At 1:41 PM -0500 1/03/03, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>I got into a debate with someone over Postmodernism, and realizedthat I had no clear idea of what the term was supposed to mean when>applied to music.
I got a hold of a choral arrangement of "Noel nouvelet" (a traditional French Christmas carol) by one of my colleagues, Peter Schubert, for analysis in my choral arranging class. I had considered the style to be a kind of neo-Renaissance (in other words, modern, but with Renaissance esthetics) but then I noticed that every direction on it was in a different language, ex., "Sans signifier" (French), "Hieratically" (English), "Sempre f" (Italian), and "Ohne sentimentalität" (Spanish, I think, or maybe German?). The first direction explained it all: "Con postmodernità" ("With postmodernness"). When I confronted Peter about it (he is a bit of a card), he smiled and said, "You obviously don't understand what postmodern means." That had me stumped for minute, while all the students around us (who had obviously taken courses in modern art and philosophy) giggled. Then I got the upper hand again with, "Well, postmodernism IS so passé now." which caused the room to erupt into gales of belly laughs. When the noise subsided, Peter had the last word, "Ah, so you DO understand postmodernism!" which caused another outbreak of hilarity. We finally sang the darn thing, and it was pretty good, postmodern or not (whatever that means).
For a light-hearted view of a movement which is thoroughly lacking in humor and utterly self-absorbed and unwilling to examine itself, go here:http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern/
Man, I thought I was back in philosophy class reading N... N... N... I can't even bear to type the name. Rhymes with "Peachy." Begins with "N". That is fantastic. Give it an "A".
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