u n i t 1 : i m p r e s s i o n i s m an d e x p r e s s i

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UNIT 1: Impressionism and Expressionism Table of Contents Introduction 3 Review 4 Lesson 1: Europe at the Turn of the Century 5 Learning Targets 5 Let’s Warm Up! 5 Learn about It! 6 Check Your Understanding 10 Challenge Yourself! 11 Let’s Jam! 11 Lesson 2: Impressionist Music: Debussy and Ravel 12 Learning Targets 12 Let’s Warm Up! 12 Learn about It! 13 Check Your Understanding 17 Challenge Yourself! 18 Let’s Jam! 18 Lesson 3: Expressionist Music: Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School 19 Learning Targets 19 Let’s Warm Up! 19 Learn about It! 20 Check Your Understanding 23 Challenge Yourself! 24 1 Copyright © 2018 Quipper Limited

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UNIT 1: Impressionism and Expressionism  

 Table of Contents 

Introduction 3 

Review 4 

Lesson 1: Europe at the Turn of the Century 5 Learning Targets 5 Let’s Warm Up! 5 Learn about It! 6 Check Your Understanding 10 Challenge Yourself! 11 Let’s Jam! 11 

Lesson 2: Impressionist Music: Debussy and Ravel 12 Learning Targets 12 Let’s Warm Up! 12 Learn about It! 13 Check Your Understanding 17 Challenge Yourself! 18 Let’s Jam! 18 

Lesson 3: Expressionist Music: Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School 19 Learning Targets 19 Let’s Warm Up! 19 Learn about It! 20 Check Your Understanding 23 Challenge Yourself! 24 

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Let’s Jam! 24 

Did You Know? 24 

Web Links 25 

Performance Task 26 

Self-Check 28 

Wrap Up 28 

Bibliography 29 

Glossary 29  

  

                

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GRADE 10 

UNIT 1    

Impressionism and Expressionism 

 Fig. I. Auguste Renoir’s Coucher de soleil à Douarnenez 

Source: Pierre-Auguste Renoir creator QS:P170,Q39931, Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Coucher de soleil à Douarnenez (c.1883), marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons 

Introduction In the previous lessons, we tackled the various musical periods in their chronological order.                           We started with sixteenth-century renaissance music, before moving on to                   seventeenth-century baroque music, followed by eighteenth-century classical music, and                 nineteenth-century romantic music. Logically, what comes after all of this is                     twentieth-century music.  

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The twentieth century, with all its exciting and earth-shattering developments in science and                         philosophy, gave birth to several movements, or rather informally, -isms. Some of these -isms                           include modernism, postmodernism, minimalism, and Dadaism.   

In this unit, we will learn about two of the most prominent musical movements of the                               twentieth century: impressionism, and expressionism. We’ll be learning about the social and                       cultural conditions that influenced these movements, as well as learning about some of the                           those movements’ most prominent figures, including Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and                     Arnold Schoenberg.  

 

 

 

Review  

● The music of the romantic period is characterized by an emphasis on the overt                           expression of emotion and individuality, as opposed to the rationality and control of the                           classical period.  

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Lesson 1: Europe at the Turn of the Century  Learning Targets  

In this lesson, you should be able to: 

● discuss the social, cultural, and political conditions present in Europe at the turn of                           the century; and 

● relate the social, cultural, and political developments in Europe at the turn of the                           century to their impact on the arts, particularly music. 

 

Most, if not all, of you, isn’t old enough to remember what it was like to be alive in the final                                         years of the twentieth-century, heading into the twenty-first century. Before the year 2000,                         there was no Facebook or Twitter. The Harry Potter movies didn’t exist yet, and neither did                               touch-screen phones. Now, imagine going back over a hundred years, to the final years of the                               nineteenth century. Can you imagine what it was like? 

 

 Let’s Warm Up!  

1. Research on the last few decades of the nineteenth century.   2. Print pictures that represent the information you found out in your research. 3. Using scissors, glue, and an illustration board, create a collage using your photos. 4. Form a group of five members.  5. Take turns discussing your collages with your groupmates. 

 

 

 

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Learn about It!  

A Change in Fortunes 

Life on the continent has been plagued by unrest for centuries, and war was a normal and                                 expected feature of European life. However, at the end of the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, a                               relatively prolonged period of peace settled on the continent. 

 Alongside this period of peace came a surprising boom in technological advances, which                         included the invention of the telephone, the lightbulb, and the X-ray, among others.  

 Transportation also became more efficient than ever before, with the construction of the Suez                           Canal, an engineering marvel unimaginable in centuries past. This, in turn, revolutionized                       trade between the east and the west. 

 Fig. 1.1 The Suez Canal 

Photo from pixabay.com 

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Vast improvements in the field of medicine took place as well, including the development of                             sterilization procedures for surgical implements and the formation of Pasteur’s germ theory                       of disease. With the significantly improved understanding of pathology and histology,                     communicable diseases became easier to contain. 

 

People were healthier than ever before, and life was much more comfortable and livable than                             ever before. Prosperity and progress, it seemed, was the natural course of things. 

 

Try It Yourself 

Form a group of five. Research on other developments and innovations of the late nineteenth                             century and the early twentieth century. Brainstorm, and write a short narration of a day in                               the life of a person without the luxury of those inventions and developments. 

 Fig. 1.2 A common depiction of Darwin’s theory of evolution 

Photo from pixabay.com 

 

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This notion, in no small part, was influenced by the then newly formulated theory of                             evolution as posed by the English naturalist and biologist, Charles Darwin.  

 

His theory of evolution, in which organisms improve themselves in response to organic and                           inorganic conditions via the process of natural selection, was taken by his followers and                           applied to objects and phenomena not strictly biological nature, including current events and                         the rise and fall of nations. To a certain extent, the entire world was seen as an organism, in                                     constant self-improvement, moving ever-closer to a state of perfection. 

 

What Lay Beneath 

Despite this welcome progress and prosperity, a deep dissatisfaction and disillusionment took                       hold, digging its roots into late nineteenth-century European society.  

 

A prerequisite to the period of prosperity and peace was a sense of stability, which those in                                 power did everything to maintain. The propagation of the status quo meant the snuffing out                             of all creative and possibly divergent ideas. To the artists and creatives of the period, life was                                 unbearably mundane; present-day living was monotonous, and the future, predictable. 

 

Nowhere was this dissatisfaction and unrest more evident than in the art of that period. The                               last years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth were some of the                                 most tumultuous times for visual art and literature. 

 

Try It Yourself Research an artist who lived during the turn of the century. Make a collage of the works of                                   your chosen artist. Afterward, get a partner and share your collage. Make sure to discuss the                               artist’s life as well. 

 

 

 

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Artists began searching for subjects internally, instead of externally. As artists started working                         on depicting their inner psychological experiences, their art inevitably grew in abstraction,                       culminating in the works of the likes of Wassily Kandinsky, the first prominent figure in the                               visual arts to create completely non-representational works.  

 

In literature, the trend of focusing on the non-realist was evident in the works of the Belgian                                 writer Maurice Maeterlinck, whose writing was rich with psychological symbolism. Even                     more inward was French novelist Marcel Proust, whose “stream of consciousness” writing                       ignored the mandates of chronology and logical flow in favor of a more accurate depiction of                               unfiltered memory and thought. 

 Fig. 1.3 Kandinsky’s Improvisation 31(Sea Battle). 

Source: Wassily Kandinski creator QS:P170,Q61064 Russian, 1866 - 1944, Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle), marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons 

 

 

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This was, perhaps, in response to emerging psychoanalytic studies by now-famed                     psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. His work that divided the human psyche into the conscious                         and subconscious and left the conscious at the whims and impulses of the id was as pervasive                                 as it was disruptive to the romantic notion of man as a creature of noble struggles.  

Such drastic changes in society and other forms of art were sure to touch the music of the era                                     as well. 

 

Try it Yourself Using paint and an Oslo paper, create your non-representational artwork. Do not use a brush;                             use only your body parts.  

 Check Your Understanding  

1. The ____________________ War ended in 1871. 2. Transportation was revolutionized by the construction of the _______________, linking the                     

east and the west. 3. In the field of medicine, Pasteur’s ____________________ was formulated. 4. Darwin’s ____________________ was used to explain current events and phenomena.  5. Darwin’s theory revolved around organisms improving themselves via the process of                     

____________________. 6. ____________________ was the first ever prominent painter to produce completely                   

non-representational works of art. 7. ____________________ was a French novelist. 8. ______________________________ is a writing technique that disregards chronological order                 

and logical flow in favor of an accurate depiction of memory and thought. 9. ____________________ 's writing was rich with psychological symbolism. 10. ____________________ was a psychoanalyst famous for his theory regarding the conscious                       

and the subconscious. 

 

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 Challenge Yourself!   

Write True if the statement is correct, and False if it is incorrect. 

__________ 1. After the Franco-Prussian war came a relatively prolonged period of peace. 

__________ 2. Wassily Kandinsky was a symbolist writer. 

__________ 3. The Suez Canal linked the north and the south. 

__________ 4. Marcel Proust is known for his stream-of-consciousness technique. 

__________ 5. Sigmund Freud’s work emphasized man as a creature of noble struggles. 

 

 

Let’s Jam!  

Choose an artwork by an artist of the turn of the century. Create a short composition inspired                                 by the artwork. The composition must be no longer than one minute. 

           

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Lesson 2: Impressionist Music: Debussy and Ravel   

 Learning Targets  

In this lesson, you should be able to: 

● define impressionism; ● relate impressionism in visual art to impressionism in music; ● recognize various pieces by impressionist composers; and  ● create short compositions that make use of impressionist elements. 

 

According to the Merriam-Webster English dictionary, an impression is an “often indistinct or                         imprecise notion or remembrance.” Interestingly, at the turn of the century, one of the main                             artistic movements was named just that: impressionism. Can you guess why? 

 

 Let’s Warm Up!  

First Impressions!  

1. Get a partner.  2. Close your eyes. Sit face-to-face with your partner.  3. Open your eyes, and for five seconds, look at your partner’s face. Try to memorize the                               

details of the face. 4. After five seconds, look down at your sheet of paper and, using a pencil, attempt to                               

sketch your partner’s face using the five-second impression. No peeking! 

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Learn about It! Impressionism in Visual Art 

Impressionism was a nineteenth-century movement in the visual arts. Developed in Paris, its                         well-known proponents were Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, and Edgar Degas.                       The four held the first group exhibition of impressionist works in Paris in 1874. They were met                                 with ridicule; Monet’s work, Impression, Sunrise, was singled out and its name, used by critics                             to pejoratively label the movement. 

 Fig. 2.1 Monet’s Impression, Sunrise. 

Source: Claude Monet creator QS:P170,Q296, Monet - Impression, Sunrise, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons 

 

The movement emphasized working outdoors, en plain air, in front of their subjects, as                           opposed to working in studios. This, in turn, meant they had to capture natural light, as                               opposed to a studio’s artificial light. Brush strokes became more dab-like and broken, to                           render fleeting and momentary natural light. 

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Impressionist Music: Debussy 

Around the same time in the late nineteenth century, a group of composers founded the                             Société Nationale de Musique in an effort to create a renaissance of sorts, with a focus on a                                   more solidly French aesthetic, and to counter the late romantic tendency for high                         chromaticism and overt emotion, a very German approach. This group included the likes of                           Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Fauré. This renaissance was the atmosphere in which the                         prominent impressionist composer Claude Debussy grew to maturity. 

 

Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862. He lived just outside of Paris, and studied at                                 the conservatory there, eventually winning the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome in 1884, for                           his cantata, “L’Enfant Prodigue.” 

 

Though he was trained in Paris and spent most of his adult life there, his music was greatly                                   influenced by music from outside sources. In fact, an event that had a lasting impact on                               Debussy’s compositional style was the Paris Universal Exposition, held in 1899. It was here                           that he first encountered Javanese gamelan music, as well as Russian music in concerts                           conducted by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. This distinguished him not only                       from his German counterparts but also from his French contemporaries.  

 

Debussy’s La Mer 

One of Debussy’s works that exemplifies his style is the series of three orchestral sketches                             entitled La Mer or, in English, The Sea. 

 

Composed and published in 1905, it was initially met with dislike because of its then-unusual                             sound. In fact, in its Boston premiere, a critic wrote that perhaps the piece was mistakenly                               named La Mer, and instead should have been named Le Mal de Mer, seasickness. Be that as it                                   may, the work has become part of standard concert repertoire. 

 

 

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Try It Yourself  Listen to the entirety of La Mer and write a reaction paper. Make sure to include technical                                 terms. 

 

La Mer 

An important characteristic of La Mer that became an identifying characteristic of Debussy’s                         works is its atmospheric quality. If you listen carefully to the music, you’ll find that tonality is                                 treated differently in the piece.  

 

Tonality, in the traditional Germanic sense, is the centrality of one pitch or chord while all                               others derive roles and functions only in relation to the said notes or chords. It is also what                                   drives a piece of music forward, as other chords and pitches create tension that requires a                               logical resolution, often to the central pitch. 

 

This sense of tonality is not at all seen in Debussy’s work. Debussy treats chords and pitches in                                   a much more static quality. He does not feel the need to resolve tensions in the traditional                                 sense, and often prolongs the tension, only to move into even more tension. 

 

Another interesting feature of this work that is a landmark trait of Debussy is his unique use                                 of an orchestra. He works with an enormous orchestra, but not to create an enormous sound.                               Rather, he uses the orchestra to produce various colors and textures, deliberately choosing                         certain instruments in conjunction to create specific sound effects and evoke images. 

 

Listening to the second setting of La Mer, Jeux de Vagues, your attention is called to each                                 element, as the music seems to simply pull itself together with each element. This effect has                               often been seen as analogous to the blending of surfaces in impressionist visual art, as                             though each element is a brush stroke.  

 

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Try It Yourself 

Form a group of five. Listen to the entirety of La Mer again. Choose an excerpt of the piece,                                     and create a short skit based on images evoked in your minds when you hear it. Make sure to                                     relate it to the piece’s title.  

 

Impressionist Music: Ravel  

Though many composers attempted to imitate the impressionist style, few were ever                       successful. Debussy would have been the only big name associated with impressionism, had                         his younger countryman, Maurice Ravel, not burst onto the scene. 

 

Ravel was born on March 7, 1875, in Ciboure, France. His family was supportive of his musical                                 aspirations, and his father encouraged his musical talent when it manifested itself at an early                             age. At 14, he entered the Paris Conservatory and stayed there until 1905. While there, he                               attempted to win the Grand Prix de Rome thrice and was unsuccessful; the more conservative                             members of the competition’s jury felt his music was much too advanced. This stirred up quite                               a scandal, forcing then director of the conservatory, Théodore Dubois, to resign. 

 

Ravel’s Jeux d’eau 

Composed and published in 1901, Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, roughly translated as the Play of Water,                             is one of Ravel’s earlier works. Listening to the piece, one senses the familiarly atmospheric                             tonal richness similar to that of Debussy. 

 

Upon more attentive listening, one can hear another similarity between Debussy and Ravel:                         both composers make use of short melodic phrases or ideas, explored via repetition and                           slight variation per iteration. However, this is where the similarity between the two ends.                           Ravel’s music, as can be heard in the piece, while atmospheric and repetitive, similar to                             Debussy, lacks Debussy’s air of mystery. Such clarity and restraint define the music of Ravel. 

The Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky once even likened the French composer to a                         “Swiss watchmaker,” about his technical proficiency, clarity, and precision.   

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Try it Yourself Choose one work by Debussy and one work by Ravel. Listen to both thoroughly and                             repeatedly, and write a reaction paper comparing and contrasting the two composers based                         on your chosen pieces. 

 

 Check Your Understanding  

1. ____________________ was a nineteenth-century art movement that focused on working en                     plein air, capturing transient features of natural light. 

2. The first group exhibition of impressionist works in paris was held in _______________. 3. Monet’s ____________________ was singled out by critics and its name, used pejoratively to                         

name the art movement. 4. ____________________ was the French composer who wrote La Mer. 5. The Paris Universal Exposition was held in __________. 6. Debussy first encountered ____________________ from the far east at the Exposition. 7. Ravel studied at the ____________________. 8. Ravel entered the conservatory at the age of __________. 9. Though Ravel tried __________ times to win the Grand Prix de Rome, he was ultimately                             

unsuccessful. 10. Stravinsky likened Ravel to a ____________________. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 Challenge Yourself!   

If the statement describes Debussy, write D. If it describes Ravel, write R. If it describes both                                 composers, write B. If it describes neither, write X. 

_____ 1. He studied at the Paris Conservatory. 

_____ 2. He won the Grand Prix de Rome. 

_____ 3. He was Russian-born. 

_____ 4. He composed La Mer. 

_____ 5. He entered at the Paris Conservatory at the age of 14. 

 

 

Let’s Jam!  

Activity 1: Compose a short piece based on the title La Mer. 

 

Activity 2: Compose a short piece based on the title Jeux d’eau. 

 

Activity 3: Perform your pieces in front of the class.  

 

 

  

 

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Lesson 3: Expressionist Music: Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School   

 Learning Targets  

In this lesson, you should be able to: 

● define what expressionism is;  ● relate expressionism in the visual arts to expressionism in music; ● discuss briefly the life of Arnold Schoenberg; ● describe expressionist pieces of music extensively; and ● perform a short excerpt of an impressionist work. 

 

While the word impression is defined as an “indistinct and imprecise notion or remembering,”                           the term expression is defined as “the process of making one’s thoughts and feelings known.”                             Interestingly enough, though the two are so different, both words form bases for major art                             movements of the turn of the century. But if impressionism is focused on capturing                           fleeting color and light, what is expressionism focused on? 

 

 Let’s Warm Up! 

 1. Get a sheet of an Oslo paper, as well as colored pencils, crayons, or paint. 2. Recall a strong feeling you’ve experienced before, like extreme anger, joy, or sadness. 3. Translate that feeling onto the paper. Focus on lines, shapes, and colors that you feel                             

best describe the strong emotions you would like to depict. 4. Get a partner, and share your artwork with him or her. 

 

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Learn about It!  

Expressionism in the Visual Arts 

While impressionism began in France, expressionism as an art movement began in Germany.                         Expressionism went against the current of the art of the Romantic period in that it avoided                               realism completely; instead of depicting the external surroundings of an artist, expressionist                       works focused on the inner life of an artist, often translating turbulent and tumultuous                           emotions onto the canvas. 

 Fig. 2.1 Munch’s The Scream  

Source: Edvard Munch creator QS:P170,Q41406, Edvard Munch - The Scream - Google Art Project, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons 

 

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As discussed in a previous lesson, artists at the turn of the century felt a strong sense of                                   disillusionment and dissatisfaction with life and society at large, resulting in alienation from                         the world around them. On the canvas, this translated to rich, intense colors, sharp,                           dramatic lines, and often distorted representations of the outside world. At its most                         extreme, expressionist art gave rise to the non-representational and abstract.  

 

Some famous artists associated with the movement include Edvard Munch and Wassily                       Kandinsky, who we have discussed briefly in lesson 1. In music, expressionism first fully                           manifested itself in the work of the Austrian-American composer, Arnold Schoenberg. 

 

Expressionist Music: Arnold Schoenberg 

Born in Vienna on September 13, 1874, Arnold Schoenberg began composing for and playing                           the violin at an early age. When he was 16, his father passed away, leaving their family with                                   financial difficulties. To keep them afloat, he began working as a clerk at a bank, where he met                                   and befriended the composer and conductor Alexander von Zemlinsky. Zemlinsky was                     instrumental in Schoenberg’s musical development; he taught Schoenberg harmony and                   counterpoint. Aside from his studies with Zemlinsky, he was mostly self-taught. 

 

Try It Yourself 

Group yourselves into five. Research on the life of Arnold Schoenberg, and present a short skit                               depicting an important event in his life.  

 

Schoenberg’s Zwei Lieder, Op. 14 

In the two years between 1907 and 1909, Schoenberg had a remarkable period of composing                             productivity. Among his numerous creations from that period is his Zwei Lieder, Op. 14. Most                             striking upon first hearing this work is Schoenberg’s use of free chromaticism. Most, if not                             all, music composed before this has made use of tonality, and of the idea of a central pitch or                                     chord from which all other pitches derive their function.  

 

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Schoenberg is credited with being the first composer to break away from that completely.                           Tonal music, put simply, is music where the relationships between the central pitch and all                             other pitches create a sense of tension that requires resolution. Imagine singing your favorite                           pop song, and not singing it until the end. This feels unfinished somehow. That’s because the                               tensions were not resolved.  

 

Try It Yourself 

Listen intently to Schoenberg’s Zwei Lieder, Op. 14. Pay attention to the sense of tension and                               resolution in the piece. Was there a sense of resolution at the end of the piece? 

Form a group and discuss your observations.  

 

In freely chromatic music, this feeling is completely absent. The two songs are exceedingly                           short, spanning only a little over three minutes. This is a very common feature of                             Schoenberg’s music from this period. Without the backbone of tonality to give the music                           direction and structure, lengthening music excessively leaves it monotonous and                   uninteresting. This is an issue Schoenberg grapples with, and finds a solution to, in the latter                               years of his career. 

 

Expressionist Music: The Second Viennese School 

While Schoenberg is known for being the first composer to completely break away from                           traditional tonality, he is also known for being a prominent and influential teacher. 

 

So influential, in fact, was his teaching that he and two of his students, Anton Webern and                                 Alban Berg, were collectively labeled the Second Viennese School, in reference to the First                           Viennese School, which includes the three greatest Viennese composers of the Classical                       period: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. 

 

Webern began studying with Schoenberg in 1904. Simultaneously, he studied musicology and                       

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composition at the University of Vienna, eventually earning his doctorate in 1906. 

 

Berg also began studying with Schoenberg in 1904. A talented pupil, Berg was taken on by                               Schoenberg as a private student without having to pay; he would not have been able to afford                                 such lessons otherwise.  

 

Webern is most known for his Passacaglia (1908) as well as his various lieder, while Berg is                                 known for his groundbreaking creations in the operatic genre: Wozzeck (1921) and Lulu                         (unfinished at his death in 1935; completed by Friedrich Cerha and premiered in 1979). 

 

Try it Yourself Choose a piece or an excerpt of a piece composed by Schoenberg, Berg, or Webern. Form a                                 group and choreograph a movement piece or dance to the chosen excerpt. 

 Check Your Understanding  

1. Expressionism began in ____________________. 2. Expressionism focused on depicting the ____________________ of the artist, as opposed to                       

his or her external surroundings. 3. Famous expressionist painters include ____________________ and ____________________. 4. Arnold Schoenberg studied with ____________________. 5. Schoenberg worked as a ____________________ to make ends meet, after his father died. 6. Schoenberg had no formal training; he was mainly ____________________. 7. Schoenberg had a period of creative productivity from __________ to __________. 8. The composers who were part of the Second Viennese School were ____________________,                       

____________________, and ____________________. 9. ____________________ is known for his groundbreaking operatic creations. 10. ____________________ received his doctorate in composition and musicology from the                     

University of Vienna in 1906. 

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 Challenge Yourself!   

Write S if the statement describes Schoenberg, W if it describes Webern, and B if it describes                                 Berg. Write X if it describes none of them, and A if it describes all of them. 

_____ 1. He is the first composer to break away completely from tonality. 

_____ 2. He is an impressionist composer. 

_____ 3. He is a part of the group known as the Second Viennese School. 

_____ 4. He composed a Passacaglia. 

_____ 5. He left an opera unfinished after his death in 1935. 

 

 

Let’s Jam!  

Activity 1: Choose an expressionist artwork. Compose a short piece based on your chosen                           artwork. 

 

Activity 2: Get a partner. Exchange compositions, and create a movement piece to your                           partner’s composition.  

 

 

Did You Know?  

Debussy and Schoenberg were both unhappy, and outrightly expressed their disagreement                     with being labeled impressionist/expressionist composers. 

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Web Links 

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuOonogw-TM 

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa6jEubs8DM 

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lof6AHvXCPw 

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltPFB6QCSEI 

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CT7AVCKXyA 

● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k3yb0o2uU0 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Performance Task   

Impression, Sunrise!  

Purpose: 

At the end of this activity, the students               should be able to: 

● use their knowledge of       twentieth-century music and music       theory to compose a short piece           based on a given; 

● conduct/lead the premiere their       composition; and 

● show appreciation for music through active participation in the performance task. 

 

Role: You are composers. You were hired by a museum to compose a piece to be performed                                 at an exhibit opening centered on Monet’s Impression, Sunrise.  

 

Competence: You will apply your knowledge of music theory and twentieth-century music                       history in creating a piece to satisfy given criteria.  

 

Procedure: 

1. Form a group of five. 2. Look for a picture of Impression, Sunrise on the internet. Print out a copy. 3. As a group, compose a short piece based on the painting. As much as possible, try to                                 

translate the artwork into music.  Take into consideration the colors and brushstrokes, as well as the subject of the                           painting. Also, pay attention to the title of the work. 

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4. Once you’re done composing, provide each member of the group with a copy of the                             piece. 

5. Rehearse the piece until it is ready for performance. 6. Perform the piece in front of the class. You may add props and costumes if needed. 7. After all groups have performed, have a sharing of reflections and insights facilitated by                           

your teacher. 

 

Key Guide Questions 

1. Was writing a composition based on a specific artwork difficult? Why? 2. How did you translate the artwork into a musical piece? 3. What key signature, meter, and scales did you opt to use? Why? 4. Was it difficult to compose a piece as a group? Why? 

 

Reflective Questions 

 

1. Did you enjoy the activity? What did you like about it? 2. Is composing professionally something you can see yourself doing when you grow up? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 Self-Check  

Reflect 

I like/dislike impressionism because _________________________________________________. I like the impressionist piece ___________________ because ____________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________. I like/dislike expressionism because _________________________________________________. I like the expressionist piece ___________________ because ____________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________. What really interests me about twentieth-century music is ________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________. 

Wrap Up  

 

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Bibliography  

Borroff, Edith, and Marjory Irvin. Music in Perspective. Toronto: CNIB, 1984. 

Gammond, Peter. The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Classical Music: An Essential Guide                       to the World's Finest Musical Music. London: Salamander, 1995. 

Hansen, Peter S. Twentieth Century Music: An Introduction. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1969. 

Morgan, Robert P. Anthology of Twentieth-century Music. New York: W.W. Norton, 1992. 

Morgan, Robert P. Modern Times: From World War I to the Present. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:                             Prentice Hall, 1994. 

 

 

 

Glossary  

Atonality refers to music that breaks away from tonality. The term is often used                           interchangeably with ‘free chromaticism.’ 

Expressionism refers to an art movement that originated in Germany at the turn of the                             century. The movement focuses on the depiction of an artist’s inner life, as opposed to                             depicting an artist’s external surroundings.  

Impressionism refers to an art movement that originated in France at the turn of the century.                               The movement focuses on working en plein air, and capturing fleeting color and light. 

 

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