The History of Music in the 20th Century

The history of music in the 20th century is not divorceable from the World Wars. You also cannot underestimate the enormous significance that that had on the development of the art. And you have to try to imagine yourself as a 20 or 25-year-old composer growing up in a Europe that's been absolutely devastated. To the extent that there's practically nothing left, and you're trying to rebuild on top of that. So that's the situation that the composers born in that era were faced with.