Problems of New Music of the Twentieth Century: Theoretic Foundations and Criteria of Evaluation

In the words of the author, himself: "This is an insignificantly changed (actually, somewhat corrected) [...] doctoral thesis, that was defended under the same title in March 1984 at the Faculty of Philosophy in Ljubljana”. As the title suggests, the author has tried to give a wide definition of 20th century New Music based on quotations of a number of opinions and views of relevant composers and theorists of the 20th century. In this, special attention has been paid to explain and define a number of terms that are inseparably connected to it, terms like: the avant-garde, experiment, new or consistency. The theory and value criteria are very clearly and very systematically defined. The edition is abundant with references to technical works that “direct the curious minds towards deepening the problem and suggest the appropriate processes and methods” and presents one of the rare “compendiums” in which the 20th century New Music is subjected to the “scientific scalpel” in a search of explanation and articulation of its essence.