Breaking Convention: Music and Modernism AK 2100 Nov. 9, 2005 Music and Tradition A brief timeline of Western Music Medieval: (before 1450). Chant, plainsong or Gregorian Chant. Renaissance: (1450-1650 Increased use of instrumentation and multiple melodic lines Baroque: (1650-1750). Characterized by the use of counterpoint and growing popularity of keyboard music and orchestral music Classical: (1750-1820). A brief but important era dominated by a handful of composers Romantic: (1820-1920). Equally important, with a few central figures. Greater emphasis on individual style and expression 20th century. Challenged many musical conventions. The terms contemporary music or new music are used to describe serious or art music composed today. 1
The Classical Form A written musical tradition Music for its own sake - not a vehicle for other forms of content. Concerned with universality as opposed to the individual or local Classical Sonata form: a way of organizing a work of music. Linked to the structures of other forms - symphony, concerto, sonata Commonly used in the classical era in Europe (1750-1820) Basic idea: introduction of theme, development of theme and closure of theme. Key Figures: Ludwig van Beethoven (earlier works) (1770-1827) Joseph Haydn, (1732-1809) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) Franz Schubert (1797-1828) The Symphony First Movement: fast, in sonata form Second Movement: slow Third Movement: ABA structure Fourth Movement: fast, sonata or rondo form (ABACADA) Beethoven. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 2
Modernism & Music 1907: possible date for the beginning of the modern period with the figure of Arnold Schoenberg Collapse of traditional tonality Challenged common practice tonality (1700-1900) Invests expanded spans of music with a sense of clearly defined, goaldirected motion Some generalized formal types: sonata form, the song form, the rondo developed in conjunction with tonality Logical pattern of formal connections By end of 18 th century its evolution had made it a sort of universal musical language Modernism & Music Main currents in 19 th century musical practices undermined this common foundation Most important reason growing preference for a more personal kind of musical expression as opposed to a universal form Aesthetics of musical Romanticism emphasis placed on the unique as opposed to the general. (later Beethoven - string quartets, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Frederic Chopin) Beethoven String. Quartet in A, Op 18 No. 5, II Chopin. Nocturne in F#, Op. 15, No. 2 Debussy. Three Nocturnes, Clouds Ravel. Spanish Rhapsody, 4th Movement, Feria 3
Modernism & Music Striving for individuality is evident in virtually all aspects of 19 th century music. Many innovations undermined the foundation of Classical form In place of the Classical ideal of form as an interaction among well defined and functionally differentiated units, a new Romantic ideal emerged of form as process, of music as continuum of uninterrupted growth and evolution Form thereby acquired a more open quality, quite different from the closed character of Classical musical structure Modernism & Music This can be seen with special clarity in openings and closings Clarity is no longer the end goal Program music: also lead to breakup of tonal music Richard Wagner, Die Walküre, Act III, Finale. (c 1874) Also: rise of nationalism. Composers from other countries drew upon the very different musical qualities found in the folk and ethnic music of their own lands. Music became increasingly autonomous from Church and Royal Court. Old patronage system began to dissolve At the close of the 19 th century, music had reached a position fundamentally different from the one it occupied at the beginning. Composers were individuals, expressing themselves through their music. Believed in musical progress and the constant emergence of new forms of expression. 4
The Atonal Revolution The Second Viennese School - Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg Schoenberg: 1874-1951 Great impact on compositional practice Took the pracatice of chromatic music to its logical extreme -- to completely abandon tonal and harmonic conventions First String Quartet (1905): extraordinary complexity and elaborate organization Two technical details Schoenberg later theorized but which are articulated here in the music are Developing variation,--continuous transformation of thematic substance, avoiding literal repetition, And musical prose, constantly unfolding of an unbroken musical line without any symmetrical balances in terms of phrases, or sections, and corresponding thematic content. Excerpt from String Quartet No. 2 (1907-8) 1. Massing 3. Litanei. Langsam The Atonal Revolution 1907-1909-very creative period for Schoenberg where he made his break with tonality and triadic harmony and moved into free chromaticism Second String Quartet Op. 10 Three Piano Pieces Op 11 Two Songs Book of the Hanging Gardens Op 15 Five Orchestral Pieces Op 16 Erwartung Op 17 Die Gluckliche Hand During this period, Schoenberg had two main goals: The emancipation of dissonance Complete abandonment of conventional tonal and harmonic conventions 5
The Atonal Revolution The Book of the Hanging Gardens, No. 7 Again, each piece asks a particular question and illustrates different organization structures Erwartung (1909):Erwartung can especially be viewed as part of the Expressionist movement, that dominated the arts during the first 20 year of 1900s Pierrot Lunaire (1912) - excerpts No. 18 The Moonfleck No. 19 Serenade After 1916, Schoenberg published no pieces again until 1923 Long silence due to a search for new organization principles for this new language 12 Tone Music (Serialism) Schoenberg no longer believed in the intuitive mode of composition Saw atonal system as inadequate for longer pieces 1921 discovery of 12 tone system Conviction was that order, logic, comprehensibility and form could not be present without obedience to laws (ZKIF) Coherence, Counterpoint, Instrumentation, Instruction in Form. (Zusammenhang, Kontrapunkt, Instrumentation, Formenlehre) (ZKIF). Schoenberg claimed that his discovery of the 12 tone system would insure the supremacy of German music for the next hundred years 6
12 Tone System Each composition draws its basic material from a uniquely chosen sequence of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale. This is the 12 tone row or series. This is called the prime form or P for short. 12 Tone System In addition to P there are three other related forms: The retrograde R reverses the sequence of pitches and intervals In I each of the original intervals is inverted so that a perfect fifth upwards becomes a perfect fifth downwards The retrograde inversion RI is a inversion of R 7
Glen Gould, piano. 8
Schoenberg quotes Schoenberg developed the system as in a dream.... Strongly convincing as this dream may have been, the conviction that these new sounds obey the laws of nature and our manner of thinking - the conviction that order, logic, comprehensibility and form cannot be present without obedience to such laws - forces the composer along the road to exploration. He must find if not laws or rules, at least ways to justify the dissonant character of these harmonies and their successions. Schoenberg quotes "One may say: coherence is based on repetition, inasmuch as parts of A recur in B, C, etc. And: Coherence comes into being when parts that are somewhat the same, somewhat different, are connected so that those parts that are the same become prominent. Contrast (relational) is likewise based on coherence, insofar as the same parts as mentioned above are connected so that the unlike parts predominantly attract attention. Change and variation are based on repetition, insofar as several of the like parts as well as several of the dissimilar parts become discernible. Development is one such succession of related ideas, in which disparate parts that are initially subordinate in importance gradually become the principal ideas. (ZKIF: 20-23) 9
Stravinsky 1882-1971 Rite of Spring, May 29, 1913 premier in Paris. Caused a riot Pagan Russian rituals High level of dissonance Chromaticism Pervasive rhythmic technique Excerpts Continuations of the atonal revolution John Cage. Music of Changes (1951) Edgar Varese. Poeme electronique (1958) Gyorgy Ligeti. Lux Aeterna (1966) George Crumb. Black Angels (1970) 10