Contents page Track list 4 Music of the Twentieth Century, by David McCleery 9 I. Introduction 10 II. Pointing the Way Forward 13 III. Post-Romanticism 17 IV. Serialism and Twelve-Tone Music 24 V. Neoclassicism 34 VI. An English Musical Renaissance 44 VII. Nationalist Music 55 VIII. Music from Behind the Iron Curtain 64 IX. The American Tradition 74 X. The Avant Garde 85 XI. Beyond the Avant Garde 104 XII. A Second Musical Renaissance in England 118 XIII. Into the Present 124 Sources of featured panels 128 A Timeline of the Twentieth Century (music, history, art and architecture, literature) 130 Further Listening 150 Composers of the Twentieth Century 155 Map 164 Glossary 166 Credits 179 3
Track List CD 1 Claude Debussy (1862 1918) 1 Prélude à l après-midi d un faune 10:33 BRT Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels / Alexander Rahbari 8.550262 2 3 4 5 6 7 Arnold Schoenberg (1874 1951) Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23 Walzer 3:30 Peter Hill, piano 8.553870 Alban Berg (1885 1935) Violin Concerto Movement 1: Andante Scherzo 11:29 Rebecca Hirsch, violin / Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra / Eri Klas 8.554755 Anton Webern (1883 1945) Five Pieces, Op. 10 Sehr ruhig und zart 0:39 Lebhaft und zart bewegt 0:32 Sehr langsam und äußerst zart 1:43 Fließend, äußerst zart 0:33 4
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Sehr fließend 1:03 Ulster Orchestra / Takuo Yuasa 8.554841 Maurice Ravel (1875 1937) Le Tombeau de Couperin Forlane: Allegretto 6:30 Klára Körmendi, piano 8.550254 Igor Stravinsky (1882 1971) Petrushka First Tableau: The Shrove-Tide Fair 5:08 The Mountebank 1:49 Philharmonia Orchestra / Robert Craft 8.557500 Pulcinella Vivo 1:41 Bournemouth Sinfonietta / Stefan Sanderling 8.553181 Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 1958) Symphony No. 3 Pastoral Movement 3: Moderato pesante 6:29 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Kees Bakels 8.550733 Benjamin Britten (1913 1976) Hymn to St Cecilia 10:16 Choir of St John s College, Cambridge / Christopher Robinson 8.554791 Leoš Janáček (1854 1928) Sinfonietta Movement 4: Allegretto 2:38 Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) / Ondrej Lenárd 8.550411 5
16 Béla Bartók (1881 1945) Concerto for Orchestra Introduzione: Andante non troppo Allegro vivace 10:51 BRT Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels / Alexander Rahbari 8.550261 TT 76:09 CD 2 Sergei Prokofiev (1891 1953) Suite from Lieutenant Kijé 1 Romance 4:49 Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Košice) / Andrew Mogrelia 8.550381 2 3 4 5 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 1975) Symphony No. 10 Movement 2: Allegro 4:16 Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) / Ladislav Slovák 8.550633 George Gershwin (1898 1937) Piano Concerto in F Movement 3: Allegro agitato 6:45 Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra / Stephen Gunzenhauser 8.550295 John Williams (b. 1932) Main theme from Schindler s List 4:04 The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra / Paul Bateman TVPMCD810 Charles Ives (1874 1954) The Unanswered Question 4:37 Northern Sinfonia / James Sinclair 8.559087 6
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Edgard Varèse (1883 1965) Déserts Second Electronic Interpolation (conclusion) 1:53 Third Electronic Interpolation (beginning) 4:18 Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Christopher Lyndon-Gee 8.554820 Olivier Messiaen (1908 1992) Quartet for the End of Time Movement 1: Liturgie de cristal 2:40 Amici Ensemble 8.554824 Pierre Boulez (b. 1925) Piano Sonata No. 3 Movement 4: Commentaire 3:22 Idil Biret, piano 8.553353 Karlheinz Stockhausen (b. 1928) Stimmung warming up, leading to Model 1, Bass 3:03 Mezzo. Gott nochmal Soprano 2. GROGORAGALLY Sun god (Australian aboriginal) 1:31 Soprano 2. Vishnu Baritone. ELYON God of Storms (Hebrew) 0:52 Soprano 1. Tenor. USI AFU God of the Earth (Timor, Indonesia) 0:58 Singcircle / Gregory Rose CDA 66115 John Cage (1912 1992) Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano First Interlude 3:30 Boris Berman, piano 8.554345 7
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Steve Reich (b. 1936) New York Counterpoint Movement 1 4:59 Roger Heaton, clarinet CC 0009 John Adams (b. 1947) Short Ride in a Fast Machine 4:04 Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra / Marin Alsop 8.559031 John Tavener (b. 1944) The Lord s Prayer 3:31 Choir of St John s College, Cambridge / Christopher Robinson 8.555256 Henryk Górecki (b. 1933) Symphony No. 3 Movement 2: Lento e largo Tranquillissimo 10:17 Zofia Kilanowicz, soprano / Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra / Antoni Wit 8.550822 Sir Harrison Birtwistle (b. 1934) Gawain s Journey Lullaby 1:50 Vision of the Hunt I 1:27 Philharmonia Orchestra / Elgar Howarth NMC D088 Tōru Takemitsu (1930 1996) Voice for solo flute 5:14 Robert Aitken, flute 8.555859 TT 78:56 8
Music of the 20th Century by David McCleery 9
I. Introduction The Kiss, 1908, by Gustav Klimt (1862 1918); courtesy AKG
Like all art, great music has always absorbed the spirit and ideology of its time, expressing them in a way which proves meaningful to future generations. It is impossible to understand the history of twentieth-century music without looking at the events that shaped the world during this turbulent yet exhilarating age. The far-reaching political and mental impact of the two world wars cannot be overestimated: the violent bloodshed of World War I finally came to an end in 1918 with the almost simultaneous resignation of the German Kaiser and the Habsburg Emperor, while in the previous year the Russian revolutions had resulted in the overthrow (and later murder) of Tsar Nicholas II. This dramatically transformed the political map of Europe, with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and new, independently ruled nations springing up throughout central Europe. While Communism was established in Russia, political infighting among left and central governments elsewhere in Europe led to Fascist dictatorships in Germany, Spain and Italy. Following the further brutal atrocities of World War II, the Iron Curtain descended. This divided Europe into East and West, and the world entered a tense and unstable age which became known as the Cold War. Music was both directly and indirectly affected by all these events in many different ways: certain composers, for example, wrote works inspired by particular events; others were forced by totalitarian governments to write patriotic music in an officially prescribed style. There were, of course, many other, more positive factors that influenced the course of music in the twentieth century. The amazing speed of technological advancements changed the way the world functioned, and opened many new doors for composers. The advent of recording and broadcasting made it easy for everyone to enjoy the sound of a full-size symphony orchestra in the comfort of their own home, hugely increasing the potential audience for music. Recorded media and a faster pace of communications also meant that composers came into contact with, and were influenced by, styles and techniques of other countries, which may otherwise have taken years or even decades to reach them. The development of electronics led experimental composers to create an entirely new style of music after the Second World War. A fascination with the music and philosophies of non- Western cultures grew from increased accessibility to remote parts of the world, thanks to air travel. New types of music appeared throughout the century, such as jazz, pop and film music, 11
all of which made their mark on classical composers and their music. These diverse factors came to exert their influence on Western classical music at a time when the tradition stood on a threshold. Since the seventeenth century, all music had been firmly based on one foundation: tonality, i.e. the idea of music being in a key. But the radical ways in which composers, in particular Richard Wagner, had stretched the rules of harmony during the nineteenth century had brought tonality to the brink of collapse. Composers at the outset of the twentieth century had a crisis on their hands: without tonality, how could music possibly have a future? The response to this crisis was a dramatic explosion of creativity: many new and diverse musical techniques and styles appeared, some drawing on the past, and others being invented from scratch. The thread of Western musical development which had progressed in a generally uniform manner for a millennium, suddenly splintered off into many independent trends, as different composers each tried to define a future for classical music. There was only one rule left for composers: anything goes. Change always comes about as a reaction to what has gone before. In the nineteenth century, there had been a reaction against the measured formality of the Classical era. Composers, writers and artists plunged themselves into the depths of the human soul and created works of ever-increasing scale and intensity of emotional expression. However, in the early twentieth century, trends and styles emerged which reacted against this: some composers, particularly those at the cutting edge of new techniques, tended to choose smallscale chamber forms, in stark contrast to the grand Romantic works with huge orchestras and epic durations; serialism, as we shall see, rejected the freedom of form enjoyed by the nineteenth-century composers, returning instead to a formal compositional technique governed by strict rules; and neoclassicism, which had its heyday in the 1920s, superseded selfindulgent emotionalism with a deliberately dispassionate style, possibly expressing a need for escapism following the trauma of World War I. Much of the music of the twentieth century shocked and confused its audiences; even today particular styles are largely avoided by concert organisers, wary of scaring off the public. But by trying to understand what the composers were aiming for in developing their new techniques, we can approach the music without being intimidated, and appreciate the wildly diverse creativity which has redefined the music of our times. 12
This is the introductory chapter of Discover Music of the 20th Century. The full booklet, illustrated with photographs and accompanied by two CDs, is available to buy from www.naxos.com.