modern music
genresMOD-ern
Western art music from approximately 1900 to the present, characterised by experimentation and diverse styles.
Modern music encompasses the vast range of compositional approaches that emerged after the dissolution of common-practice tonality in the early 20th century. Key movements include impressionism (Debussy, Ravel), expressionism and atonality (Schoenberg), serialism and twelve-tone technique (Webern, Berg), neoclassicism (Stravinsky, Prokofiev), minimalism (Reich, Glass, Riley), and spectralism. The 20th century also saw the rise of electronic music, musique concrète, and aleatory (chance-based) composition. Rhythm became more complex through polyrhythm, asymmetric metre, and metric modulation. The boundaries between classical, jazz, and popular music became increasingly porous. Contemporary composers draw on the full range of historical techniques and global traditions, making modern music the most stylistically diverse period in Western musical history.
Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring caused a near-riot at its 1913 Paris premiere — the audience was so shocked by its pounding rhythms and dissonant harmony that fights broke out.