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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
Modernism and postmodernism are characterized by their heightened consciousness of the influence of the past on the present. Modernist arrangements of older music, such as those by Schoenberg, Webern, Berg and Stravinsky, frequently display an unconscious tension between composer and arranger in the often veiled interpretation of the past in the light of the present. Postmodern arrangements, on the other hand, are often more overt in their allusiveness to the original: hence it is possible clearly to discern, within arrangements by such composers as Henze and Berio, Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle, an explicitly individual balance of past and present, an attitude which preserves the spirit of the original by means of a consciously creative interpretation.
1 See Straus, Joseph N., ‘Recompositions by Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Webern’, Musical Quarterly, 03 1988 Google Scholar.
2 For some examples, see Morris, Patrick, ‘Steve Reich and Debussy: Some Connexions’ in Tempo No. 160, pp.8–14 Google Scholar.
3 The Busoni arrangement is essentially a reduced version of Busoni's own orchestration of the Berceuse. I hope to address the Lugubre Gondola in a later article.
4 Searle, Humphrey, The Music of Liszt (London: Williams & Norgate, 1954, 2nd ed. 1966), p.166 Google Scholar.
