Jonathan Kramer - Postmodernism Music Theory.

A very interesting aspect of postmodern music theory. This will help you with your next essay.

Media Theorist Jonathan Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16–17), postmodern music":

1. Is not simply a rejection of modernism or the way it pushes progress forward, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. Is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. Does not respect boundaries between distincive sounds and procedures of the past and of the present
4. Challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. Shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. Questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. Avoids totalizing forms (genred structures) (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. Considers music not as independent but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. Includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. Considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. Embraces contradictions
12. Distrusts binary oppositions (no good or bad/ right or wrong)
13. Includes fragmentations and discontinuities (no complete)
14. Encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. Presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. Locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.

Active as a music theorist, Kramer published primarily on theories of musical time and postmodernism. At the time of his death he had just completed a book on postmodern music and a cello composition for the American Holocaust Museum.