Music in the Twentieth Century and Beyond

1. Music in the Twentieth Century and Beyond Age of Diversity Age of Eclecticism

2. Cultural Background Age of Diversity The twentieth century is one of the most complex times of all the historical periods. Changes have been fast and dramatic in all areas of culture: social, political, scientific, technology, economics.

3. Impact of Global Conflict • World War I (1914-1918)

4. World War II (1939-1945)

5. Cold War (1945-1990) • Founding of the United Nations (end of WWII)

6. Korean War (1950-1954) • Vietnam War (1956-1974)

7. Persian Gulf War (1990-1992) • War on Terror (2001-present)

8. Afghanistan Conflict (2001-present) • Iraq Conflict (2004-present)

9. Challenges to basic assumptions • In the 20th century, philosophers and scientists formulated theories that disturbed the basic assumptions upon which people based their way of looking at the world.

10. Charles Darwin(1809-1882) • Natural selection • Theory of evolution

11. Albert Einstein(1879-1955) • Theory of relativity

12. Sigmund Freud(1856-1939) • Nature of man • People are a product of their subconscious minds, whose actions are caused by their upbringing or their environment.

13. Changing Attitudes • Civil Rights movement – beginning around 1954 • attempt to end discrimination against blacks in the United States

14. Women’s movement – 1960s and 1970s • challenged traditional ideas about women’s roles in society

15. Advancements in Technology and Communications • Radio 1920s • Television 1950s • Computers

16. Inventions and Discoveries

17. Impact on the arts • Three types of artist • Sensationalist – The sensationalist tends to break down convention and overthrow accepted methods and values. His/her art tends to lack expressive qualities since its main purpose is to shock the listener/observer. • Experimentalist – The experimentalist seeks new methods and combinations of materials to express themselves. His/her art often lacks unity and coherence. The price that is paid for experimentalists is that they seldom perfect what they invent. • Synthesist – The synthesist combines what is good of the sensationalist and the experimentalist with what is valid from the past. His/her art usually is less brilliant; yet is more resilient to the test of time

18. Common Principles Among 20th-century Artists • break with tradition (rejection of Romantic) • rejection of subjective emotion as the primary basis for art. This is a clear influence from scientific research. • rejection of concept that art must be realistic or literal • rejection of unnecessary ornaments and attempts to “dress up” art. The motto is “form follows function” (architecture). There is a demand for simplicity, terseness and brutality of expression. • There is little attempt to please or entertain; only for a desire to reflect the age directly and unashamedly.

19. Visual Arts from 1900-1950 • Impressionism • Modernism • Expressionism • Cubism • Dadaism • Abstract Art • Surrealism

20. Impressionists • Provided transition to the 20th century Impression Sunrise, 1872 Claude Monet (1840-1926) Rouen Cathedral, 1894

21. Edouard Manet (1832-1883) Dejeuner sur l’herbe, 1863

22. Edgar Degas (1834-1917) The Rehearsal, 1874

23. Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) Le Moulin de la Galette, 1897

24. Post-Impressionists • Georges Seurat (1859-1891) Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1886

25. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Starry Night, 1889

26. Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) Day of the Gods, 1894

27. Modernism • Flourished from the end of the 19th century until the end of WWII. • A reaction to all the rules of the 19th century, which had been called into question by the events of the 20th century. • Doubt was cast upon conventional morality and traditional authorities. • These new ways of looking at the world were very powerful and evoked a strong response, even if the general public found them hard to understand.”

28. Piet Mondrian(1872-1944) • Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow

29. Georges Braque (1882-1963) • Woman with Guitar

30. Expressionism (1910-1939) • Centered in Austria and Germany • Influenced by Sigmund Freud and his psychoanalytic theories • Expressionists were concerned mainly with expressing their subjects emotions – often extreme, anguish, hysteria, nightmare and insanity

31. Edvard Munch(1863-1944) • The Scream

32. Cubism (1908-1914) • Concerned with reducing their subjects to the basic elements of form – sphere, cone and cylinder. • First to produce non-representational art.

33. Pablo Picasso(1881-1973) • Three Musicians

34. Marc Chagall(1887-1985) • The Green Violinist

35. Dadaism • World War I • Group of painters and poets who tried to break down the established rules of art. • “Dada” means “hobbyhorse” in French – connotes childishness.

36. Marcel Duchamp(1887-1968) • L.H.O.O.Q.

37. Abstract Art • 1920’s in Germany, Russia and the Netherlands • Use of primary colors and painted two-dimensional works of geometric abstraction.

38. Piet Mondrian(1872-1944) • Broadway Boogie-Woogie

39. Surrealism Salvador Dali (1904-1989) The Persistence of Memory

40. Joan Miró (1893-1983) Ballerina II

41. Musical Style from 1900-1950 • Musical Centers – France, Germany, United States

42. Elements of Music • Rhythm – • witnesses a revitalization • becomes one of the most striking elements of music • represents the physical nature of life – hectic urban life, surge and clatter of a highly industrial and technical society • increasingly became an outlet for innovation: complex rhythms, irregular meters and accents, rapidly changing meters, polyrhythms (simultaneous use of several rhythmic patterns)

43. Melody • less reliance on melody • irregular unbalanced melodies • angular, more instrumental in conception • Harmony • a single accepted harmonic language became a thing of the past. • Before 1900, harmony was based on consonant and dissonant chords, and triadic or tertian harmony. These distinctions became blurred in 20th century harmonic practices. • New harmonic practices were brought into existence to suit compositional needs: polychord, quartal harmony, tone clusters, new scales, polytonality, resurgence of modality, atonality 12-tone

44. Texture • Homophonic music is predominant but there is a resurgence in emphasis on polyphonic textures • Dynamics • gradual, less extreme • Tone color • became more important than ever; especially evident in the use of percussion

45. Orchestration • trend toward smaller orchestra with a leaner sound (economics) • string sections loses its traditional leader role • less emphasis on a blended sound • Form – • divergent, “form follows function” • Jazz – • popular style from late 19th century which directly influences a number of 20th century composers

46. Eclectic Musical Styles • Impressionism • Nationalism • Neo-Classicism • Serialism • Expressionism • Avant-Garde

47. Impressionism • French movement of the late 19th century to early 20th century that began in the visual arts but later extended into literature and music • Paralleled impressionistic paintings: vague motives that only suggested a melody; varied timbre; short, flexible forms; use of modes, pentatonic and whole tone scales; shifting meters and rhythms which blur rhythmic effects; use of parallel chords and ninth chords (easily went from major to minor and vice versa).

48. Claude Debussy (1862-1918) • French composer of orchestral music, opera, ballet, piano, chamber music and chansons • Disenchanted with Germanic traditions (strict form, traditional orchestration, tonal/chromatic harmonies, metric rhythms) • Found influence from eastern music – gamelon (Javanese) and bronze percussion instruments of Indonesia • Influenced by symbolist poets (Mallarme) • Debussy’s music virtually defines the transition from late Romantic music to twentieth century modernist music

49. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (1894) • The composition was inspired by the poem “L’Après-midi d’un faune” by Stéphane Mallarmé • It is one of Debussy's most famous works and is considered a turning point in the history of music • It is a work that barely grasps onto tonality and harmonic function

50. Maurice Ravel(1875-1937) • Bolero (1928) • Fascination with tone color, Spanish music, obsessive rhythmic repetition • Originally a ballet • Ravel said of this piece “(It is) an experiment consisting of one long, very gradual crescendo