The Twentieth Century
Twentieth Century Music
• The Common Practice Period is now
over.
• Composers (and listeners) must now
find something other than key to
organize their music.
• The “Organization of Sound in Time”
Musical style of the Twentieth
Century.
• Harmony - much more dissonant, now
that we have left Common Practice
• Melody - angular, disjunct, harder to
discern - maybe not primary importance
Musical style of the Twentieth
Century.
Duration - rhythm is the feature that has been
the most changed by 20th century music
Dynamics - volume changes are sometimes the
only constant in the form!
Timbre - many new sounds are created. Most
notably: traditional instruments used in nontraditional ways
Musical style of the Twentieth
Century.
Form - very often, the forms in use during
the 20th century mirror those of earlier
times. However, new forms are also
being created.
Impressionism
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Claude Monet Impression: Sunrise
Impressionism
• French movement
• Started in painting
• An objective, detached snapshot of an
external moment. “Blurry” - no clear
lines
• Explored light colors and textures especially sunlight over water
Impressionism
• Musical similarities:
• “Blurry” - no clear lines (line is melody
or meter)
• Explored light colors and textures woodwind instruments and unusual
combinations of timbre
Claude Debussy
• 1862-1918
• Weakening of tonality by use of parallel
chords and whole-tone scales
• Large orchestra, but not all used at
once
• Clair de Lune - piano. Non metric
Expressionism
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• Vasily Kandinsky, Blue Mountain
Expressionism
• German movement
• Subjective look at an individual’s
internal struggles and strife
• Also started in painting
• Explored bold colors, harsh
dissonances, abstract (form without
content) images
Expressionism
• Musical similarities
• Explored bold colors, harsh
dissonances - harsher instrumental
combinations, very weak sense of
tonality - sometimes “atonal” (absence
of tonality). Very abrupt harmonies and
melodies.
Arnold Schoenberg
• 1874-1951
• Following the German tradition of
weakening harmony, polyphonic texture.
• Weakened tonality by creating the 12tone Serialism method of composition.
• He and his followers are called the
“Second Viennese School”.
Serialism
• 12-tone music (dodecaphonic serialism)
• More rational control of the finished
product
• All 12 pitches are used once, no
repeats, no omissions.
• All 12-tone music is atonal, but not all
atonal music is 12-tone.
180 Farben by Gerhard Richter
180 Farben by Gerhard Richter
•
•
27 June 2001 Sotheby's London Contemporary Art - Part I, Lot 25
Estimate: £ 600,000 - 800,000 US$ 825,082 - 1,100,110 Sold: £ 1,818,500 US$2,572,864
4096 Farben by Gerhard Richter
4096 Farben by Gerhard Richter
11 May 2004 Christie's New York Post-War and Contemporary Art
Estimate: US$ 3,000,000 - 4,000,000 Sold ( Premium): US$ 3,703,500
Igor Stravinsky
• (1882-1971)
• Russian composer active in Paris
• Wrote music for Rite of Spring ballet
(1913)
• French audience rioted at its premiere!
Primitivism
• Implies something “crude and
unrefined”
• Bold clashing and pounding rhythms sometimes several meters at once!
• Dissonant harmonies
• Ostinato (motives repeated over and
over)
• Use of Russian folk tunes
Rite of Spring
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Commerical vs Art Music
• Split that occurs for the first time in the
20th century
• Commercial music - music created
primarily with profit as its driving force.
• Art music - music that is not created
primarily for profit.
Modern vs traditional
• Modern - serial, atonal, musique
concrete, etc.
• Traditional - Neoclassical. Composers
follow forms from previous periods.
Sonata allegro form, sonata cycle,
fugue, etc.
Tonal vs atonal
• Some 20th century art music is still
written with a heavy emphasis and
awareness of key. Key relationships
are still built and explored.
• NOT ALL 20th CENTURY MUSIC IS
ATONAL!!
More control vs less control
• More rational control over the final
composition. Serialism - the pitches are
already determined before the
composition is started.
• Less rational control - Indeterminacy.
The work is different with each
performance.
Indeterminacy
• Something about the work is left to
chance
• Aleatoric music “Alea” means “roll of the
dice”
• “In C” by Terry Riley
• Unanswered Question by Charles Ives
John Cage (1912-1992)
• 4’33”