Analysis Tutorial for New Musical Works.

Author: Peng Zhimin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: The 20th century in the history of music was an era of radical breakthroughs, innovative exploration, and a time of rebellion and diversity. Among them, the avant-garde composers who represented the forefront of professional music development in each period of the 20th century, broadly referred to as "Modernism" (the Modernism) or "Avant-Garde" (the Avant-Garde), along with the modern music (the Modern music) or "New Music" (New Music—sic) works they created, and the emerging compositional techniques closely related to New Music composition that they invented, left a profound mark on history, posing numerous questions for people to contemplate and solve. Looking back, as people can see, the 20th-century new music composers were largely "madly striving for innovation." Among them, "new schools and movements emerged at an astonishing speed (approximately every five years)," with unheard-of sounds, unprecedented scores, untried methods, unprecedented phenomena and behaviors, and unheard-of theories or slogans, all rushing in and emerging endlessly over the span of a century. Various schools, complex systems, distinctive techniques, bizarre events and innovations all vied for attention, each leading the trend in musical life. All of the above, on one hand, subtly influenced people's thoughts, changed their concepts, and expanded the and of music; on the other hand, their futuristic development or leapfrogging progress widened the gap between new music and its audience, making people increasingly aware of the problems, which in turn became an objective barrier (even opposition) between people and them. Therefore, to explain the 20th-century new music in a way that is technical rather than descriptive, systematic rather than isolated, insightful rather than superficial, and suitable for professional teaching rather than general reading—as we once approached the introduction of Western traditional compositional techniques a century ago—has become an urgent task for carrying forward the legacy and one of the main motivations for compiling this series of books. The analysis of 20th-century new music works and their analysis is a complex and systematic endeavor. Understanding 20th-century new music and its works, as well as mastering the corresponding analytical methods, cannot be achieved overnight or easily; the issues and aspects involved are by no means limited to the points mentioned above. The needs and tasks are before us, and difficulties and gaps are inevitable. The only way to cross them and achieve the goal is—to engage in the practical process of analyzing new music works with a down-to-earth and realistic approach.