20th Century Classical Music Innovators

Arts History1900 – present 20th Century Classical Music Jazz Modern Day Music

20th Century Classical Music

20th Century Classical Music:Terms • Impressionism- French style of atmospheric music of the late nineteenth century • Expressionism- musical style that subjectively explored deep inner feelings • Tone row- a series of notes comprising the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale; invented by Arnold Schoenberg • Aleatory music- music in which composers deliberately leave parts of the composition and performance undetermined and at the discretion of performers • Synthesizer- an electronic device, usually with a keyboard, capable of producing sounds in almost any range, tone quality, and volume

20th Century Classical Music:Composers • Claude Debussy (1862-1918) • He was born in a suburb of Paris, France and it was his aunt who first noticed how musical he was. She got him started taking piano lessons. • When he was only ten, Debussy started studying at the very strict Paris Conservatory. • As a child, Debussy was fascinated by visual art, and as he grew up, he loved the new style called "Impressionism." Instead of painting realistic, lifelike paintings with hard outlines, Impressionists used thousands of dots, or many different shades of color to create the "impression" of what they wanted to depict. Debussy took that idea and applied it to music, creating Impressionism in music.

Clair de Luneby Debussy • Meaning “Moonlight”, Clair de Lune is Debussy’s most well-known piano work.

20th Century Classical Music:Composers • Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) • Born in St. Petersburg, which was the capital of Russia at the time. His father was a famous opera singer, so as a kid, Igor got to hang out at the opera house, where he met all the famous musicians of the day. • Igor began taking piano lessons at age 9. When he grew up, he started studying law. One of his fellow law students was the son of composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who agreed to give Stravinsky composition lessons. Law fell by the wayside completely after Stravinsky had a big success with The Firebird. • Stravinsky went on to write more ballets. One of those was The Rite of Spring, about a pagan ritual in ancient Russia. The opening night audience found the music and choreography so shocking that there was actually a riot in the theater! • Stravinsky moved around a lot. In Europe, he lived in France and Switzerland; during World War II, he came to the United States, where he lived in both California and New York. Stravinsky’s music moved around, too -- he never really picked one style. He wrote Russian-sounding music, music that looked back to previous centuries, modern music, opera, and religious music -- including a symphony with psalms in it.

The Firebirdby Stravinsky • With life, death and rebirth as its theme, it represents nature as a Sprite who is summoned by a lone Elk. When the beauty of springtime is destroyed by the fury of the Firebird, who lives within an active volcano, it is up to the Elk and Sprite to once again reawaken what lies beneath the ashes of the ravaged forest.

20th Century Classical Music:Composers • George Gershwin (1898-1937) • Born in Brooklyn, New York. He taught himself to play the piano at a friend's house by following how the keys moved on a player piano. When the Gershwins finally got their own piano, George surprised everyone by sitting down and playing the songs he had learned by himself. • George liked to compose both classical and popular music, and found a unique way to combine the two. He composed his most famous work, Rhapsody in Blue, in 1924, where he proved that jazz held a legitimate place in the concert hall. • Gershwin also wrote the opera Porgy and Bess. He is considered one of the greatest American composers.

Rhapsody in Blueby Gershwin • Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue in only three weeks. It is still one of the most popular of all 20th-century musical compositions, and proved that jazz had a legitimate place in the concert hall alongside traditional classical music.

20th Century Classical Music:Composers • John Cage (1912-1992) • Among the most famous of 20th century composers. While his earliest compositions were written in a traditional style, he quickly moved on to create unique kinds of works. One of his first inventions was the “prepared piano," which is an instrument modified so that it can produce new, percussive sounds.

20th Century Classical Music:Composers • John Cage (1912-1992) • He wanted music to escape from any sort of control and, in some cases, to express the idea of zero thought. He therefore created purposeless music based on the throw of some dice, a star chart, or some other such random device so that his personal preferences were not part of the compositional process. He called this method indeterminacy. One such work, Imaginary Landscape No. 4, includes 12 radio sets, each of which is tuned to a different station. Every performance is therefore unique. • 4’33”, one of Cage’s most famous pieces, is “performed” by a pianist who sits unmoving in front of a keyboard for four minutes and 33 seconds. The members of the audience are expected during this time to listen to the sounds that occur around them. • Cage wanted to break down the barriers between art and living, to make audiences aware that they are surrounded by sounds and that everything they do is actually music.

Aleatory Project • Aleatory means "pertaining to luck", and derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling of dice. Aleatoric, indeterminate, or chance art is that which exploits the principle of randomness.

20th Century Classical Music:Composers • Aaron Copland (1900-1990) • He was one of the most famous American composers of all time. Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York. • With a thorough background of academic musical training behind him, Copland began composing in quite technically advanced styles, influenced by such European contemporaries as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. He then turned to his own land for inspirations: to pioneering life in the Appalachian Mountains and the Wild West, to jazz, and the music of African-Americans. He successfully combined these influential sources with his own highly professional skills to produce music that was beautifully polished but that clearly resonated with an American voice. Copland’s music is as vast and magnificent as the land that inspired it. • Copland wrote music with a very “American" sound. Some of his most famous pieces are his ballets - Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring. Billy the Kid and Rodeo are about the Wild West. Copland also wrote music for movies - Of Mice and Men and Our Town, among others. • One of Copland's best known compositions is Fanfare for the Common Man. Copland wrote it after the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked several composers to write fanfares during World War II. Copland’s music has become a great part of American history.

Agnes De Mille • The grande dame of American dance, Agnes de Mille (1905-1993) was born in New York City. Her father was a playwright who went to work in Hollywood, and it was there that she took her first ballet lessons from Theodore Koslov. She attended UCLA, received a degree in English, then resumed her dance studies in New York, where she made her solo debut in 1928. • Rodeo, the Americana classic she choreographed in 1942, was one of de Mille’s most successful works. “The truest expression of people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie.” - Agnes de Mille

Rodeoby Aaron Copland; choreographed by Agnes de Mille • Copland wrote Rodeo for Agnes de Mille. • The ballet is about a cowgirl who is neglected and lonely, and who usually dresses in cowboy pants and shirt. She is attending a Saturday night dance and is watching the couple s dancing, but nobody wants to dance with her. Her friend, the Champion Roper, takes pity on her and shows her a few steps. Then she sees the Head Wrangler, who she is infatuated with, dancing with the Head Rancher’s daughter. The cowgirl then runs away sobbing while everybody else continues to dance. When the cowgirl returns, the dancers all stop and look at her in surprise. They see her wearing a dress for the first time, and she also has a bow in her hair. Suddenly, everybody believes her to be some kind of Cinderella of the West. The Head Wrangler notices her beauty and becomes very interested; however, so does the Champion Roper. Both men try to win her fancy. In the end she settles on the Roper – the only one who has ever shown her any attention.

Pantomime Gestures • Pantomime is silent communication by means of gestures and facial expressions. Can you guess which gesture is being acted out? • You want what? • That’s really exciting! • Quiet! They’ll hear us! • Come over here right now! • I have no idea what you’re talking about! • What in the world is that? • Stop! You’re making me sick! • I have no interest in your side of the story. • When I say now, I mean now!

Billy the Kidby Aaron Copland; choreographed by Eugene Loring • In legend, Billy the Kid has been described as a vicious and ruthless killer, an outlaw who died at the age of twenty-one, not before raising havoc in the New Mexico Territory. It was said he took the lives of twenty-one men, one for each year of his life, the first one when he was just twelve years old. He was a rebel without a cause who killed without reason, other than to see his victims kick. These and many more accusations of callous acts are examples of the myth of Bill the Kid. In real form, the Kid was not the cold-blooded killer he has been portrayed as, but a young man who lived in a violent dog-eat-dog world, where knowing how to use a gun was a difference between life and death. • The ballet is most famous for its incorporation of many cowboy tunes and American folk songs.

Billy the Kidby Aaron Copland; choreographed by Eugene Loring • The opening movement is titled "The Open Prairie". Copland utilizes harmonies based on fifths to give a sense of emptiness and loneliness with the main theme raising and falling above. This leads into the second movement, "Street in a Frontier Town," where Copland manages to visualize in music a town with cowboys sauntering around, some on horseback, some with lassos. The opening theme is played on the piccolo (tin whistle if a stage performance) and is based on the cowboy tune "Great Granddad." A Mexican theme enters which indicates a Mexican woman dancing a Jarabo. Copland achieved this Mexican feel with the use of rhythm, using the song "Come Wrangle yer Bronco" against a time signature of 5/8. • A fight between two drunks that is hinted at in the trombones by the tune "Git along Little Doggies" interrupts all of this. In the ensuing chaos two shots ring out killing the twelve-year-old Billy’s mother. Billy, enraged, grabs a cowhand’s knife and kills his mother’s murderer. Thus, the young outlaw's life begins. • As "Street in a Frontier Town" comes to an end, Copland uses the tune of "Goodbye Old Paint" that has already been hinted at earlier in the movement. • After dying away to nothing, the "Celebration Dance" shows how Copland could also show humor in his work by having the jaunty and quite spiky dance melody in the upper instrumentation written in C while the accompanying bass line supports this a semi-tone higher in C#. • Rich descending chords in the strings depict Billy’s death, with occasional accompaniment by upper winds. The suite then ends where it began, on the "Open Prairie," but this time, to help with the feeling of finality, Copland uses the whole orchestra with the brass playing big chords of leaping fifths. This is all strong motivation to lead us to the conclusion that Copland wanted the audiences' loyalties to lie with the now dead outlaw.

American Folk Songs What are folk songs? • Songs handed down from generation to generation. Can you name any American folk songs? • Home on the Range • Yankee Doodle • I’ve Been Working on the Railroad • Do Your Ears Hang Low? • Michael Row the Boat Ashore • My Bonnie • Polly Wolly Doodle

Martha Graham • Martha Graham (1894-1991) was an American dancer and choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, whose influence on dance can be compared to the influence Stravinsky had on music, Picasso had on the visual arts and Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture. • Graham invented a new language of movement, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to human experience. She danced and choreographed for over seventy years.

Isamu Noguchi • Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold.

Appalachian Springby Aaron Copland; choreographed by Martha Graham • The story told is a spring celebration of the American pioneers of the 1800s after building a new Pennsylvania farmhouse. Among the central characters are a newlywed couple, a neighbor, a revivalist preacher and his followers.

Jazz

Jazz • Jazz originated around New Orleans back into the second half of the nineteenth century or earlier. • Spirituals and the blues strongly influenced the early development of jazz. Bands used classical instruments, but in unique ways.

Jazz

Jazz:Terms • Jazz- a musical form distinguished by its reliance on improvisation and its rhythmic urgency • Polyrhythmic- juxtaposing two or more different rhythms • Scat singing- a form of vocal improvisation on nonsense syllables (such as doo-wah, doo-wee) • Swing- the special rhythmic character that jazz musicians add to the music • Bebop- a complex and sophisticated type of improvised jazz • Fusion- combination of jazz and rock • Blues- a genre of African American music that often expresses frustration, sadness, or longing

Jazz:Composers/Artists • Louis Armstrong- jazz trumpet player; vocally, he complemented his instrumental improvisations with scat singing

Jazz:Louis Armstrong

Jazz:Composers/Artists • Benny Goodman- clarinetist who played the classics as well as jazz; nicknamed the “King of Swing” • Duke Ellington (1899-1974) – one of America’s most prominent big band innovators; most original and prolific American composers

Jazz:Music • What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong • Blues • Sing, Swing, Sing by Benny Goodman • Swing • It Don’t Mean a Thing by Duke Ellington • Scat Singing

Modern Day Music

Modern Day Music • We start to see the emergence of many new artists as the 20th century progresses. Musicians combine music styles to create a new sound. • Modern technology helps the music world take off, exploring every possibility imaginable. • Music has become a major part of television. The launch of MTV in 1981 aimed towards adolescents and young adults. Since then, we have VH1, BET, MTV2, CMT, and others. • Music has become so much more than an art form or cultural experience. It is an industry that has grown to be based off modern day trends, looks and fame other than talent.

Modern Day Music:Styles/Genres • R&B – aka rhythm and blues; popular music genre combining jazz, gospel, and blues influences – first performed by African American artists; term first coined in the 1940s; contemporary R&B (1980s) combines elements of soul, funk, pop, and hip-hop. • R&B: Sam Cooke, James Brown, Rolling Stones • Contemporary R&B:Luther Vandross, Whitney Houston, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, R. Kelly • Hip-Hop – also known as rap music; a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s; consists of two main components: rapping and DJing. • Eminem, 2 Pac, Jay Z

Modern Day Music:Styles/Genres • Pop - the term indicates specific stylistic traits such as an emotional singing style, lyrics about love or sex, danceable beat, clear melodies, simple harmonies and repetitive structure so that people can catch on and join in; pop music often includes elements of rock, hip hop, reggae, dance, R&B, soul, and sometimes country, making it a flexible category; started in the 1950s. • 1950s: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley • 1960s: Beatles, The Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles • 1970s: ABBA, BeeGees, Elton John, Earth Wind and Fire, Queen • 1980s: Madonna, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, The Police • 1990s: Mariah Carey, Celine Deon, Backstreet Boys, Brittany Spears • 2000s: Usher, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado

Modern Day Music:Styles/Genres • Country - a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music, hokum, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s.The term country music began to be used in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was deemed to be degrading, and the term was widely embraced in the 1970s, while country and western has declined in use since that time. • Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Hank Williams, Sara Evans, Brad Paisley, Faith Hill

Modern Day Music:Styles/Genres • Rock - a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody accompanied by guitar and drums. Rock music usually has a strong back beat. Rock music has its roots in 1950s-era rock and roll. In the late 1960s, rock music was blended with folk music to create folk rock, and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s, rock incorporated influences from soul, funk, and Latin music. In the 1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock, blues rock, heavy metal-style rock, progressive rock, punk rock. Rock subgenres from the 1980s included hard rock and alternative rock. In the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge-style rock, Britpop, and Indie rock. • Elvis Presley, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Metallica, The Killers, Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy

Modern Day Music:Favorite Artist • Write a paragraph describing YOUR favorite modern day artist/group. Include the following: • Name of artist • Genre/Style of music • A song/piece they sing/play that made them popular • Interesting fact about them

Modern Day Music:Past, Present, Future • There are thousands of modern day artists out there today. Music has come so far from the Middle Ages to now. Starting with a thousand years of the same type music, to 150 years of the same music, to the 1900’s where every decade brought a new sound, to now where almost every year music is changing. Where do you think music will go in the next 100 years? • Paragraph 1: What you think the importance of music today is and why it sounds the way it does. • Paragraph 2: What you think music will sound like 100 years from now. • Paragraph 3: What role you think music will play in people’s lives 100 years from now. • Paragraph 4: Will music change for better or for worse? Explain your answer.

20th Century Classical Music Innovators