Week 14 Lecture Notes
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New Elements of Musical Style
Rhythm: 20th century music discarded standard duple, triple, and
quadruple rhythmic patterns. Instead, rhythmic flow could change
within a movement as much as a composer chose (changing meter).
Polyrhythm (more than one rhythm at the same time) also became
part of the composer’s palette. Rhythms were inspired by Africa and
Asia, as well as Western popular styles (i.e. ragtime in the early 20th
century).
Melody: Rejected balanced phrase repetitions of earlier styles. Direct
forward-driving melody became the new way. Early 20th century
melody is not “vocal” or lyrical i.e. in which the instruments are meant
to “sing.” Abounds in wide leaps and dissonant intervals.
Harmony: through the Impressionists five-note “ninth chords” and
six/seven/eight-note “polychords” emerged, allowing the composer to
give the impression of multiple harmonies against each other,
polyharmony.
Tonality and Atonality: Chromatic Harmony in the late 19th century led
to free use of all twelve tones around a center. Though still gravitating
towards a tonic, wiped away distinction between diatonic and
chromatic. Next step was two keys presented simultaneously;
polytonality (i.e. Rite of Spring). Schoenberg took it even further by
doing away with the tonic – resulting in atonality, always at maximum
tension, without areas of resolution.
12-tone method: Schoenberg used a strict system of all twelve notes,
known as serialism. A given arrangement of all notes is called a tone
row. Dodecaphonic (from the Greek), also describes this approach.
The row serves as the basis for building themes. Same fugal
principles can be applied (transposition, inversion, retrograde,
retrograde inversion, etc).
Week 14 Lecture Notes
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The Emancipation of Dissonance is the history of a steadily
increasing tolerance of listeners over centuries to accept dissonant
note combinations. A dissonance can even serve as a final
chord/cadence, as long as it is less dissonant than the chord that
came before.
Orchestration: A leaner sound, smaller orchestral concept than
Wagnerian grandeur. Strings lost traditional role as the heart of the
orchestra because they were too warm. Attention focused on
penetrating winds and percussion including piano as an ensemble
instrument.
Formalism: Valuing the formal above the expressive, a return to
shorter, more succinct classical forms a la Haydn and Mozart, and
strove for purity of line and proportion.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Born in Vienna, mostly self-taught, introduced to Viennese musical
society by Zemlinksy, his counterpoint teacher. Became a teacher
himself and had devoted students, most famous were Berg and
Webern. Called up to active duty in WWI, didn’t compose for eight
years, but evolved his “method of composing with twelve tones.”
When Hitler came to power in 1933, he emigrated to America. Like
many Austrian-Jewish intellectuals he had converted to Lutheranism
but when he left Germany he returned to Judaism. Became an
American citizen, taught at UCLA and remained in the US until his
death.
First period: post-Wagnerian Romanticism.
Second Period: atonal/Expressionism. Abolished use of tonic.
Third Period: Twelve-tone, climax is Variations for Orchestra.
Fourth Period: refined twelve-tone, some allusions to tonality.
Week 14 Lecture Notes
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Pierrot Lunaire
Song cycle drew on the Italian commedia del’arte (comedy of the
arts), Pierrot is a clown, a model of pantomime for centuries. Text
based on Symbolist poet Albert Giraud. The poems’ abrupt change
from guilt/depression to atonement/playfulness fired Schoenberg’s
imagination.
Set the texts for female voice and five instrumentalists. Brought music
and spoken word as close together as possible. Sprechstimme
(spoken voice) is a vocal melody spoken rather than sung on exact
pitches and in rhythm. Klangfarbenmelodie (tone-color melody) is
when each note of a melody is played by a different instrument. Each
text is a rondeau, a 15th-century verse form in which the opening lines
return as a refrain in the middle of the poem and at the end.
Pierrot Lunaire no. 18:
Use of sprechstimmme against fast, dissonant accompaniment.
Complex contrapuntal texture with canonic treatment.
Musical and poetical refrain (on “Einen weissen fleck”)
Flickering effects created by instrument, playing independently from
vocal part.