ABSTRACT
Modernism formed the defining background and context for much of the twentieth century. While any historical epoch thinks of itself as ‘modem’, modernism extended the awareness to reveal a more self-conscious desire for the ‘new’, projecting an image of progress and defining itself as a condition of difference from the past. Postmodernism is defined in many different ways, with the plurality of definition and interpretation often being seen as in itself a reflective factor. It is notable that the point at which Nicholas Maw emerges as a mature composer, the early 1960s, coincides with what, for some commentators, constitutes the emergence of postmodernism. The discussion far has considered the situation of Maw as a contemporary composer who is located through the contemporary condition of postmodernism, but it is precisely that condition which creates an enabling framework for his ongoing engagement with the musics of late romanticism and early modernism.
