Nihilism In The End Of The Road

Many time periods have been affected by other time periods preceding them. Whether it be in politics or art we can see certain aspects of the previous period in the next period of time. This is very evident in art forms. In many art forms, artists (whether they be authors, painters, or composers) are influenced by other artists before their time. This is the case for many post-modernist artists, for they are sometimes influenced by the era of art before them, the modernists. The era of modernism was around for the first half of the 20th century. Its distinguishing feature was its determination to dispense with the past (Taylor). Ezra Pound used the phrase "to make it new" to describe this period of art. Post-modernism emerged after World War …show more content…
This area was the setting of nearly all of his fiction. He has described The Floating Opera as a "nihilist comedy," and its companion piece, The End of the Road, as a "nihilist catastrophe" (Werlock). Nihilism is a philosophical doctrine that suggests the negation of one or more alleged meaningful aspects of life. Both novels express doubts about intrinsic meaning (or natural meaning), and both deal with the idea that "There 's no final reason for living” (Werlock). This dark idea can be found within many of Barth’s …show more content…
Born in Texarkana, Arkansas to a prominent businessman, Nancarrow proved an unruly child and despite his father 's best efforts became interested in music, particularly jazz (Bumpass). The majority of Nancarrow 's compositions have been created on and for the player piano. The player piano served Nancarrow 's musical needs and social situation well (Bumpass). Working in isolation for most of his career, he has never been dependent on the social aspects of music-making (like concerts and public favor). His compositions are so complex rhythmically that they are too difficult for many performers. Many call Nancarrow a major thinker whose ideas about musical time, most entitled "Studies" belong to the achievements of twentieth-century music (Bumpass). Nancarrow developed a totally new type of music based on the use of tempo, employing such devices as ostinato (phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice), isorhythm (a musical technique that arranges a fixed pattern of pitches with a repeating rhythmic pattern), and canon (a technique that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration). “Study 3a” and Study for Player Piano No. 37” are two of Nancarrow’s works and both exemplify the aspects of his music of complex rythyms and the use of