Music in the 20th Century

1. Music in the 20th Century Music from 1900-1945 (Pre-World War II)

2. The turn of the century • Technology reaches dizzying heights. • Mass communication – radio, TV, satellites, computers, the internet. • Medical sciences conquer infectious diseases and prolong life. • WWI & WWII • Socio-economic gap expands.

3. History and the Arts, 1900-1939 • 1900 – Europe and US in period of economic stability and peace. • Modernism – optimistic experimentation and revolutionary new styles. • Composers reject tonality and rhythmic norms. • Impressionism & expressionism. • WWI shattered sense of optimism. (40 million died; 20 million wounded) • Bolshevik revolution and spread of Communism. • Great Depression (1929-1933) • Prohibition, women’s right to vote, New Deal.

4. History and the Arts 1939-2000 • WWII brings more death and destruction to Europe and Far East. • 30 million died, artwork destroyed, economic and political outlook in shambles. • Immigration of refugees to US. • Cold War • Art, music and literature tend toward intellectualism over emotionalism. • Radical experimentation in sound led to use of technology and development of popular music. • Cubism, post-modernism.

5. Arnold Schonberg • Viennese composer who invented a new system that would “free music from the tyranny of tonality.” • Twelve-tone system – Each pitch is equal, no tonal center, no key. • Pantonality (all-tonality) vs. atonality (nontonal). • Allowed for new chord combinations and changed significance of consonance vs. dissonance.

6. Twelve-Tone Music • Each pitch is equal, there is no tonal center. Each pitch must sound before any can be repeated. • Tone row – The “melody” • Retrograde – Tone row played backwards. • Inversion – Tone row played inverted. • Retrograde inversion - Tone row played backwards and inverted. • Tone clusters – Adjacent pitches sounding at once. Twelve-tone harmony.

7. Other Scales and Modes • Pentatonic scale – five note scale. • Whole-tone scale – moves entirely by whole steps. • Medieval modes. • Polytonality – 2 or more keys played at the same time. • Quartal chords – built on fourths instead of thirds.

8. More Musical Changes in 20th Century • Melody – very erratic and unexpected. • Rhythm – Complicated, based on African or Indian music. • Quarter tones – pitches between half steps. • New instruments and old instruments played in new ways. Theremin is first electronic instrument.

9. Impressionism • Originally an artistic movement in which lines are blurred and details are left to the viewer’s imagination. • Impressionist music is also harmonically vague and fluid and is meant to symbolize something. • Claude Debussy – Composer • Claude Monet - Painter

10. Primitivism and Cubism • Artists became attracted to direct, instinctive and exotic cultures. • Gaugin, Picasso Les Demoiselles d’Avignon • Sigmund Freud explores the power of the unconscious mind. • Igor Stravinsky uses primitivism in music.

11. Igor Stravinsky • Born in St. Petersburg, Russia • Originally studied law. • Started music lessons at age 21 with Rimsky-Korsakov. • Learned techniques in orchestration. • 1910 – moved to Paris. • Produced works for Ballets Russes (Serge Diaghilev) • Polyrhythms, bitonality, ostinato (repeated patterns). • Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Petrushka.

12. More on Stravinsky • Influenced by Jazz. • Later music in Neo-Classical style (Pulcinella) • Wrote a Mass and an opera called, The Rake’s Progress • Started writing music for films. • Twelve-tone music included an elegy for JFK, and a Requiem (in anticipation of his own death). • Highly rhythmic, unusual orchestration, original harmony (often with two tonal centers).

13. Expressionism • Artistic movement rooted in Germany, Norway and Vienna. • Klimt and Kokoschka – artists • Schoenberg, Berg, Webern – composers • Focus on inner states of being and evocation of extreme emotions (anguish, fear, hatred and death).

14. Arnold Schoenberg • Born in Vienna to Orthodox Jewish family. • Felt that tonality had outlived its usefulness. • Wrote atonal music. • Stopped writing during WWI. • Twelve-tone music offered a unifying principle to atonal music. • Variations for Orchestra, Moses and Aaron (opera). • Fired when Nazis took over and fled to USA.

15. Alban Berg • Both students of Schoenberg. • Berg’s opera, Wozzeck, is the first atonal Expressionist opera (a masterpiece of 20th Century music). • Shows his view of war. • Berg uses strict forms (sonata, rondo, fugue, symmetry).

16. Anton Webern • Student of Schoenberg • Link to first stages of Modernism. • Minimalism – everything was understated and there is never an extra note. • Wrote detailed instructions in his scores. • Short pieces (1-10 minutes). • Studied Renaissance music and used imitative counterpoint.

17. Bela Bartok • Hungarian composer influenced by the nationalist movement. • Toured Europe recording and notating folk music of various cultures (ethnomusicology). • Known for piano music and string quartets. • Music of other cultures influenced his music.

18. Dmitri Shostakovich • Russian composer who lived most of his life under Soviet Communism. • Music of Soviet Union was supposed to represent the policies of the state. • Fought for creative freedom against demands of a totalitarian state. • Composed 15 symphonies & 15 string quartets. • Musical “signature” in his music.

19. Benjamin Britten • English composer. • Child prodigy. Began composing at 5. • The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra • Operas – Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, Gloriana, The Turn of the Screw. • War Requiem – written for dedication of new cathedral in Coventry that was destroyed in WWII. • Mixed old with new (Latin text with poems by Wilfred Owen).

20. American Composers • William Billings – psalms and choral music. • Lowell Mason – Hymns and music education. • Mostly influenced by European music. • Inner turmoil – Civil War, Reconstruction • Shape-notes • Spirituals • Jazz

21. Charles Ives • First American Modernist composer (avant-garde). • Insurance salesman who composed in spare time. • Experimental in his ideas of music. • Wrote music in two keys at the same time. • The Unanswered Question (Two ensembles play two different songs at the same time.) • Patriotic music.

22. Aaron Copland • Much more mainstream composer than Ives. • Studied composition in Europe with Nadia Boulanger (most famous composition teacher of the 20th Century). • Wrote in an American style by drawing on jazz. • Ballets – Billy the Kid, Rodeo • Appalachian Spring & Fanfare for the Common Man

23. George Gershwin • Composed popular songs and jazz pianist. • Also wrote classical pieces. • Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Porgy and Bess (opera). • Wrote musical plays with brother, Ira. • Died at age 38 of brain tumor.

24. Leonard Bernstein • Continued blending popular and classical styles. • Conductor of New York Philharmonic. • Musicals – On the Town, Candide, Wonderful Town, West Side Story • Choral music and symphonic music.