1 / 23

20 th Century Music

20 th Century Music. INTRODUCTION The 20 th century period (the music of today!) was preceded by the (1810 – 1900)

gyda
Download Presentation

20 th Century Music

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. 20th Century Music

  2. INTRODUCTION The 20th century period (the music of today!) was preceded by the (1810 – 1900) As with previous movements to new periods of music, there were those Romantic composers who continued to compose in a Romantic style while trying to combine the new elements of the 20th century period The composers concerned with this continuation of Romantic expression became known as composers of the period e.g. Mahler and Wagner The 20th century period is mainly concerned with EXPLORATION and EXPERIMENTATION. This meant that composers were largely interested in discovering NEW SOUNDS and NEW TECHNIQUES and NEW TRENDS. Because of all these new discoveries, we are faced with numerous different musical styles to investigate. ROMANTIC PERIOD POST-ROMANTIC

  3. ROMANTIC PERIOD 1820-1910 MANY STYLES EMOTION OPERA Brahms IMAGINATION ADVENTURE Schubert POLITICAL REVOLUTION Chopin ARTIST AS INDIVIDUAL EXPRESSED FEELINGS Wagner NEW INSTRUMENTS GROWTH OF ORCHESTRA Mahler NEW SOUNDS

  4. Some important new trends and techniques Impressionism Atonality Sprechgesang Serialism Electronic Music Neo-Classicism

  5. CHARACTERISTICS • In order to identify the main characteristics of the 20th century period you need to listen to FOUR main aspects • MELODY (the tune) • HARMONY (the key) • RHYTHM (the pulse) • TIMBRE (the texture)

  6. Within these 4 main areas you should be able to identify the following characteristics Melody Harmony Rhythm Timbre

  7. NEO-CLASSICISM A term that means the . As the word suggests, a composer writing in this style may form his own musical ideas from traditions of the past, or take a classical composer as his role model. Neo-classicism is mostly associated with the period between the two world wars. NewClassicism

  8. IGOR STRAVINSKY • Russian composer • 1882 – 1971 • Composed the ballet • (1919-20) PULCINELLA Pulcinella was recognised as one of the first neo-classical compositions. Stravinsky based the one-act ballet upon Pulcinella – a traditional hero of many 16th and 17th century Italian comedies. Pulcinella was a witty and warm-hearted character but was also known as a bit of a scoundrel!!!

  9. In Pulcinella, Stravinsky refers to characteristics of the BAROQUE period and uses, as his role models, composers such as • Bach • Handel • Pergolesi • (an Italian composer • who died in 1736) Listen to the extracts from Pulcinella and answer the questions

  10. Extract 1: SINFONIA • How many BEATS are in the bar? • 2.Is the piece in simple or compound time? • 3.How many times do you hear a SEQUENCED PATTERN and what are the names of the SOLO instruments that play them? • 4.Does the MAIN THEME MODULATE to a HIGHER or LOWER key? • 5. Towards the end which two members of the woodwind family have a conversation together • 6. What ornament then decorates the melody? • 7. The extract then ends with what kind of cadence?

  11. Answers • 1. Two beats in the bar. • 2. Simple • 3.Pattern heard 3 times. Played by Cor Angles and French Horn. • 4. Modulates to a higher key • 5. Oboe and Bassoon • 6. Trill • 7. Perfect Cadence

  12. Extract 2: TOCCATA • Which instrument plays the OPENING THEME? • What term would you use to describe how the music is articulated? • Listen carefully to the SOLO SEQUENCE. Is it ASCENDING or DESCENDING? • What musical period and composer does this excerpt remind you of? • Is the music in compound or simple time? • Throughout the extract the woodwind and strings seem to be having a rather frantic conversation in which overlapping melodies are heard sometimes copying each other. Can you think of two words to describe this kind of writing?

  13. Answers • 1. Strings • 2. Arco • 3. Descending • 4. Romantic • 5. Compound • 6. Imitative & Polyphonic/Contrapuntal

  14. IMPRESSIONISM A term originally used by artists of the late 19th century. The main aim was to capture on canvas the IMPRESSION made on them by the OBJECT of their painting. Composers soon related their idea of impressionism to their music.

  15. IMPRESSIONISM * French movement; late 19th and early 20th century * Begun by Debussy in reaction to the emotionalism of romantic music (especially Wagner) * Atmosphere and mood take the place of strong emotion or of the story * Harmonies and tone colours used to paint a musical picture of colour and light * Experimenting with the old and the exotic; medieval modes and eastern scales Ravel Debussy

  16. Orchestration * Using unusual instruments (e.g. harp, celesta, triangle, brushed cymbals) * Using instruments in unusual ways (e.g. flutes/clarinets in dark lower registers, violins in their extreme upper register and muted brass instruments) * Using instruments in unusual combinations, subtly changing instruments as a melody or passage progresses * Chords valued for their individual sonorities rather than for their relations to one another. Composers would often write a sequence of such chords in parallel motion. Mildly dissonant chords such as 9th chords and 11th chords often used Harmony

  17. Primary Intervals • (4ths, 5ths, Octaves) – emphasising and using them in parallel motion (opening of Cathedrale engloutie) • (6 whole tones with no semitones) – a wonderful, eerie, atmospheric effect • (5 note scale with no semitones) – popularly associated with oriental music but also common in Scottish, Irish and English folk music Whole Tone Scale Pentatonic Scale

  18. unusual scales • Debussy often bases his harmonies upon • Based on only FIVE notes • Built on notes that are a WHOLE TONE apart THE PENTATONIC SCALE THE WHOLE –TONE SCALE

  19. DEBUSSY Born in France in 1862. Died in 1918. One of the main composers associated with impressionism. Debussy’s music showed how willing he was to be stimulated by artist’s work, especially MONET. L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune (The Afternoon of a Faun), written in 1894, was Debussy’s first important composition in an impressionist style. Debussy studied how the artist treated and and tried to capture it in the treatment of his own and . COLOUR LIGHT TONE-COLOURS HARMONIES

  20. Debussy based his L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune on a poem. The poem describes a young faun lying under SHADY trees in the heat of a summer’s afternoon. He spies a group of nymphs in the distance running through a COOL glade. He asks himself if they are real or do they exist only in his imagination? His thoughts become more HAZY as he becomes more drowsy in the heat.

  21. Listen to the following extract from Debussy’s L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune and answer the questions: • The melody starts with which instrument? • What effect is used by the brass instruments at the start? • Which instrument echoes the melody? • How is the melody then decorated? • What scale does the clarinet use to add atmosphere? • The SECOND theme is played in which SOLO instrument?

  22. 7.Which STRING instruments add to the TONE-COLOUR of the melody and thicken the orchestral texture? 8. In the second theme are the violins playing in UNISON or HARMONY? 9. Towards the end of the second theme what happens to in the tempo? 10. What word describes this?

  23. Debussy Answers • 1. Clarinet • 2. Mute (Con Sordino) • 3. Flute • 4. Trills, and Mordants • 5. Whole Tone • 6. Oboe • 7. Violins • 8. Unison • 9. Speeds up and slows down • 10. Rubato

More Related