Essay Sample on Rethinking Modernism

Introduction

Consciousness has played a significant role effort to define what could be new or traditional - the questions on whether there is a real transition from one state to the other or it just a continuation of events. Definition of 'new' depends on the changes in music techniques from the techniques of the earlier periods. Modernism in music is a philosophical point of view concerning the significant transition period in music just before the 20th century. The transition was characterized by diverse effects and the reaction of the change from traditional music to the new organizations of progressive music. The period was full of aesthetic shifts throughout the world. In the mid-1990s, artists used modern instruments and styles by using artifacts that reflected facts in the modern world. Long after the period, music has been associated with the realization of the relationship between the traditional styles and the new ones. Chowrimootoo in his article on modernism looks deeper into the relationship between innovation and middlebrow culture dated back in the 1930s. Many people have a different view of fashion, both positive and negative. Modernist composers differentiated their pieces of art from the traditional forms of expression. The standard narratives of this transition period promoted propaganda dividing composers in selected groups of esoteric modernist and populists.

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Modernism has a progressive spirit which makes music advance in different and novel directions, with a significant plurality of languages, without any prevailing over others a priori. The main characteristics of the great divide that differentiate Modernism from earlier periods include:

• Major adjustments were made in tonality.
• Implementing better techniques (chords that run creating large unresolved structures, heirs of Impressionism).
• The incorporation of sounds and novel sounds in the composition.

Boundaries in music can be viewed from three perspectives: aesthetic, geographical or disciplinary. Modernism is all about these boundaries and the great divide between the mass culture and innovation. Modernists have been found to differentiate their pieces of work from cultural expressions and popularity. Great divide separates art and fame, putting a gap between the traditional and modern styles. Modern society has access to improved instruments which has enabled the creation of sound worlds and audience modalities. Production, therefore, plays a vital role in modernization.

According to Chowrimootoo, the middlebrow tried to bridge the gap between modernism and the mass culture. He supports earlier discussions that were aimed at encouraging people to embrace changes coming with modernist. Through his study, he mentions the various changes in the music industry and how it affects the opinions of both the audience the critics. Chowrimootoo indicates that society has a direct impact on widening the gap between the "new" and the traditional. The study suggests the nature of the middlebrow as peripheral.

To understand the implications of the middlebrow, it is advisable to, first of all, understand the boundaries themselves. This comprehension will be possible through familiarization with the middlebrow. It helps one to recognize and acknowledge the power of both the historic modernization and the critical opposition. Middlebrow made it possible for people to enjoy the benefits of being low and high at the same time.

The piano quintet was composed in the year 1864. The piece faced critics immediately after its composition. The critics claimed that the music was too old depending on the current state of affairs. The music was mainly made up of standard formats like the concerto and symphony related to the chamber music. From his experience, Brahm adopted a new form, sonata. This form was regarded by many as too emotional. Others had a feeling that it was academically profound. These critiques depend on their sources as people have different opinions over sensitive social issues. The play requires specific technical features like high-level skills for the players.

Through the reconstruction of the piece that followed shortly after the release, the changes showed Brahm's ability to increase the size of smaller materials. The 'Quintet for piano and strings in F minor op. 34' is perhaps, with the Clarinet Quintet, the chamber music more famous for Brahms. His captivating strength, his intense lyricism, its thematic richness, its well-locked and spectacular architecture, the use that the composer made in it, advancing achievements later even more remarkable, the technique of variation continuous, the perfect interrelation between their motives and the density of their polyphony have made it a paradigm of works of this type. It is without a doubt a masterful score, despite to the more or less rhetorical appearance of some of his motives, that connects with tradition and that is situated without decor next to the great Quintet with two cellos by Schubert. Director Hermann Levi exclaimed, upon hearing the final version of the score, which since 1828 -year composition of that Schubertian fruit - nothing like it had been heard.

Levi himself had been the cause, along with Clara Schumann, that Brahms decided to give the work the form that we know today. At the beginning the musician had conceived a string quintet, like that of his Viennese predecessor, but, after a single execution in 1863, he destroyed the staves before the criticism of Joachim and Clara. This action considered certain subjects that advised the use of the piano. Quickly, the composer turned the Quintet into a Sonata for two pianos, which today we hear that it was played in Vienna on April 17, 1864, by the same author and Cari Tausig. Clara then demanded the presence of an orchestra. Brahms rewrote the score for a quintet with piano. The first movement of this Sonata, Allegro non-troppo, is of exceptional power. It is built on three main themes and some secondary or transitional ideas. Middlebrow encourages respect for culture. Bourdieu indicated that 'goodwill' for the culture characterized middlebrow. It has led to the introduction of the new music genre that is more inspirational. This new music composition indicates the transition ideas from one form of a piece to another.