The Classical Music Book

I

n the wake of World War II,

classical music became

increasingly experimental,

as composers searched for more

adventurous ways to rework the

language of music. Turning their

back on the past, they looked to

new sources of inspiration, such

as mathematics and physics, and

overturned former concepts of

structure. They even questioned

fundamental aspects of music,

such as what constituted a musical

instrument, the necessity of a

“performer,” and what music

itself can be.

In Europe, the postwar

generation pushed the serial

method of composition pioneered

by Arnold Schoenberg in the 1920s

further by applying the technique

to volume and duration as well

as pitch. Encouraged by Olivier

Messiaen, their teacher at the

Paris Conservatoire, Pierre Boulez

and Karlheinz Stockhausen

became the leading lights of

serialism, while Iannis Xenakis

used it as a starting point for a

music that was based on a

combination of mathematical

and acoustic theories. Composers

also found rich inspiration in

technology, which provided access

to a whole new sound world. In

Paris, Pierre Henry and Pierre

Schaeffer pioneered a technique

known as musique concrète, using

sounds recorded onto magnetic

tape as their building blocks.

At the same time, a young

American composer, John Cage,

explored music determined by

chance, or aleatory music, and

examined the musical potential

of silence. He determined key

elements of his compositions by

tossing coins and sorting yarrow

sticks or giving ambiguous graphic

instructions to performers. One

of his works ( 4 ́ 33 ̋) specified four

minutes and 33 seconds of silence,

in which only the ambient sounds

of the auditorium could be heard.

Ideas spread

After the death of Joseph Stalin

in 1953, news of these fresh

developments began to reach

composers behind the Iron Curtain,

where the Soviet-dominated

regimes had censored music

that it considered degenerate or

subversive. György Ligeti, born

in communist Romania, made

his way to the West via Hungary

in 1956 and developed an

idiosyncratic style after coming

across the music of Stockhausen

INTRODUCTION

1950

1956

1960

1964

1956 –1957

1958

Three orchestras

simultaneously

bring Karlheinz

Stockhausen’s Gruppen

to life at its premiere

in Cologne, Germany.

In the Soviet Union,

Aram Khachaturian’s

ballet Spartacus, about

the first-century slave

revolt against Rome, wins

the Lenin Prize.

In France, Iannis

Xenakis composes

Pithoprakta, a

piece inspired by

mathematical and

engineering principles.

Pierre Schaeffer

and Pierre Henry

create Symphonie

pour un homme

seul from

recorded sounds.

Terry Riley writes

In C—one of the

first minimalist

compositions, with

no set number of

performers or duration.

Polish composer

Krzysztof Penderecki’s

Threnody for the Victims

of Hiroshima explores

sonorism with a 52-piece

string orchestra.

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