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…
Cardew, Cornelius (1936–1981)
Cornelius Cardew was a leading figure in British experimental music in the 1960s and a committed political activist in the 1970s. His earlier music, particularly…
Diagonalsymphonien [Diagonal Symphony] (1924)
Diagonalsymphonien [Diagonal Symphony], a black-and-white, abstract, animated short film made in Germany by Swedish painter Viking Eggeling, assisted by Bauhaus student Erna Niemeyer, is a…
Acogny, Germaine (1944--)
In a career that has spanned over forty years, Germaine Acogny has contributed to modernism in dance by merging culturally situated West African dances from…
Krenek, Ernst (1900–1991)
Ernst Krenek, twentieth-century composer, was born in Vienna in 1900. Krenek composed over 240 works from 1917 until 1989, and his career includes works in…
Ortiz, William (1947--)
Born in Salinas, Puerto Rico, William Oritz was raised in New York City. He studied composition at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico under…
Miguel Aguilar Ahumada (1931--)
Miguel Aguilar Ahumada is a Chilean composer, academic, and musicologist. His value in the Chilean and Latin American musical panorama lies in his role as…
New Musical Resources
New Musical Resources is a book written by Henry Cowell in 1919, unpublished until 1930. In it, Cowell proposes a theory of musical relativity in…
Schapiro, Meyer (1904–1996)
Art historian Meyer Schapiro was born in Šiauliai [Shavley], Lithuania, on September 23, 1904, but soon immigrated to the United States with his family in…
Parker, Charles ‘Charlie’ Jr. (1920-1955)
Charlie Parker, known as ‘Yardbird’ or ‘Bird,’ was a famous American jazz saxophonist. Parker is best known for developing the style of jazz known as…
John Cage (1921–1990)
A leading figure in the twentieth-century avant-garde, John Cage was a prolific composer, writer, and artist. His early works show Schoenberg’s influence in their use…
Ellington, Duke (1899–1974)
Duke Ellington was an American jazz composer, pianist, and big-band leader who authored over 1,000 compositions throughout his career. Having studied piano since the age…
Spectralism
Spectralism is a tendency in contemporary art music that takes the material attributes of sound as the point of departure for composition. Originating in France…
Foxtrot
The foxtrot emerged circa 1914, most likely within African American practices, as a variation on the older duple meter one step popular with dancers since…
Gubaidulina, Sofia Asgatovna (1931--)
Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol in the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, of mixed Russian and Tatar parentage. After graduating from Kazan Conservatoire in…
Nono, Luigi (1924–90)
Luigi Nono stands out as one of the most uncompromising modernist composers of the Italian avant-garde. Together with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez, Nono was…
Harlem Nightclubs
In the 1920s and 1930s, Harlem became a major hub of New York City nightlife and a prolific space for African American artistic creation. It…
Gillespie, Dizzy (1917–93)
Dizzy Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. Over the course of his artistic career Gillespie was based in New York City, where…
Mingus, Charles (1922–1979)
Charles Mingus (1922–1979) was an American jazz bassist, composer, and bandleader. He held strong social and political views and composed songs on civil rights, such…
Blanco, Juan (1919–2008)
Juan Blanco was a Cuban composer known for his work in the field of electroacoustic music. He did not limit himself to electroacoustic music composition,…
Lavista, Mario (1943–)
Composer, pianist, intellectual, editor, and teacher Mario Lavista is regarded as a central figure in Mexico’s contemporary music scene. A prolific composer of orchestral, stage,…
Gramatges [Leyte Vidal], Harold (1918–2008)
Harold Gramatges was a leading composer, pianist, conductor, and educator during the second half of the twentieth century in Cuba. He was a founding member…
Knussen, Oliver (1952--)
Oliver Knussen is a British composer and conductor. The son of a double bassist in the London Symphony Orchestra, Knussen came to prominence when he…
Kolisch, Rudolf (1896–1978)
Rudolf Kolisch was an Austrian-born violinist, teacher, and conductor. As leader of the Kolisch Quartet he premiered many important chamber works by the Second Viennese…