Read more
“Tim Rutherford-Johnson is probably the most authoritative international chronicler of the composed music of our time, and in this book he manages the near-impossible feat of mapping a field that is changing by the day. He is a rigorous thinker, yet he avoids dogma and shows unexpected sympathies. What results is an indispensable work of intellectual passion.”—Alex Ross, author of The Rest Is Noise and Listen to This
“Studded as it is with just insights, Rutherford-Johnson’s book is even more remarkable—and valuable—for the perspectives it offers on the period since the climacteric of 1989. Here are some new tools for thinking, rethinking, and thinking on.”—Paul Griffiths, author of Modern Music and After
“It’s a sign that a book is a conversation changer when that book creates a need for its own existence. Music after the Fall is just such a radical rewriting of what we might require from a historical analysis of new music, taking an ecological approach that accounts for race, gender, technologies, and institutional and socioeconomic forces. A compelling and exhilarating read.”—Liza Lim, Professor of Composition, University of Huddersfield
List of contents
List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. 1989 and After
2. Mediation and the Marketplace
3. Permission: Freedom, Choice, and the Body
4. Fluidity: Digital Translations, Displacements, and Journeys
5. Mobility: Worldwide Flows, Networks, and Archipelagos
6. Superabundance: Spectacle, Scale, and Excess
7. Loss: Ruins, Memorials, and Documents
8. Recovery: Gaps between Past and Present
Appendix 1: Recommended Listening
Appendix 2: Further Reading
Notes
Index
About the author
Tim Rutherford-Johnson is a London-based music journalist and critic. He was the contemporary music editor at Grove Music Online and edited the most recent edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Music. He has taught at Goldsmiths College and Brunel University, and since 2003 he has written about new music for his blog, The Rambler.
Summary
Intends to survey contemporary Western art music within the transformed political, cultural, and technological environment of the post-Cold War era. In this book, the author considers musical composition against this changed backdrop, placing it in the context of globalization, digitization, and new media.
Additional text
2017 Music Book of the Year -- Alex Ross
