How to Understand Atonal Music Part 2: The Musical Cold War of the 1950s

This week we're focusing on the 1950s and the musical cold war between composers of the total serialist school like Boulez, Babbitt, and Carter, and the tonalists like Copland and Bernstein. Caught in the middle of pitched battles over the future were Stravinsky and Messiaen. Every composer had a different way of dealing with the post-war order and of expressing the anger, rage, and nihilism of the art of the time. This is music that has never been popular with audiences, so let's try to demystify it today.