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The 20th century scientific explosion had been in the works since the Enlightenment, but the rate of change, which had been slow, and adaptable, now came in flashes – like a supernova - and repeatedly,  one major wave after another and in ways that dramatically changed our society; instead of having time to gradually adapt and fold these changes into our ordered lives, our lives were forced to conform instead.

I hope you’re ready for an adventure, because this episode, and actually the next two after this, are going to challenge you.  You see, the music we’ll discover together was written in complete rejection of the basic assumptions about western music.   What’s equally fascinating is what the rest of the music world did with these musical ideas!  

To understand what was happening in America, we have to start away from home, in Europe, in the late 1930’s.  There were a number of European musicians and composers who developed completely new ways of creating, performing, and sharing music that had an equally transformative influence on the music being made in America.

In This Episode
Arnold Schoenberg 
Milton Babbitt
Charles Wuorinen 
Jerrald Goldsmith 
Gerard Schurman 
Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind 
The Beatles
Primus
Dave Brubeck
Bill Evans
John Coltrane
Ornette Coleman

 

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