Investigating the Characteristics of Postmodern Music by Analyzing the Piece Canon in Four

Introduction: The word modern, which has been used more than ever since the beginning of the 20th century, conveys newness and belonging to the present and is in contrast to traditional thing that prides itself on its roots in the past. Modern man submits to the dictates of his reason and considers having a new method based on reason as a certain and definitive value. Accordingly, from the beginning of the 20th century to the present, or in other words, the contemporary period, a kind of value emerged in the making of artworks using new methods, and various movements claimed that they could bring the artistic form in a new way and even convey new meaning in the work. Gradually, a wide range of methods of artistic construction and criticism were formed, which sometimes completely contradicted each other, while all of them sought novelty. This issue became the cornerstone of postmodernism; that is, this school emerged from the idea of ​​fragmentation and lack of coherence in the collection of various modern methods, sometimes rejecting them and sometimes praising them.
Research Questions: Postmodernism, in its search for answers to the fundamental questions of modernism, does not find them in abandoning traditional methods to achieve something new, but sees in change. In such a way, the past before the past may again become changed and new; that is, a combination of the originality of past music, which is sometimes heard as a quote from the works of the past, and an understanding of the thinking of a contemporary composer that carries the sounds of the present. Therefore, the analysis of postmodern music could be significant in understanding the methods of evolution in artistic expression. The issue becomes important when it comes to how an Iranian composer was able to create a connection between something new and old or modern and traditional methods, and what is his understanding of these concepts?
Research Hypothesis: Accordingly, the piece Canon in Four, the author's fourth work, has been selected for analysis until the answer is reached; the word canon has been used since the Middle Ages in introducing musical works and is quite old, and the phrase in Four, which is used instead of in D minor, for example could be seen in the title of modern musical works and is therefore quite new. This phrase, which could indicate the stage or sequential nature of the musical structure, is more than anything linked to the concepts of serialism and total serialism. The basic principle of serialism is that each tone in a series can only be heard once until all the other ones are heard in order. They could follow each other and form a melody line, or be presented simultaneously and form a harmony. Therefore, the tones in a series have the same value. Total serialism uses this method for other elements of music as well, and unlike serialism, which uses past forms of expression, suppresses them, which requires the modification and adjustment of a postmodern perspective.
Research Literature: Postmodernism in philosophy refers to a discourse that developed in the 1960s under post-structuralism; both schools are the result of the critical thinking of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault about rationalism, but postmodern music has a different history, and it is sometimes very difficult to explain its criteria and set a boundary to separate it from modern music. However, the combination of forms and methods of expression from different eras and genres in the past and present, mockery, and the creation of internal contradictions are the characteristics of postmodern music. This music finds meaning in the plurality of structures and the absence of a single method, and its aesthetics have an open understanding of any sound experience, while it is accompanied by people's attention to the types of music of the day. For example, Luciano Berio, who seems to be one of the first postmodern composers, in the third movement of the Sinfonia uses, in a manner similar to collage, a collection of different parts of the works of composers before him and creates a changed and new music from their combination. In fact, his work is a combination of different eras and genres in the past and present, organized in the form of his own compositional method.
Research Method: This article has an analytical basis and is in line with the structure of the perspective article in the form of artistic theorizing. Accordingly, while using a selection of critical literature related to modern and postmodern music as well as their interpretation, in the parts related to the introduction of the piece Canon in Four, the composer's views are used in order to conclude from the relevant critical literature. Of course, the author intends that the topics discussed in this article will be of interest to more specialized readers as well, and therefore the necessary specialized points are expressed as much as possible, and the discussion of the structure of the piece from a comprehensive perspective is considered, that is, from the perspective of how its elements are arranged and combined.
Research Results: By examining the existential and structural concepts of the piece Canon in Four, we could identify the characteristics of postmodern music; one of them is the approach to the past; in fact, something new is based on its origin in the past, and in this case, using the canon technique on the vertical axis of the piece could create such stability; however, the composer has also used the series of figures that could be similar to the bass ostinato in Baroque music or even Isorhythm in Medieval music. His view of the foundations of modernism in the piece is also noteworthy, and although he uses serialism and total serialism on the horizontal axis of the piece and also uses the unique technique of composer Webern in limiting structural elements and composer Berg in returning to the sound quality of tonal music, he is trying to make these so-called modern methods new and even considers them to be somewhat outdated; For example, he uses the serialization of larger elements such as figures, which is rare and even unprecedented in serialism, or in the dynamic series, he uses only an intense sound level, which is a behavior for psychological impact on the players and a completely new approach.
The composer also gives a special place to his aesthetic desire in the piece Canon in Four, and this is close to the serialism of Schoenberg's perspective. Accordingly, the piece is not only formed in a dry and cogwheeled way, but only the choice of silence between figures based on the composer's desire could transform the mechanism of organizing sound elements into a kind of algorithm for creating countless music, which shows the multiplicity of inferring form and meaning in postmodern music. Also, in line with Schoenberg's perspective that serialism is a method for composing like the past by reviving traditional forms, the overall structure of the piece Canon in Four is formed as ABA. So the postmodern composer, under the shadow of the concept of the global village, uses new and old techniques and methods with a self-referential attitude to compose music.