Jonathan Donald Kramer (December 7, 1942, Hartford, Connecticut – June 3, 2004, New York City), was a U.S. composer and music theorist.
"the idea that postmodernism is less a surface style or historical period than an attitude. Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of postmodern music, by which I mean music that is understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls forth postmodern listening strategies, or that provides postmodern listening experiences, or that exhibits postmodern compositional practices."
1.Not just the refusal to accept modernism, but incorporates a pause and a continuation.
2.Aspects of irony.
3.Exceeds rules and boundaries of past and present and expected procedures.
4.Challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles.
5.Shows superiority over structural cohesion.
6.questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values.
7.avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8.Views music as not independant but as influenced by social cultural and political contexts.
9.Shows intertextual references from a range of genres and eras.
10.Considers technology as not only a way to keep and move music, but also a way of producing it in terms of enhancing it.
11. Uses contradictions (usually for humour sake, and adds to irony)
12. Ommits binary opposites to break boundaries.
13. Doesn't necessarily apply a structured cohesion, uses fragments.
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. Gives a range of possible interpretations and multiple temporalities.
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers.
