Collage can be seen as a central force in the various arts of the twentieth century, including music. Collage in music should be considered as more than just a collection of other people's music used in another composer's piece. By expanding the idea of collage to include cultural explosions and reconstitutions, unilateral use of European and American ideas by each other, access to art and ideas of the non-Western world, and the mixture of culture and music theory, a strong transition between Modernism and Postmodernism can be followed. The modernist music of Stravinsky and Debussy at the fin-de-siècle introduced orientalist musical theories and sounds into their own music. This use of orientalism led the way for Primitivism and its various guises throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Collage took a front seat in the music and culture of the twentieth century after World War II. The techniques used in early film played an important role for the emergence of collage in post-war music by giving composers the chance to suggest many past musical styles in quick succession without using long transitions. Composers also continued the tradition of using cultural, literary, and architectural collages in their compositions instead of only creating collage by cutting and pasting from earlier composers.

Works: Debussy: Images (23-26); Stravinsky: Le Rossignol (38-49), Le Sacre du printemps (84-100); Milhaud: La Creation du monde (116-21); Krenek: Jonny spielt auf (150-53); Thomson: Four Saints in Three Acts (153-55); Ellington: Black and Tan Fantasy (187-88); Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (195-202); Stravinsky: David, projected collaboration with Cocteau (238-43, 256-64), Three Pieces for String Quartet (260-64); Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire (282-84); Stravinsky: Renard (285-87); Debussy: The Children's Corner (297-98); Antheil: Ballet mecanique (327-29); Stravinsky: Agon (360-74); Varese: Ameriques (389-90); Satie: Le feu d'artifice (399); Ives: Flanders Field (400); Britten: War Requiem (405); Rouse: Symphony No. 1 (407-8); Schnittke: Symphony No. 1 (410); Gubaidulina: Offertorium (411-12); Riley: Salome Dances for Peace (414-15); Berio: Sinfonia (416-17), Rendering (417); Berg: Violin Concerto (430-32); Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas (445-46).

Sources: Traditional: America (400), Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (400); Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (407-8); Lasso: Stabat Mater (411); Beethoven: Grosse Fugue (410); Bach: The Musical Offering (410); Mahler: Symphony No. 2, Resurrection (416).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Matthew Altizer