Modernism and Popular Music
Modernism has an uneasy relationship with popular music and popular culture in general. Many modernist music movements (e.g. the twelve-tone school of Schoenberg) are diametrically…
Search Results 1 - 25 of 34
Enomoto, Kenichi 榎本 健一 (1904–1970)
A Japanese comedian, also known as Enoken, Enomoto initially created popular musical comedies in Tokyo’s downtown entertainment district Asakusa. His comedy style, containing elements from…
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…
Modernism in Canada and The United States
In Canada and the United States modernism emerges from transnational engagements with global intellectual movements while also grappling with local intellectual, cultural, and political developments…
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,…
Turnage, Mark-Anthony (1960--)
Mark-Anthony Turnage is one of the leading British composers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. His prolific output fuses stylistic elements, compositional techniques,…
Savoy Ballroom, The
The Savoy Ballroom, Harlem’s largest and most famous ballroom during the Swing Era, was nicknamed ‘The Home of Happy Feet’. After it opened in 1926,…
Mondrian, Piet (1872–1944)
The Dutch artist Piet Mondrian was one of the pioneers of abstract art, producing some of the most radical painting of the 20th century. The…
Caturla, Alejandro (1906--1940)
Alejandro García Caturla was a prominent figure in the twentieth century art music of Cuba, and leading exponent of the Afrocubanismo movement. He helped define…
African Hip-Hop
There are several features that distinguish African Hip-Hop music from the genre’s American origins. Principal targets of its social critique such as disenfranchisement and social…
Mambo
Mambo music, which emerged in Cuba in the 1940s but was popularized in Mexico City and New York, blended jazz harmonies and instrumentation with Afro-Cuban…
Cambodian Modernism
Cambodian modernity was chiefly shaped by the forces of colonization, decolonization, and the Cold War. These influences had singular consequences for art and culture in…
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,…
Mondrian, Piet (1872–1944) [REVISED AND EXPANDED]
The Dutch artist Piet Mondrian was one of the pioneers of abstract art who produced some of the most radical painting of the 20th century.…
Crowley, Aleister (1875–1947)
Aleister Crowley was an occultist, writer, and mystic who founded the spiritual philosophy of Thelema. Crowley’s work combines European, South Asian, and Chinese esoteric teachings.…
One Step
In the years before the entry of the United States into World War I, the One Step replaced the Two Step as the common popular…
Honegger, Arthur (1892–1955)
Composer Arthur Honegger was one of a group of six young French composers, known as Les Six, in the forefront of post-WWI Parisian musical modernism.…
Aharonián, Coriún (1940--)
Coriún Aharonián was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on August 4, 1940. His parents, Nubar Aharonián and Victoria Kharputlián, arrived in Uruguay in 1927 and 1928,…
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…
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…
Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931)
Named after its founder, Broadway impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (1867–1932), and inspired by the Folies Bergères in Paris, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931) remains one of the…
Di Tella Institute
The Di Tella Institute was created in 1958 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and during the following years grew as a conglomerate of centers for cutting-edge…
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.…
Iturriaga (Romero), Enrique (1918--)
Enrique Iturriaga is a Peruvian composer and music pedagogue. He is one of the lead representatives of the so-called Generación del 50, a Peruvian composers’…
Musical Modernism in Bali and Java
Musical modernism was not domesticated within Balinese or Javanese culture to the extent that it was in other parts of Asia. Although a handful of…