The Rest is Noise
Description
Quickstats
Playlist Length
17 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes
Playlist Followers
472
Source
Playlist Last Updated
June 20, 2017
Mood
Chill
Track Popularity Rating
Deep
Style
Acoustic
Average Release Decade
1990s
Main Genre:
Classical
Reddit Info
Reddit Post
Philosophically, post-serialism emerges alongside Marxism (actually being put into practice...a lot), Derrida's Deconstruction, and Post-Structuralism. Traditional empires have collapsed and along with them, older notions of humanity and meaning. Politcally, post-serialism situates itself between the end of the Second Great War and the inauguration of Reagan. So it really blossoms alongside the Cold War and all the shenanigans that that entailed. I say all that to say it was a rocky time for humankind; We've just had not one but two horrific and global wars, we've just witnessed the power of the atom and the beginning of Mutually Assured Destruction as an honest geo-political strategy, and practically the whole planet has divided themselves into Soviet/American camps. Post-serialism is in many ways, the musical realization of this turbulence; of course there aren't any unifying principles or guidelines for the style! Part of the reason for that is that Post-Serialism isn't a specific genre but multiple different reactions to the hell earlier 20th century composers unleashed when they flipped the bird to tonality. In fact, any music that eschews a defined tonal center in favor for pulseless rhythms and unintelligible lines/harmonies composed after 1950 could be called post-serial. Still, there are some definite trends we can trace. The first is total serialism which applies ordering techniques to as many musical parameters (rhythm, timbre, structure, etc.) as a composer could want. Milton Babbitt, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Pierre Boulez were big time fans of this technique. Then there was the focus on timbre. Composers began exploring and pushing instrumental possibilities with extended techniques. Ultimately, this line of inquiry would morph into spectralism, but Luciano Berio's Sequenzas and Tōru Takemitsu's solo flute music both exemplify what I'm talking about here. Composers also sought out other ways to solve Schoenberg's initial problem: how do you create non-tonal music that still makes sense? Often, they accomplished this with some variation of musical set theory. Berio's music offers plenty of examples of this but so does Elliott Carter and Henri Dutilleux (although, I wouldn't classify Dutilleux as post-serial, necessarily). And from there, there were composers who sought to take musical possibilities to their natural limits as a continuation of the exploration into total serialism and extended techniques. This gave rise to the New Complexity of composers like Brian Ferneyhough. I wish I could point you to guides on specific post-serial techniques but there are really too many to list and I feel like I've already said too much (so what's new, right?). That said, if there are specific schools or post-serial styles you like, we'd be able and happy to point you in the direction of resources and analysis. But still, some interesting stuff I've managed to dig up with a quick google search: 1.) There's this [presentation](https://prezi.com/m/ikidv_ymcnsg/aftermath-post-serialism/) I found that gives the quick and dirty on post-serialism. What I love about this is it gives quotations from lots of composers (mostly dudes, unfortunately) and their reactions to/against Schoenberg's technique. There this old [NYT article](https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/12/arts/serialism-since-schoenberg-s-death.html) that also gives an overview of the landscape post-Schoenberg. 2.) A specific school/group of composers that composed in post-serial styles is the [Darmstadt school](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstadt_School) with more than a few books on their musical shenanigans. They have since morphed into an [actual compositional school](https://internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/ferienkurse/). Syllabi and past course history might help you on your search. 3.) I really love the [Norton's books](https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393929201) on music history but my heart will always belong to Alex Ross's "[The Rest Is Noise](https://www.therestisnoise.com/)." One of those "must read" books for anyone remotely interested in music, tbh. There's also this ^4 [awesome video overview](https://youtu.be/MaJF9nxVhUU) of a lot of the styles/genres I mention here. 4.) David Bruce is so freaking dreamy and I feel no shame in constantly admitting this. 5.) Also, please check out r/classicalresources. Several higher angels have curated incredible playlists as introductions to a lot of this (and tons of other) music. Like literally, [there's a playlist](http://open.spotify.com/user/scrumptiouscakes/playlist/35lZcLLb1YVkCBUuzylY8E) dedicated to The Rest Is Noise. The people over there were freaking Seraphim! Perhaps you could give a few tracks a listen and then tell us which styles you'd be interested in replicating? From there, it'd be a lot easier for us to point you to sources and canon examples and what not. Whew. That was a doozy. But I hope this helps and take care!
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6
Subreddit
musictheory
Reddit Username
17bmw
Reddit Timestamp
8/2/19 19:13
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