Lithuanian modernisms: Alternative paradigms in contemporary Baltic art music

This study argues that musical modernisms are often sidelined in representations of contemporary Baltic art music, in favour of an over-representation of euphonic, folk-inspired or mystical genres. The thesis will explore a range of contrasting modernist, constructivist, dissonant, and deliberately non-euphonic musics by Osvaldas Balakauskas, Rytis Mažulis, Nomeda Valančiūtė, Tomas Kutavičius, Remigijus Merkelys, Vykintas Baltakas, Justina Repečkaitė and Albertas Navickas. A chronological study of these Lithuanian composers presents an alternative to dominant, homogenous impressions of Baltic art music from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Much existing literature and discourse acknowledges the impact of euphonic styles, but this thesis emphasises the significance of Lithuanian serialism, ‘machinism’, expressionism, spectralism and other contemporary idioms that contradict prevailing images. A key argument of this thesis is that the seemingly more prominent heterogeneity and modernist tendencies in contemporary Lithuanian classical music discourse, compared with the more northerly Baltic countries, may also be mapped onto other divergences. This study explores the contextual multivalence of images of non- modernism, which can be interpreted in a number of ways: as empowering, through a postcolonial and national-liberatory lens; as a problematic and implicitly colonial product of formerly-western notions of cultural superiority; and viewed as a pragmatic political cog in the conceptual rebirth and national rebranding of post-Soviet Estonia – which led among the Baltic States in terms of the speed and intensity of controversial reforms implemented after independence – as a postmodern neoliberal competitor. This study aims to cast light on two things: the modernist-leaning heterogeneities of Lithuanian contemporary art music, and the roots and consequences of a narrow aesthetic and conceptual template common to dominant paradigms of Baltic art music.