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Through the 18th and 19th centuries, Bach's Baroque era gave way to Mozart and Beethoven's Classical period, which transitioned into the Romantic period of Chopin and Mendelssohn, which began to fade around the turn of the 20th century.
At this point, Western music would never again be dominated by one prevailing genre. The concepts of the Romantics were embellished by Post-Romantics like Rachmaninov, and challenged by new ways of examining tonality. The once rigid rules that governed Bach, and gave Beethoven a starting point were tossed aside by Arnol Schoenberg, with the idea of serialism. Serialism is a way of structuring a piece of music by random twelve-tone series, as opposed to tonally structuring progressions with respect to a key signature, where notes are hierarchically important.

The soi-disant 'death of tonality' gave way to the avant-garde stylings of the new century. In the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's, a new style exploded in popularity: jazz. Early bebop and swing was a way that African American musicians blended traditional western instruments such as piano, trumpet, and saxophone with the syncopated rhythms and complex 'back beats' of African and Carribean music. Jazz capitalized on the limitless frontiers of atonal music, by creating a way to rapidly move through brief tonicizations of key areas to create a distinct feeling that the composer wished to convey. This format also left ample room for improvisational technique and expression.
From Scott Joplin's turn-of-the-century ragtime, to the Miles Davis Quintet some fifty years later, 'western' music would never be the same. The syncopated jazz beat gave way to the formation of rock 'n roll music. The idea of a rhythmic pattern creating a sense of motion, albeit a sexually suggestive one, was employed by rock.
Increasing technological developments further advanced the diaspora of musical ideas. New instruments were, and are being created; the electric guitar played a major role in developing rock music and related genres, and computers brought about electronic music. Also, the rapid spread of information throughout culture has led to a mixture of ethnic sounds, which eventually spawn new genres.
Nevertheless, traditional western composition is still given a venue. Films, and theatrical performances still rely heavily on musical accompaniment to convey the emotions, and reactions they intend for their audiences to have. Classical instrumental composition was a means of communicating unadultered emotion, without reducing it to words. This concept will remain intact as long as the emotions behind them. No matter how music will continue to evolve, it will always exist to serve that purpose.

Learn more about this author, Mark de Jong.
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