Analyse The Relationship Between Public And Composers In The 20th Century

Problems in the relationship between composer and public have been evident at least since the early years of the twentieth century. Some composers have alienated the listening public with their music, while others have sought to reach out to the public. In this paper, I will discuss some ups and downs of this issue through the course of the 20th century. I will then give my view on where we stand now in this issue with who, I think, are some popular genres and artists today. I will focus on specific composers and works and consider both ‘serious’ and ‘popular’ music. Many problems with contemporary ‘serious’ music has been relevant in the twentieth century. One, being that the music is very complex and leaves the listener uninterested. Serious music can only be experienced in the context of the whole. The themes and details are …show more content…
Arnold Schoenberg is the most influential composer for using 12-tone music where there is manipulation in an ordered series of all twelve notes in the chromatic scale. He also had use of expressionism in his piece Pierrot Lunaire which is used to capture intense and subjective emotion, leaving the listener with a connection of some sort (Textbook, 105-108). Another positive relation between composer and public was in the beginning of popular music and also electronic music in the period of post-modernism. For popular music, the whole has little influence on reception and reaction to parts; you would still be able to understand when details are missing. There is also little effort required to follow the music. Popular music also leads back to familiar experiences, so the listener would be able to connect with the composition. A significant influence on popular music is electronic music—music which employs electronic musical technologies (Textbook, 114-115,