Postmodernism in music still needs criteria to facilitate its understanding, such as traits like fragmentation, discontinuity, quotation, juxtaposition of styles and pluralism. This study aims at demonstrating the postmodern characteristics in the work Rimsky by Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes by means of analysing its existing references and having in mind the procedures that organize postmodern assumptions and musical compositions. Besides the identification of paradigmatic elements, and in order to surpass a simply inductive approach (restrictive because of its synchronic nature), it tries to connect the work to modernism (in both criticism and extended fields), emphasizing its differences in syntax, epistemology and ideology. The conceptual limits that make it closer and apart from modernism are discussed as an attempt to contribute to the reflection about the art today.
Gilberto Mendes; quintet; Rimsky; postmodernism; musical syntax; musical discontinuity; musical pluralism; musical fragmentation; musical quotation