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Modernism

A movement in art and music that emphasizes innovation and breaking with tradition.

Chávez

Mexican composer known for integrating Mexican folk themes with modernist music.

Copland

American composer who used modernist techniques to create music for the working class.

Worker’s Songs

Leftist anthems designed to unite and inspire workers.

Shostakovich

Most famous Soviet composer, known for his symphonies and chamber music, often navigating political challenges under Stalin's regime.

Khachaturian

Armenian Soviet composer who integrated traditional Caucasian music into his works, reflecting Soviet nationalism.

Socialist Realism

The official artistic style of the Soviet Union emphasizing tonality, monumentality, and heroic characters in music and art.

Babbitt

A composer who embraced serialism and explored highly technical and theoretical music.

Who Cares if You Listen

An essay by Babbitt (1958) advocating for music as a specialized art form, similar to advanced scientific research.

Cage

An experimental composer known for introducing indeterminacy and unconventional sounds in music.

4’33”

Cage’s famous composition where performers do not play their instruments, highlighting ambient sounds as part of the music.

Musical Theater/Broadway Musical

A U.S.-based theatrical genre where characters sing in popular styles, often combined with spoken dialogue.

Bernstein

A composer who blended classical and popular elements, known for West Side Story.

Middlebrow Modernism

A cultural style that incorporates modernist elements while appealing to a broad middle-class audience.

West Side Story

A 1957 musical based on Romeo and Juliet, featuring themes of violence and social issues.

Postmodernism

An artistic philosophy rejecting grand historical narratives, embracing multiple meanings, mixed styles, and questioning traditional boundaries between popular and elite art.

Berio

A composer whose Sinfonia (1968) incorporates quotations and fragments from other works, exemplifying postmodern techniques.

Cage

Their experimental approaches often blurred boundaries between music and everyday sounds, contributing to postmodernist ideas.

Léon

An American composer whose music combines diverse techniques to reflect migration experiences.

Minimalism

A musical style characterized by repetition and stasis, often focusing on gradual processes.

Process Music

Music generated by a predictable and perceivable process, as described by Steve Reich.

Glass

A minimalist composer whose work emerged from the experimental art scene in 1960s-1970s New York.

Eastman

A minimalist composer known for works like Femenine and Joy Boy.