The World of Music 7 th edition

1. The World of Music7th edition Part 4 Listening to Western Classical Music Chapter 13: Music of the Twentieth Century

2. Modern Classical Music • Diverse, Complex, Experimentation • Conventional Instruments • Traditional Techniques AND • Unconventional Techniques • Thumbtacks on Piano hammers • Buzzing mouthpieces • Humming, singing whistling through the instrument • Unconventional Instruments • Anvil/Automobile Brake Drums • Garden Hoses with mouthpieces attached • Fire engine sirens • Tape players (predecessor to the CD/DAT) • Often Complex • Blurred tonality or lack of tonality • Increased Chromaticism over the Romantic period • Tone Clusters • Polytonality • Different scales • Whole tone • Pentatonic • Longer Melodies that are more angular or disjunct (skips around) • Typically not singable because of this disjunct-ness • Difficult, Puzzling Forms and forms that are hard to understand/find • Can be free of bar lines & phrases and measured in time (seconds) • Silence is extremely important

3. Modern Classical Music continued • Timbre and Rhythm over Melody and Harmony • Avant-Garde : Cutting edge, the newest of the new… • New musical language or notation • This notation expressed the musical result in a picture more than a rhythm and pitch indication. • Traditional notation is still used • Multicultural influences (native folk musics) • New music and musicians are influenced by: • World events (WW1 and WW2!) • World Economy (great depression - US) • Shifts in patronage • Political problems or situations

4. Impressionism in Art and Music • Style from French Painting Philosophy called Impressionism • Dibs and dabs of colors when viewed up close do not convey the true impression desired by the artist. But when viewed in totality, makes a vivid portrait by the artist • Monet • Renoir • Reaction against Intellectual German Music • Brahms • Wagner • Mahler • Favored Delicate Instruments • Flute • Harp • Strings • Light or no brass and percussion scoring in the music • Claude Debussy

5. Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918) • French • Rejected Traditional Practices • Great example of the transition from Romantic ideas to the 20th ce • Influences • Painters • Poets • Gamelan Music (of Indonesia) • Excelled at Works for Piano and Orchestra • Piano Preludes • Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (The mythological character, not Bambi) Orch. • La Mer (The Sea) Orch. • Syrinx (For solo Flute – no accompanying Piano)

6. Experimental Music • Avant-Garde Composers in Every Generation • Experimental Works • Varying Degrees of Success • Two Types of Composer • One Who Uses Proven Techniques • One Who Wants to Develop Original Techniques • Igor Stravinsky

7. Russian, emigrated to USA in 1939, became citizen (Naturalized) in 1946 Style Contributions Rhythmic complexity, irregular rhythms, and shifting beat emphasis Innovative Orchestration Extreme ranges of the instruments Unusual combinations of instruments Original Uses of Tonality Reinvention of Old Material with new uses Baroque and Classical Forms Jazz Russian Folk Melodies Ragtime Representative Works Ballets (The Suites from these works are popular Orchestral Music) The Firebird Petrushka The Rite of Spring First performance caused a riot in the audience Opera, The Rake’s Progress Chamber Work, The Soldier’s Tale Opera-Oratorio Oedipus Rex Symphony of Psalms Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

8. Atonal Music and Serialism • Atonality • Literally Means, “No Tonality” • Alternative to Major and Minor Keys • Serialism or 12 tone • Uses the 12 Tones in a Fixed Row or “tone row” • No Traditional Scales • No Traditional Chords • Row May be Altered • Reversed • Upside Down • Transposed • Combinations of the Above (i.e. Reversed and Transposed) • Changes in Instrumentation, Rhythm, Dynamics, etc. but not order • Too cerebral? No emotion? • Arnold Schoenberg

9. Austrian Jew, left due to WW2 and Hitler (duh) Emigrated to America, worked at USC and UCLA, among other places Early works Post-Romantic Late works Atonal and Serial Style Disjunct Melodies Small Ensembles Irregular Phrases Complex and Fragmentary Sound Controversial Representative Works Verklärte Nacht Five Pieces for Orchestra Pierrot Lunaire Use of Sprechstimme A new combination of singing and speech recitation Variations for Orchestra Opera, Moses and Aaron Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)

10. Electronic Music • Began in 1950’s • Invention of Magnetic Tape Recording • Musique Concrète • Altered Speed of Tape • Reversed Tape • Splicing of Tape • Synthesizers • Computer-Generated Music • MIDI • Was this the elimination of the Musician? • Edgard Varèse

11. French (Came to America in WW1) Promoted Experimental Music Conducted Wrote Articles Participated in Classes and Seminars Lifelong Interest in Science and Technology Any sound could be music Used a Theremin in Ecuatorial Representative Pieces Hyperprism Octandre Intégrales Ionization Déserts Poème Électronique Ecuatorial Edgard Varèse (1883 – 1965)

12. Chance Music • Also called Indeterminate music • Performer is allowed to create • Randomness • Chance Elements (Dice, etc.) • Improvisation • Large-scale structure/form provided by Composer in the score • Pieces never performed the same way twice • John Cage

13. John Cage (1912 – 1992) • Known for Original Ideas • Prepared Piano • Items (Screws, Paper, Erasers, etc) Placed on Strings Inside a Piano • Can Sound like a full Percussion Ensemble • Chance Music • Less Control for the Composer • Accept What you Get • Multiple Radios Simultaneously Playing on Stage • 4’ 33” of “Silence” from Performer (Audience, Theater, and Surroundings Create the Music.)

14. Hungarian Nationalism style (from Humgary) Ethnomusicologist Preserved Folk Songs of Hungary Field Recordings on early cylinder recorders Used These Melodies in his Compositions Extended Interest to Other Parts of Europe/Africa Left Hungary in 1940 due to WW2 and his Anti-Nazi views Like most artists, became famous/popular after his death from Leukemia in 1945 Wrote Concerto for Orchestra while hospitalized Representative Works Mikrokosmos Piano text series Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta Concerto for Orchestra 6 String Quartets 3 Piano Concertos Bela Bartók (1881 – 1945)

15. American/Americanist Music • Reflects a sense of wide, open spaces • Incorporates vernacular musical concepts • Syncopation from Jazz • Folk styles included • Patriotic themes

16. Great Innovator Highly Successful Businessman Great Freedom to Compose Substantial Resources Style Quotations from American Life Complex (for Performers and Audiences) Charles Ives (1874 – 1954) • Representative Pieces • 4 Symphonies • 200 Songs • Tone Poems • Three Places in New England • The Unanswered Question • 2 Piano Sonatas

17. Merged Classical and Vernacular Styles Innovation, But not at the expense of the past Organized New Music Concerts Sources Cowboy Songs Mexican Songs Church Music Jazz/Blues Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990) • Representative Works • Ballets • Billy the Kid • Winn Dixie’s Beef people commercial • Rodeo • Appalachian Spring • Patriotic Music • Fanfare for the Common Man • Olympic Theme 1972 • Lincoln Portrait • For Narrator and Ensemble • Movie Music • Red Pony • Our Town

18. American Women Composers • Amy Cheney Beach (1867-1954) • First American woman to have a Symphony published • Ruth Crawford (1901-1953) • First woman to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship • Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (1939-)

19. African-American Composers • Ullysses Kay (1917-1995) • Earned a Fulbright Scholarship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Prix de Rome • William Grant Still (1895-1978) • One of the best-known African-American composers • Earned a Guggenheim Fellowship

20. Other American Composers • George Gershwin (1898-1937) • Tin Pan Alley composer • Known for writing Classical music with Jazz incorporated within • Henry Cowell (1897-1965) • Known for using the Tone Cluster as a compositional device • Tone Cluster – several adjacent pitches played simultaneously

21. Neo-Classical Music • Return to Structures/Aesthetics of the Past • Forms of Previous Periods • Using Modern Language • Possible Traits • Control • Order • Emotional Restraint • Minimal Instrumentation • Transparent Texture • Stravinsky

22. Seeks Great Effect from Minimal Material Began in 1960’s Philip Glass Terry Riley Reaction Against Serialism (12 tone) Traits Extensive Repetition Slow, Subtle Changes Rhythm Chords Other Elements Tonal Style Other Similar Styles Jazz Rock Indian Music African Music Minimalism

23. Neo-Romanticism • A return to 19th century Musical ideas • Program music • Absolute music • Singable melodies • Etc. but with the newer 20th century practices and sounds • Desired to write what audiences want to hear, instead of what the artist/composer wants to hear • Not wanting to alienate audiences • Audiences would then pay to come and hear the concerts • Most of the time, the composer would not become famous until after their death, sometimes decades • Igor Stravinsky • Darius Milhaud (France)