Music in Modernism c

Transcription

1 Music in Modernism c by Andrew Lesser, M.M. Into the Twentieth Century Western music in the years is primarily classified as the most recent complete period in music history. Though it is still relatively early in the twenty-first century, we can safely assume that the course of music will continue to fundamentally shift as it did approximately one hundred years ago. Though many composers of the Romantic era began to experiment in tonal deconstruction, the first major starting point of a new, original change in music came with the total abandonment of tonality with Arnold Schoenberg and his Second Viennese School. As with the beginning of the twentieth century, the early twenty-first century has also been marked with dramatic changes, mostly resulting from the explosion of technological resources such as the microchip, personal computers, and the internet that began in the final decades of the previous century. Still, it is difficult to put a proverbial stamp on exactly when music began showing signs of what is now referred to as modernism, but historians generally agree that the very beginning of the century is an acceptable marker, though Schoenberg s formal break with tonality did not begin until Tonality was not the only norm that twentieth century composers abandoned. All throughout music history, particularly from the Baroque era through to the Romantic is known as the common practice period, where the accepted rules of musical theory were put into place and refined by subsequent composers. The twentieth century is the first example in history where music theory was defined by the individual composers working with their own methods and concepts. As such, many of these innovations did not come easily to a willing public; Stravinsky s Le Sacre de Printemps ( The Rite of Spring ) met with a public riot at its Paris premiere in Richard Strauss works were referred to as a blood-curdling nightmare, and Arnold Schoenberg was called the leader of cacophonists. Even more consequential in the development of modernism was the socio-political background of the time, particularly in the rise of a world war in 1914, and a second in History has repeatedly shown that world events have drastically influenced the course of the arts, including the present. World culture was shaken to its core by the events of September 11, 2001, and the resulting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the first time, the twentieth century saw the world as one global stage, where factors such as the nationalism of the nineteenth century and the collapse of tonality in the early twentieth would combine to create a new form of expression never heard before in the history of music.

2 Music in Modernism c Composers in the Transition The composers of Germany and Austria were the first to take steps into a larger tonal vocabulary. Though considered more of a Romantic figure than a modernistic one, Gustav Mahler ( ) set new standards as musical director of the Vienna Opera Orchestra, particularly in his massive symphonies (see Composer Profiles). Germany at the time was a center of cultural activity; nationalistic pride was at its zenith, a stark contradiction to the events leading to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. Mahler s expressive melodies and shifting harmonic textures brought the orchestral sound to a new standard, and he is often seen as the final link in the chain of famous German-Austrian symphonists, from the days of Haydn and Beethoven to the Romantic Brahms and Bruckner. Though Mahler s works convey a diverse tapestry of harmonic color, he does not stray too far from an overall tonal scheme. However, like Beethoven, Mahler has been referred to as straddling the gap between the two ages, firmly placing his feet in the Romantic era, yet looking boldly into new future possibilities. Mahler s younger contemporary, Richard Strauss ( ), took several steps further, solidifying the direction of music for decades to come. Strauss (see Composer Profiles), the son of a prominent horn player, perfected his technique early by studying the works of Mendelssohn and Schubert at the behest of his father. His first major departure from traditional tonality was his tone poem Aus Italien, Op. 16 ( From Italy ) in Strauss would compose another seven tone poems, all of which have entered the permanent repertoire as orchestral masterpieces. These works brought Strauss enormous popularity and established him as the most advanced compositional mind of the late nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century, Strauss turned to operatic works with two operas that changed the course of Western music, Salome (1905) and Elektra (1908). In their psychologically complex plots, Strauss stretches the limits of tonality to their extremes. The response to these operas was deafening in its intensity; few critics could accept these works as music. Regardless, Strauss had effectively set the stage for what was to Richard Strauss, his wife Pauline, and son Franz (1910) come, and although he had a long and prosperous career, he never ventured again to the extremes of Salome and Elektra, but returned to a more traditional route of tonality. Operas such as Der Rosenkavalier (1910) and other works including the Vier letzte lieder ( Four Last Songs ) for soprano and orchestra continued his dominance as the most brilliant composer of his generation, but he would leave newer, more daring musical innovations to his contemporaries. Other composers that produced works of increasing tonal degradation include Max Reger ( ) and Alexander Scriabin ( ). Reger, though he only lived to forty-three years of age, produced approximately two hundred separate works. His works display heavy

3 Music in Modernism c chromaticism and complexity, but still remain largely tonal. Reger possessed a deep knowledge and appreciation for the music of J.S. Bach, and credited him with his musical development and inspiration. This is shown in many of his organ works, particularly in the Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue for Organ, Op. 57, subtitled Inferno. Though not German, Alexander Scriabin was trained at the Moscow Conservatory, and spent most of his life living in Switzerland. Similar to Reger, Scriabin embellishes his tonal structures with chromatic tendencies, which unlike Reger, eventually progresses into a total separation from tonality. Regardless of tonality, both composers still maintained a healthy relationship with nineteenth-century form and structure, a trait that neither would break from. It was therefore up to Schoenberg and his students to make the first major step into a new and original form of musical expression, one that can truly be said to have begun the twentieth century s age of modernism. Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School The single most influential development in twentieth-century music occurred early in the century with the abandonment of the triad as the basis for tonal works. Since the Renaissance, the organization of tones into scales relying on a tonal center had held strongly for over four hundred years. Now, that method was being called into question as the only form of musical expression. The group that was responsible for this innovation was known as the Second Viennese School, which was comprised of three members: Anton Webern ( ), Alban Berg ( ), and its founder, Arnold Schoenberg ( ). Schoenberg (see Composer Profiles) can be credited for the first usage of music with no tonal center, better known as atonality, in his works composed after Before that, his music demonstrates extreme chromaticism but still remains tethered to traditional tonality. Between 1907 and 1909, Schoenberg dispensed with tonality altogether in a series of works that began a literal revolution in musical history. Schoenberg himself knew this, and truly believed his role was to create a new form of expression by what he referred to as the emancipation of the dissonance. Schoenberg s experiments into a more economical musical form were completely opposite the ideals of the late-romantic era. Melodies are much more compact, sometimes containing as little as three notes. In addition, there are no florid embellishments or ornamentation; each musical line is carefully constructed to contain only what is necessary. However, there is still a great deal of underlying emotion and personal expression in this clarity of thought, which led to the adoption of the term expressionism to describe the atonal works of Schoenberg and his contemporaries. Pieces such as the Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16 (1909), Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (1912), and the Four Orchestral Songs, Op. 22 (1916) were designed to convey the inner emotions of the psyche, typically in a stark, often Arnold Schoenberg teaching composition at UCLA during the early 1940 s

4 Music in Modernism c distorted manner. The Expressionist movement in painting was subsequently taking place in the art world; many artists works represent feelings on the subconscious level, demonstrating conflict, anxiety, and distress. Artists who are most associated with the Expressionist movement include Edvard Munch (The Scream), Vincent van Gogh (The Starry Night), and Wassily Kandinsky (Composition VII). After World War I, Schoenberg devised a further development of expressionism after not publishing any music for six years. This development consisted of using sequences of each note of the chromatic scale in a series called rows, where each note would only be used once until the next sequence began. The initial row could be altered in different ways to vary the melodic and harmonic content of the music, and is now known as serialism, or twelve-tone music. There are four ways to present a tone row. First, the row can be performed in its original form, called the prime. From there, the row can be played backwards, known as retrograde. The original row can also be inverted, or turned upside down, and finally, the original row can be played backwards and inverted at the same time, which is called retrograde inversion. The tone row can be played in any rhythm, instrumental combination, range, and can also start on any pitch, as long as it follows two basic rules, which are that all twelve tones of the chromatic scale must be used in a single tone row, and that all tones must be used only once, not repeating until the beginning of the next row. Some of Schoenberg s most influential works containing twelve-tone technique include the Violin Concerto, Op. 26 (1936), A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46 (1947), and the unfinished opera Moses und Aron. Before immigrating to the United States in 1933 during the rise of the Third Reich, Schoenberg taught his method of composition to a group of devoted followers. Two of these students in particular stood out as worthy successors to Schoenberg s creation, Anton Webern and Alban Berg. Both composers studied under Schoenberg before he devised the twelve-tone method, and each student s works during the Expressionistic phase of their development reflects their own original understanding of personal expression. Webern (see Composer Profiles) would use extreme brevity in his works, only applying the basic essentials in short, compact pieces that hardly ever stray to higher dynamic levels. His combined thirty-one published works are shorter than one Mahler symphony, yet contain an enormous amount of musical activity. When he adopted the twelve-tone method after World War I, Webern continued his use of small textures and brief durations in the motivation to communicate clarity of thought through controlled emotional reserve. Berg (also see Composer Profiles), however, utilized Alban Berg (left) and Anton Webern (right). more freedom with Schoenberg s methods and remains the most Romantic of the three composers. Like Webern, Berg began writing atonal works and updated his practice to the twelve-tone system when Schoenberg

5 Music in Modernism c perfected his technique. Berg s most famous work is the opera Wozzeck, Op. 7, written in 1922 and first premiered in The success of Wozzeck made Berg the most widely performed composer of the Second Viennese School; his ability to immerse both serial and non-serial composition into his works makes his music much more flexible than Webern and to a certain extent Schoenberg himself. Similar to Webern, Berg did not compose a very large output either, but nevertheless, his works equally stand out as influential musical achievements, and are some of the most individual compositions of the twentieth-century. The Impressionists Like the Expressionist movement that swept much of Western Europe in the early twentieth century, art served as a catalyst in France for a group of composers that mirrored what painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, and Renoir were contributing to French culture. These composers, writing in what is now termed Impressionism, received their name from the common theme of musically depicting a general emotion or atmosphere rather than a story or episode. This is much more commonly related to a progression or evolution of late-romanticism, and not at all in the vein of Expressionism. Impressionism is primarily characterized by depicting a general landscape or emotion in ambiguous natural sounds and tone colors, usually accomplished by shifting harmonies and unconventional orchestrations. The impression of a scene is described without telling a definite story as much as painting an atmospheric picture. Previous composers of the Romantic era that helped to sow the seeds of Impressionism include César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Gabriel Fauré. All of these composers served to influence who is now considered the greatest French composer of the twentieth century, Claude Debussy ( ). Debussy (see Composer Profiles) had his training in the French Conservatory, although he was also influenced by Richard Wagner, nineteenth century Russian music, and the Javanese gamelan orchestra, which he first heard at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition. While Debussy maintained a tonal center in his works, his melodic materials never reach what could be called a traditional theme. Instead, chords and harmonic movement serve to connect smaller motivic ideas as a means to heighten the orchestral color and instrumental sonorities. His most famous piece is the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, L. 83 ( Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun ), followed by his orchestral works Nocturnes, L. 86 and La Mer, L. 109 ( The Sea ). His piano pieces, particularly his Estampes and Images also demonstrate Claude Debussy in 1888, painted by Marcel Baschet Debussy s penchant for unusual tonal combinations. He was the first composer to use the whole tone scale consistently in his works, and also favored using Medieval modes as opposed to the more traditional major/minor scale forms. The only other French Impressionist composer whose name is normally mentioned alongside Debussy s is Maurice Ravel ( ). Ravel, thirteen years Debussy s junior, also

6 Music in Modernism c trained at the Paris Conservatory, although he was expelled in 1895 for failing to win a competitive medal in any competition. He later returned to the Conservatory in 1898 and stayed until 1903, studying with Gabriel Fauré. Unlike Debussy, Ravel did not win the Prix de Rome, but nonetheless attained an international reputation as an Impressionistic composer, experimenting with exotic harmonies, such as in the Habanera from his Rhapsodie Espagnole (1907) and his most famous piece, Bolero (1928). Ravel also incorporated several musical influences aside from impressionism, including dance forms and even American jazz. Much of his music, however, was influenced by his teacher Fauré, though his attention to detail and technique were fostered by a reverence of J.S. Bach and W.A. Mozart. His melodic motifs owe much to Debussy, in addition to his elaborate textures and orchestrations. Ravel s harmonies, however, are much Maurice Ravel ( ) more stable than Debussy s, preferring traditional root movements to ambigious chordal progressions. His most impressionist works are the Rhapsodie and the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1911). Though not as innovative as Debussy, Ravel remains a master artist who strived to display simplicity and technical refinement in all his works. Two other influential composers also wrote works that rejected the German idea of expressionism, but did not join Debussy and Ravel in the Impressionist movement. Erik Satie ( ) is an enigmatic figure in twentieth century music. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1879 but was deemed untalented by his teachers. After a brief stint in the military, Satie wrote mostly miniatures for piano, and earned a living by playing in cabarets and writing songs for dance halls. His most famous piece is the Gymnopédie No. 2 (1888), but is also mostly known for his collections of short piano pieces with humorous titles such as Flabby Preludes, Dried Up Embryos, and Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear. Though not nearly as influential as Debussy or Ravel, Satie s music would serve to inspire later French composers including Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, and Darius Milhaud. Paul Dukas, on the other hand, is now famous primarily for one work, L apprenti sorcier ( The Sorcerer s Apprentice ), written in Dukas was a fellow student of Debussy s and was also influenced by his work, in addition to Beethoven, Berlioz, and Franck. After winning second place in the prestigious Prix de Rome, Dukas left the conservatory and began a career as a composer and music critic. After a modest reception of his Symphony in C in 1896, Dukas achieved fame with Mickey Mouse in The Sorcerer s Apprentice, featured in Disney s Fantasia (1940) The Sorcerer s Apprentice, written a year later. In 1927, Dukas was appointed as professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory, where his many students included Carlos Chávez and

7 Music in Modernism c Olivier Messiaen. The Sorcerer s Apprentice was later animated and remains the best known piece from Disney s Fantasia (1940). The Soviets at the Turn of the Century At the end of the nineteenth century, Russian music possessed a strong foothold on mainstream European influences, particularly the music of Tchaikovsky and the Russian Five. Of all the Five, Rimsky-Korsakov would stand out as the major representative of Russian nationalism, while Tchaikovsky firmly stood as the keeper of the older nineteenth century traditions. Each of them would have successors that would further the scope of Russian music and both of them would do so in completely opposing ways. Sergei Rachmaninov ( ) firmly kept to the Tchaikovsky method of composition, rooted in the older forms and structures and never venturing beyond the realm of tonality. Unlike his fellow student and friend Alexander Scriabin, Rachmaninov (see Composer Profiles) would not follow his contemporary s innovations. However, upon Scriabin s death, Rachmaninov performed a series of recitals dedicated solely to his colleague and friend s works. Rachmaninov s reputation spans both that of a piano virtuoso and a master composer. As a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Rachmaninov s style of traditional Romanticism appeared early. His primary mentor was Tchaikovsky, who seeing the young man s talent, offered to have Rachmaninov arrange his ballet The Sleeping Beauty as a piano transcription. Rachmaninov s Trio élégiaque was written in response to Tchaikovsky s untimely death, revealing an intense darkness of emotion and sadness in the composer s style. In 1917, Russia became engulfed in a Civil War later called the October or Red October Revolution. The political faction known as the Bolsheviks revolted against and ultimately overthrew the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd. The resulting Civil War lasted from 1917 until 1923, where a number of independent countries were formed, including Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. The former Russian Empire was renamed the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. Many independent Russians, including Rachmaninov, fled the country during this time and never returned. Rachmaninov himself relocated to Switzerland and finally America, becoming an American citizen in 1943, the year of his death. Another Russian composer that eventually immigrated to America, though his journey in the history of music was noticeably divergent from Rachmaninov s, was Igor Stravinsky ( ). Known as one of the greatest composers of all time, Stravinsky (see Composer Profiles) defined new tonalities and expressions that were completely opposite Rachmaninov s nineteenth century traditionalism. Ironically, Romanticism is where Stravinsky s career began as a student of Igor Stravinsky, right, with Sergei Diaghilev.

8 Music in Modernism c the great Russian nationalist Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from 1903 to From there, his career soared after developing a partnership with Sergei Diaghilev, pictured above, an impresario and entrepreneur who formed one of the greatest ballet companies of the twentieth century, the Ballet Russes. Stravinsky composed three ballets for Diaghilev: The Firebird, Petrushka, and his most famous work, Le Sacre du printempts ( The Rite of Spring ). The Rite of Spring is particularly notable as one of the most innovative works ever composed; it was described by the music critic and historian Harold Schonberg as what Beethoven s Ninth Symphony and Wagner s Tristan were to the nineteenth century. The ballet itself was described by Stravinsky as a young girl, ready to be sacrificed, dances herself to death. The primitive and brutal score reflects the intense subject matter through heavy percussive rhythms, shifting melodic fragments, Scene from The Firebird, featured in Disney s Fantasia and unique orchestral colors that were so unlike anything heard before that it caused a literal riot at its Paris premiere in Later in his life, when Stravinsky had moved to California, Walt Disney asked him if he could use The Rite of Spring as part of his new movie, Fantasia. Stravinsky was excited about the idea, and while Disney s vision of using the beginnings of life on Earth instead of a tribal sacrifice contrasted from the concept of the original ballet, Stravinsky himself participated in the creative process. When Fantasia premiered in 1940, Stravinsky was the only living composer that Disney had chosen as one of the musical segments. After his death in 1971, Stravinsky s Firebird Suite was chosen to be included in Fantasia 2000, and he remains the only composer aside from Beethoven to have two separate works featured in the series. Stravinsky lived abroad for much of his life, settling in Switzerland, France, and ultimately America, only returning to Russia once in over fifty years. Because of this, he is seen as much more of a worldly composer than a Russian nationalist like his post-world War II Soviet contemporaries. He despised the Russian October Revolution and the Bolsheviks and remained a staunch monarchist to the end of his life. His musical tastes, however, were constantly shifting. After his so-called Russian period, he began what is now called his neo-classicist period around 1920 while living in Paris. Neo-classicism became a popular style for composers who wished to use twentieth-century vocabulary in the context of older forms, particularly that of the Baroque and Classical styles. Many of Stravinsky s neo-classic works reflect an interest in oratorio, concerto grosso, medieval mass, and early symphony and sonata formats. Works such as the Histoire du Soldat ( The Soldier s Tale ), Octet for Wind Instruments, and Oedipus Rex began an entirely new genre for contemporary and future composers. Stravinsky ended his career by experimenting with twelve-tone music in the style of Arnold Schoenberg a year before Schoenberg s death. This development in Stravinsky s music, which began around 1939, is marked as his third, or serial, period. Much of Stravinsky s music

9 Music in Modernism c of this time has not entered the permanent repertoire, but without a doubt contains the unmistakable hallmarks of Stravinsky s stylistic innovations. The European Cosmopolitan Scene The rest of Europe was not exempt from developing its own advancements in twentieth century music. From Eastern Europe to the British Isles, new forms of expression were made and new talents were discovered that explored models of the past, traditional folk music, and charted new courses in musical development. In Italy, Giacomo Puccini ( ) continued the operatic tradition of his predecessor, Giuseppe Verdi. Puccini (see Composer Profiles) is considered the last of the great Italian opera composers, as his success rivaled Verdi s and left no future composers to succeed him after his death. Puccini retained the traditions of the past and did not participate in the radical musical advancements of the rest of Europe. Nevertheless, that did not have any bearing on his enormous popularity, and his operas still draw top billing around the world. In Czechoslovakia, Leoš Janáček ( ) was the leading composer into the twentieth century. While his works have not completely penetrated the modern repertoire, his use of the native folk music of his homeland gave him recognition as a national figure. Inspired by his countrymen Antonin Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, Janáček preceded the evolution of folk music as a tool for mainstream composition in Eastern Europe. This development was realized in the use of Hungarian folk music by Béla Bártok ( ) and Zoltán Kodály ( ). Kodály is known as much for his contribution to music education as his compositional work. His works completely absorb the stylistic flavor of Hungarian folk song, mostly in assigning priority to the melodic lines. Folk song, Kodály theorized, was essential to the cultural development in young students, and his use of singing and playing folk songs in school is universally known as the Kodály Method. Bártok (see Composer Profiles) worked with Kodály for many years piecing together the numerous folk melodies that he called peasant songs. While Franz Liszt was one of Bártok s earliest influences, he did not believe that Liszt captured the true essence of Hungarian music. Liszt worked chiefly from using gypsy melodies, which in Bártok s opinion was a mere imitation of Hungary s cultural identity. Using a wax cylinder phonograph, such as the one pictured on left, Bártok and Kodály scoured the Hungarian countryside searching for authentic examples of folk music. The result was a number of masterpieces Bártok composed, reconciling traditional folk songs with orchestral technique. Béla Bártok (pictured fourth from left) recording traditional Hungarian folk music. Picture taken by Zoltán Kodály.

10 Music in Modernism c In addition to his importance as a composer, Bártok would later be called one of the world s pioneering ethnomusicologists. Ethnomusicology, or the study of music in specific local and worldwide contexts, focuses on music from around the world as a basis for understanding cultural traditions through music and the arts. Like Kodály, Bártok was also a consummate educator, but more often through piano technique than with general classroom education. His major contribution to the field of piano literature is the Mikrokosmos, a set of six volumes of piano etudes graded by difficulty. Today, the Mikrokosmos has the same influence in piano education as Bach s Well Tempered Clavier and the Debussy Preludes. In Northern Europe, the countries of Scandinavia produced two of its most beloved composers, Jean Sibelius ( ) and Carl Nielsen ( ). Sibelius, born in Finland, achieved fame by adapting the folklore of Finland s culture in his orchestral works. Kullervo (1892), En Saga (1895), and the famous tone-poem Finlandia (1899) were all developed from Finnish literature. Sibelius other source of recognition is his seven symphonies, each extending the late-nineteenth century tradition, but with a sense of originality and creativity that continues to inspire musicians of the present day. Like Bártok, Sibelius drew from folk material in his melodies, but diverges from Bártok s path in his use of traditional tonal structures and an abundance of stepwise diatonic motion. Sibelius contemporary, the Danish born Carl Nielsen, also wrote using the more traditional nineteenth century symphonic style, yet was able to achieve a personal form of expression through tonal structure. His works are known for their almost Classical-style textures and the heavy use of variation through melodic counterpoint, such as in his most famous works, including his Flute Concerto, Clarinet Concerto, and his six symphonies. The New English Tradition While the rest of Europe had consistently developed its own musical culture since the Classical and Romantic periods, England had strangely remained silent since the death of Henry Purcell more than two hundred years prior. Since then, not one major English composer had asserted themselves before the beginning of the twentieth century. A major reason behind this was the dominance of George Frederic Handel when he visited England during the first half of the eighteenth century. Extraordinarily popular with the English people, Handel s impact on British music continued well after his death in During the nineteenth century, Handel s popularity was transferred to another German, that of Felix Mendelssohn. In addition to his own works, Mendelssohn frequently conducted works by Handel, Bach, and Haydn, which greatly appealed to English sensibility. At his death in 1847, England had not produced a major composer in almost two hundred years. This period of stark inactivity changed dramatically with the new generation of British composers, beginning with the emergence of Edward Elgar ( ). Elgar was the very image of English militarism; tall, mustached, impeccably dressed, and very proper. Almost completely self-trained, Elgar wished to study at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, but was unable to attend due to the fact that his father could not afford to send him there. His career as a composer ignited quickly with the appearance of his Variations on an Original Theme for Orchestra, commonly called the Enigma Variations. The reason for this title is because the piece is designed

11 Music in Modernism c so that every variation creates a characterature of each of Elgar s personal friends. Elgar dedicated the work to my friends pictured within, and even mentioned that there exists within each movement a hidden theme that in Elgar s words, is not played. To date this hidden theme has not been discovered, though scholars have postulated many theories. The Enigma Variations were published in 1899, and gave Elgar instant recognition as a thoroughly British composer. In truth, Elgar was heavily influenced by the late Romantic style of Germany and Austria, but his major achievement was his ability to use those influences in a more English-sounding vein. His most popular work, the set of Pomp and Circumstance Marches, exhibit the proud, dignified air of nobility that set Elgar s works apart from music on mainland Europe. In addition, the String Quartet, Op. 83 (1918), Cello Concerto, Op. 85 (1919), and his two symphonies are gaining ground in the mainstream repertoire. In his later life, Elgar grew disenchanted with the direction that modern music was taking, and he decided to retire from composition in Edward Elgar, circa From then on, his music was seen as more of a look back to the past, rarely performed until his works were rediscovered by a more appreciative public in the latter half of the twentieth century. While Elgar began England s return to the compositional main stage, Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ) began a new tradition that gave him unprecedented success and a return to England s cultural roots. Like Bártok and Kodály, Vaughan Williams (see Composer Profiles) toured the English countryside searching for English folk songs and carols to use in his own works. His traveling companion and friend was fellow composer Gustav Holst ( ), who studied with Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music. Vaughan Williams did not ascribe to the compositional developments of Bártok, and completely avoided the serialism of Schoenberg: Schoenberg meant nothing to me, but as he apparently meant a lot to other people, I dare say that it is all my own fault. Instead, he favored the traditions of England s past, from John Dunstable to Henry Purcell and every British composer in between. His most famous work, the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, remains one of Vaughan Williams most identifiable pieces. He was an especially prolific composer, writing nine symphonies, five operas, and music for plays, film, and radio. Although he was considered a nationalist by followers of his music, Vaughan Williams never considered himself a nationalist composer. He rejected an offer to be knighted and other government honors, and was involved in a number of both amateur and professional performing groups. In this way, his demeanor was starkly opposite that of Elgar, neither that of a formal scholar or visionary, but a humanist seeking to write the very best music he could for the sake of all that would listen. Next to Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst was the most well-known and influential English composer before World War I. Holst (see Composer Profiles), a great friend and contemporary of Vaughan Williams, was much more cosmopolitan in his musical influences. While many of his works exhibit the same English folk song and carol influence as Vaughan Williams, Holst s

12 Music in Modernism c orchestral pieces reveal an early following of Wagner and other mainstream European models. Studying astrology and Eastern philosophy gave Holst a unique source of inspiration, most notably in his most popular orchestral suite, The Planets. Holst s role in music education is also significant; he was active in teaching young composers and musicians in both the St. Paul s Girls School and Morley College, in addition to lecturing at University College and his alma mater, the Royal College of Music. Together with Elgar and Vaughan Williams, Holst served to create a new vision for English music from the unproductive period of inactivity it had experienced for almost two hundred years. The Early American Sound Much of America s concert music at the beginning of the twentieth century was cultivated from European-born artists or European-trained American citizens. The typical method of building American composers and performers was to send them to European conservatories, particularly Paris or Leipzig, for their entire musical education. American-born composers such as Lowell Mason ( ), Amy Beach ( ) and Edward MacDowell ( ) were all extremely popular with American audiences, yet followed the strict European models that had been taught to them by European musicians. Ironically, it was an immigrant European composer that began to harness America s folk music and open the path for further exploration. Antonín Dvořák had left his native Czechoslovakia in 1892 and began teaching in New York at the newly established National Conservatory of Music. His Symphony No. 9, commonly titled the New World Symphony, drew inspiration from Negro folk-song like material, although no actual folk spirituals were used in the entire composition. Dvořák suggested to American composers that a new national musical language could easily be found in the rich folk songs of their own country. American already had possession of a lasting heritage of popular song. Stephen Foster ( ), known as the father of American music, had become known throughout the country with songs such as Camptown Races, My Old Kentucky Home, I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, and Old Folks at Home. These were parlor songs, however, and America had yet to develop a national identity in the concert hall as well as the dance hall. Though not considered a concert composer, an early figure in America s musical development was John Philip Sousa ( ). Sousa, born in Washington, D.C., distinguished himself as the conductor of the Marine Band, commonly called The President s Own. His father, John Antonio Sousa, was a trombonist in the band when Sousa was young and encouraged him to enlist in the Marine Corps. After directing the Marine Band for twelve years, he formed his own band and toured the country performing original songs of American patriotism, mostly drawn from his own considerable number of marches, one hundred and thirty six in all. Many of his marches have become staples of the American patriotic repertoire, specifically The Stars and Stripes Forever, now America s official National March, and Semper Fidelis, the official march of the Marine Corps. To this day, Sousa s marches are played at ceremonial and public events throughout the country, and his name has become synonymous with American military music. One of the most original voices in the development of a unique American style was that of Charles Ives ( ). Though trained in the European tradition when he attended Yale, Ives

13 Music in Modernism c (see Composer Profiles) first major influence was that of his father, George Ives. George Ives was a U.S. Army bandleader and would frequently have his band play in Charles hometown of Danbury, Connecticut. The small town marches, patriotic songs, and dance pieces of his youth made up much of Ives personal style. In addition, Ives also served as a church organist before and after his collegiate training, making him aware of the standard keyboard repertoire. Ives is also considered unique among composers in the fact that composition was not his profession. After graduating from Yale, Ives worked for, and later formed his own, life insurance company. This is significant because Ives did not have to use composition to sustain himself and his family financially, and thus gave him the ability to compose according to his own wishes, regardless of how other musicians or the general public responded. In fact, he remained isolated from the public and other composers during the bulk of his compositional career. As a result, his music was scarcely performed during his lifetime and was considered unplayable by many professional musicians. Ives music represents a combination of many different techniques and practices, most of which had not yet entered the compositional mainstream. Ives freely used polytonality (the use of two separate keys Official Charles Ives ( ) stamp simultaneously), serialism, folk songs and other material from which he quoted often, and atonality. His ability to mesh together these different techniques in a cohesive unit was unexplored by other composers during his lifetime. He also pioneered the use of dividing large ensembles into smaller instrumental groups, all playing different musical material. His piece The Unanswered Question (1906) represents this type of advanced construction well ahead of its time. Other pieces that represent Ives mature compositions include Three Places in New England (1914, revised 1929), the Symphony No. 4 (1918), and his masterpiece, the Piano Sonata No. 2 Concord, Mass., completed in Ives frequently revised and rewrote his works, sometimes setting them aside in favor of other works and not working on them again for years at a time. Ives cared little for the reception he received, positive or negative, regarding his music. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for his Symphony No. 3 The Camp Meeting, but gave away the prize money, exclaiming prizes are for boys, and I m all grown up. Ives stopped composing entirely in 1927, saying he could no longer write music, because nothing sounds right. Ives did continue to revise his earlier material, but he did not write anything new for the remainder of his life. Though he was not fully appreciated by the musical public at large during his lifetime, the world began to catch up with Ives around the 1960 s, and Ives was finally recognized for the innovations he set in motion. He inspired a new generation of American composers, particularly Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Hermann, and Elliott Carter. Perhaps the best quote regarding Ives comes from Arnold Schoenberg in 1944, when he was living in Los Angeles: There is a great man living in this country a composer. He has solved the problem how to preserve one s self-esteem and to learn. He responds to negligence by contempt. He is not forced to accept praise or blame. His name is Ives.

14 Music in Modernism c The World at War In 1918, World War I drew to a close with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The world had been badly shaken by the extreme devastation and destruction left in the war s wake. It involved all the world s major military powers, and forever changed the political and geographical boundaries of Europe. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was torn apart, and from there emerged several newly established independent states, including Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia. Russia had pulled out of the war after its collapse in 1917, during the aftermath of the October Revolution. Its new revolutionary government had already begun to establish the Soviet Union as a communist state, and Adolf Hitler used Germany s defeat to gain power with the National Socialist Party. He succeeded in winning the chancellorship and later turned Germany into a complete dictatorship. The period between the wars was marked with grave uncertainty, as rising international tensions threatened to once again plunge the world into conflict. As was the case for a major overhaul in political and geographical restructuring, world culture would also be largely affected by the war s end. The philosophies of artists and musicians had dramatically changed from their earlier viewpoints assuming that science and technology were the source of new inspiration and creativity leading into the future. Once they had seen the capabilities of the new war machines, laying waste to entire cities and causing mass destruction of a level previously unheard of, these attitudes changed instantly. Deeply traumatized by the brutality of the war, new artistic reactions against technology shifted to less complicated structures focused on promoting economy and more simplistic means of musical communication. A renewed effort for providing clarity and efficiency permeated Europe s artistic atmosphere, and an interest in reconciling with the past, created more order in both tonal and atonal compositions. Another aspect of the war s impact on musicians was the desire to write music that was more accessible to the general public. As Kodály and Bártok demonstrated in their use of folk song material in their writings, many others composed music that could be used with more practicality and utility. The rising tide of these new ideas would lead to create a new generation of musicians, and would also serve to alter the compositional methods of already established composers. France Between the Wars A particular composer whose style had changed dramatically after the war was Igor Stravinsky. In 1920, Stravinsky moved to Paris and became a French citizen. After hearing the works of composers such as Erik Satie, Stravinsky started to develop his own music in the style known as neo-classicism. As exclaimed earlier, the term neo-classicism does not only refer to an increased use of techniques stemming from Classical genres, but also incorporated earlier models from the Baroque and Renaissance periods. From the conclusion of the war stemmed a desire to create works of art dedicated to a simpler ideal. The French poet Jean Cocteau railed against the complexity of the Wagnerian fog and Debussian mist, declaring that all such music rests in its

15 Music in Modernism c convolutions, dodges, and tricks. His concept, found in the music of Satie, represented a more common musical atmosphere: What we need is a music of the earth, every-day music. Satie embodied those qualities in his brief, melodic works that weave together fragments of musical material that are interconnected in a seamless, flowing structure. Satie s works lack the grand designs of the late Romantic era, and is more casual, suitable more for the café than the concert hall. A singular work that inspired those around Satie was the ballet Parade (1917), set to a story by Cocteau and performed by the Ballet Russes. This work and others brought Satie a cult following, particularly in younger French composers that followed the ideals of the post-war ethic. Six composers in particular began to gather around Satie, and in 1919 they began giving concerts playing each others works and referring to themselves as Les Six ( The Six ). Composed of Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Germaine Tailleferre, and Louis Durey, the name Les Six was more of a reaction of French pride analogous to the Russian Mighty Handful. Of these composers, three stand out as the best representatives of the French post-war aesthetic. Darius Milhaud ( ) was the closest to Satie in his stylistic idiom. His groundbreaking work La Création du monde ( The Creation of the World ) was one of the first concert pieces to use American jazz as a structural foundation. Another technique associated with Milhaud was polytonality, also used by Charles Ives in America. In his piano suite Souvenirs of Brazil (1921), Milhaud alternates between G major in the left hand while the right hand is playing material in D major. Arthur Honegger ( ) achieved his first success with the dramatic oratorio Le Roi David ( King David ) in His music around the 1920 s is marked by the ideals of Le Six; more lyrical and down to earth. However, after the 1920 s his compositions turned away from casual, simplistic forms and started to become more complex. His extended compositions include five symphonies and three string quartets that show an interest in more formal counterpoint, particularly in his Fifth Symphony, written in The most dominant composer of Les Six was Francis Poulenc ( ), who was mostly self-taught in composition. His musical sound is mostly reserved, returning to the more traditional format of tonality and harmonic structure. His music has a light, simplistic quality, particularly in the piano piece Mouvements perpétuels ( Perpetual Motion 1918) and his final piece, the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1962). Post-War Germany Though Germany was defeated at the conclusion of World War I, in the decade following the war, the country s artistic and cultural life began its own rebirth. A strong reaction against the ideals of Wagnerian late-romanticism started to take root in the younger generation of composers, and a call sounded for music that demonstrated more objectivity and efficiency. The greatest German composer to come out of this post-war aesthetic was Paul Hindemith ( ). Trained as a violinist, Hindemith (see Composer Profiles) demonstrated an early aptitude when he was accepted into the Hoch Conservatory at the age of thirteen. Some of Hindemith s early compositions reflect a debt to Brahms and Richard Strauss, but during the early 1920 s Hindemith broke free of these traditional methods and began to chart his own course. Strauss even remarked to Hindemith at one point: Why do you have to write this way? You have talent.

16 Music in Modernism c Hindemith s response was simply: Herr Professor, you make your music and I ll make mine. Hindemith s music of the early 1920 s was influenced by jazz and popular music, but also featured a predilection for returning to a more neo-classical vein, particularly in the forms and textures of the Baroque era. The philosophy of music as a vehicle for functional means permeated Hindemith s compositions as well. He is credited for embodying the German concept of Gebrauchmusik, or music used specifically for utilitarian ends. A function of this philosophy lies in Hindemith s compositions designed for amateurs, to be used solely for teaching purposes. As a lifelong teacher, Hindemith published several texts on music, most notably The Craft for Music Composition in 1937, which remains a seminal work on music in the twentieth century. Hindemith was dismissed from his teaching position at the Frankfurt Conservatory in the same year after members of the Nazi Party denounced his work as not representative of the pure German culture. Joseph Goebbels, Germany s Minister of Propaganda, publicly labeled Hindemith as an atonal noisemaker. In truth, Hindemith did not follow the innovations of Schoenberg or the Second Viennese School. He had a strong belief in tonality, as he exclaimed that music, as long as it exists, will always take its departure from the major triad and return to it. Like Schoenberg, however, Hindemith also left Germany and eventually settled in America, where he accepted the position of professor of composition at Yale University. His tonal system, described in The Craft of Musical Composition, is not diatonic, but uses all twelve notes equally, ranking each interval from the most consonant to the most dissonant. His counterpoint owes more to J.S. Bach than any other composer, and many of his fugues display homage to him. Hindemith s prolific output includes music for practically every instrumental combination, including solo, chamber, concerto, and orchestral works. His most famous pieces are the symphony based on his opera Mathis du Maler ( Mathis the Painter ) and his orchestral piece Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (1943). Hindemith s music had a pronounced effect among younger composers around World War II, and his influence continues to affect composers in the present day. The only other German composer of Hindemith s generation that approached his level of influence was Kurt Weill ( ). Both Weill and Hindemith left Germany at the rise of the Nazi Party, but their compositional careers took very different paths. Weill studied composition at the Music Academy in Berlin with Engelbert Humperdinck and later Ferruccio Busoni. Hardly any of Weill s early works before the 1920 s have survived, but most of what remains displays an influence of Strauss and Mahler. Later in the decade, Weill turned away from the late Romantic tendencies and starting composing music as an instrument of social change. He believed the most effective means to accomplish this was through opera, and with his collaborator, the playwright Bertolt Brecht, Weill created his first success, a series of six extended songs titled the Mahagonny- Songspiel. Their first large-scale work, The Threepenny Opera (1928), was based on the eighteenth century Beggar s Opera by the English composer John Gay. The opera was an enormous success, and Weill and Brecht continued to work together until Weill left Germany in After spending some time in France, Weill came to the United States, where most of his remaining years was spent writing for Broadway and musical theater. He produced a number of shows, including Down in the Valley and Street Scene, which later inspired Broadway composers including Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.

17 Music in Modernism c Rise of the Soviet Union Before the end of the war, Russia abruptly pulled out of the conflict to fight an internal battle. In October of 1917, a group of working class citizens known as the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin ( ) used their political influence to begin taking over government installations in the city of Petrograd. Disgusted with the absolute and oppressive rule of the Tsar emperors, Lenin and his followers took over the Winter Palace, seat of the Provisional Government in Petrograd. The so-called October Revolution sparked a civil war that was to last until 1922, when Russia was transformed into a socialist state. To confirm the rise of the people s rights under the new government, Lenin changed Russia s name to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). After Lenin s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin emerged as the political leader of the Soviet Union and proceeded to further isolate the U.S.S.R. from the West as it developed into a Communist state. Many Russians during the Revolution and the ensuing Civil War fled the country, uncertain as to the future of their country s government. Both Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninov left for Switzerland within a few years of each other, and eventually settled in America. Those that stayed had to adapt to a new regime whose definition of what music should represent affected their music, their careers, and their lives. Though he lived outside of the Soviet Union between the years of 1918 to 1934, Sergei Prokofiev ( ) returned to his native country after Stalin consolidated his grip on Russia s political power. Prokofiev (see Composer Profiles) studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and immediately made a name for himself as a young man of considerable talent. After touring abroad in Europe and America, Prokofiev returned to Russia after establishing himself as a modernist composer. In truth, Prokofiev operated mainly within traditional forms, and his best known works employ a heavy use of neoclassical techniques, including his famous Classical Symphony (1917). Prokofiev rejected the late Romantic style and could not be considered a nationalist composer, which would bring him trouble with the ruling government upon his return to Russia. Russia had undergone a major shift in the way art and culture was perceived. Lenin stated that all art should belong to the people, and that any artistic creation not designed to serve the populace was deemed alien to the Soviet people. Music as a tool for social propaganda became the sole reason for composition in the eyes of the government, and Prokofiev often felt himself at odds with the government s acceptable policies. Being accused of formalism, or any modern music that did not serve to promote Soviet ideals, was death to a composer s career. Artists were even thrown in jail if their work had any signs of foreign influence or did not reflect the struggles of the working class. Though Prokofiev was celebrated by the government, winning six Stalin Prizes, a Lenin Prize, and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, he constantly treaded on thin ice between writing acceptable music and pursuing his own artistic preferences. Born in Armenia, Aram Khachaturian ( ) did not formally study music until after Armenia was declared a Soviet Republic in However, Khachaturian possessed such great natural musical ability that he was admitted to the Gnessin Institute, where he studied cello and composition. He later transferred to the Moscow Conservatory and graduated in Khachaturian joined the Communist Party in 1943 and became popular with his ballets Gayane and Spartacus, both of which use Russian and Armenian folk music, particularly in the famous

18 Music in Modernism c Sabre Dance. Khachaturian s career took a major downturn in 1948 after the premiere of his Third Symphony. While Khachaturian wrote the work as a tribute to communism, Andrei Zhdanov, secretary of the Communist Party s Central Committee, denounced Khachaturian, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, as formalist and anti-popular. By then the three composers had become the titans of Soviet music, but their worldwide popularity had no effect on Zhdanov s judgment. All three composers were required to publicly apologize for their indiscretions, which affected Khachaturian profoundly: Those were tragic days for me; I was clouted on the head so unjustly. My repenting speech at the First Congress was insincere. I was crushed, destroyed. I seriously considered changing professions. Regardless, Khachaturian and the others regained political Aram Khachaturian ( ) favor, himself receiving four Stalin Prizes, a Lenin Prize, a U.S.S.R. State Prize, and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Though he lived most of his life in Russia, Khachaturian was a great inspiration to Armenian composers, and served to bring its culture into the mainstream. The third of the Soviet titans, Dmitri Shostakovich ( ) also began his musical training after the Revolution, and unlike Prokofiev, remained in Russia for his entire life (see Composer Profiles). His music, therefore, is completely tied to the political trends of the new government regime. Shostakovich himself spent his life under the constant threat of censorship and incarceration. His life became a paradox: while enjoying the worldwide fame of a master composer and the idolization of his fellow countrymen as a true Soviet artist, he also lived perpetually fearing the regime he imagined would put him in jail for being too formalist and modern. His predictions came true before the Zhdanov decree at the 1934 premiere of his opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. While the opera enjoyed repeated success and was acclaimed as a paragon of Soviet art, in 1936 an article in Pravda, the official Communist Party newspaper, announced the opera as negative and a deliberately dissonant, confused stream of sound. It is not known why Lady Macbeth was particularly chosen as an example of the Party s ire, but it served to effectively censure all Soviet art that contained any hint of material not conforming to the government s mandates. The later 1948 decree was not merely directed at any particular Shostakovich work, but at each of the three composers in turn, possibly simply to force obedience as the government feared the composers popularity was too high. In any case, all three, particularly Shostakovich, acquiesced, and at the end of his life revealed a loss of confidence in himself and his work: There were no particularly happy moments in my life, no great joys. It was gray and dull and it makes me sad to think about it. Shostakovich did not live to see his music surge in popularity in the West after the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party, and he is remembered now as a man broken by his own government and forced to write according to their expectations, compromising both his personal and artistic integrity.

19 Music in Modernism c Other Composers of Europe Paul Hindemith at the time between the wars had established himself as the leading German composer of his day, though like many others he had fled to America during the rise of the Third Reich. Composers who elected to stay in Germany were forced, much like in the Soviet Union, to write as the government dictated. Most idealistic composers decided to leave the country rather than incur the wrath of the dictatorship. A German composer who was successful in both pleasing the authorities and creating a unique, personal style was Carl Orff ( ). Best known for his cantata Carmina Burana (1937), Orff s style is direct and often primal, demonstrated in the famous song O Fortuna. His vision of musical theater consisted of each aspect, dance, music, and action, being equal on stage. This is most clearly found in his trilogy of stage works based on Greek literary themes, including Antigonae (1949), Oedipus der Tyrann (1966), and Prometheus (1966). Another important aspect of Orff s career is his work in music education. In 1924 he developed a school specifically to train young children in cooperative ensemble performance and musical foundation. He created easily playable instruments and wrote a series of songs designed to exercise the young student s emerging musical abilities. Known as the Orff-Schulwerk, his methodology is practiced by elementary music educators around the world. Folk influences had dominated the music of Spain through to the beginning of the twentieth century. Spanish nationalism up to this point had been championed by composers such as Isaac Albéniz ( ) and Enrique Granados ( ). The most successful Spanish composer of the first half of the twentieth century was Manuel de Falla ( ). Falla spent seven years in France consorting with composers including Paul Dukas, Debussy, and Ravel, which had a more worldly effect on his music. Combined with Spanish folk influences and expert orchestrations, Falla s main body of work includes the set of three pieces for piano and orchestra entitled Nights in the Gardens of Spain (1915) and the two ballets Love, the Magician (1915) and The Three-Cornered Hat (1919). With these works, Falla is considered responsible for bringing Spanish orchestral music into the twentieth-century mainstream. Born right at the beginning of the twentieth century, Austrian composer Ernst Krenek ( ) enjoyed his first success with the jazz opera Jonny spielt auf ( Jonny Strikes Up ). He began composing in the twelve-tone method in 1930, which was targeted by the Nazis in His music was subsequently banned, forcing him to relocate to America in He became an American citizen in Following World War II, Krenek composed in a variety of experimental medium, including serial, aleatoric ( chance music), and even electronic music. Pieces that best represent his later style include From Three Make Seven (1961) and Fibonacci mobile (1964). Italy at the start of the twentieth century remained in the grip of late-romantic style opera, particularly with the immense popularity of Puccini. Several composers sought to break opera s hold and renew the Italian symphonic tradition. One composer who was successful in contributing fresh orchestral material to Italy s twentieth century development was Ottorino Respighi ( ). Known primarily for his trilogy of nationalistic tone poems, including the Fountains of Rome (1916), Pines of Rome (1924), and Roman Festivals (1928), Respighi also had a

20 Music in Modernism c great interest in 16 th, 17 th, and 18 th century Italian music, and published new editions of works by Claudio Monteverdi and Antonio Vivaldi. The next generation of English composers after Holst and Vaughan Williams were best represented by William Walton ( ), Michael Tippett ( ), and Benjamin Britten ( ). Britten (pictured on right), was encouraged by his compositional teacher, Frank Bridge, to experiment on advanced harmonic forms, and Britten was quick to assimilate these tendencies. Though his music is essentially diatonic and very tonal, Britten s style is characterized by clearly defined formal structures and a haunting quality of expression. His tribute to his teacher, the Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge (1937) for string orchestra, began a series of masterpieces that includes the operas Paul Bunyon (1941) and Peter Grimes (1945). Peter Grimes, and the ensuing orchestral suite Four Sea Interludes based on themes from the opera catapulted Britten to international fame. This was followed by more successes such as Billy Budd (1951) and A Midsummer Night s Dream (1960). Of his non-operatic works, Britten is most known for his Young Person s Guide to the Orchestra (1945), and the 1961 War Requiem. The American Scene Following World War I, American composers were beginning to take their first steps toward developing a musical language of national identity. Though previously rooted heavily in the European tradition, American music began to take on a quality incorporating the folk and spiritual melodies of its homeland and the rhythmic complexities of jazz music. These driving, heavily stylized qualities were embodied in the works of George Gershwin ( ), born in Brooklyn, New York. Gershwin (see Composer Profiles) was equally comfortable writing for both the concert hall and the theater, most notably with his most popular concert work, the Rhapsody in Blue (1924). The piece employs a heavy use of jazz motifs, specifically in the blue note, or lowered third in the blues scale. The opening clarinet glissando has become synonymous with the musical styles of the American 1920 s. Gershwin s stage and film works have also earned a permanent place in the repertoire, and his opera Porgy and Bess (1935) was the first opera to feature a cast composed entirely of African-American singers. The song Summertime has been performed by countless musicians, and in 2001 the opera was named the official Seattle Opera Company production of Porgy and Bess, with Gordon Hawkins as Porgy and Lisa Daltirus as Bess. opera of the state of South Carolina, where the opera is based.

21 Music in Modernism c Though recognized as the Dean of African-American composers, William Grant Still ( ) did not achieve the widespread popularity that Gershwin enjoyed. Nonetheless, Still (see Composer Profiles) was a pioneer in developing the American voice based on his work incorporating his experiences with jazz from his youth into the orchestral mainstream. His Symphony No. 1 Afro-American (1930) is a masterpiece worthy of any modern symphony, and his orchestral suite The American Scene (1957) is a programmatic tone poem reminiscent of Smetana s The Moldau. Still achieved a number of accomplishments as a black man living in the first half of the twentieth century, including the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra, and to have an opera performed on national television. His nationalistic views of black culture being integrated into classical music were a defining step toward establishing a unique American style. Another American composer that incorporated popular song elements into his music was Leonard Bernstein ( ). Bernstein (see Composer Profiles) is mostly remembered for his position as conductor of the New York Philharmonic from , but is equally known for his works including the musical scores to On the Town (1944), On the Waterfront (1954), and West Side Story (1957). Combining the rhythmic elements of jazz and song with his knowledge of traditional orchestral technique, Bernstein echoed the newly acquired awareness of music serving a more nationalistic purpose. Following the beginning of the Great Depression at the end of the 1920 s, American music took on a new importance as composers actively sought out new outlets of expression in the goal of creating a uniquely American sound. Among these composers include Walter Piston ( ), Virgil Thomson ( ), Howard Hanson ( ), Roger Sessions ( ), Roy Harris ( ), William Schumann ( ), and Samuel Barber ( ). The most influential American composer out of all of these figures was undoubtedly Aaron Copland ( ). Copland (see Composer Profiles), like many other American composers in the first half of the twentieth century, studied abroad in Paris under Nadia Boulanger, who encouraged Copland s experimentation in more modern techniques as opposed to the nineteenth century Romantic tradition. An advocate of the newly established call for American nationalism, Copland spearheaded a group of composers that would become the American version of France s Les Six and Russia s Mighty Handful. His most popular works are primarily based out of the folk idioms of the American heartland, particularly in the western-based motifs of his ballets Billy the Aaron Copland in Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944). His Fanfare for the Common Man theme from his Third Symphony is one of the most recognized purely American pieces worldwide. He also composed a number of scores for film music, most notably for the 1939 film Of Mice and Men and Our Town in But during the years preceding and following World War II, music had again started to venture toward new approaches, and

22 Music in Modernism c soon composers began to experiment with tonalities that would usher in a new age of how music was defined and performed. In the years leading up to World War II, music had once again begun to redefine itself with new experimental techniques completely separated from European-based traditional tonality. A group of American composers following in the footsteps of Charles Ives envisioned music as a pure soundscape, free of the limiting rules dictated by more accepted means of musical composition. Most of these composers worked without receiving the traditional training of formal technique, and worked in relative isolation to mainstream musical developments. Among these more avant-garde musicians include Carl Ruggles ( ), Alan Hovhaness ( ), Henry Cowell ( ), Harry Partch ( ), Ruth Crawford Seeger ( ), Henry Brant ( ), and Edgard Varèse ( ). A similar movement toward developing an indigenous style devel0ped in South America, which up until the twentieth century had been rooted in European, particularly Italian traditions. Composers such as Carlos Chávez ( ), Heitor Villa-Lobos ( ), and Alberto Ginastera ( ) distanced themselves from the mainstream European practices and incorporated popular song elements with modern avant-garde concert techniques. Music Beyond World War II The result of World War II led to a variety of developments in Western music. Since many primary European composers immigrated to America during the pre-war years, the United States quickly became the dominant musical influence in the modern world. The rise of Russia and China as rival world powers transformed the global landscape, and the advent of technologies such as global communication created an idea of a single world culture, a so-called global village where information is exchanged almost as soon as it occurs. Styles and genres of music were constantly shifting, and no one musical movement held sway over the next generation to come. The only concept that tied together these diverse tendencies was the search for a new, more personal means of expression. Popular music began to fuse more readily with traditional orchestral techniques, and more composers were inclined to break from the older European tradition entirely. The first break from all notions of prior convention occurred through serialism. Surprisingly, it was not Arnold Schoenberg that sparked a new treatment of serial form, but the music of his student, Anton Webern. Webern s works were highly praised by the younger composers of the post-wwii generation because of their highly systematic treatment, far more so than in Schoenberg s music. The pre-determined set of pitches and their relationships was seen as a more objective method of composition, one that mirrored the post-war aesthetic that music had to take a fundamental shift from the past. One of Webern s greatest champions is the French composer Pierre Boulez (born 1925). Boulez took the example set by Webern and applied it to more than just pitch relationships. Rhythms, dynamics, orchestrations, and articulations were composed according to those same principles as the twelve-tone method, resulting in a new form of serial technique called integral serialism. Boulez s Structures I (1952) for two pianos is based on a design that serves as a key to each row, which not only affect pitch, but duration, attack

23 Music in Modernism c and dynamics as well. This method can be seen as almost taking the freedom away from compositional method, but Boulez believed that it actually freed the composer to focus on higher priorities, such as musical texture. Texture became a defining characteristic of Boulez s work and his contemporaries, most notably the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen ( ). Stockhausen took the concept of musical objectivity a step further by completely rejecting all notions of musical theme and thematic continuity. Musical structure influenced primarily by mathematical and scientific techniques became a defining feature of his work, particularly in his serial compositions. Stockhausen was also an innovator of group composition, a structure based on larger musical sections comprised of separate ensemble groups. An example of this method is found in Gruppen ( Groups ) for three orchestras, written between 1955 and The piece consists of separate instrumental sections, each playing their own musical material in different styles, tempos, and key signatures. The entire tapestry of sound seems to meld together into one large sound mass. Like Boulez, Stockhausen places texture as the defining musical feature, and traditional elements such as melody, harmony, and rhythmic direction are completely absent in the larger whole. Both Boulez and Stockhausen studied with Olivier Messiaen ( ), a French composer who had an enormous influence upon the younger generation. Messiaen himself studied at the Paris Conservatory under Paul Dukas and Charles-Marie Widor, among others, and was influenced primarily by the music of Debussy and Ravel. During World War II, Messiaen was enlisted as a medical auxiliary, but was subsequently captured by the Germans in 1940 and became a prisoner of war. While interned at the prison camp of Stalag VIII-A, Messiaen composed what has become his most influential work, the Quatuor pour la fin du temps ( Quartet for the End of Time ), written for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. The quartet is an intensely systematic work; it employs limited ideas of thematic development and harmonic progression, but concentrates on rhythmic complexity throughout the four parts. In the Quartet and many of his other pieces, Messiaen uses a variety of bird-call effects, specifically in his Réveil des oiseaux (1953), which is entirely based on bird songs obtained Olivier Messiaen ( ) recording bird calls. through the composer s personal research. Messiaen was also partial to incorporating exotic musical techniques into his works, including Greek modes, Hindu rhythms, Javanese gamelan, and Japanese influences. The most influential American composer to advance integral serial technique was Milton Babbitt ( ). In addition to his serial works, Babbitt was one of the first pioneers of using electronic medium in music composition. Among his many students while teaching at Princeton University and the Julliard School include Donald Martino ( ), Charles Wuorinen (born 1938), and the theater composer Stephen Sondheim (born 1930).

24 Music in Modernism c Music of Chance Another significant development in the 1950 s was the creation of music inspired entirely by methods based on chance, taking the concept of musical choice completely out of the composer s hands. This music, known an indeterminate, or aleatoric, music began with the idea that music should be composed solely as an experiment in organized sound. Sound, as defined by these composers, could be encompassed by all manner of noise, not just merely those which could create pitch or melody in the traditional sense. Soon these more progressive composers felt that the accepted methods of composition could no longer satisfy their search for new forms of expression, and turned to completely unorthodox materials. Charles Ives and Henry Cowell had started using elements of chance music in their writings, but the composer most associated with aleatoric music was the American John Cage ( ). Cage, who studied with Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, began using materials other than traditional instruments in a series entitled Construction. His First Construction in Metal (1939) calls for brake drums, a thunder sheet, and other percussive instruments that mirror his musical landscapes. In Living Room Music (1940), Cage notates in the score that the percussion parts can be played by any household or architectural elements. Pitch and instrumentation are not the only aspects of Cage s music that was radically altered. His concept of time and rhythmic duration was replaced by a series of proportional time measurements devised by strict mathematical calculations. In 1951, Cage decided that the only true way of creating music unhindered by human will is to take conscious choice out of the compositional process. His student Christian Wolff had previously introduced Cage to the I Ching, or Chinese Book of Changes, which describes a method using trigrams to identify order in seemingly unpredictable situations. The book became a revelation for Cage s music; in Music of Changes, composed the same year, Cage uses the tossing of coins to decide pitch, rhythm, tempo, and every other musical choice available. His pieces have been determined by events such as notating imperfections in a piece of paper, using star charts to identify pitches, and tipping water-filled conch shells that creates a different performance every occurrence. John Cage ( ) Cage s most famous, and controversial piece, remains 4 33 (1952). In addition to using chance elements to create sound, Cage believed that silence is equally influential in a musical performance. Originally composed for piano, but later transcribed for every solo or instrumental combination available (including full orchestra), the piece consists of three separate movements that require the performer to remain silent for the entire duration. Premiered in 1952 by the pianist David Tudor at a recital of contemporary music, the audience expressed confusion and general dissatisfaction at not experiencing any musical content. Cage, equally unhappy with the audience s response, replied: They missed the point. There s no such thing as silence. What they thought was silence, because they didn t know how to listen, was full of accidental sounds. You could hear the wind stirring outside during the first movement. During

25 Music in Modernism c the second, raindrops began pattering the roof, and during the third the people themselves made all kinds of interesting sounds as they talked or walked out remains the most outspoken example of chance music; the very performance must be different every time. Other composers of the time that experimented with aleatoric music was Boulez, Stockhausen and several of Cage s students including Earle Brown ( ), Morton Feldman ( ), and Christian Wolff (b. 1934). Mass Effect The breakdown of traditional tonality, rhythm, and structure continued in the second half of the twentieth century. No longer did music have to contain a specific key center, form, or directional foundation. Between the experiments of the serial and indeterminate composers, an idea of music composed of individual elements working together to form a greater whole gave way to a new concept of music composed primarily of larger segments. Among the earliest exponents of these new developments was Karlheinz Stockhausen in his works during and beyond the 1950 s. Stockhausen referred to the process as group composition, where masses of pitches was joined together to create a single effect. This is displayed in Stockhausen s Gruppen ( Groups ) for three orchestras, written between 1955 and The piece consists of three separate ensembles, each led by a separate conductor, playing their own individual material. The three groups each have separate tempos, time signatures, and musical material that meld together into a solid mass of sound. Pierre Boulez had also begun to compose with texture as the foremost priority in his music, specifically in Le Marteau sans maître ( The Hammer Without a Master ) in 1954 for alto voice and six instruments. Two eastern European composers have become the most well known in music that feature group composition, Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) and György Ligeti ( ). Penderecki s earlier works show an influence of serialism, but in the late 1950 s his preferences changed to creating tone clusters, or tonal groups made up of close intervals, usually chromatically. His most well known work is the 1960 Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for fifty-two instruments. Hearing any individual pitches during the work is virtually impossible as a wave of sound consumes the general atmosphere. There are no defined avenues of key, rhythm, or musical form, and specific instrumental effects are used, such as the string instruments performing on the soundboard and the tailpiece. Ligeti s early works use a variety of folk music, mostly acquired through his studies with Bartók at the Budapest Academy. Like Penderecki, Ligeti s style changed during the late 1950 s when he began working with tone clusters, as evidenced in the 1961 piece Atmosphères. Ligeti s tone clusters change constantly, creating a continuing transformation of musical texture. His use of unconventional sounds is demonstrated in Lux aeterna (1966), and Lontano (1967), described by Ligeti as a metamorphosis of intervallic constellations. Other composers who have advanced music using the techniques of massed sound include the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis ( ) and the American Elliott Carter ( ). Xenakis first studied as an engineer and mathematician, and subsequently used his knowledge of calculations into his music. His musical studies continued under Messiaen, and after

26 Music in Modernism c experimenting with indeterminacy, began applying both aleatoric and finite material into his musical structures. Highly complex, Xenakis work employs some chance elements into the details, but always moves toward a definite goal. In his book Formalized Music (1963), Xenakis translates mathematical theories of probability into musical notation, specifically in the example of his piece Metastasis (1954). Elliott Carter, like so many other Americans of the time, studied music with Nadia Boulanger during the 1930 s. His early works were rooted in ne0- clasicism, but during the 1940 s Carter broke off from that tradition and started composing with a focus on maintaining an even rhythmic flow that transformed and Graph for measures from Iannis Xenakis Metastasis (1954). evolved with the changing texture. The result, defined by Carter as metrical modulation, is present in works such as the Second String Quartet (1959) and the Third String Quartet (1971), both of which were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1960 and 1971, respectfully. His view of rhythm consisting of multiple layers led Carter to discard the notion that each individual part was its own self-contained unit. Instead, Carter treats the structure as ongoing, sometimes notating each part in completely different tempos. In his own words, Carter wished to create a large, unified musical action. On December 11, 2008, Carter celebrated his 100 th birthday, and continued to teach and compose until his death of natural causes in November of Minimalism Following the intense experimentalism of the previous decade, the 1960 s were characterized by a return to more basic compositional methods, particularly in the influence of Asian music and centered in the Javanese and Balinese gamelan traditions. Combined with the new wave of popular music in rock and jazz and supported by the use of synthesizers and other electronics, this new style consisted of understated forms, repetitive rhythms, and pure, consistent textures. Known as minimalism, music written in this style is exactly that; an endless hypnotic progression leading to no particular goal or end. The most basic musical techniques are used, and whatever melodic or harmonic constructs are present are extremely limited. The first recognized composer to develop his music is this style was La Monte Young (b. 1935). Young applied the principles of Webern s music in its brevity and applied it to improvisational work. Most of his compositions use an extremely limited amount of actual musical material; his X for Henry Flynt (1960) consists solely of one musical sound, the striking of an unidentified percussion instrument that is left up to the performer to decide. Terry Riley (b. 1935), who performed with Young in his ensembles, began composing minimalistic music with tape loops, creating

27 Music in Modernism c repetitions within perfectly maintained rhythmic intervals. Influenced by both jazz and Indian music, Riley s In C (1964) has become a defining work for the minimalist movement, and served to influence other composers within and outside the genre. Two of the most influential composers in the minimalistic style are Steve Reich (b. 1936) and Philip Glass (b. 1937). Born in New York City, Reich studied composition with musicians including Vincent Persichetti, Luciano Berio, and Darius Milhaud, and was one of the performers on the first performance of In C. His own compositions originated from twelve-tone influences, but changed dramatically after a five-week study in Ghana, where he learned about Javanese gamelan music. He developed a new technique involving the playing of two identical sequences, each moving at a different speed. Known as phase-shifting, Reich gradually separated the sequences out of sync with each other, so that they occurred at slightly different speeds. An example of this is the 1967 piece Piano Phase, where two pianists perform relatively the same musical material, first playing in unison, but gradually shifting out of time with each other. During his career, Reich has experimented with the combination of live performers and recorded tape, such as in pieces like New York Counterpoint (1985) and Different Trains (1988). In March 2011, Reich premiered WTC 9/11, composed for the victims of September 11, Philip Glass completed his composition degrees at the University of Chicago and the Julliard School, studying alongside Reich with Persichetti and Milhaud. In 1964, Glass traveled to Paris and studied with Nadia Boulanger, and was later influenced by Indian and Asian music when he traveled to northern India in Upon returning to New York in 1967, Glass formed a performing ensemble with some of his fellow former classmates, including Reich. Glass minimalistic works began in the late 1960 s with Music of Fifths (1969), which consists of one single line that doubles in fifths for the entire duration. In the 1970 s Glass focused on stage works, culminating in his three famous operas, Einstein on the Beach (1975), Satyagraha (1980), and Akhnaten (1983). Over his most distinguished career, Glass has written for virtually every musical genre, including film and television. He has been nominated for Golden Globes and Academy Awards for the musical scores to films including Kundun (1998), The Truman Show (1999), The Hours (2002), and Notes on a Scandal (2006). He continues to perform as part of the Phil Glass Ensemble, and has collaborated with artists and musicians including Mick Jagger, Paul Simon, David Byrne, and David Bowie. Though not exclusively minimalistic, John Adams (b. 1947) considers himself a poststyle composer, employing several minimalism techniques such as the repetition of patterns. Born in Massachusetts, Adams studied composition at Harvard University with Roger Sessions and David Del Tredici, among others. Disillusioned by the rigidity of serialism, Adams became invigorated after reading John Cage s book Silence (1973), and subsequently began to experiment with electronic music and minimalism. His influential works in minimalism include Phrygian Gates (1978) for solo piano, Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986) for full orchestra, and his most famous work, the opera Nixon in China (1987). Adams has also written for most musical genres, though not all in the style of minimalism. His piece On the Transmigration of Souls, written as a memorial piece for the victims of September 11, 2001, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003, and in the same year, Lincoln Center presented a festival entitled John Adams: An American Master, the most extensive festival that the venue has ever devoted to a living composer.

28 Music in Modernism c Technology in Music Since the introduction of the phonograph in 1877, invented by Thomas Edison, technology has served an increasingly dominant role in music composition and performance. The practical application of using technology to create and perform new works of music was not explored until the beginning of the twentieth century, where new inventions gave composers a completely new landscape of sound possibilities. Among those inventions include the telharmonium, invented in 1906 by Thaddeus Cahill, capable of producing electrically generated sounds, and the theramin, invented in 1920 by Lev Termin. The theramin was capable of producing a continuous stream of sound by manipulating alternating frequencies. Electronic instruments had their debut in modern music after World War II in the 1950 s. The earliest process of electronic sound-making involved creating tapes of recorded natural sounds and editing those sounds; transforming them into entirely new entities. This technique, pioneered at the French National Radio in 1948, was called musique concréte, because all the collected sounds originally came from natural, or concrete sources. A performer playing a theramin, generating sound without actually touching the instrument. Soon afterward studios were created for the specific development of sound recording and manipulation, most notably in Cologne, Paris, Milan, and Princeton. Composers who had previously written in serial form, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt, and John Cage, were drawn to this new resource, and began to compose using electronic sounds and live recordings. Stockhausen s Study I (1953) and Gesang der Jünglinge ( Song of the Youths 1956) both represented a dramatic shift in how music could be performed without the need for a live performer. By 1960 electronic music had become the newest innovation in contemporary music. Films, television, and radio had begun to employ a heavy use of electronics, and the invention of the synthesizer allowed the integration of multiple elements such as an oscillator, amplifier, and other components into a single control keyboard. In 1965, Robert Moog, a New York sound engineer, developed the Moog synthesizer, the first commercially available synthesizer and the most sophisticated electronic instrument of its time. The synthesizer appealed not only to contemporary composers, but to rock, jazz, and new wave musicians that integrated the instrument into their genres as well. Milton Babbitt in particular was drawn to what the synthesizer could accomplish, resulting in groundbreaking works such as his Composition for Synthesizer (1961) and Philomel (1964). Philomel in particular combines live and recorded sounds as a performing soprano sings in combination with a tape of her own recorded voice. By 1970, electronics in music had infiltrated virtually every genre of both contemporary and popular music.

29 Music in Modernism c The addition of using computers to generate sound began in the late 1950 s when Max V. Matthews, an American electrical engineer, developed the first computer program able to create musical sound. The program, developed at New Jersey s Bell Laboratories, was called Music V, and soon afterward computer sound programs were installed at Princeton and Stanford in the mid 1960 s. Computers could also function as controllers; sending instructions to electronic equipment and serving as a unifying controller for multiple devices. The development of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) in the 1980 s allowed a wide variety of musical devices, including both computers and electronic musical instruments to communicate with each other in a shared digital language. Today, technology is used extensively to produce, perform, and share music around the world. Musical composition programs such as Finale and Sibelius can generate entire works using any known A screen shot of the musical sequencer program Mixcraft 5.0. combination of musical sounds, and music sequencers including Mixcraft and Garage Band can give anyone the ability to create entire musical scores. Sharing music around the world has become almost instantaneous with devices such as the ipod, ipad, and internet-based applications and websites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Grooveshark. Increasing at an exponential rate, it is difficult to say what new innovations await the 21 st century, but it is obvious that technology will continue to play a dominant role in music of the future. Music in the Present and the Future The idea that music could be created through an unlimited number of means to express an endless array of concepts combined with new technologies that allowed greater reaches of communication and possibilities in sound gave rise to the experimental genres that defined the mid-twentieth century. By the 1970 s, however, the younger generation of composer had turned toward a more conservative route. Their desire was to make music more accessible than their predecessors, because while the music of the experimentalists may have been groundbreaking in its originality, their audiences became so specialized that the mainstream had been left out. During that time, the popular vein of music began to gain influence as jazz gave way to rock n roll and its descendants. Composers from the 1970 s onward wished to appeal to a wider audience, and so they returned to the roots of tonality while utilizing the techniques from the past and the present. Born in West Virginia, George Crumb (b. 1929) has used a variety of instrumental combinations, including electronic medium, to explore new timbres and sound combinations. His writings also involve contrasting multiple stylistic influences, a technique that has become increasingly popular among late twentieth century and early twenty-first century composers.

30 Music in Modernism c Crumb also includes a variety of non-traditional instruments, specifically in his most famous work, Ancient Voices of Children (1970), which involves a toy piano, prayer stones, and a musical saw. The use of unorthodox instrumentation continues to be a favorite technique among contemporary composers. The return to tonality has been called the new romanticism by musicians of the current age; one of the earliest exponents of that development is David del Tredici (b. 1937). Tredici, who studied with Roger Sessions among others, was originally trained in the serial medium. Tredici, however, followed a different path with his early works, setting multiple texts by James Joyce and contemporary poets, reflecting a tendency toward homosexual themes. As an advocate for gay rights, Tredici has been twice named OUT Magazine s Man of the Year. Tredici s most famous compositions are his set of works based on Lewis Carroll s Alice s Adventures in Wonderland, including the Alice Symphony (1969); Final Alice (1976) and Child Alice (1981), which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for its first part, entitled In Memory of a Summer Day. Women composers, though not a novelty to composition, began to gain more universal acceptance and appreciation in the second half of the twentieth century. The first Pulitzer Prize given to a woman was awarded in 1983 to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939). Zwilich (see Composer Profiles) also received the first doctorate in composition given to a woman by the Julliard School, and went on to earn five honorary doctorates since then. Joan Tower (b. 1938), while born in New York, lived for ten years in Bolivia, where she adapted South American rhythms into her mature works. Among her most famous pieces is the Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (1987), inspired by Copland s Fanfare for the Common Man. Libby Larson (b. 1950) established the American Composers Forum in 1973 during her time studying at the University of Minnesota. With a catalogue of over five hundred works, Larson is one of the most prolific composers of the present age, and has over fifty recorded CD s of her music. Among those composers who have continued to develop music into the twenty-first century include John Corigliano (b. 1938) and Tan Dun (b. 1957). Both composers (see Composer Profiles) have earned wide international acclaim by incorporating traditional, folk, and popular stylistic influences into their music. They have also included a wide variety of instrumentation, and have also composed in every genre of music available, including orchestral, chamber, vocal, opera, and film. It is impossible to display a comprehensive list of all the influential composers of today s generation, as so many diverse compositional approaches define the musical society of the present. The current musical scene is a flurry of activity with an entire range of subcultures that interact with each other. The global village Home page for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, developed by Google in of music in the present provides a wealth of material that composers draw upon, combining and