When the World Was In Chaos, Music Became Atonal

Get in touch!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 EpisodeArnold Schoenberg Milton BabbittCharles Wuorinen Jerrald Goldsmith Gerard Schurman Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind The BeatlesPrimusDave BrubeckBill EvansJohn ColtraneOrnette Coleman