Minimalism, "Like serialism, this style uses repeated patterns and series and steady pulsation with gradual changes occurring over time. But whereas serialism is usually atonal, minimalism is usually tonal and more harmonic" (Spielvogel, 942). One could say that minimalism was a reflection of the hippie sixties that rejected the acquisitional tendencies of one's parents in favor of a more streamlined and strategically stark composition. The advent of modern classical music was invariably a reflection of the bolstering pace of technology at the time. Starting with the 1940s, nearly all Americans had radios in their homes and had for some time; more and more Americans were buying televisions, an influx of appliances of convenience debuted on the market that made domestic life easier and faster. The same was true for the technology that made composers able to create music: "In the 1960s, the technology of tape recording suggested one means of treating music as a process: splicing tapes into loops or fragments of speech or music could be recycled in a repeated pattern that could be played endlessly or combined with loops in various ways. Many of the ideas and possibilities of sound manipulation and musical structure were originally suggested by experimentation with tape" (Candelaria & Kingman, 280). Thus, the modern technology at the advent of modernism, as archaic as it must seem to the average reader given this age of iPads and iPods, was something which gave composers a greater platform for compositional potential and the ability to experiment with sound design.

This pattern, the flavor of the decade influencing the way that classical music was composed was true as well for the 1970s. "Political and social movements of the 1970s...

The decade saw some of the most intelligently political music, film and television ever created… for example, although much 1970s music such as disco, punk and glam rock, is often dismissed, critics failed to recognize the boundary-stretching efforts of the musicians and audiences" (Greenberg & Watts, 197). Thus one can surmise that politically, socially and artistically the 1970s marked a period of savvy experimentation with bold results. This is also reflected in the instrument building of the 1970s with composers creating built-instrument ensembles; for example, "The Glass Orchestra, originated by students at Toronto's York university in the early 1970s, performs on glass instruments. Skip LaPlante and Carol Weber founded the composers collective Music for homemade instruments during the mid-1970s: they invent, build, compose and play instruments made from trash and found objects" (Gagne, 138).
Thus, western modern classical music was a bold and investigational product of its time and the changing climate for artistic experimentation. Many of the movements and branches of music that emerged during this time were direct reflections of the waves of changes that were occurring in gender roles, consumerism and societal values.

Works Cited

Gagne, N.V. Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music. Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2012.

Greenberg, B & Watts, L.S. Social History of the United States, Volume 1. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2009.

Kennedy, J. The Joy of Classical Music: A Guide for You and Your Family. New York: Doubleday, 1994.

Spielvogel, J.J. Western Civilization: Since…