Modern

Summary

Dominique Pagani takes up the notion of the modern in relation to music, in the Musicosophie sessions of 2020-2021 and in a 2022 interview. He first distinguishes the modern from the contemporary in the empirical sense: today's music is not, for that reason alone, more modern than yesterday's1. As a possible criterion, he proposes measuring the transformations music undergoes between the before and the after of a composer2. He disputes the common idea that the modern is the modal: turning back to the modal means, on the contrary, returning to what is oldest and most widespread3. In this connection he criticizes the associations allowed by the root "mod-" (mode, modal, modulate, fashion, which is "la mode" in French): saying modal does not mean modern4. He concludes that tonal music is modern music and modal music is ancient music, still alive in the countryside5.

1. 1#3 What is called modern music?3 Dec 2020 · 4:41
2. 2#3 What is called modern music?3 Dec 2020 · 21:37
3. 3#11 Modal and tonal music24 Jan 2021 · 1:09:12
4. 4#11 Modal and tonal music24 Jan 2021 · 1:48:18
5. 5From Bach to the Pygmies22 Jun 2022 · 5:40

Summary produced automatically from 5 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.