Short Synopsis

The table of contents may be used as a general overview of the essay in bullet point form. For clarities sake I have included not only the page numbers of individual sections but also the main aesthetic distinctions pertaining to specific aspects of contemporary music made in each section. For example, the three-fold characteristic of spatial musical materials with regard to sound-wave frequency in modern/ist music, section III. (2. i.). As terms are used repeatedly throughout the main body of the text the reader may find it useful to consult the table of contents in order to hold in mind in which section a new novel term was introduced.

The foreword stands as it were outside of this text and functions as an introduction to its motivational raison d’etre as well as a brief, therefore partial, statement of intent. The fundamental conclusions of the following essay are discussed in the appropriate sections, i.e. respectively the conclusions of sections III. Contemporary Modern/ist and IV. Contemporary Meta-Modern/ist music as well as in the Epilogue / section V.

In the Prologue / section I. the distinction is drawn between two objectives inherent to musical production in contemporary society, e.g. functional / experimental vs. theoretical, and certain fundamental terminology is introduced. In the next section, which pertains to contemporary theoretical music the distinction is drawn between two schools of thought or aesthetic traditions within contemporary theoretical music: respectively the mondern/ist and the meta-modern/ist traditions.

Subsequently the aesthetic tradition of modern/ist music is analyzed through its modes of production, musical materials, constructive techniques as well as its formal and notational tendencies and/or possibilities. The general conclusion being that though modern/ist music has radically extended the aesthetic possibilities of traditional music, it remains wedded to pre-twentieth century conceptions of the nature of music itself; particularly in the case of formal construction, whereby traditional as well as modern/ist music are congruent in so far as one of their shared creative objectives is the organization of space and time into determinate, therefore at least in theory if not in practice indefinitely repeatable, musical structures.

In the following sections the aesthetic tradition of meta-modern/ist music is analyzed through its modes of production, musical materials, constructive techniques, formal as well as notational tendencies and/or possibilities. The general conclusion being that meta-modern/ist music has further extended the aesthetic possibilities inherent to modern/ist music in radical and dramatic ways; particularly with regard to the formal construction of meta-modern/ist musical compositions, which among other things are no longer limited to determinate-repeatable musical structures.

In the epilogue the main theses are reiterated generally and the development of an art form, which transcends contemporary conceptions of music, thereby potentially unifying previously disassociated artistic disciplines or perhaps even existence itself, is hinted at. The inevitability of aesthetic change is asserted and regarded optimistically. A lexicon of abbreviations used, which may of course be referred to at any time, as well as a bullet point outline of suggested reforms and the previously indicated and discussed aesthetic frontiers of music follows. The later is intended to be a creative catalyst for contemporary as well as future musical and/or meta-musical composers.

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