The Problem of Form in Contemporary Music

Abstract

Our intention in this paper is to bring out the context of the crisis of musical form, stressed by the worn-out of tonal material during the late 19th century. After this, we shall present Ligeti’s analysis of the formal principles that prompted most of contemporary music development, specially in serial and chance music, which directly affects the construction of a temporality that relegates the rules established by tonal tradition. We may clearly remark among these principles: 1) the absence of pre-established formal schemes; 2) a rhythmical articulation detached from any regular pulse; 3) the absence of an overall accepted musical syntax; 4) a relativeness of the musical elements function, that marked so far the different moments inside musical form and the forthcoming of a particularized musical syntax. We shall also briefl y expose the relationships between different strategies for solving the impasses of contemporary musical form (like those brought by Boulez and Adorno), which constitute one of the most important issues today on philosophy of music.