Music in the Twentieth
Century and Beyond
Age of Diversity
Age of Eclecticism
Cultural Background
Age of Diversity
The twentieth century is one of the most
complex times of all the historical periods.
Changes have been fast and dramatic in
all areas of culture: social, political,
scientific, technology, economics.
Impact of Global Conflict
• World War I (1914-1918)
• World War II (1939-1945)
• Cold War (1945-1990)
• Founding of the United Nations (end of
WWII)
• Korean War (1950-1954)
• Vietnam War (1956-1974)
• Persian Gulf War (1990-1992)
• War on Terror (2001-present)
• Afghanistan Conflict (2001-present)
• Iraq Conflict (2004-present)
Challenges to basic assumptions
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In the 20th century, philosophers and
scientists formulated theories that disturbed
the basic assumptions upon which people
based their way of looking at the world.
Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)
• Natural selection
• Theory of evolution
Albert Einstein
(1879-1955)
• Theory of relativity
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
• Nature of man
• People are a product of their subconscious
minds, whose actions are caused by their
upbringing or their environment.
Changing Attitudes
• Civil Rights movement – beginning around
1954
– attempt to end discrimination against blacks in
the United States
• Women’s movement – 1960s and 1970s
– challenged traditional ideas about women’s
roles in society
Advancements in Technology and
Communications
• Radio 1920s
• Television 1950s
• Computers
Inventions and Discoveries
Impact on the arts
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Three types of artist
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Sensationalist – The sensationalist tends to break down
convention and overthrow accepted methods and
values. His/her art tends to lack expressive qualities
since its main purpose is to shock the listener/observer.
Experimentalist – The experimentalist seeks new
methods and combinations of materials to express
themselves. His/her art often lacks unity and
coherence. The price that is paid for experimentalists is
that they seldom perfect what they invent.
Synthesist – The synthesist combines what is good of
the sensationalist and the experimentalist with what is
valid from the past. His/her art usually is less brilliant;
yet is more resilient to the test of time
Common Principles Among
20th-century Artists
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break with tradition (rejection of Romantic)
rejection of subjective emotion as the primary basis for
art. This is a clear influence from scientific research.
rejection of concept that art must be realistic or literal
rejection of unnecessary ornaments and attempts to
“dress up” art. The motto is “form follows function”
(architecture). There is a demand for simplicity,
terseness and brutality of expression.
There is little attempt to please or entertain; only for a
desire to reflect the age directly and unashamedly.
Visual Arts from 1900-1950
• Impressionism
• Modernism
• Expressionism
• Cubism
• Dadaism
• Abstract Art
• Surrealism
Impressionists
• Provided transition to the 20th century
Impression Sunrise, 1872
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Rouen Cathedral, 1894
• Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Dejeuner sur l’herbe, 1863
• Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
The Rehearsal, 1874
• Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Le Moulin de la Galette, 1897
Post-Impressionists
• Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1886
• Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Starry Night, 1889
• Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Day of the Gods, 1894
Modernism
• Flourished from the end of the 19th century until
the end of WWII.
• A reaction to all the rules of the 19th century,
which had been called into question by the
events of the 20th century.
• Doubt was cast upon conventional morality and
traditional authorities.
• These new ways of looking at the world were
very powerful and evoked a strong response,
even if the general public found them hard to
understand.”
Piet Mondrian
(1872-1944)
• Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow
Georges Braque
(1882-1963)
• Woman with Guitar
Expressionism (1910-1939)
• Centered in Austria and Germany
• Influenced by Sigmund Freud and his
psychoanalytic theories
• Expressionists were concerned mainly
with expressing their subjects emotions –
often extreme, anguish, hysteria,
nightmare and insanity
Edvard Munch
(1863-1944)
• The Scream
Cubism (1908-1914)
• Concerned with reducing their subjects to
the basic elements of form – sphere, cone
and cylinder.
• First to produce non-representational art.
Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973)
• Three Musicians
Marc Chagall
(1887-1985)
• The Green Violinist
Dadaism
• World War I
• Group of painters and poets who tried to
break down the established rules of art.
• “Dada” means “hobbyhorse” in French –
connotes childishness.
Marcel Duchamp
(1887-1968)
• L.H.O.O.Q.
Abstract Art
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1920’s in Germany, Russia and the
Netherlands
Use of primary colors and painted twodimensional works of geometric
abstraction.
Piet Mondrian
(1872-1944)
• Broadway Boogie-Woogie
Surrealism
Salvador Dali
(1904-1989)
The Persistence of Memory
Joan Miró (1893-1983)
Ballerina II
Musical Style from 1900-1950
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Musical Centers – France, Germany,
United States
Elements of Music
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Rhythm –
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witnesses a revitalization
becomes one of the most striking elements of music
represents the physical nature of life – hectic urban
life, surge and clatter of a highly industrial and
technical society
increasingly became an outlet for innovation:
complex rhythms, irregular meters and accents,
rapidly changing meters, polyrhythms (simultaneous
use of several rhythmic patterns)
• Melody
– less reliance on melody
– irregular unbalanced melodies
– angular, more instrumental in conception
• Harmony
– a single accepted harmonic language became a thing
of the past.
– Before 1900, harmony was based on consonant and
dissonant chords, and triadic or tertian harmony.
These distinctions became blurred in 20th century
harmonic practices.
– New harmonic practices were brought into existence
to suit compositional needs: polychord, quartal
harmony, tone clusters, new scales, polytonality,
resurgence of modality, atonality 12-tone
• Texture
– Homophonic music is predominant but there
is a resurgence in emphasis on polyphonic
textures
• Dynamics
– gradual, less extreme
• Tone color
– became more important than ever; especially
evident in the use of percussion
• Orchestration
– trend toward smaller orchestra with a leaner
sound (economics)
– string sections loses its traditional leader role
– less emphasis on a blended sound
• Form –
– divergent, “form follows function”
• Jazz –
– popular style from late 19th century which
directly influences a number of 20th century
composers
Eclectic Musical Styles
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Impressionism
Nationalism
Neo-Classicism
Serialism
Expressionism
Avant-Garde
Impressionism
• French movement of the late 19th century to
early 20th century that began in the visual arts
but later extended into literature and music
• Paralleled impressionistic paintings: vague
motives that only suggested a melody; varied
timbre; short, flexible forms; use of modes,
pentatonic and whole tone scales; shifting
meters and rhythms which blur rhythmic effects;
use of parallel chords and ninth chords (easily
went from major to minor and vice versa).
Claude Debussy
(1862-1918)
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French composer of orchestral music,
opera, ballet, piano, chamber music and
chansons
Disenchanted with Germanic traditions
(strict form, traditional orchestration,
tonal/chromatic harmonies, metric rhythms)
Found influence from eastern music –
gamelon (Javanese) and bronze percussion
instruments of Indonesia
Influenced by symbolist poets (Mallarme)
Debussy’s music virtually defines the
transition from late Romantic music to
twentieth century modernist music
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
(1894)
• The composition was inspired by the poem
“L’Après-midi d’un faune” by Stéphane
Mallarmé
• It is one of Debussy's most famous works
and is considered a turning point in the
history of music
• It is a work that barely grasps onto tonality
and harmonic function
Maurice Ravel
(1875-1937)
• Bolero (1928)
– Fascination with tone
color, Spanish music,
obsessive rhythmic
repetition
– Originally a ballet
– Ravel said of this piece
“(It is) an experiment
consisting of one long,
very gradual crescendo
Nationalism
• Reflection of a country by utilizing folk
song, stories and dances. This style
encouraged authenticity (scientific method
applied to music).
• This style reflected the cultures of the rural
and urban areas.
• Béla Bartók, Aaron Copland, Charles Ives,
George Gershwin
Charles Ives
(1874-1954)
• Putnam’s Camp, Redding,
Connecticut (1912)
– From Three Places in New England
(Orchestral Set No. 1)
– The piece is famous for its use of
musical quotation and paraphrasing.
– The piece showcases Ive’s signature
style traits of his style:
• layered textures
• multiple, simultaneous melodies, many
of which are recognizable hymn and
marching tunes
• masses of sound, and tone clusters
• sudden, sharp textural contrasts
Aaron Copland
(1900-1990)
• Appalachian Spring,
1943-1944
– Originally a ballet
– Created at the request
of the choreagrapher,
Martha Graham
– Rearranged as an
orchestral suite
Neoclassicism
• A revival of the techniques, forms and
style features characteristic of the
Renaissance, Baroque and Classical
periods
• Originated in Germany
• Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Aaron
Copland
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
• Rite of Spring, 1913
– Ballet choreographed
by Vaslav Najinsky
– Regarded as one of the
most influential 20th
century scores
– Innovative use of
complex rhythmic
structures, timbres, and
dissonance
– http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=bjX3oAwv_Fs
Serialism
• Serialistic or 12-tone atonal music
• Originated in Germany
• Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton
Webern
• Uses a “row” (a fixed sequence of the 12
tones of the chromatic scale) as the
unifying basis for a composition's melody,
harmony, structural progressions, and
variations
Arnold Schoenberg
(1874-1951)
• “Moondrunk” from
Pierrot Lunaire,
1912
– A melodrama
– Use of
Sprechstimme
– Atonal
Expressionism
• A style that, like Impressionism, began first in
the visual arts and then moved into literature
and music.
• As opposed to Impressionism which looked
outward – Expressionism looked inward and
sought to express inward emotions
• Originated in Germany
• Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern
Alban Berg
(1885-1935)
• Wozzeck (19171922)
– Opera about the
inevitability of
hardship and the
exploitation for the
poor
Avant-garde
• This style sought to overcome years of neglect
in the elements of timbre and rhythm.
• Often this style was not embraced by the public
but promoted by artists.
• This style included aleatory music (chance
music that exploits randomness), electronic and
multimedia.
• Originated in France
• Edgard Varèse, Milton Babbitt, John Cage
Edgard Varèse
• Poème électronique (1958)
– Composed for the Phillips
Pavillon at the 1958 Brussels
Worlds Fair
– The first, electronic-spatial
environment to combine
architecture, film, light and
music to a total experience
made to functions in time and
space
– Utilized machine noises,
transported piano chords,
filtered choir and solo voices,
and synthetic tone colorings
Radical Experimentation
and Postmodernism:
The Arts since 1950
Cultural Influences
• Politically: establishment of nations,
continual struggle for control, third world
vs. major powers
• Economically: international trade, global
commercialization
• Socially: mobility of society, human rights,
social concerns, drugs, HIV/AIDS
• Technologically: world communication,
internet, electronics, computer, Palm Pilots
Other Influences
• Radical Experimentation
– A general sense of restlessness pervaded culture
after WWII. Artists began experimenting with new
techniques, new materials, new ideas (avant-garde).
• Postmodernism
– A new movement that followed Modernism.
– One aspects of Postmodernism is the attempt to
discover the meaning of art.
– A second aspect is the concept of cultural relativity –
no one culture or idea is better or more worthy than
any other, it all depends on the context.
– Resulted in blending of Eastern culture, rediscovery
of past styles (tonality).
Visual Art Since 1950
• Assemblage
• Abstract Expressionism
• Pop Art
• Op Art (Optical Art)
Assemblage
• The technique of putting together constructions from
different media, often pieces of junk.
• Robert Rauschenberg
(1925-2008)
Odalisk
Abstract Expressionism
• American movement that grew out of
Surrealism’s interest in the sub-conscious
and what the mind can do without any
conscious suggestion.
• Abstract Expressionists produced huge
pictures full of color, energy and
spontaneity.
• Jackson Pollock – Autumn Rhythm,
Number 30
Jackson Pollock
(1912-1956)
• Autumn Rhythm,
Number 30
Pop Art
Draws inspiration from popular culture and the
mass production processes
Andy Warhol
(1928-1987)
Green Coca-Cola Bottles
Op Art (Optical Art)
Refers to artworks that depend on the viewer’s eyes
responding to the lines and patterns in a certain way
(optical illusions)
Bridget Riley
(b. 1931)
Current
Music Since 1950: General
Characteristics
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Total Serialism
Aleatoric Music
Minimalism
Music Quotation
Tonal Music
New Sounds
Electronic Sounds
Liberation of Sound
Mixed Media
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Increased use of 12-tone system during
the 1950’s and 1960’s.
– Proponent: Aaron Copland
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Total Serialism: use of the techniques of
12-tone to organize rhythm, dynamics
and tone color during the 1940’s and
1950’s.
– Proponents: Milton Babbitt, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez
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Aleatoric Music or Chance music:
composer chooses pitches, tone colors
and rhythms by random methods, or
allows the performer to choose much of
the music material.
– Proponent: John Cage
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Minimalism: characterized by a steady
pulse, clear tonality and insistent
repetition of short melodic patterns.
– Proponents: Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip
Glass, John Adams
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Music Quotation: works containing
deliberate quotations from earlier music.
– Proponents: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, George
Crumb, George Rochberg
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Tonal Music and a return to tonality:
“New Romantics”
– Proponents: David Del Tredici, George
Rochberg
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Electronic Sounds: The development of tape studios,
synthesizers and computers in the 1950’s and 1960’s
resulted in potentially unlimited resources for the
production and control of sound. Composers are no
longer limited by human performers.
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Liberation of sound: greater exploitation of noise-like
sounds. Increased use of microtones.
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Proponent: Milton Babbitt
Proponent: Krzysztof Penderecki
Mixed Media: Music (often electronic) is presented
together with visual counterparts (slides, films,
gestures, theatrical action
Music Since 1950:
Representational Pieces
Milton Babbitt (1916 - 1992)
• Semi-Simple Variations (1956)
George Crumb (b. 1929)
• Ancient Voices of Children (1970)
– From Where Do You Come, My Love, My Child?
Philip Glass (b. 1937)
• Einstein on the Beach
(1976)
– Glass’ first and longest
opera (five hours)
– A trilogy of operas: Einstein
on the Beach, Satyagraha,
Akhnaten
– These three operas serve
as "portrait" operas that
portray men whose
personal vision transformed
the thinking of their time
through the power of ideas
and not arms.
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939)
• Concerto Grosso (1985)
– Commissioned to commemorate the 300th birthday of
George Frideric Handel
– Utilizes themes from a Handel Violin Sonata
– Clear example of “quotation music”
John Adams (b. 1947)
• Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)
– Example of minimalism
Four important influences
on 20th/21st century music
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Women’s movement (1960’s): performers to
composers to conductors
Economics of composing
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rift between composer and audience
government foundations – now waning
Computer/Midi
Popular and Classical fusion
Summary
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It is difficult to judge our present musical styles
since history gives us perspective.
Listeners who worry that the music of our time
is no good may be interested to know that
similar concerns were expressed about music in
Wagner’s time and even in Beethoven’s time.
20th/21st century music, like music of every
age, effectively mirrors the prevailing patterns of
the time.