The World of Music7th edition

Part 4Listening to Western Classical Music

Chapter 13: Music of the Twentieth Century

Modern Classical Music• Diverse, Complex, Experimentation

– Conventional Instruments• Traditional Techniques AND• Unconventional Techniques

– Thumbtacks on Piano hammers– Buzzing mouthpieces– Humming, singing whistling through the instrument

– Unconventional Instruments• Anvil/Automobile Brake Drums• Garden Hoses with mouthpieces attached• Fire engine sirens• Tape players (predecessor to the CD/DAT)

• Often Complex– Blurred tonality or lack of tonality

• Increased Chromaticism over the Romantic period• Tone Clusters• Polytonality• Different scales

– Whole tone– Pentatonic

– Longer Melodies that are more angular or disjunct (skips around)• Typically not singable because of this disjunct-ness

– Difficult, Puzzling Forms and forms that are hard to understand/find• Can be free of bar lines & phrases and measured in time (seconds)• Silence is extremely important

Modern Classical Music continued

• Timbre and Rhythm over Melody and Harmony• Avant-Garde : Cutting edge, the newest of the new…• New musical language or notation

– This notation expressed the musical result in a picture more than a rhythm and pitch indication.

– Traditional notation is still used• Multicultural influences (native folk musics)• New music and musicians are influenced by:

– World events (WW1 and WW2!)– World Economy (great depression - US) – Shifts in patronage– Political problems or situations

Impressionism in Art and Music• Style from French Painting Philosophy called Impressionism

– Dibs and dabs of colors when viewed up close do not convey the true impression desired by the artist. But when viewed in totality, makes a vivid portrait by the artist

– Monet– Renoir

• Reaction against Intellectual German Music– Brahms– Wagner– Mahler

• Favored Delicate Instruments– Flute– Harp– Strings– Light or no brass and percussion scoring in the music

• Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)• French• Rejected Traditional Practices

– Great example of the transition from Romantic ideas to the 20th ce• Influences

– Painters– Poets– Gamelan Music (of Indonesia)

• Excelled at Works for Piano and Orchestra• Piano Preludes• Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (The mythological character, not

Bambi) Orch.• La Mer (The Sea) Orch.• Syrinx (For solo Flute – no accompanying Piano)

Experimental Music

• Avant-Garde Composers in Every Generation– Experimental Works– Varying Degrees of Success

• Two Types of Composer– One Who Uses Proven Techniques– One Who Wants to Develop Original Techniques

• Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

• Russian, emigrated to USA in 1939, became citizen (Naturalized) in 1946

• Style Contributions– Rhythmic complexity, irregular

rhythms, and shifting beat emphasis– Innovative Orchestration

• Extreme ranges of the instruments• Unusual combinations of instruments

– Original Uses of Tonality– Reinvention of Old Material with new

uses• Baroque and Classical Forms• Jazz• Russian Folk Melodies• Ragtime

• Representative Works– Ballets (The Suites from these

works are popular Orchestral Music)

• The Firebird• Petrushka• The Rite of Spring

– First performance caused a riot in the audience

– Opera, The Rake’s Progress– Chamber Work, The Soldier’s Tale– Opera-Oratorio

• Oedipus Rex• Symphony of Psalms

Atonal Music and Serialism• Atonality

– Literally Means, “No Tonality”– Alternative to Major and Minor Keys

• Serialism or 12 tone– Uses the 12 Tones in a Fixed Row or “tone row”

• No Traditional Scales• No Traditional Chords

– Row May be Altered• Reversed• Upside Down• Transposed• Combinations of the Above (i.e. Reversed and Transposed)• Changes in Instrumentation, Rhythm, Dynamics, etc. but not order• Too cerebral? No emotion?

• Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)

• Austrian Jew, left due to WW2 and Hitler (duh)

• Emigrated to America, worked at USC and UCLA, among other places

• Early works Post-Romantic• Late works Atonal and Serial• Style

– Disjunct Melodies– Small Ensembles– Irregular Phrases– Complex and Fragmentary

Sound– Controversial

• Representative Works– Verklärte Nacht– Five Pieces for

Orchestra– Pierrot Lunaire

• Use of Sprechstimme– A new combination of

singing and speech recitation

– Variations for Orchestra– Opera, Moses and

Aaron

Electronic Music• Began in 1950’s

– Invention of Magnetic Tape Recording– Musique Concrète

• Altered Speed of Tape• Reversed Tape• Splicing of Tape

• Synthesizers• Computer-Generated Music

– MIDI• Was this the elimination of the Musician?

• Edgard Varèse

Edgard Varèse (1883 – 1965)• French (Came to

America in WW1)• Promoted Experimental

Music– Conducted– Wrote Articles– Participated in Classes

and Seminars• Lifelong Interest in

Science and Technology– Any sound could be music

• Used a Theremin in Ecuatorial

• Representative Pieces– Hyperprism– Octandre– Intégrales– Ionization– Déserts– Poème Électronique– Ecuatorial

Chance Music• Also called Indeterminate music• Performer is allowed to create

– Randomness– Chance Elements (Dice, etc.)– Improvisation

• Large-scale structure/form provided by Composer in the score

• Pieces never performed the same way twice

• John Cage

John Cage (1912 – 1992)

• Known for Original Ideas– Prepared Piano

• Items (Screws, Paper, Erasers, etc) Placed on Strings Inside a Piano

• Can Sound like a full Percussion Ensemble

– Chance Music• Less Control for the Composer• Accept What you Get

– Multiple Radios Simultaneously Playing on Stage– 4’ 33” of “Silence” from Performer (Audience, Theater, and

Surroundings Create the Music.)

Bela Bartók (1881 – 1945)• Hungarian• Nationalism style (from Humgary)• Ethnomusicologist

– Preserved Folk Songs of Hungary• Field Recordings on early cylinder

recorders• Used These Melodies in his

Compositions– Extended Interest to Other Parts

of Europe/Africa• Left Hungary in 1940 due to WW2

and his Anti-Nazi views• Like most artists, became

famous/popular after his death from Leukemia in 1945

– Wrote Concerto for Orchestra while hospitalized

• Representative Works– Mikrokosmos Piano text series– Music for Strings, Percussion, and

Celesta– Concerto for Orchestra– 6 String Quartets– 3 Piano Concertos

American/Americanist Music

• Reflects a sense of wide, open spaces• Incorporates vernacular musical concepts

– Syncopation from Jazz– Folk styles included– Patriotic themes

Charles Ives (1874 – 1954)

• Great Innovator• Highly Successful

Businessman– Great Freedom to Compose– Substantial Resources

• Style– Quotations from American

Life– Complex (for Performers

and Audiences)

• Representative Pieces– 4 Symphonies– 200 Songs– Tone Poems

• Three Places in New England• The Unanswered Question

– 2 Piano Sonatas

Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990)

• Merged Classical and Vernacular Styles

• Innovation, – But not at the expense of

the past• Organized New Music

Concerts• Sources

– Cowboy Songs– Mexican Songs– Church Music– Jazz/Blues

• Representative Works– Ballets

• Billy the Kid– Winn Dixie’s Beef people commercial

• Rodeo• Appalachian Spring

– Patriotic Music• Fanfare for the Common Man

– Olympic Theme 1972• Lincoln Portrait

– For Narrator and Ensemble

– Movie Music• Red Pony• Our Town

American Women Composers

• Amy Cheney Beach (1867-1954)– First American woman to have a Symphony

published• Ruth Crawford (1901-1953)

– First woman to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship

• Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1939-)

African-American Composers

• Ullysses Kay (1917-1995)– Earned a Fulbright Scholarship, Guggenheim

Fellowship, and a Prix de Rome• William Grant Still (1895-1978)

– One of the best-known African-American composers

– Earned a Guggenheim Fellowship

Other American Composers

• George Gershwin (1898-1937)– Tin Pan Alley composer– Known for writing Classical music with Jazz

incorporated within• Henry Cowell (1897-1965)

– Known for using the Tone Cluster as a compositional device

• Tone Cluster – several adjacent pitches played simultaneously

Neo-Classical Music• Return to Structures/Aesthetics of the Past

– Forms of Previous Periods– Using Modern Language

• Possible Traits– Control– Order– Emotional Restraint– Minimal Instrumentation– Transparent Texture

• Stravinsky

Minimalism• Seeks Great Effect from

Minimal Material• Began in 1960’s

– Philip Glass– Terry Riley

• Reaction Against Serialism (12 tone)

• Traits– Extensive Repetition– Slow, Subtle Changes

• Rhythm• Chords• Other Elements

– Tonal Style– Other Similar Styles

• Jazz• Rock• Indian Music• African Music

Neo-Romanticism• A return to 19th century Musical ideas

– Program music– Absolute music– Singable melodies– Etc. but with the newer 20th century practices and sounds

• Desired to write what audiences want to hear, instead of what the artist/composer wants to hear– Not wanting to alienate audiences– Audiences would then pay to come and hear the concerts

• Most of the time, the composer would not become famous until after their death, sometimes decades

• Igor Stravinsky• Darius Milhaud (France)