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Early 20 th Century. Second Viennese School. Second Viennese School. Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils: Alban Berg Anton Webern. Alban Berg (1885-1935). Berg. Schoenberg’s pupil Music rooted in Romanticism (character and action, mood and atmosphere)
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Early 20th Century Second Viennese School
Second Viennese School • Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils: • Alban Berg • Anton Webern
Berg . . . • Schoenberg’s pupil • Music rooted in Romanticism (character and action, mood and atmosphere) • Liked formal patterns of the past . . . Fugue and invention, variations, sonata and suite • Famous for Wozzek, Lulu, Lyric Suite
Berg’s most famous pieceWozzeck (an opera) • Inspiration came from an Expressionist play by Georg Buchner • Libretto organizes the play into 3 acts, each containing five scenes, which are linked by brief orchestral interludes. These interludes set the mood of the next scene. • Plot on p. 524 • Act III, Scene 4, Interlude and Scene 5 • Uses Sprechstimme • Use of instruments (celeste creates eerie atmosphere)
Known for his brevity Entire output could fit on three CDs Never went back to any other method of composition after the 12-tone row; included other elements in row format besides the notes Use of instruments extreme Schoenberg’s other student Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Webern’s Symphony, Op. 21: II • 12-tone • For clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 horns, 2 harps, violins, violas and cellos • Takes under 10 minutes to play • Only one of the Second Viennese School to undertake composition of a symphony • Klangfarbenmelodie • Pointillistic texture – each instrument given just one or two notes; extreme registers • p. 532
Music of the Americas • Stephen Foster – wrote parlor and minstrel songs (Oh, Susanna; Camptown Races, Beautiful Dreamer, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair) • Instrumental Music – Marine Band, formed in 1798, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 French horns, bassoon, and drums • By 1861-65, brass • Greatest bandmaster – John Philip Sousa • Stars and Stripes Forever • The Washington Post
Charles Ives (1874-1954) • Musically trained • Profession was the head of a successful insurance agency • Composed every spare second when he wasn’t working • Wasn’t recognized until just 7 yrs. before he died; his piece, the Concord Sonata, was hailed as “the greatest music composed by an American.” • Idealism of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau • Find hymn tunes, marching bands and traditional songs set in an “Ives” tonality • The Things Our Fathers Loved, p. 548-549
After the first performance of Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, Walter Damrosch, a New York conductor, had to “calm” the audience. In 1925, they were not used to the contemporary sounds. He stated, “If a young man at the age of twenty-five can write a symphony like that, in five years he will be ready to commit murder.” Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Copland • Decided to simplify his music so that he could reach a larger audience. • Many popular ballets were written: • Rodeo • Billy the Kid • Appalachian Spring
Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man • Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Goosens, wanted a musical tribute honoring those who were involved in World War II . . . A fanfare for “soldiers, or for airmen or sailors . . .” to be used to open a concert in 1942. • He was asked to compose a traditional fanfare, direct and powerful, yet with a contemporary sound. • Copland was late, and so it was premiered on March 12, 1943, since taxes were to be paid on March 15 – they both felt it was a good opportunity to honor the “common man.”