ABSTRACT
Post-World War II serialism differed widely in the details of execution, but when viewed from a broader perspective of twentieth-century music, it followed a general aesthetic principle that differentiated these composers from much of European musical life. M. J. Grant follows Umberto Eco in considering the post-war avant-garde within the overarching context of ‘serial aesthetics.’ The impression of time that Handel’s flute provides has many familiar aspects. Brelet’s net is much wider than merely common practice music-even Greek scale construction and rhythmic patterns relies on the differentiation of the temporal flow. In the short example from Handel above, the arpeggio, while its functional relations create a type of continuity, nevertheless arises out of the construction of the scale and triadic harmonies which is fundamentally a selection of discontinuities that articulate the pitch spectrum.
