Dance
Historically, modern dance scholarship has followed the contours of the field as defined by John Martin, the revered dance critic for The New York Times,…
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Music Subject Overview
Musical modernism is understood here in the broadest sense, including compositional practices from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Of course, modernist practice is…
Turina, Joaquín (1882–1949)
Joaquín Turina (b. Seville, 9 December 1882; d. Madrid, 14 January 1949) was a Spanish composer who rose to prominence during Spain’s Edad de Plata…
Foulds, John (1880–1939)
John Herbert Foulds (1880–1939) was an English composer of classical music who found popularity with his light music and theatrical scores, but also created more…
Free Jazz
Free Jazz emerged in the late 1950s out of the ongoing negotiation of the American jazz tradition. By the mid-twentieth century, this African-American musical tradition…
Boulez, Pierre (1925-2016)
French composer Pierre Boulez was one of the most influential composers of the second half of the twentieth century. His personal development mirrored the history…
Equal Temperament
Equal temperament is a musical tuning strategy which deals mathematically with musical intervals in order to allow perfect transposition; it replaced the Pythagorean approach. The…
Falla (y Matheu), Manuel de (1876–1946)
Spanish composer Falla was the central figure of his generation, eclipsing composers such as Joaquín Turina and Joaquín Rodrigo. He blended Spanish musical nationalism, cultivated…
Dench, Christopher (1953--)
Christopher Dench is one of a group of British composers who emerged in the early 1980s associated with the notion of New Complexity (other composers…
Paz, Juan Carlos (1897–1972)
Juan Carlos Paz (1897–1972) was an Argentine composer, critic, writer, and self-described “compositional guide” who played a key role in twentieth-century Argentine contemporary music. Known…
Braxton, Anthony (1945--)
Anthony Braxton, born 4 June 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, is an avant-garde jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer who performs and records primarily on saxophones. An active…
Donatoni, Franco (1927–2000)
Composer and poet Franco Donatoni studied in Vienna before attending the Darmstadt summer music program, where he encountered Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others.…
Mercure, Pierre (1927–1966)
In 1952, Pierre Mercure became the first director of the CBC musical television broadcasts. His long-standing concern with the interaction between the different arts gave…
Davis, Miles Dewey III, (1926–1991)
Jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer Miles Davis is one of the most significant artists in the history of jazz. He stood at the forefront of…
Ferrari, Luc (1929–2005)
French experimental composer Luc Ferrari was one of the key figures in the development of electroacoustic music in France during the late 1950s and 1960s.…
Castle, Vernon (1887–1918) & Castle, Irene Foote (1893–1969)
During the years 1911–1917, Irene Foote Castle (1893–1969) and her husband Vernon Castle (1887–1918) explicitly marketed ragtime dancing as “modern” to their upper-class and, increasingly,…
Boulanger, Lili (1893–1918)
Lili Boulanger was a French composer and the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in musical composition. Born into a musical family and…
Sojo, Vicente Emilio (1887–1974)
Vicente Emilio Sojo was born in Guatire, Miranda State, Venezuela on 8 December 1887, a son of Francisco Reverón and Luisa Sojo. He was a…
Shōchiku Company Limited [松竹株式会社]
Shōchiku Company Limited [松竹株式会社] is a Japanese entertainment gaint that owns theaters, film studios, production companies for motion pictures and theater, real estate, and other…
Tavener, John Kenneth (1944–2013)
John Tavener was an English composer. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where his composition teachers were Lennox Berkeley and David…
Tenney, James (1934–2006)
American composer James Tenney produced a wide range of innovative works, including computer music, Fluxus-inspired text scores, and chance-based instrumental pieces founded on the overtone…
Scratch Orchestra
The Scratch Orchestra grew out of an Experimental Music class run by Cornelius Cardew at Morley College (1968–73). Though a number of people contributed towards…
Paik, Nam June (1932–2006)
Nam June Paik was a Korean-born American artist who achieved international notoriety for his destructive, neo-dada activities and visionary, esthetic experiments with electronic media. Born…
Anhalt, Istvan (1919–2012)
Istvan Anhalt was a Hungarian-born Canadian composer and one of the leading figures in avant-garde composition during the second half of the twentieth century in…
Perle, George (1915–2009)
George Perle (1915–2009) was an American composer and scholar, awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Pulitzer Prize (1986) for his Wind Quintet no. 4, and…