Late Romantic 1890-1914 Impressionism Impressionism in Painting Movement active from 1870-1920 Against French tradition of painting Monet and others held their own art shows Against representational art Importance of light Spots of movement and color create movement and fluidity Claude Monet (1840-1926) Edgar Degas (1834-1917) Auguste Renior (1841-1919) Impressionism in Music Melody Varies from short dabs of sound to long, flowing lines Rarely tuneful Scales that weaken sense of tonic (whole tone/pentatonic/chromatic) Harmony Static harmony instead of strong cadences 9 th chords Parallel motion Rhythm Flexible, irregular accents Meter obscured Rhythmic ostinato Color Emphasis on woodwinds and brass Less on strings Soloistic writing Texture Primarily homophonic Varies from then and airy to heavy and dense Form Avoids traditional forms with clear cut sections and repetitions Form adapted to particular need of composition Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Career Studied at Paris Conservatory
Spent 3 summers working for Nadezhda von Meck in 1880-1882. He gave piano lessons and played music for family. Returned to Paris in 1887 and lived there the remainder of his life Most famous compositions written between 1894-1914 Due to effects of cancer in WWI he ceased composing from 1914-1918 Compositions established the impressionist style in music He is an early beacon of modern music Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun o Most famous orchestral piece o Intended to precede a stage reading of Mallarme s poem o 1912 Debussy allowed Serge de Diaghilev to present the work as a ballet Landmark ballet work Used modern dance techniques Shocked audiences
20 th Century 1890-2000 Diversity & Experimentation Continuous search for new means of musical expression Rejected German Romanticism Distortion and dissonance Increasing rift between composers and audience Lack of cohesion Multiple styles No one style dominanted o Atonal o Twelve-tone o Electronic music o Chance o Neo-classical o Minimalism Melody Angular Wide ranging lines Fragmented Used octave displacement Chromatic and dissonant Harmony Dissonance Triad reduced in importance as the basic element New chords created by superimposing more thirds Poly Tonality- two conflicting but equal tonal centers sound simultaneously Atonality- no audible tonal centers Rhythm Vigorous, energetic rhythms Polymeter- conflicting simultaneous meters Polyrhythms- conflicting rhythms Tone Color Seek new sounds Percussion more dominant Creation of electronic and computer music Texture varied Form Range of extremes Neo-classical used traditional symphonic forms 12 tone allowed mathematical control Chance based on random events
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) Most significant composer of the 20 th century Early life spent in Russia Different styles at different points in his life Russian Ballet Period (1910-1920) o Achieved international fame for Ballet o Association with Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes o Diaghilev sound most progressive artists he could find o Stravinsky came to Diaghilev s attention in 1909 o Young musician became quickly most important ballet writer Firebird 1910 Petrushka 1911 Rite of Spring 1913 Neo-Classical Period (1920-1951) o Adapted classical forms to fit 20 th century techniques o Required a smaller orchestra than the one needed to perform ballets o Compositions often based on mythology or 18 th century topics and forms o During life lived in Paris, Venice, Lausanne (Switzerland), NY, and Hollywood o French citizen in 1934 o Moved to US at the outbreak of WWII o US citizen in 1945 12 tone period (1951-1971) o Used serial style of composing o Died in NY Expressionism A German-Austrian movement Extension of German Romanticism Prominent in early decades of 20 th century Aesthetic o Instead of reproducing an object, it expresses the strong emotion the object generates o Conveys intermost feelings, anxieties, and fears o Emphasizes exaggeration and distortion Musical Style o Harsh dissonances o Asymmetrical rhythms o Angular chromatic melodies o Atonal
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) Important composer and theorist Created atonal music Dispensed with the triad as a structural principle Invented Sprechstimme Father 12-tone composition Pierrot Lunaire - Moonstruck Pierrot o Schoenbergs best known composition o 1912 o Expressionist composition o 21 songs for soprano and chamber ensemble o Introduced Sprechstimme German for speech voice More declamation than singing Rhythmic values must be vigorously observed but pitch is variable Results in an exaggerated hysterical style 12 tone music o A solution to the formal anarchy resulting from atonality o Atonal music works for small forms but not for large compositions o Method All 12 notes of chromatic scale arranged in fix predetermined order called tone row Now is unique for all compositions Note cannot be repeated until entire row is played Now must remain in order Audiences never embraced the process Highly structured but sounds arbitrary Has been called on of the two great failed experiments of the 20 th century Charles Ives (1874-1954) Greatest and most eccentric American composer Employed polytonality Created collage art in sound Used many American tones Presented them in original often distorted, fragmented way Blended highly dissonant harmony with traditional harmony; hymn, patriotic, popular, and folk songs Born in Danbury, Connecticut Father was civil war band leader Father provided him with lessons Deeply influenced by popular music (marches, patriotic, hymns) Attended Yale o Studied music with European trained Horatio Parker o Heavy extracurricular activities o Graduated with D+ average in 1898 o Wrote numerous piano stunts that he later orchestrated
Yale-Princeton Football Game (2 halves in 2 minutes) o Crowd noises, cheers, fight songs o Teams feature bassoon (quarterback), piccolo (referee), trumpet (runningback) o Two sets of downs culminating in a long zig-zagging run by the trumpet Decided against earning a livelihood in music Pursued a successful career in insurance o Found a company with a friend in 1907 o Largest insurance company in US o Made a fortune o Still wrote music Holidays: Symphony III: The Fourth of July Frantically composed his music at night after work o Active between 1898 and 1917 o Works are rarely performed o Considered the art of composition a private matter o Word of his unusual creations gradually spread o Awarded Pulitzer Prize in music o Given for a work he had composed 40 years earlier Neo-Classicism Most influential during period between two world wars Aesthetic o Rejection of Romantic emotionalism and modern atonality o Revival and adaptation Baroque and Classical style Important Composers o Stravinsky o Britten o Prokofiev o Shostakovich o Hindemith o Copland Aaron Copland (1900-1990) Music embodies American Musical heritage Employs American hymn tunes, cowboy songs, jazz idioms Set familiar tunes in conservative consonant harmony Studied in Paris (1921-1924) o Heard music of modern French and Russian composers o Determined to compose in distinct American style o Believed dissonance and atonality alienated ordinary citizens o Initially incorporated jazz idioms o 1930 s began o deliberately make his music appealing Style o Melodies: folk tunes, popular, stepwise, and diatonic o Harmony: tonal, widely spaced chords o Timbre: does not mix colors, keep instruments in own family groups
Appalachian Spring (1944) o One act ballet o Composed for American choreographer Martha Graham o Won Pulitzer Prize in 1945 o Tells the story of Spring with pioneers during early 1800 s Electronic Music Music in which some or all of the sounds are produced by electronic generators or other apparatus Numerous ways to produce it o Sound generators o Manipulated taped sounds o Synthesizers o Computers Movement became extremely influential in early 1950 s Had existed since 1900 s Thermin Edgard Varese (1883-1965) o Important innovator in the field of electronic music o One of the first to use music concrete o Poeme Electronique Chance Music Aleatoric music Type of contemporary music in which certain notes or their pitches Not specified by composer but are left to chance Many ways to achieve chance o Throw dice to choose notes o Have computer program randomly assign instrumentation o Allow performers to improvise sections o Very popular during 60 s-70 s John Cage (1912-1992) o Leading proponent of Chance music o Musical events occur in an unpredictable sequence o 4 33 Consists of 3 movements of silence Causes the audience to become aware of background noise o Created the prepared piano Various objects are inserted into the piano and on the strings Radically alternating the timbre of the instrument Piano becomes percussion instrument
Minimalism Early 1960 s Aesthetic: rejection of modernism, reduction to most essential elements Musical style o Influence from non-western music, jazz, and rock o Emphasized a simplified rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic style o Repeats a small amount of material over steady pulse o Tonal, consonant harmony Composers o Terry Riley o Steve Reich o John Adams o Philip Glass Einstein on the Beach - 1976 o Philip Glass o Opera Short Ride in a Fast Machine o John Adams