Twentieth-Century Developments
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Extremes in violence and progress
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1st half of century
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World Wars I & II
Dictatorships
Global Depression
2nd half of century
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Breakup of colonial empires
Cold War between USA and Soviet Union (USSR)
Armed conflicts
Rapid economic growth
Equal rights movements
Twentieth-Century Developments
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Technology and science
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First flight / Walk on the moon
Communications
Albert Einstein – theory of relativity
Sigmund Freud – understanding the unconscious
Structure of DNA
Arts
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Shock as a goal
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Modern dance
Picasso’s and Kandinsky’s artwork
Emphasis on pluralism and diversity
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Contradictions coexist / alternations between contradictions
Twentieth-Century Developments
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Summary of arts developments
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USA – powerful force in culture, entertainment,
politics, economics
Nonwestern cultures/thought affect the arts
New technologies affect artists
Human sexuality explored
Minority representation
Reactions to wars and massacres
“Postmodern” approach less serious / blur lines
between elite and pop culture
Musical Styles: 1900-1945
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More fundamental changes in language of
music than 1650-1900
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New approaches
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Pitch and rhythm organization
New vocabulary of sound
Originally met with hostility
Now: commonly heard in jazz, rock, TV, Movies
No single system governs pitch organization
for all music
Relies less on pre-established relationships
and expectations
1900-1945: An Age of Musical Diversity
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Great diversity of musical styles
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Different musical languages vs. dialects
Reflects diversity of life
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Agency – freedom to choose
Global communication and travel
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Wider range of music available
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Unconventional rhythms, sounds, melodic patterns
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Influence of non-European music
American jazz – Improvisation, syncopations, unique tone colors
Inspiration from wider historical range, including forms
Characteristics of Twentieth-Century Music
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Tone Color
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More important – Variety – Continuity – Mood
Noiselike / percussive sounds
Uncommon playing techniques
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Glissando
Col legno
Flutter-tongue
More percussion instruments
Harmony
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Consonance and dissonance
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Emancipation of dissonance
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Polychords
Quartal chords
New chord structures
Characteristics of Twentieth-Century Music
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Alternatives to the Traditional Tonal System
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Less gravity to tonic key; maj/min
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Tonal center around a chord or tone
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Twelve-tone system
Use of church modes
Polytonality / bitonality
Atonality
Rhythm
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Emphasis on irregularity and unpredictability
New structures – “free and varied”
Irregular phrases / meters
Rapid changes
Polyrhythm
Ostinato
Characteristics of Twentieth-Century Music
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Melody
No longer tied to chords, harmony or
tonality
 Lack of tonal center
 Wide leaps
 Series of irregular phrases
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Music and Musicians in Society
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Living Room becomes the new “concert hall”
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Technology – radio, recordings, TV
Larger audience
Larger repertoire
Radio broadcasts
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1920s – reach large audience
1930s – radio networks form orchestras
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NBC Symphony Orchestra
Regular broadcasts of Saturday matinee performances of the Metropolitan
Opera
Television broadcasts
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1951 – Amahl and the Night Visitors
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First opera created for television
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Live from Lincoln Center / Live from the Met
New York Philharmonic / Bernstein
Public television
Music and Musicians in Society
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Repertoire dominated by music of earlier
periods during the first half of 20th century
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Contemporary works neglected / “difficult”
Formation of “new music” groups
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International Society for Contemporary Music
1950s – More contemporary music
performed
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In concert by major orchestras and opera
companies
Recordings
Musicians more accustomed & proficient
Music and Musicians in Society
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Many modern compositions commissioned
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Tied with developments in dance
Film scores
Philanthropic foundations
Few composers lived on commissions alone
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Latin American composers
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Earned living by teaching, conducting, performing
“composers in residence”
Hieter Villa-Lobos, Silvestre Revueltas, Carlos Chávez, Alberto
Ginastera, Astor Piazzolla
Women composers
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Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Miriam Gideon, Vivian Fine, Ellen
Taaffe Zwilich
Music and Musicians in Society
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African American composers and
performers
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William Grant Still, Howard Swanson, Ulysses
Kay, Olly Wilson, Tania Léon, George Walker
Admitted to music schools / banned from
opera companies and orchestras
1945 – Todd Duncan, baritone, performs at the
NYC Opera Company
 1955 – Marian Anderson, contralto, performs at
the Metropolitan Opera
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Music and Musicians in Society
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Political, economic, social upheavals
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Russian Revolution (1917)
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Rachmaninoff and others leave Russia
Musicians’ lives and careers strictly controlled
1930’s – Communist Party demands that Soviet
composers:
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Reject modernism
Write music that praise the regime
Hitler in Germany (1933)
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Avant-garde, socialist, and Jewish musicians lose jobs
Onset of WWII – largest migration of artists in
history
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Stravinsky, Bartók, Schoenberg, Hindemith leave
Europe for USA
Music and Musicians in Society
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USA influence on music
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Jazz and American popular music sweep the
world
Post-1920 – Large group of composers / wide
spectrum of contemporary styles
Most first-rank symphony orchestras
American colleges and universities
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Train and employ leading composers, performers,
scholars
Expand course offerings
Sponsor 20th century music specialty groups
Electronic music studios
Impressionism and Symbolism
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French Impressionist Painting
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1874 – Exhibition by French painters
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Monet, Renoir, Pissaro and others
Critic comments negatively on Monet’s Impression: Sunrise
Critic mocks show as “exhibition of impressionists”
 Term impressionist sticks
 Loses negative implication
Impressionist paintings
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Appreciated today
 In 1870’s – seen as formless collections of tiny colored patches
(viewed too closely)
Painters concerned with light, color, atmosphere (impermanence,
change, fluidity)
Outdoor scenes from contemporary life
Obsessed with water
Impressionism and Symbolism
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French Symbolist Poetry
Emphasized fluidity, suggestion, and the
purely musical, or sonorous, effects of words
 Mallarmé, Verlaine, Rimbaud – symbolist
poets
 Debussy (composer) was a friend of many
symbolist poets
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The Afternoon of a Faun by Mallarmé inspires
Debussy’s most famous orchestral work
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
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Impressionist composer / links Romantic era with
20th Century
Age 10-22 – studies at Paris Conservatory
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1884 – wins Prix de Rome
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Regarded as talented rebel by teachers
3 years of study in Rome subsidized
Leaves after 2 years / lacking musical inspiration away
from Paris
Musical influences –
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Russian music / visits to Russia
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Worked with Nadezhda von Meck
Asian music – Paris International Exposition (1889)
Wagner’s music / both attracted and repelled
Claude Debussy
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Earns small income teaching piano
Attended literary gatherings regularly
Little known to musical public
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1902 – Pelléas and Mélisande (opera)
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Financial and emotional crises
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Constantly borrowing money
Love affairs
Concert tours to pay for luxuries
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Critics sharply divided
Soon catches on / most important living French composer
Not a gifted conductor / hated appearing in public
1918 - Dies in Paris
Debussy’s Music
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Descriptive titles
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Fleeting moods / misty atmosphere
Inspired by literary and pictorial ideas
Impressionism in music
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Sounds free and spontaneous
Stress on tone color and fluidity
Treatment of harmony
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Chords used more for their tone color and sonority than in a
progression
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Lack of traditional resolutions
Parallel chords / planing
Adds 5-note chords to harmonic vocabulary
Debussy’s Music
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Tonality
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Pentatonic / whole-tone scales
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Rhythmic flexibility
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Debussy’s Output
One opera
 Art Songs
 Piano Works
 Works for Orchestra and Chamber Ensembles
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Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
(1894)
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“free illustration” of Mallarmé’s poem
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Dreams and fantasies of a faun
“long solo” on his flute
Tries to recall whether he carried off two beautiful
nymphs or not
Falls asleep, exhausted by the effort
“successive scenes through which pass the dreams
and desires of the faun in the heat of the
afternoon”
Woodwind solos, muted horn calls, harp
glissandos
Neoclassicism (1920-1950)
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Emotional restraint, balance, clarity
Use of earlier techniques to organize 20th century
harmonies and rhythms
Slogan: “Back to Bach”
Preferred absolute music for chamber groups over
program music and gigantic orchestras
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Fugues, concerti grossi, baroque suites
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Post WWI economy affects this
Most use maj/min scales
Some use 12-tone system
Sounds modern /
Neoclassicism in other arts
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
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Legendary figure / friends with T.S. Eliot and
Picasso / Honored by JFK
Born near St. Petersburg, Russia
Studied with Rimsky-Korsakov
1909 – heard by Diaghilev, director of Russian
ballet
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Asked for orchestration of Chopin pieces
1910 – commissions The Firebird
1911 – Petrushka
1913 – The Rite of Spring
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Riot erupts
Later recognized as masterpiece
Influences composers around the world
Igor Stravinsky
WWI – flees to Switzerland
After armistice – moves to France
WWII – comes to USA
1920’s-30’s – constantly tours Europe and
USA
 Compositions less inspired by Russian folk
music
 1950’s – adopts 12-tone system
 Got well-paying commissions
 Loved order and discipline
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Kept “banking hours”
Stravinsky’s Music
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Three early ballets
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WWI – wrote for chamber groups
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Unconventional instrument combinations
Incorporates ragtime rhythms / popular dances
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Inspired by 18th-century music
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Inspired by Anton Webern
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1920-1951 – his “neoclassic” period
1950’s – shift to 12-tone music
“Stravinsky sound”
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Large orchestra / Russian folklore and folk tunes
Strong beat / dry, clear tone colors
Changing & irregular meters / abrupt rhythmic shifts
Ostinatos
Drew on wide range of styles / used existing music at times
Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)
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1910 – “fleeting vision”
Primitivism – the deliberate evocation of primitive
power through insistent rhythms and percussive sounds
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2 parts subdivided into sections / without pause / each
has slow introduction and final frenzied climactic dance
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Part I:
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Introduction
Omens of Spring – Dances of the Youths and Maidens
Ritual of Abduction
Expressionism 1905-1925
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artistic movement that stressed intense, subjective
emotion
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centers in Germany and Austria
explore inner feelings rather than depicting outward
appearance
deliberate distortions used to assault and shock the
audience
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reaction against French impressionism
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Expressionist art
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reject conventional prettiness
social protest
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poor and oppressed
opposition to WWI
Expressionism in Music
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grows out of emotional turbulence from
late Romantic composers
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ex. Wagner and Mahler
Characteristics
harsh dissonance
 fragmentation
 extreme registers
 unusual instrumental effects
 many avoid tonality and traditional chord
progressions
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Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
born in Vienna, Austria
 almost entirely self-taught musician
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studies scores
 plays in amateur chamber groups
 attends concerts
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age 21 – loses job as bank clerk
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earns poor living
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conducts choir of industrial workers
orchestrates popular operettas
Arnold Schoenberg
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Early works met with hostility
1904 – teaches music theory and composition
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loyal students – Alban Berg, Anton Webern
1908 – abandons traditional tonality
1908-1915 – incredible productivity (“I have a
mission…”)
1915-1923 – publishes nothing; searching for way
to organize his musical discoveries
1921 – announcement of discovery
1923-25 – begins using twelve-tone system
appointed to position at Prussian Academy of
Arts in Berlin
Arnold Schoenberg
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Nazis seize power in Germany
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Feels neglected in USA
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1933 – dismissed from Academy (Jewish)
moves to USA
joins music faculty at UCLA
music rarely performed
financially unsuccessful
After death –
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twelve-tone system used increasingly throughout
the world
remains an important influence today
Schoenberg’s Music
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“new music … destined to become
tradition”
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evolves from the past
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early works show features of late Romantic style
large orchestras
dissonances
angular melodies
modulate through remote keys
1903-1907
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farther from Romanticism
whole-tone scales
quartal chords
Schoenberg’s Music
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atonality – the absence of key
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evolves from use of chromatic harmonies and scales
all 12 tones used without regard to traditional
relationships
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“emancipated dissonances”
jagged melodies
novel instrumental effects
extreme contrasts in dynamics / register
irregular phrases
Sprechstimme – halfway between speaking and singing
early works lack musical system of organization
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longer works only possible with longer text
Schoenberg’s Music
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Twelve-tone system
“method of composing with twelve tones”
 tone row, set, or series
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the ordering or unifying idea
serial technique
no pitch occurs more than once in a tone row
number of possibilities – 479,001,600
original form, retrograde, inversion, retrograde
inversion
12-tone matrix calculator
example of 12-tone music
Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21 (1912)
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cycle of 21 songs for female voice and 5-member
instrumental ensemble that play 8 instruments
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based on weird poems by Belgian poet Giraud,
translated in to German by Hartleben
Pierrot – tragic clown puppet derived from commedia
dell’arte
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represents isolated modern artist
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songs 1-7: Pierrot, a poet, drunk in moonlight, deranged
songs 8-14: nightmare filled with death, martyrdoms
songs 15-21: refuge from nightmare through clowning, sentimentality,
and nostalgia
3 groups of 7 songs
No.1 Mondestrunken
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voice, piano, flute, violin, cello
A Survivor from Warsaw, Op.46
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cantata for narrator, male chorus, and orchestra
about a single episode in the Holocaust
based partly on a direct report by a survivor
from a Warsaw ghetto
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over 400,000 Jews from this ghetto died in
extermination camps or of starvation
many others died during 1943 revolt against the
Nazis
English, German, and Hebrew – 3 languages in
Schoenberg’s life
12-tone composition written in 1947
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
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born in Vienna
studied piano, cello, music theory
earned doctorate of music from University of
Vienna
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modest income from conducting
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studied privately with Schoenberg
rare performances of own music met with ridicule
shy / devoted to family / Christian / loved to
commune with nature
mistakenly shot and killed by American soldier
near end of WWII
Webern’s Music
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most works last only 2-3 minutes
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Works 
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half for solo voice or chorus
rest for chamber orchestra and small chamber groups
atonal and 12-tone
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mature output can be played in less than 3½ hours
melodic lines “atomized” into 2-note or 3-note
fragments
often used strict polyphonic imitation
works became a source of inspiration for
composers after his death
Five pieces for Orchestra, Op.10
atonal / not 12-tone
 “expressions of musical lyricism”
 among the shortest pieces ever written for
orchestra
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4th piece: 6 1/3 measures long / less than 30
seconds
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unconventional instruments used
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Third Piece: Very slow and extremely calm
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
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born in Hungary
piano – important instrument in his career
mother taught him first lessons
 attended Budapest Academy of Music
 1907-1934: teaches piano at the academy
 gives recitals throughout Europe
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influenced by Hungarian nationalist
movement
spends free time recording peasant folk songs in
small villages
 becomes authority on peasant music
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Béla Bartók
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importance recognized abroad during 1920s
and 1930s
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1940 – anti-Nazi / emigrates to USA
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neglected in Hungary until premiere of ballet
(The Wooden Prince - 1917)
has little money / poor health / feels neglected
1943 – receives commission for Concerto for
Orchestra while in the hospital
receives other commissions
 dies next year / becomes one of the most
popular 20th century composers
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Bartók’s Music
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“Hungarian influence is the strongest”
fused folk elements, classical forms, 20th
century sounds
arranged many folk tunes
 most works use original themes that have a folk
flavor
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Works:
many for solo piano
 6 string quartets and other chamber music
 3 piano concertos
 2 violin concertos
 several pieces for orchestra
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Bartók’s Music
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reinterpreted traditional forms
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rondo, fugue, sonata, etc.

used harsh dissonances, polychords, tone clusters
always used tonal center

rhythm – powerful beat, unexpected changes,
changing meters

Concerto for Orchestra
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offered $1000 in hospital by Koussevitsky,
conductor of Boston Symphony Orchestra
2nd movement – Game of Pairs
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Allegretto scherzando / ABA’
different pairs of woodwind and brass instruments
William Grant Still (1895-1978)
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1917-1935 – “Harlem Renaissance”
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born in Woodville, Mississippi / grew up in Little
Rock, Arkansas
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Afro-American Symphony – first composition by a black
composer performed by a major American symphony
orchestra
studied violin
age 16 – Wilberforce University – premed student
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devoted himself to musical activities
abandoned medicine for music
did not graduate / popular music arranger and
performer
William Grant Still
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worked for W.C. Handy in Memphis
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1917 – Oberlin College Conservatory
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arranged Handy’s St. Louis Blues for military band
(1916)
left to serve in navy in WWI
briefly returned to Oberlin
moved to New York
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popular musician / composer of concert works
wrote band arrangements / played in all-black shows
studied with two opposing composers
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George Whitefield Chadwick
Edgard Varèse

critically acclaimed in New York
writes in a uniquely African-American flavor
William Grant Still
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1931 – premiere of Afro-American Symphony by Rochester
Philharmonic
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1934 – awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
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performed by 38 orchestras in US and Europe over next 2 decades
moves to Los Angeles
writes film scores, concert works, operas
1936 – conducts Los Angeles Philharmonic

first African American to conduct major symphony orchestra

Troubled Island – first opera by black composer performed
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1981 – (3 years after death) A Bayou Legend (1941) televised
nationally
Afro-American Symphony (1931)
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shortly after onset of Great Depression
devises own blues theme / “blues… could be
elevated to the highest musical level.”
unified by thematic transformation of blues
theme throughout movements
uses tenor banjo
themes recall spirituals, jazz tunes
movements prefaced by lines from poem by
Paul Laurence Dunbar
3rd movement – “Humor” – Animato
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
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
born in Brooklyn to Russian-Jewish immigrants
age 15 – decided to be a composer on his own
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was drawn to “modern” music, despite first teacher’s
objections
1921 – studied with Nadia Boulanger in France
Phases in Copland’s Music
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
“American in character” (i.e. jazz) – only lasted a few
years
1930s – serious, dissonant, sophisticated works
late 1930’s – American folklore, accessible to larger
audience

also jazz, revival hymns, cowboy songs
Copland’s Music

simple, yet highly professional
clear textures
 slow-moving harmonies
 strongly tonal
th
 20 century techniques
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polychords
polyrhythms
changing meters
percussive orchestration
serial technique
Appalachian Spring
ballet score for Martha Graham
 took about a year to complete

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wrote a suite for orchestra a year later


doubtful that it would be a timely piece
won important awards / Copland recognized by
a large public
“pioneer celebration in spring around a
newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania
hills”