Aatonal
 

The De-Evolution of Good Music/The Evolution of Bad Music

If one examines the evolution of "Instrumental Music" over the last three hundred years, the only factual changes one notices are that the fundamentals were gradually eroded, that the superficialities gradually became the fundamentals, that the number of existing composers increased, and that it's popularity with the public decreased.


Periods earlier than that of the baroque are not mentioned, because tonality was not well understood or well employed. Other periods, such as Roccoco, are also not mentioned, because they contain no relevance to the aatonal argument.
Period #1: Baroque
Advances: Tonality, Melody, Unity, Rythm, and Diversity were valued almost equally, but with Rythm slightly undervalued.
Most Important Composer: Bach- the Baroque period ended by his death. Widely considered the greatest composer yet.

Period #2: Classical
Advances: Melody, Rythm, and Diversity were overvalued. Tonality, and Unity were undervalued. The manipulation of loudness and softness were overvalued. The use of Tempo was overvalued. Ornaments were overvalued. The symphony was created, the orchestras grew in size, and Music became louder and longer.
Most Important Composer: Mozart- some argue that the classical period ended by his death. Widely considered the second greatest composer yet. 
Period #3: Early Romantic
Advances: Melody, Rythm, and Diversity were greatly overvalued. Unity and Tonality were entirely undervalued. The orchestras grew further in size. Music became louder and longer. Composers were more numerous, and less prolific.
Most Important Composer: Beethoven- some argue that the Classical period ended with his emergence, others argue that the Romantic period began with his emergence. Widely considered the third greatest composer yet.

Period #4: Late Romantic
Advances: Rythm, and Diversity were greatly overvalued. Melody, Unity and Tonality were entirely undervalued. The orchestras grew yet further in size. Music became yet louder and longer. Composers were yet more numerous, less prolific.and less famous.
Most Important Composer: Wagner- Adored by few-such as mass murderer Adolf Hitler- despised by most. Is not widely said to be even comparable to Bach, Mozart or Beethoven.

Period #5: Serialism
Advances: Tonality was entirely abandoned. Melody, Diversity, Unity, and Rythm were equally overvalued . Composers grew much more numerous, less prolific and less famous. Now a great many Conductors, Featured Soloists, Musicians and music scholars were as highly respected as composers. The audience no longer had any interest and abandoned this Music, in favour of folk Music such as Rock, in which Tonality, Melody, and Rythm were overvalued, while Unity, and Diversity were undervalued.
Most Important Composers: Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Alban Berg- Schoenberg invented Serialism, and the other two were his favorite students. Schoenberg is only famous for having invented Serialism. Webern and Berg are only famous for having been his students and among the first to write it. 
Period #5: Post-Serialism,
Advances: Serialism was abandoned in favour of the new fundamental, that of Doing Something Extremely New, most commonly by way of eliminating certain elements of Music while overvaluing others, in extremely new ways.
Some of the more famous new forms were:
-Minimalism, in which Diversity was eliminated
-Aleatory, in which Unity was eliminated
Composers grew still more numerous, less prolific and less famous. Now Conductors, Featured Soloists and Musicians were more respected than composers (Leonard Bernstein) Because the audience had no interest, the appeal of instrumental Music was well known to be restricted to The Cult of Expertise. The only conventional rule that now existed was that new instrumental Music must Do Something Radically New. Composers now achieved recognition not for the quality of their work, but for the extent to which they Did Something Extremely New.
Most Important Composers: Some might say John Cage, who was also a student of Schoenberg, Did Something Extremely New, eliminating all of the elements of Music by writing Music which consisted only of silence. He is the most famous Post-Serialist. Pierre Boulez, another student of Schoenberg, is the second most famous Post-Serialist. He Did Something Extremely New, uttering shocking and violent statements against the Music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Previously the technique had only been successfully applied to Music.
 
 
 
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