Inside the Contemporary Music Period – an Era of Self-Expression and Experimentation

The Contemporary Music Period is a pivotal chapter in music history, marked by innovation and diversity. Composers began to stop playing it safe. They started using music as a tool for self-expression and bold experimentation during this era.

From atonality to genre-bending innovations, the Contemporary music era laid the groundwork for today’s most influential styles such as jazz, rock, hip hop, pop, electronic dance music (EDM), and everything in between. Contemporary music didn’t just influence modern music; it made it possible.

Contemporary Music – A Bold, New Direction

One of the four eras of Classical music, Contemporary music evolved from the Romantic period, when composers were already pushing emotional boundaries.

As the musical era of the Romantic Period came to a close, music broke out of the concert halls and into the hands of everyday people. By the early 20th century, the world was changing. Politics, new philosophies and cultural revolutions all began to reshape how music was made and heard. French composers brought impressionism into music, blurring the lines of sounds. Around the same time, incorporating styles like jazz and folk began to rise, inspiring a new generation of composers who would define the Contemporary music era.

Breaking the Rules

Contemporary Music composers explored new sounds, discarded traditional structures and embraced individuality. This was a fearless, boundary-pushing evolution in the world of classical music.

The Contemporary music era has changed the way music is created today. New technologies and the freedom to break the rules sparked boundless creativity in our composers.

Below are key breakthroughs that shaped this  musical era:

• Atonality Arnold Schoenberg ignored major and minor keys and introduced atonality, music that does not use a home key or central pitch, which sounded unpredictable and sometimes unsettling.
• Bitonality employs two different keys simultaneously to create a layered, edgy and often dissonant sound that grabs your attention.
• Polytonality steps bitonality up a notch and involves multiple keys happening simultaneously, creating rich, complex and sometimes dissonant harmonies.
• Irregular and changing meters (also known as asymmetrical meters and mixed meters, respectively) disrupt predictable rhythms by using uncommon time signatures such as 5/4 or 7/4 or by changing the time signature during music. Both methods create surprise, complexity or forward momentum.
• Neo-classical writing composers reimagine music from the past by writing sonatas and sonatinas, common forms during the Classical Period, and infusing them with Contemporary music harmonies, rhythms and techniques.
• Polyphonic texture is used with harmonies, resulting in the entangling of the melody. Each line has its own rhythm and shape, but somehow they work together harmoniously.
• Classical contemporary, an early style of the musical era, had a variable, often experimental or non-linear structure. Composers may use chance, text prompts or even graphic symbols to guide performance instead of traditional notes.
• Minimalism – By the 1960s and 1970s, composers created hypnotic music emphasizing simplicity, repetition and gradual change with just a few notes, rhythms or patterns.

Contemporary Music in Action

Composers of the Contemporary music era frequently experimented with mixing various techniques. To listen to the sounds of contemporary music, just look up the examples below on your favorite music streaming service.

• “Evening in the Country” by Béla Bartók has a polyphonic texture, complex meter and avoidance of Major and Minor tonalities.
• “The Firebird” or “Petrushka” by Igor Stravinsky features characteristics of changing meters, syncopations and a neo-classical style.
• Notable Minimalism compositions include works by John Adams and Steve Reich.
• “Cat and Mouse” by Aaron Copland, a recent American composer of the Contemporary period. Breaking away from traditional European classical music rules, Copland incorporates elements of jazz and folk into classical music, making special rhythmic patterns that incorporate jazz improvisations.
• Other recent composers of the musical era include John Cage, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Dmitri Shostakovich.

The Contemporary Music Era Lives On

Contemporary music continues to inspire genres that parents and children enjoy listening to today. From hip hop to orchestral movie scores, its DNA is everywhere. And with 21st-century tech constantly reshaping sound, the spirit of the Contemporary music era is still alive, just dressed in new forms.

Ready to Dive Deeper?

At Piano Forte Music School, we don’t just teach students how to play; we explore where music originated, why it matters and how it evolves.  

If you’re curious about Contemporary music and its genres, like pop, hip hop or EDM, stay tuned for our upcoming blog posts. Better yet, contact us for private or group lessons today and learn how to start playing the piano for yourself.