New Ears for New Music

This book provides a survey of the styles and tendencies in 20th-century new music, presenting the most important composers from Schoenberg to Rihm in a series of essays that will appeal to connoisseurs and non-specialists alike by putting music in the context of the social and psychological background of its time.

20th-century music is characterized by a bewildering multitude of trends and movements. Often several movements co-exist in contradiction to each other, in a reflection of the century's intellectual currents and social and political changes, and the reactions they prompted. In this book, renowned musicologist and author Constantin Floros provides a survey of the different styles and tendencies in new music, presenting the most important composers from Schoenberg to Rihm in a series of fluent and readable essays that will appeal to connoisseurs and non-specialists alike. For Floros, music and biography are inseparable, and here he puts music in the context of the social and psychological background of its time.

Autorentext

Constantin Floros is professor emeritus of musicology at the University of Hamburg and a prolific writer on diverse subjects. Among his monographs are volumes on the origin of Gregorian neumes, about Beethoven's Eroica, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Alban Berg and György Ligeti.

Zusammenfassung
«The chapter 'From Expressionism to Experimentation' provides a wonderful introduction to 20th-century musical trends. Utterly readable, the book makes music of the post-Mahler era accessible.» (Peter Kaiser, 2011)

Inhalt
Contents: From Expressionism to Experiment Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School The problem of «German Music» Gurrelieder Pierrot lunaire Moses and Aron Nikos Skalkottas Luigi Nono Messiaen and Boulez Nationalism and Folklorism György Ligeti Multicultural Phenomena in the New Music Bernd Alois Zimmermann Alfred Schnittke Hans Werner Henze Wolfgang Rihm Postmodernism.