Analysis Tutorial of New Music Works

Author: Peng Zhimin
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2004-10-01
Features: The 20th century in the history of music was an era of great upheaval and innovation, 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), as well as 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 creation 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 "obsessed with innovation"; among them, "new schools and movements emerged at an astonishing speed (approximately every five years); unheard-of sounds, unprecedented scores, untried methods, unprecedented phenomena and behaviors, unheard-of theories or slogans, etc., surged one after another in the span of a century, endless and boundless; various schools, complex systems, distinctive techniques, bizarre events and innovations, etc., competed 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 connotation and extension of music; on the other hand, their futuristic development or leapfrogging progress further 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, and such an explanation should be technical rather than descriptive, systematic rather than isolated, insightful rather than superficial, and suitable for professional teaching rather than general reading—as we once treated 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 task. Understanding the 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 above points. 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 participate in the practical process of analyzing new music works with solid feet and a realistic approach.