The Twentieth Century—Overview
These notes cover the prelude chapter to part VI through about 1950. For Part 2 of these
notes on the balance of this chapter, see the “Prelude” notes to chapter 24.
The Arts and the Modern Human Condition, Part I
1. Aesthetic movements
 Impressionism: the practice in painting, esp. among French painters after
1870, of depicting natural objects using strokes/dabs of unmixed primary
colors in order to simulate actual reflected light. A successor to
impressionism was pointillism. Musical impressionism sought to evoke
mood and image through colorful harmony and instrumental timbre.
 Expressionism: the practice in art of depicting subjective emotions and
responses which are aroused in the artist/composer by objectives and
events. In music, composers stopped seeking the expression of beauty and
sought to express deep person feelings through angular melodies,
dissonance, etc.
 Surrealism: the style of art in which the fantastic in art is created by
incongruous or irrational juxtapositions
 Cubism: a style of art the stresses abstract structure above all other
pictorial elements. Cubist art often depicted several views of the object
simultaneously, or fragmented the object(s).
 Primitivism: a belief in the superiority of non-industrial society to the
present, esp. the emulation of primitive art or music
 Modernism: a self-conscious break with the musical language of the past
and a search for new forms of expression while simultaneously
maintaining a strong connection with tradition. Post-modernism was a
reaction to modernism which carried with it a return to traditional forms
and materials, often with ironic self-reference and absurdity through
reappraisal of modern assumptions.
 Serialism: the practice of basing music on an ordered series of (twelve)
tones. The “row” can be consciously atonal or tonal. Total Serialism
sought to extend the same approach other parameters of music such as
rhythm, dynamics or tone color.
 Futurism: a movement which began in Italy around 1909 which sought to
use mechanical processes to create art and music. This often resulted in
using noise as the basic of the musical sounds. This movement reemerged
in the 1940s in the French musiqué concète.
 Neoclassicism: from about 1910-1950, a conscious revival of classical
forms, styles and genres, together with a return to tonality in some form, in
rejection of romantic and expressionistic music
 Neo-Romanticism: (not always hyphenated). In late 20th century music, a
revival of the tonal idiom and melodic emphasis of romantic music
 Neoclassicism: from about 1910-1950, a conscious revival of classical
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
Minimalism: a style and/or technique in late 20th century characterized by
sparseness and simplicity, often with extreme repetition. Postminimalism moved away extreme sparseness while still using repetition
and the music became more intricate and/or melodic.
2. New views of the human mind and the physical world
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Psychoanalytical: around 1900, the Viennese-Jewish doctor Sigmund
Freud developed theories of human behavior based on subconscious mind.
Freud believed that human behavior resulted from unconscious desires
which were repressed by cultural restraints and taboos. He believed that
dreams were projections of those unconscious thoughts and desires.
Scientific: almost simultaneously, Ivan Pavlov was awarded the Nobel
Prize in 1904 for his research into the digestive system. Pavlov was a
physiologist and psychologist. His research was in the area of classical
conditioning, which led to behavioral psychology.
Einstein proposed the General Theory of Relativity in 1916,
revolutionizing the view of the physical world and paving the way for the
atomic bomb
3. Movements in the Arts—supported by Romantic ideas of the Artist as an
“enlightened visionary”, new directions in literature and painting emerged, such
as:
 Symbolist poets—Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Valéry, and
Stefan George
 Impressionist painters—Monet, Ceézanne
 Cubist painters—Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque
 Surrealism—René Magrite, Salvador Dali,
 Expressionism—Edvard Munch
 Disillusionment—T.S. Elliot, Marcel Proust, James Joyce
 Political Fiction and Art—Bertold Brecht, Virginia Woolf, John
Steinbeck, Diego Rivera, Thomas Hart Benson,
4. Technological Revolution
 Rise of Mass Production, especially of the automobile
 Electric lighting
 Advances in flight for both civilian and military purposes
 Recording and mass media with the radio and later, television led to the
formation of the sponsorship of orchestras by broadcast companies, e.g.,
the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London and the NBC Symphony in New
York.
5. New opportunities and forms of patronage—in addition to broadcast companies
sponsoring the arts, universities, colleges and conservatories emerged as centers.
Also, the movie industry emerged as a major employer of composers, artists,
actors and writers.
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6. Modern Times
A. The 20th century was self-consciously modern, with a combination of
confidence in “progress” and the new age, and nostalgia for the past.
B. Political history from the turn of the century until approximately the end of
World War II was marked by:
 Pre-WWI migration to urban centers
 Formation of various alliances at the end of the 19th century
 A second wave of immigration to the United States.
 Social unrest and reform through revolutions, strikes and labor unions
 Competition for dominance among the colonial powers of Britain,
France, and the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman
empires.
 The division of political alliances into the Allied (Entente) powers of
France, British Empire, Italy, and (later) the United States, opposed by
the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman
Empire and Bulgaria. These were called the Central Powers because
they were located between France and Russia.
 Outbreak of WWI (1914-1918).
 Rise of the United States as a major power, a transformation which
was completed through the outcomes of WWI.
 Russian Revolution (1917)
 Formation of the League of Nations which was, ultimately, unable to
deal with the social and political forces in the wake of WWI.
 The Great Depression
 Rise of new ideologies in the wake of WWI, including Fascism,
Nazism, and Communism
 Spanish Civil War (1936-39)
 World War II, in part fought as a continuation of WWI because of
issues which were inequitably solved or left unresolved from WWI
 The Holocaust (also known as Ha-Shoah or ‫ השואה‬in Hebrew) in
which about 6,000,000 European Jews and another 5,000,000
Catholics, Gypsies, mentally handicapped, homosexuals, prisoners of
war (especially Russians), etc. Approximately 2/3s of the pre-war
European population of Jews was killed. Ha-Shoah means “the
catastrophe”.
 Use of firebombing against Germany and nuclear weapons against
Japan plus the direct casualties of war made WWII the most
destructive war the world had seen.
 Formation of the United Nations
 Beginning of the Cold War, in which the Communist Block, formed
by the Soviet Union which installed governments in Poland,
Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. Additional communist governments
formed in Yugoslavia, Albania, and China.
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