MUSIC OF 20TH CENTURY
III. Sample Composes of Compositors in the 20TH
CENTURY MUSICAL STYLES
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
The ability of electronic machines such as synthesizers, amplifiers, tape recorders, and loudspeakers to
produce different sounds was popularized by 20th-century notable composers. Musique concrete, or
concrete music is a music that uses the tape recorder. Any sound that the composer will hear in his
surroundings will be recorded. These sounds are arranged by the composer in different ways, like playing
the tape recorder in its fastest mode or reverse. In musique concrete, the composer can experiment with
different sounds that cannot be produced by regular musical instruments such as the piano or the violin.
Musique concrete, or concrete music is a music that uses the tape recorder. Any sound that the composer
will hear in his surroundings will be recorded. These sounds are arranged by the composer in different
ways, like playing the tape recorder in its fastest mode or reverse. In musique concrete, the composer can
experiment with different sounds that cannot be produced by regular musical instruments such as the
piano or the violin. The first electronic devices for performing music were developed at the end of the
19th century, and shortly afterward, Italian futurists explored sounds that had not been considered musical.
1. EDGARD VARÈSE (1883-1965) - He was born on December 22, 1883, Edgard (also spelled
Edgar) Varèse was considered an "innovative French-born composer." He pioneered and created new
sounds that bordered between music and noise and spent his life and career mostly in the United States.
His musical compositions are characterized by:
• an emphasis on timbre and rhythm; and
• "organized sound" (certain timbres and rhythms can be grouped together in order to capture a whole
new definition of sound). Varèse's is considered as the "Father of Electronic Music," and use of new
instruments and electronic resources. He was also dubbed as the "Stratospheric Colossus of Sound."
He died on November 6, 1965. HERE ARE HIS COMPOSES.

NOCTURNAL - Nocturnal (1961) for soprano, male choir, and orchestra, is a musical
composition by Edgard Varèse with text consisting of syllables by Varèse and words and phrases
adapted from House of Incest by Anaïs Nin (1936), revised and completed posthumously by
Chou Wen-chung (1968), The piece is commissioned by and dedicated to the Koussevitzky
Music Foundation, published 1972. It includes music for flexatone and two ondes Martenots. The
use of Dada-like "meta-language" in Ecuatorial and in Nocturnal was suggested by Antonin
Artaud.[4] The premier was conducted by Robert Craft at The Town Hall in New York on May 1,
1961.
 POÈME ÉLECTRONIQUE - is an 8-minute piece of electronic music by composer
Edgard Varèse, written for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. The Philips
corporation commissioned Le Corbusier to design the pavilion, which was intended as a
showcase of their engineering progress. Le Corbusier came up with the title Poème
électronique, saying he wanted to create a "poem in a bottle". Varèse composed the piece
with the intention of creating a liberation between sounds and as a result uses noises not
usually considered "musical" throughout the piece.


IONISATION - is a musical composition by Edgard Varèse written for thirteen
percussionists. It was among the first concert hall compositions for percussion ensemble
alone, although Alexander Tcherepnin had composed an entire movement for percussion
alone in his Symphony No. 1 from 1927. In the journal Tempo, percussionist Brian Holder
writes, "The work presented the important notion that unpitched percussion (with piano and
other pitched instruments coming in at the end) could stand alone as a serious form of concert
music – a relatively unexplored concept at the time."
AMÉRIQUES - is an orchestral composition by Edgard Varèse, scored for a very large,
romantic orchestra with additional percussion (for eleven performers) including sirens.
Written between 1918 and 1921 and revised in 1927, it was the first work Varèse composed
after he moved to the United States. Although it was not his first work, he destroyed many of
his earlier pieces, effectively making Amériques his opus one (although he never used that
designation).
2. KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN (1928– 2007) - Karlheinz Stockhausen is a central figure
in the realm of electronic music. He was born in Cologne, Germany. He had the opportunity to work
with Messiaen, Schoenberg, and Webern. Stockhausen drew inspiration from these composers as he
developed his style of total serialism together with Pierre Boulez.Stockhausen's music was initially
met with resistance due to its heavily atonal content with practically no clear melodic or rhythmic
sense. Still, he continued to experiment with musique concrete. Some of his works include:

GRUPPEN (1957) - for three orchestras (1955–57) is amongst the best-known compositions of
German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 6 in the composer's catalog of
works. Gruppen is "a landmark in 20th-century music ... probably the first work of the post-war
generation of composers in which technique and imagination combine on the highest level to
produce an undisputable masterpiece".

KONTAKTE (1960) - is an electronic music work by Karlheinz Stockhausen, realized in
1958–60 at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) electronic-music studio in Cologne with the
assistance of Gottfried Michael Koenig.[1] The score is Nr. 12 in the composer's catalogue of
works, and is dedicated to Otto Tomek. David Stubbs has referred to the 1960 recording as "a
classic of early electronics" and a piece of musique concrète which aimed to disregard all
received notions found in musical narrative, adding it was "[a]n attempt at a new musical lexicon
that was never really followed through.

HYMNEN (1965) - is an electronic and concrete work, with optional live performers, by

Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in 1966–67, and elaborated in 1969. In the composer's catalog
of works, it is No. 22.
LICHT (LIGHT) - Licht (Light), subtitled "Die sieben Tage der Woche" (The Seven Days of
the Week), is a cycle of seven operas composed by Karlheinz Stockhausen between 1977 and
2003. The composer described the work as an "eternal spiral" because "there is neither end nor
beginning to the week." Licht consists of 29 hours of music.
It has led him to dream of concert halls in which the sound attacks the listener from every direction.
Stockhausen's works total around 31.
CHANCE MUSIC
Chance music, also known as Aleatoric music, refers to a style in which the piece always sounds
differently at every performance because of the random techniques of production, including the use of
ring modulators or natural elements that become a part of the music. Most of the sounds emanating from
the surroundings, both natural and man-made, such as honking cars, rustling leaves, blowing wind,
dripping water, or a ringing phone. An example of Chance music is John Cage's Four Minutes and ThirtyThree Seconds (4'33"), where the pianist merely opens the piano lid and keeps silent for the duration of
the piece. The audience hears a variety of noises inside and outside the concert hall amidst the seeming
silence.
1. JOHN CAGE (1912-1992) - John Cage was known as one of the 20th-century composers with the
broadest array of sounds in his works. Cage was born in Los Angeles, California, USA, on September 5,
1912 and became one of the most original composers in the history of western music.He challenged the
very idea of music by manipulating musical instruments to attain new sounds and became the "chance
music."In one instance, Cage created a "prepared" piano, where screws and pieces of wood or paper were
inserted between the piano strings to produce different percussive possibilities. Cage became notable for
his work The Four Minutes and 33 Seconds (4'33"), a chance musical work that instructed the pianist to
merely open the piano lid and remain silent for the length of time indicated by the title. Some of his
composes are:

4′33″ - is a three-movement composition by American experimental composer John Cage. It was
composed in 1952, for any instrument or combination of instruments, and the score instructs
performers not to play their instruments during the entire duration of the piece throughout the
three movements. The piece consists of the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear
while it is performed, although it is commonly perceived as "four minutes thirty-three seconds of
silence". The title of the piece refers to the total length in minutes and seconds of a given
performance, 4′33″ being the total length of the first public performance.

Organ² / ASLSP - is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of one of the longest-lasting
musical performances yet undertaken. Cage wrote it in 1987 for organ, as an adaptation of his
1985 composition ASLSP for piano. A performance of the piano version usually lasts 20 to 70
minutes. An organ in St. Burchardi church in Halberstadt in 2001 began a performance that is due
to end in 2640. The next note will be played on February 5, 2024.

MUSIC OF CHANGES - is a piece for solo piano by John Cage. Composed in 1951 for
pianist and friend David Tudor, it is a ground-breaking piece of indeterminate music. The
process of composition involved applying decisions made using the I Ching, a Chinese
classic text that is commonly used as a divination system.