C20 terms

[Mystery]

If the principal 'isms' for major C20 movements in music are inadequate (for all that they seem to have stuck), how would you replace them?

[Maciek]

Mystery, well, you've just earned your nickname for me... Could you please elaborate a bit? What is C20? It sounds like some sort of carbon particle or something... What are the particular -isms you have in mind?

Cheers,
Maciek

[BachQ]

I think MYSTERY is referring to C₂₀H₁₈N₂O, commonly known as benzoin phenylhydrazone.

[Mark]

C20 = 20th Century. No?

[Mystery]

Sorry, you will get used to my mysteriousness - cunning, huh?

I am talking about impressionism, expressionism, modernism, neoclassicism (you name it it will be there) in the twentieth century. Thoughts please 

[Maciek]

Aha! Well, in that case I must say I don't mind those -isms at all. They are roughly the same in all areas of the arts, and though the associations between say music and painting seem a little blurry it helps to keep a neatly arranged perspective on culture... 0:)

Maciek

[The Mad Hatter]

As far as I've seen in the latter half of the twentieth century, the key goal of all music, be it minimalist, aleatoric, totally serial, whatever, seems to have been originality of soundworld.

So I've always just called the spirit of that half originalism.

[Kullervo]

...
I've always just called the spirit of that half originalism.

Or just hyper-individualism

[Mystery]

But by calling something 'impressionist' it makes it elite, as if only those pieces are. For example what about predecessors like the Pastoral Symphony? Similarly do these words actually describe what the music is like? Do post-modernism and modernism just confuse matters? I guess we only label them because as human we need to put everything in boxes, though it does also show progress through the twentieth century.

[Maciek]

But by calling something 'impressionist' it makes it elite, as if only those pieces are. For example what about predecessors like the Pastoral Symphony?

You're confusing impressionism as a time-specific artistic movement (late 19th century, early 20th century) with the colloquial meaning of the adjective.

Similarly do these words actually describe what the music is like?

And which words (except for the case of onomatopoeia to some extent) are self-explanatory in that way? Unless you mean that one word is not enough to describe any piece of music - here I'd agree but that's not the point of terms such as "impressionism".

Do post-modernism and modernism just confuse matters?

I think we've covered that subject pretty well in the thread that Symphonien pointed to...

[Kullervo]

The term impressionist is just one of many, many instances of terms being borrowed from the visual arts world. It's not relevant today, nor was it ever.

[Steve]

The term impressionist is just one of many, many instances of terms being borrowed from the visual arts world. It's not relevant today, nor was it ever.

That's debatable.

[jochanaan]

If the principal 'isms' for major C20 movements in music are inadequate (for all that they seem to have stuck), how would you replace them?

I wouldn't.  Nor would I replace Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc.  Down with isms!

"Only two kinds of music: good and bad." --attributed to Duke Ellington