20th century1900

2011 © McGraw-Hill Higher Education

Music: An Appreciation, Brief7th Editionby Roger Kamien

Part VI

The 20th Century & Beyond

Music before 1945

Ch. 1 - Musical Styles: 1900-1945• First 13 years brought radical changes

• Composers broke with tradition & rules• Rules came to be unique to each piece

• Key, pitch center, and harmonic progression practices of the past were mostly abandoned

• Seen as time of revolt & revolution in music

• Some reviewers said the new music had no relationship to music at all

• Open-minded listening, without expectations based upon previous musical practice, provides an opportunity for musical adventure

• 1913 performance of The Rite of Spring caused riot

• Sounds that were foreign to turn of the century ears are common to us now

• Vast range of musical styles during this time

1900-1945: An Age of Musical Diversity

• Intensifying of the diversity seen in Romantic

• Musical influences drawn from Asia & Africa

• Folk music incorporated into personal styles• American jazz also influenced composers

• For American composers, jazz was nationalistic music• For European composers, jazz was exoticism

• Medieval, Renaissance, & Baroque music was “re-discovered,” performed, & recorded

• Composers drawn to unconventional rhythms

• Forms from earlier periods were imitated, but with 20th Century harmonic & melodic practices

• Romantic music, especially Wagner, was seen as either a point of departure or a style to be avoided

Tone Color

Characteristics of 20th Century Music

• Unusual playing techniques for sound effects

• Percussion use greatly expanded• New instruments added/created

• Xylophone, celesta, woodblock, …

• Other “instruments:” typewriter, auto brake drum, siren

• Music not written for choirs of instruments

• Glissando, flutter tongue, col legno, extended notes

• Orchestra scoring also reflects this trend

• Composers write for timbres, or “groups of soloists”• Unusual groupings of instruments for small ensembles

Harmony

Characteristics of 20th Century Music

• Harmony and treatment of chords changed

• Opposite sides of the coin

• Before 1900: consonant (stable) and dissonant

• After 1900: degrees of dissonance

New chord structures

• Polychord• Quartal and quintal harmony• Cluster

Consonance and Dissonance

Harmony

Characteristics of 20th Century Music

• Composers want alternatives to major/minor

• Serialism, an ultra strict method, develops from 12 tone sys.

• Modes of Medieval & Renaissance were revived

• Some composers created their own scales/modes• Another approach: use 2 or more keys at once

• Atonality

Alternatives to the Traditional Tonal System

• Scales from music outside western Europe utilized

• Polytonality (bitonality)

• No central or key note, sounds just “exist” and flow• 12 tone system

• Atonal, but with strict “rules” concerning scale use

Rhythm

Characteristics of 20th Century Music

• Rhythmic vocabulary expanded

• Irregular meters• Polyrhythm

Melody• Melody no longer bound by harmony’s notes

• Emphasis upon irregularity and unpredictability• Shifting meters

• Major and minor keys no longer dominate• Melody may be based upon a variety of

scales, or even all 12 tones• Frequent wide leaps• Rhythmically irregular• Unbalanced phrases

Ch. 3 - Impressionism and Symbolism• Musical outgrowth of French art and poetry

• Viewed up close, the painting appears unfinished

French Impressionist Painting• Used broad brush strokes and vibrant colors

• Viewed from a distance it has truth

• Focused on light, color, & atmosphere

• Depicted impermanence, change, and fluidity• A favorite subject was light reflecting on water

• Named after Monet’s Impression: SunriseFrench Symbolist Poetry• Symbolists also broke with traditions & conventions• Avoided hard statements—preferred to “suggest”

(symbolize) their topics• Symbolist poetry became the basis for many

Impressionist musical works

Ch. 4 - Claude Debussy• French Impressionist composer• Crossed Romantic/20th Cent. (1862-1918)• Studied in Paris and Rome

• Used 5-note chords instead of traditional 3

• Lived large—liked luxury, but stayed in debt

Debussy’s Music• Attempted to capture in music what

Impressionist painters did in visual art• Titles imply a program music type approach• Used orchestra as pallet of sounds, not tutti• Expanded harmonic vocabulary and practice

• Made use of pentatonic and whole-tone scales• Obscured harmony, tempo, meter, & rhythm

ListeningPrelude a l’Apres-midi d’un faune

by Claude Debussy (1894)

Listening Outline: p. 296 Basic Set, CD 7:17

Brief Set, CD 4:38

The program material evokes the dreams and erotic fantasies of a faun -- pagan, half man/half goat creature

Note: Use of solo instruments

Disguised meter

Extended harmonic style

Ch. 5 - Neoclassicism• Flourished 1920-1950

• Based new compositions upon devices and forms of the Classical & Baroque

• Partially due to limited resources in post-WWII Europe

• Preferred to write for small ensembles

• Sounded modern, not classical

• Eschewed program music for absolute

• Used earlier techniques to organize 20th Century harmonies & rhythms (painting p. 362)

Ch. 6 - Igor Stravinsky• Born in Russia (1882-1971)• Studied with Rimsky-Korsakov

• Utilized shifting and irregular meters• Vocal & instrumental—many styles & forms

• Early success writing ballet music• The Rite of Spring caused riot at premier in Paris

• Moved due to the wars• WWI went to Switzerland, to France afterward,

then to US at onset of WWII

• Frequently used ostinato

Stravinsky’s Music

• Sometimes more than one meter at once

ListeningLe Sacre du printemps (1913)

by Igor StravinskyPart I: IntroductionListening Outline: p. 301 Basic Set, CD 7:38

Brief Set, CD 5:01Part I: Omens of Spring—Dances of the Youths & MaidensListening Outline: p. 301 Basic Set, CD 7:40

Brief Set, CD 5:03Part I: Ritual of AbductionListening Outline: p. 301 Basic Set, CD 7:44

Brief Set, CD 5:07

Ballet piece: tells story of prehistoric tribe paying tribute to the god of spring

Note use of rhythmic accent intended to portray primitive man (remember, this is a work for dance)

Ch. 7 - Expressionism• Attempts to explore inner feelings rather than depict outward

appearances

• Used deliberate distortions

• Direct outgrowth of the work of Freud

• To assault and shock the audience• To communicate tension and anguish

• Rejected “conventional prettiness”• Favored “ugly” topics such as madness and death

• Art also seen as a form of social protest• Anguish of the poor• Bloodshed of war• Man’s inhumanity to man

Ch. 8 - Arnold Schoenberg• Born in Vienna (1874-1951)• First to completely abandon the traditional

tonal system• Father of the 12-tone system

• When Nazis came to power he (a Jew) was forced to leave—came to America

Schoenberg’s Music

• Gives equal importance all 12 pitches in octave

• Starting 1908, wrote music w/ no key center

• Taught at UCLA until his death

• Atonality

• The 12-Tone System

• Pitches arranged in a sequence or row (tone row)• No pitch occurs more than once in the 12 note row in

order to equalize emphasis of pitches

ListeningMondestrunken (Moondrunk)

from Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (Moonstruck Pierrot)by Schoenberg (1912)Vocal Music Guide: p. 309 Basic Set, CD 8:01

Brief Set, CD 5:09Program piece: The poet (Pierrot) becomes intoxicated

as moonlight floods the still horizon with desires that are “horrible and sweet.”

Note: This song part of a 21 song cycle Departure from voice/piano Romantic Art song:

scored for voice, piano, flute, violin, & cello

Freely atonal, intentionally no key centerUse of Sprechstimme, song/speech style that

was developed by Schoenberg

ListeningA Survivor from Warsaw (1947)

by Arnold SchoenbergCantata for narrator, male chorus, and orchestraVocal Music Guide: p. 310 Basic Set, CD 8:02

Brief Set, CD 5:10Tells story of Nazi treatment and murder of

Jews in occupied Poland

Note: Sprechstimme12-tone techniqueEnglish and German text with Hebrew

prayerExpressionist music and text—

shocking

Ch. 9 - Alban Berg• Born in Vienna, 1885-1935

• Student of Schoenberg

• Wrote atonal music

• Due to ill health, did not tour or conduct• Possibly also reason for his small output

• Most famous work is Wozzeck• Story of a soldier who is driven to

madness by society, murders his wife, and drowns trying to wash the blood from his hands (Expressionist topic & music)

Ch. 10 - Anton Webern• Born in Vienna, 1883-1945• Schoenberg’s other famous student

• Expanded Schoenberg’s idea of tone color being part of melody• His melodies are frequently made up of several

two to three note fragments that add up to a complete whole

• Tone color replaces “tunes” in his music• His music is almost always very short

Webern’s Music

• His music was ridiculed during his lifetime• Shy family man, devoted Christian

• Shot by US soldier by mistake near end of WWII

Listening

Five Pieces for Orchestra (1911-1913)

Third Piece

by Anton Webern

Listening Outline: p. 318 Basic Set, CD 8:10

Brief Set, CD 5:13

Note: Lack of traditional melody

Tone color washes over the listener

Dynamics never get above pp

Ch. 11 - Béla Bartók• Hungarian, 1881-1945

• Taught piano in Hungary and wrote books for pedagogy

• Like many other composers, fled Nazis and came to live in the US

• Used folksongs as basis of his music• Went to remote areas to collect/record folksongs

• Best known for instrumental worksBartók’s Music

• Especially piano pieces & string quartets• Compositions contain strong folk influences• Worked within tonal center

• Harsh dissonances, polychords, tone clusters

ListeningConcerto for Orchestra (1943)

Second movement: Game of PairsAllegretto scherzandoby Bartók

Listening Outline: p. 320 Basic Set, CD 8:20Brief Set, CD 5:14

Note: Title of work derived from treatment of instruments in soloistic (concertant)

mannerTernary formPairing of instruments in “A” section gives

name to this movementProminent drum part

Ch. 16 – Albert Ginastera• From Buenos Aires, Argentina (1916 – 1983)• Attracted to percussive sounds• Studied w/ Aaron Copland• Operas included scenes of explicit sex & violence

• Don Rodrigo (1964)• Bomarzo (1967)• Beatrix Cenci (1971)

• Moved to Switzerland, continued to compose__________________________________________

Ginastera’s Music• Employs forceful rhythms• Powerful percussions• Dense orchestra textures• Argentinean folk material

Listening

Estancia Suite, Op. 8a (1941) by GinasteraFinal Dance: MalamboListening Outline p. 334Basic Set, CD 8:56 Brief Set, CD 5:32

Ballet depicting various aspects of ranch activities Malambo – dance for men performed by gauchoPerpetual motion; percussive sounds