WATT/ECM, WATT 28, 78118-23128-2 (1998). Cornelius. Fantasma. Matador Records, OLE 300-2 (1998). D*Note. Reich Remixed. Nonesuch, 79552-2 (1999). Metallica. . . . And Justice For All. Elektra, 9 60812-2 (1988). Puff Daddy and the Family. No Way Out. Bad Boy Records, 78612-73012-2 (1997). Sollima, Giovanni. Aquilarco. Point Music, Polygram, 289 462 546-2 (1997). Valitsky, Ken. Emergency Music Collection. Composers Recording Inc., CD770 (1998). Zorn, John. Naked City. Elektra/Nonesuch, 979238-2 (1989). Garth Alper is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, where he coordinates the Music Media program and teaches jazz piano. His most recent piano trio CD, Inroads, is on the Musicians Showcase Recording label.