Modern and Postmodern Western Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Modern and Postmodern Western Music - Essay Example Postmodern era is concerned with more advance technicalities putting forth the hybridism, relativism, heterogeneity, aesthetic hedonism, anti-essentialism and the rejection of grand narratives. The era of modernism is characterized by the movements involving revolution of visual arts, music, literature, and drama which rejected the old Victorian standards. Modernism redefined the art in every facet through increased emphasis on impression. The perspective of observation gained importance over the perspective of standard perception. The reinvention was also evident through the reducing distinction between genres, increased reflexivity, and rejection of formal elaboration. Postmodernism also obeys these rules of reinvention but unlike modernism it finds the ways to celebrate them. While the focus of modernism was literary and art historic sources, postmodernism focused on history and sociology, i.e., the more pressing topics of daily life of people. While modernism was the concept of new beginning postmodernism refers to the nurturing and progressing of those new findings. Postmodern era takes a more world wide view in contrast to modern era and unlike the emphasis on reality in modern era, postmodernism promotes fiction as reality and removes the barrier between imagination and practicality. â€Å"Modernism† and â€Å"postmodernism† concepts are also found to reflect in the music of the respective era. Musical modernism was characterized by the desire for or belief in progress and science, anti-romanticism, surrealism, political advocacy and general intellectualism.