Versions of Post Avant-Garde Music

Abstract

The present paper is written in response to Christopher Norris’s allegation in a famous essay, "Post-modernism - a guide for the perplexed," (Norris 2000) that, unlike literary postmodernism, characterized by an appeal to intelligence and intellectual effort from the reading public, musical postmodernism is impoverished in point of language and idea. This communication attempts to shed light on the complexity of musical compositions in the generic sphere of electroacoustic, timbral or computer-generated music, whose creators are at the same time theorists of their own language which requires a key to interpretation. Far from being minimalist, this post-avant-garde music has an interest in the history of musical styles, as titles such as the New Romanticism, New Interiority or New Expressionism also indicate the intention of crossing the borders of postmodernism. To what? This paper is an attempt to identify new directions by several prominent representatives.