The Foundations of Contemporary Composing

Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, ed.

Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2004

Reviewed by Thomas Reiner

The collection of essays on the survival of modernity in contemporary music in The Foundations of Contemporary Composing, edited by German composer Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, makes an interesting and largely convincing case for the continued social and cultural merit of high-art music.  The North American and European authors who have contributed to this 3rd Volume of the series New Music and Aesthetics in the 21st Century address a wealth of current compositional concerns, most of which are grounded in modernist beliefs and modernist aesthetics.

Given the book’s emphasis on the idea of a second phase of modernism in music (described here as art music composed since the1980s and associated with notions of progressiveness and complexity), it comes as no surprise that postmodernism is portrayed as an obscuring phenomenon rather than a contemporary condition that subsumes all previous styles and periods (including that of modernism). This notwithstanding, the book abounds in postmodern concepts and thinking, both in terms of its language (‘the other,’ deconstructive strategies, poiesis, ‘reality can only be attested to from partial perspectives’, etc.), as well as in its critical appraisal of modern music from a historically remote (post-) perspective.

Topics include the notion of musical progress, the distinction between new music and contemporary music (Frank Cox), musical deconstruction and non-identity (Mahnkopf), music technology vis-a-vis music aesthetics and music politics (Nicola Sani), algorithmic composition (Chris Mercer), French spectralism (Anne Sedes), and the role of construction in European art music (Sebastian Claren).

Music Forum Vol 11 No 3