iMedia: Postmodernism in music

This week in class we started to learn about the difference between modernism and postmodernism. During the 1850 to 1945 many people thought and tried to express their “inner self”. The believed they must turn inward to find meaning. Modernist composers like Theodor Adorno and artist like Pablo Picasso tried to encourage new thinking.  After 1945 the postmodernist developed a new way of thinking and reinvent many of the arts. The postmodernist believed the world was more multifaceted and believed in complex network of networks. Artist and composers in this era thought in the idea of no absolute truth. Philip Glass, a well known modern composer, demonstrates this form of thinking. In this piece, “Einstein on the Beach”, it really gets to the fundamentals of postmodernism.

The beginning of the piece starts out with a synthesizer playing all alone. Then a choir of voices is added into the lonely synthesizer. They sing a mellow “1234..”. Then a narrator joins the duet making it a trio. The trio goes on for a couple minutes having a conversation. All of a sudden, a violin joins the trio and mans booming voice joins, making it a quartet then a quintet. At this point there are so many parts going on at the same time it is hard to understand and listen to it individually. The beauty of this piece is the complex nature of it. Individually the parts are very simple. It is a synthesizer holding only a couple notes, a violin doing arpeggios, a woman talking, a choir singing “1234…”, but all together it is a complex network of networks. It is too complex to listen to the parts individually, as a whole it becomes breath taking music. He emphasizes the importance of harmony and counterpoints. This piece of music shows a more innovative side of creating music. It is not the classic people hear every day.

When I first listened to this piece by Phillip glass I thought it was very creative. He put together very simple parts into something very complex and beautiful.  They were bits and pieces put together to present a whole. Instead of having a concrete melody, they were mostly harmonies supporting each other and having a conversation. Because of the supporting roles of all the parts in the piece, is what I admired most about the piece. It was not like the everyday songs you hear on the radio. The gradual change of the song from a solo to a duet, to a trio, and on and on is what I thought was very pleasing.

I think this piece can be a metaphor to our current society. Our society today has become very complex. From out ancestors of hunter gathers, there are many new inventions and we have come a long way. Every day we go along our simply life, like going to work or school, but this simple action creates a very complex society. The individual parts in this piece are very simple, but it creates a very complex whole. “Einstein on the Beach” is a very creative piece of artwork. I enjoy this piece very much, and it is not like anything I have heard. The beauty comes from the complex nature of the music.