# Pop/art-crossovers and postmodernist blending of genres



## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

Many classical music lovers may hold a contempt for pop music but many outstanding classical composers did not and/or let themselves be influenced by popular music. Starting from the 20th century a number of leading composers were impressed by jazz in the early 20th century and composed jazz-influenced music. Later in the 20th century modernist music (like atonal music), which was prone to be avantgardist (and therefore very elitist and 'incomprehensible' to the average listener), was becoming 'old fashioned' in favor of post-modernism which disregarded every distinction and blended all pre-existing musical genres in name of 'anything goes', including the old and the new, tonal and atonal, low culture and high culture, pop and art. I think some of these crossovers and/or postmodernist blends can be very beautiful and interesting. Maybe in this thread we can gather some of the most important or interesting crossovers and/or postmodernist blends.

I can give you the following works. I think typical jazz/pop-influenced works by leading classical composers are:

Stravinsky: L'histoire du soldat (1918)

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major (1931)

Of course the most famous crossovers of jazz and classical/serious music is made by Gerschwin who evolved the other way around (from composer of popular music to serious music instead of being a serious composer who also wrote pop-influenced works):

Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
An American in Paris (1928)
Porgy and Bess (1935)

On the other hand, Weill was a serious composer who - because of his socialist beliefs - composed pop-influenced music of which is the most famous:

Dreigroschenoper (1928)

The master of postmodernism is Luciano Berio I think. Among other things he re-arranged songs by the Beatles and my favorite work by him (actually it is my favorite piece of the 20th century) is the theatrical piece

Laborintus II (1965)

In Laborintus II 'all' genres are mixed, including the very old style of Monteverdi, jazz and electronic music. The work definitely can have an appeal on pop music lovers as well: in 2012 Mike Patton (ex-vocalist of rock band Faith No More) recorded a version of it (which version it not very good in my opinion so I don't recommend it).


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## Agamemnon (May 1, 2017)

Here is another one:

Thomas Adès: Asyla

The third movement is called 'Ecstasio' which refers to the trance-inducing drug XTC (MDMA) because the music is an interpretation of popular techno house music (which music is so repetitive it is also trance-inducing, especially when danced to under the influence of MDMA).


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## Magnum Miserium (Aug 15, 2016)

I don't think there's anything specifically Postmodern about eclecticism - rhetorical question, is Haydn Postmodern? - except maybe that our critics now make a really big deal about it.

But here's what seems to me a specifically Postmodern kind of eclecticism: William Duckworth rewriting Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" - better known to the person on the street as the "Exorcist" soundtrack - in a way that's ironic, but makes no claim to objective distance: it magnifies certain quirks in a way that the less ambitious piece to which it's alluding never would, but in a way that the overall effect is still largely the same: it still sounds like scary movie music. (Yeah, yeah, I know Oldfield's record was chosen for the "Exorcist" soundtrack only after the fact.)


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