20th Century Flashcards
Aleatory
Music in which the composer employs elements of chance
“Chance music”
The indeterminate aspect may affect the act of composition the performance or both
(Throwing dice to determine pitch or rhythm)
John Cage is a notable example, Music of Changes a piano piece in 1951
Other composers: Stockhausen and Robert Moran
Anderson, Laurie
B 1947
One of the main “performance artists” of the later 20th century
Anderson wrote music designed to be performed by herself
Her work is influenced by popular genres and utilizes multi-media
Song cycle - United States
Anderson, Leroy
American 1908-1975 1935 freelance composer working for Boston Pops Jazz Pizzicato 1939 Sleigh Ride 1950 The Typewriter 1953
Atonal
Non-tonal music
Referees to Pre-twelve tone music of Schoenberg and his i followers
Schoenberg preferred the term “pan tonal” but it didn’t stick
Babbit, Milton
B. 1916
Composer, scholar of math and music and theoretician
Expounded the view of serialism as a musical system whose properties he has developed with the aid from terms derived from math (combinatoriality, set).
His works use serial methods used to determine pitches and rhythmic and formal shapes
4 string quartets, various other chamber pieces and piano works, songs and tape pieces and synthesizer pieces
Bachianas brasileiras
Nine works by Villa-Lobos that combine elements of Brazilian folk music with the spirit of JS Bach counterpoint
Each his a suite with two titles: one reflecting the Baroque the other referring to Brazilian popular form
Each is for a different kind of ensemble
Ballet russe
Formed in 1909 by Sergei Diaghilev
Dedicated to the concept of total unity of production
Hired some of the worlds finest artist to mount works for his company
Picasso was among his designers
Scores were commissioned by Stravinsky (Firebird, Petrushka, Rite of Spring), Debussy (Jeux), Falla, Milhaud, Satie (Parade), Ravel (Daphnis et Chloe)
Abstract ballet dancing with no narrative was introduced
Because of Diaghilev ballet came to be regarded as a serious art and as a leading force in modern aesthetics
The group disbanded into other groups when Diaghilev died in 1929
Bartok, Bela
1881-1945
Hungarian
The foremost 20th century representative of nationalism in music
Major contributions to the standard rep of the symphony, concerto, piano music, and string quartet
Provided inspiration for other nationalistic composers
Brought authentic folk elements into an unprecedented synthesis with techniques of traditional art music
Mikrokosmos, 3 concerto for piano, music for strings, percussion and celesta 1936, Concerto for orchestra, six string quartets
Berberian, Cathy
First wife of Luciano Berlio
Accomplished singer
Inspiration for some of Berlioz’s most impressive vocal works: Thema 1958, Circles 1960, Passaggio 1963
Berg, Alban
1885-1935
Austrian
Applied 12-tone method with freedom and still used traditional forms often, creating an individual style with a post-Romantic warmth of expression
Wozzeck 1921, Lulu 1935
Classical approach to form and frequent use of tone-centers
Berlio, Luciano
B 1925 Italian Leading contemporary Italian composer Draws inspiration from anthropology, electro-acoustic research, ethnomusicology, phonetics and experimental traditions of the theater Early works = neoclassical Electronic music
Boulanger, Nadia
1887-1979
French
Conductor and famous teacher in France
Studied at Paris Conservatory with Faure and others
Active in reviving Monteverdi
Training many distinguished composers: Elliott Carter, Copland, Roy Harris
Her sister Lili was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, might have had more fame if she didn’t die so young at 25
Boulez, Pierre
B 1925
French composer, conductor
Studied at Paris conservatory with Messiaen
Early musical style like that of Schoenberg’s serialism and Stravinsky’s rhythmic methods: 2 piano sonatas, a cantata
First book of Structures for two pianos 1951/2 created a “total serial” style in which every musical aspect: Pitch, duration, loudness, and attack is organized according to serial rules
Later compositions included elements of chance and aleatory
Decrease in composition and rise in conducting
Brecht, Bertolt
German poet and philosopher who collaborated with Kurt Weil
three Penny Opera, Seven Deadly Sins, and Mahagony
Similar to Broadway musicals but incorporated an alienation effect for political commentary amidst the cabaret style
Britten, Benjamin
1913-1976
English composer, pianist and conductor
Brilliance as a pianist (accompanist) and interpreter of his own and other’s music
Peter Grimes 1945, first great English opera since Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Reached widest audience with War Requiem in 1962 - Large scale choral work combines the Latin mass with war poems by Owen
Brown, Earle
B 1926
American
Influenced by and associated with Cage, Jackson, Pollock, and Alexander Calder
Known for his unusual musical notation
Graphic scores December 1952 (1952) is a design of thin black rectangles on a white ground
When he came in contact with the European avant-garde he went back to traditional notation
Busoni, Ferruccio
1866-1924
Italian pianist and composer who settled in Berlin
Addict of Bach’s music (editor and transcriber of his music) at a time when Italian composers and pianists hardly knew it
Best known as a virtuoso with a special interest in Bach and Liszt
Great interpreter of Beethoven’s late period works
Cage, John
B 1912
American
Introduced chance procedures to music
Music of changes for Piano 1951 determined by coin tosses
4’3’’ 1952 is silent and the aspect of silence
Also produced aleatory and electronic music as well
Cardew, Cornelius
1936-1981
English composer
Treatise for unspecified forces
Assistant to Stockhousen
Carter, Elliott
B 1908
American
Studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and returned to America as a fluent Neoclassicist
Extended harmonic range, introduced new rhythmic fluidity, metric modulation, forms based on musical character and defined by their own harmonic nature
Casella, Alfredo
1882-1947
Italian
Studied with Faure at Paris conservatory
Pianist and conductor
Took up Stravisnky’s neoclassical approach after WWI
Chavez, Carlos
1899-1978
Mexican self taught composer
Did much to invigorate music of his home country and took Mexican music around the world as a conductor
Cocteau, Jean
French poet and author of the early 20th century
“Cock and Harlequin” 1918 - “Satie teaches what, in our age, is the greatest audacity = simplicity”
He warned against the influences of German music, and the impressionistic leanings of his own countrymen
He extolled the virtues of “everyday” music which would have the flavor of street, circus and jazz
He penned a ballet which Satie set to music (Parade) which featured jazz and acrobatics within and put on by the Ballet Russe
Collage
20th century compositional technique combining several incongruous and contrasting styles within a single composition
“Everything is good, so let’s have everything”
Ives, Satie, and Berio (Sinfonia)
Combinatoriality
A property of symmetry which may be displayed by a series or other set
For example, a 12-note series may be said to exhibit “Inversioal hexachordal combinatoriality” if the first hexachord of one of its forms has the same content as the second hexachord of an inverted form.
It is a way of relating serial forms within a work
Creative uses of this have been most thoroughly exploited by Milton Babbitt
Copland, Aaron
1900-1991
American composer
Studied with Boulanger in Paris gaining knowledge of neoclassicism which he combined with Jazz in his Piano Concerto 1926
Three ballets in which he used American material: Billy the Kid 1938, Rodeo 1942 and Appalachian Spring 1944
Appalachian Spring gave Copland his distinctively American style
He moved into Stravinsky-like serialism with Connotations 1961, Inscape 1967
Cowell, Henry
1897-1965
American composer
The Tides of Manaunaun 1912 - “clusters” of notes to be played on the piano with the fist, palm or forearm
Used the inside of the piano for The Banshee 1925
Influential book “New Musical Resources” 1930
He devised a machine, the rhythmicon for realizing the complex rhythms he was demanding in his music
20 symphonies, which use Persian, Indian and Japanese instruments
Craft of Musical Composition
Hindemith’s composition textbook
Explains the system of composition based on dissonance classifications for different sonorities
Music should began simply (triad) and move to a point of maximum dissonance (climax) and ultimate return to simplicity which is why his pieces always end with a major triad
Hindemith wished to extend the rules of traditional tonality rather than breaking them altogether
The triad remained the foundation for his works
Crumb, George
B 1929
American composer
Five Piano Pieces 1962
Made use of special instrumental effects in the creation of atmosphere sound imagery, often macabre or nocturnal
Ancient voices of Children (for soprano, treble and ensemble) 1970
Makrokosmos 1-2 for piano 1972-3
D-S-C-H
Used as the four-note pc group D, Eb,C,B which denotes Dmitri Shostakovich used this motive in some of his compositions including his violin concerto
Dada
Explicitly “anti-art” much of what the bizarre manifestos, the noise-poetry the chance-poetry, the incomprehensible “simultaneous” poems in three languages at once, and the general obscenity and irrationality were about was a nihilistic and pessimistic negation of both “bourgeois society” and the claims of Modern Art to be able to change that society.
Satie’s Gymnopedie 1888, Parade 1917
Dahlhaus, Carl
B 1928
German musicologist
Wrote: Habilitation (1966), a fundamental study on the development of tonality
He focused on 15th and 16th century music particularly that of Josquin
His writing and editorials on Wagner’s music have brought about renewed of Wagner scholarship
A constant theme of Dahlhaus’s writings and research is the present conception of music and its place in modern society
Dallapiccola, Luigi
1904-1975
Italian composer, pianist and writer
Pioneer of dodecaphony in Italy
His works combine 12-tone techniques with a love for melody and for the song and dance forms of early Italian music
His most important compositions are Variazioni per Orchestra 1954 and Volo di Notte and several song cycles
Davies, Peter Maxwell
B 1934
English composer known for his highly dramatic music
Music theater pieces of the late 1960s/70s are expressionist in style
Eight songs for a mad king (1969) for solo voice and instrumental ensemble feature a crazed obsessive individual with extended vocal techniques
Frequently borrows from the Middle Ages and Renaissance“Missa super l’homme arme” 1968
Sometimes quotes directly, other times alludes to or imitates stylistically, using plainsong, church modes, or hocket
Uses “magic squares” medieval puzzles of mystically or mathematically related numbers, - to determine the formal structure of pitches or rhythms
De Stijl
A group of artists located in Netherlands which took its name from its monthly publication begun in 1917
Promoted the art of almost mathematical purity based on geometrical shapes
This was a new objectivity which was an outgrowth of the post-war Dadaist movement
Debussy, Claude
1862-1918
French composer who had a great deal of influence on the development of 20th century music
Founder and main representative of the impressionist musical style
Won the Prix de Rome in 1884
Interested in the works of impressionist painters and the poetry of Paul Verlaine, Pierre Louys, Stephane Mallarme
Led Debussy to a new style of music first exemplified in his famous “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune” (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) after a poem by Mallarme.
Tried to create music based on a single uninterrupted theme rather than on shorter, more conventional themes or motifs
The evocation of mood, atmosphere and color are all important
He achieved this by: instrumentation (particular tone color), Oriental five-tone scale, whole-tone scale, dissonant harmonies, parallel chords and unusual shifting harmonies.
Other notable works: Nocturnes, La Mer, and Images, more than 50 songs, the opera Pelleas et Melisande, two books of etudes, string quartet, preludes
Delius, Frederick
1862-1934
An English Composer
Combines features of romanticism and Impressionism and making use of English materials
Best works are short pieces portraying the English countryside such as “On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring”
Adapted various folk elements to his music, as in Appalachia, Brigg Fair and North Country Sketches
Forms were romantic he employed a number of devices made popular by the impressionists, notably dissonant harmonies and the whole-tone scale
Developing variation
Continuous evolution and transformation of the thematic substance, strictly avoiding literal repetition.
Related to the concept of “musical prose”
Both concepts are used by Schoenberg is his First Quartet
Diaghilev
Director of the ballet company Ballet Russe and other avant-garde movement groups
He selected Stravinsky, Satie and many other artists and musicians for his: Petruschka, The Rite of Spring, and Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune
Eaton, John
B 1935
American composer
Early career jazz pianist
Received three Prix de Rome 1959, 1960, 1961.
He utilized varied resources of electronic instruments with exceptional originality and virtuosity.
Closely identified with the Syn-ket a type of electronic synthesizer invented by Pablo Ketoff in 1964, it has several keyboard sensitive to pressure and sliding movement
Electronic music
Music made up of sounds created or manipulated by electronic devices which are recorded and reproduced on magnetic tape or a digital storage medium, OR are created and performed live at virtually the same time
A tape recording or floppy disk or circuit diagram corresponds to the written score of traditional music and playing a tape or compact disk may correspond to a musical performance
It’s early heavy reliance on tape led electronic music to be called tape music
Differs from “music concrete” in that the sounds themselves are generated electronically by a device called a synthesizer
1980s MIDI “musical instrument digital interface”
Elgar, Edward
1857-1934
English composer the first of international importance since the death of Purcell in 1695.
Most important works: Pomp and Circumstance marches, The Dream of Gerontius and Enigma Variations, Cello concerto
His music follows the general forms and harmonic traditions of the 19th century romantic composers
Emancipation of dissonance
Phrase coined by Schoenberg to describe his new style of composition after the First Chamber Symphony
Emphasis on non-harmonic tones becomes so extreme that they tend to not resolve at all
Dissonant harmonic complexes are no longer regulated by underlying triadic successions but are “set free” as absolute harmonic entities, capable of standing on their own and related solely to one another rather than to a single harmonic type representing a universal norm.
Das Buch der hangended Garten (op 15), and his monodrama Erwartung Op 17
Ethnomusicology
The study of music in relation to the culture that produced it
Traditions typically China, Japan, and Arab countries outside of the western tradition
Until the 19th century it was all lumped in together as “exotic music” but towards the end of the 19th century scholars started studying the individual countries in more depth giving the same attention as other disciplines in music
One result has been an increased influence of non-western music in wester music in both popular and serious music
Expressionism
A term borrowed from painting to describe certain kinds of 20th century music written as though to express the innermost feelings of the composer or in stage works of the characters
Paintings - distortion and exaggeration to picture a kind of inner reality
Music - sounds harsh, discordant as well as emotional and dramatic
Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht (transfigured night), Pierrot Lunaire, Berg’s two operas: Lulu and Wozzeck and Peter Maxwell Davies, Eight Songs for a mad king 1969.
Both texts and music concentrate more on the psychology of the characters than on external events
German and Austrian composers of the early 20th century like Schoenberg and Berg
Believed art should reflect the inner soul of the creator
Instead of producing an accurate representation of a scene, a composer should express his personal feelings toward it
Involved distorting reality and traditional structures
Falla, Manuel de
1876-1946
Foremost Spanish composer of his time
Particularly known for his use of traditional Spanish music (much of it very old) in his own music
First great success: opera La Vida breve “Life is Short”
He’s combined Spanish folk elements with some of the methods of the French impressionist composers
Song cycle: Siete Canciones popilares espanolas “Seven popular Spanish Songs” 1914 he used actual folk melodies as well as the rhythms and style of folk music
Faure, Gabriel
1845-1924
French composer and teacher
His music represents a transition from 19th century romanticism to the idioms of the 20th century
Church organist and director of the Paris Conservatory
Taught musicians: Ravel and Nadia Boulanger
His compositions are noted for a highly original treatment of harmony, careful use of counterpoint and in his songs, the meticulous fitting of words to music
He made free use of dissonance but never abandoned tonality
His best known songs, numerous piano pieces (preludes, nocturnes, barcaroles, impromptus) and a large amount of chamber music, of which the best examples are two quartets for piano and strings, two piano quintets, and a string quartet composed shortly before his death, Requiem
Feldman, Morton
1926-1987
American composer
1950s closely associated with Cage, Brown, Wolff and Tudor and with the abstract expressionist painters in NY
Influenced by the visual artists more than that by any musician
He composed pieces immediately recognizable for their extreme point-style scoring and their subdued dynamic range
Invented new means of notation to give certain freedom in performance
Introduced Graph notation and precise notation but to make duration relatively free
Foss, Lukas
B 1922
German-born American composer, pianist and composer
His music combines a variety of styles, among them neoclassicism, romantic lyricism, and American folk elements
Late 1950s used various styles experimenting with improvisation, aleatory music, serial techniques and quotation and collage
Futurism
Early 20th century art movement which encompassed painting, sculpture poetry, theater, music, architecture, and cinema
Marinetti initiated the movement in 1909
Futurist rejected tradition and introduced experimental sounds by machinery and inflicted several 20th century composers
Often misused to loosely define any sort of avant-garde or difficult music
Gamelan
General name for classical Indonesian orchestra (many different kinds)
Javanese music uses two kinds of scale systems - a 5 tone scale called slendro, and a seven tone system called a pelog
Texture is usually dense
Percussion used: gongs, drums, xylophones, and kettles
Central melodic theme is played by metal xylophones
Gebrauchsmusik
“Music to be used” “Utility music”
A term invented in the 1920s for music to be played “used” at home by amateurs instead of in a concert halls by pros
Paul Hidemith wrote music especially for this purpose
Compositions call for small groups of performers and are not long or difficult
Allow for substitutions of instruments when you dont have one available
Gershwin, George
1898-1937
American composer
First to succeed in combining american popular and serious music
Rhapsody in Blue for piano and jazz orchestra first performed in 1924 (with composer as soloist)
Elements of ragtime, jazz, spirituals and blues
Symphonic poem (An American in Paris), Concerto in F for piano, folk opera Porgy and Bess
Ginastera, Alberto
1916-1983
Argentine composer
Nationalism (uses folk elements directly) Subjective nationalism (folk elements are not explicit as in his String Quartet no1) and Neo-Expressionism which began with Quartet no 2, his first entirely serial work.
Tragic and fantastic elements in opera. Don Rodrigo 1964 - exploited 12-note techniques
Glass, Philip
B 1937
American composer first became known for his minimalists music, extensive repetition, rhythmic regularity, conventional tonal harmony
1960s found his own eight-member ensemble
1970s began writing opera - Einstein on the Beach 1976, Akhnaten 1984, a series of meditations in Egyptian, Hebrew and Akkadian
Haba, Alois
1893-1973
Czech composer, theorist and teacher
Originator of the use of quarter-tone and sixth-tones in western art music… to realize this he pioneered the construction of special instruments: three types of quarter-tone piano, harmonium, and a quarter-tone clarinet, trumpet and guitar
Microtonal music
Harris, Roy
1898-1979
American composer whose music is noted for its skillful use of counterpoint
Employed traditional tonal material but avoided the use of key signatures, he wrote in a key without saying so
Hauer, Josef Matthias
1883-1959
Austrian composer and theorist
The central concept of his theory was “Melos” to which “Rhythmus” functioned as a counter-concept
Melos = atonal, Rhythmus = tonal music
Demanded a purely spiritual, super sensual music composed according to impersonal rules
12-tone composer
Henze, Hans Werner
B 1926
German-born composer became known for his operas
Melodies based on 12-tone system and dissonant harmonies
Direct allusions to older musical forms in his operas
Hindemith, Paul
1895-1963
A German composer
Suite 1922 - rebellion against the 19th century romantic tradition, expressed by use of dissonant harmonies
Began to adapt styles from earlier periods, counterpoint of the Baroque and the polyphony of the Renaissance
Wrote for older instruments such as the viola d’amore
Leading advocate for Gebrauchsmusik and music for the people, by the people
Wrote a ton of music to be performed by amateurs and students
Holst, Gustav
1874-1934
English composer and teacher
Interests in occult Asian subjects (learned Sanskrit) and early English music
Orchestral suite: The Planets, St. Paul’s Suite for string orchestra and Choral Fantasie
Honegger, Arthur
1892-1955
Member of Les Six
Pacific 231 (1924) tonal portrayal of a locomotive which audiences hailed as a perfect picture of the modern machine age
Master of choral composition
Oratorio Le roi David 1921, and Jeanne d’Arc au bucher
Music noted for its regular highly accented rhythms and effective use of counterpoint
Indeterminacy
Aleatory music, chance music (see definition)
John Cage, Stockhausen, Boulez and Pousseur
Ives, Charles
1874-1954
American composer
Expression of American music with daring experiments
Quoted American hymns, popular songs, dance tunes, mainly conventional tonal forms of the 19th century on the other hand he used conflicting rhythms, multiple keys at the same time (polyrhythm/ polytonality), dissonant harmonies, tone clusters, microtones, and optional voice-parts
best known compositions are his four symphonies, Sonata for piano, and The unanswered question for a chamber ensemble and 114 songs
Subject matter of New England and nostalgic reflection
Dodecaphonic
Synonymous with serial music in which a series of tones generates the entire structure of a composition
Impressionism
Tone-painting of Debussy
Parallel chord movement, unresolved dissonance (7th and 9th chords), whole-tone scales and subtle unusual timbral effects
The idea is to present a general “impression” of a scene rather than its precise equivalent
Integral serialism
Serial music is constructed according to permutations of a group of elements placed in a certain order or series
Extension of classical Schoenbergian 12-tone pitch techniques and it generally applies serial control to musical elements including pitches, durations, or virtually any other musical value
Stockhausen, Boulez, Babbitt
Janacek, Leos
1854-1928
Czechoslovakian composer
Interested in folk music from which he derived a complex theory of harmony which he applied in his own works
He adopted characteristic intervals and scales of Slavic folk music (as well as French Impressionism) as well as the device of insistent melodic repetition
Operas: Jenufa 1904, The Cunning Little Vixen and numerous chamber works and folk-song arrangements
Johnston, Ben
B 1926
American composer and theorist
Variety of styles: serial, electronic, aleatory, microtonal but especially with works in just intonation
Rock chamber orchestra Carmilla 1970, theater pieces, ballets, incidental music, several string quartets, sonata for microtonal piano, choral music and songs and music for films and exhibitions
Kagel, Mauricio
B 1931
Argentinian composer
Avant-garde music, films, plays
Music incorporates theatrical elements, mixing actors and musicians
Exploring new musical timbres
Musique concrete, new vocal techniques and electronic composition
Kandinsky, Wassily
Leading figure in the expressionist movement
First major artist to create completely non-representational paintings
He exchanged ideas with Schoenberg
Klangfarbenmelodie
“Tone-color melody”
Succession of tone colors treated as a structure analogous to a melody (or succession of pitches)
Term coined by Schoenberg in his Harmonielehre of 1911.
Reflected in his Five Orchestral Pieces op 16 1909.
Played an important role in the development of serial music and in some electro-acoustic music
The texture that results has sometimes been called pointillism by analogy with painting
Kodaly, Zoltan
1882-1967
Hungarian composer, music educator and ethnomusicologist
Organized a vast body of Hungarian folk songs with Bartok
Wrote numerous singing and reading exercises, sonata for solo cello and other vocal and instrumental works
Krenek, Ernst
1900-1991
Austrian composer
Zeitoper trend - “jazz opera” = Jonny spielt auf 1926 returned to tonal idiom, cantilena style of Puccini with jazz elements
Used neoclassicism, neoromanticism, integral serialism, and indeterminacy.
Several operas, orchestral works, chamber works and vocal music
Les Six
Name given to a group of six French composers in 1920
Their style came to represent the light and bubbly flavor of post-war France… a direct and light approach free of the pretensions of the concert hall
Shared the aesthetic ideals of Erik Satie
Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric and Francis Poulenc
Ligeti, Gyorgy
1923-2006
Transylvanian composer lived in Hungary
Like Penderecki he worked with tone clusters
Ligeti formed his clusters from separate components that changed constantly to produce subtly transforming internal patterns
Planes of sound or Klangflachenkomposition: the clear articulation of melody, harmony and rhythm are abandoned in favor of the timbre and texture of the sound itself
Ligeti’s Atmospheres 1961 is in this style
Mahler, Gustav
1860-1911
Austrian composer and conductor
He can be seen as the last link in the chain of Austro-German symphonic composers
Symphony: greater length, lyricism from Schubert and Buckner, inclusion of voices (in tradition of Beethoven)
He tended towards constant variation in his music, continuously evolving new material out of old
His music tends to avoid accompanimental filler in favor of an essentially polyphonic texture influenced by Bach
His harmonic language is conservative, but tonally his music is more exceptional
complete works./ individual movements no longer define a single key, but instead explore a range of related and interconnected regions often closing in a different key from the one in which they began
Music marked with a high degree of disjunction and juxtaposition
Works: (no opera or chamber music) 9 Symphonies, lieder, cantata, the songs with orchestral accompaniment Das Lied von der Erde and some settings of the poem Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Malipiero, Gian Francesco
1882-1973
Italian composer and musicologist
Over 30 operas, 11 symphonies, 6 piano concertos. Chamber and piano music
Influenced by early Baroque and Gregorian chant
Reacted against 19th century Italian opera
neo-Modality
Microtonal music
Search for expanded tonal resources in much mid-19th century music
First modern composer to divide the semitone: Halevy in his cantata Promethe enchaine 1847
First microtonal piece (in western tradition) is a string quartet by John Foulds 1897.
American composers: Hanson and Ives were experimenting with music for two pianos tuned a quarter tone apart
Composers of electronic music have made the greatest use of microtones because of the ease in which their machinery can produce those tones
Milhaud, Darius
1892-1974
French composer and member of Les Six
Ballet score: La Creation du Monde 1923 first concert works influenced by American Jazz
“Minute operas” three ten minute operas light-hearted stage works
He used Polytonality - two or more keys in his piano suite Saudades do Brasil 1921
15 operas, 17 ballets, 13 symphonies, 18 string quartets, orchestral scores (over 20 concertos), chamber works, songs, choral music and incidental music for film, stage and radio
Minimalism
American style based on highly repetitive use of the simplest compositional means
Emphasis is on very small changes from the literal repetition
Philip Glass
Metrical Modulation
Rhythmic technique devised by Elliot Carter (cello sonata 1948)
The basic pulse is altered by taking some fractional subdivision (or multiple) of its total value and treating that as a new pulse of different value.. the result is a proportional shift in rate of pulse in other words, a change in tempo
Moment form
Momente is a work by Stockhausen for soprano, 4 choral groups and 13 instrumentalists composed in 1962
Based on the combination of what he termed moments: brief units of musical time defined by a particular process
Moments may be combined in a variety of ways perhaps at the discretion of the performers
Musical prose
The constant unfolding of an unbroken musical argument without recourse to the symmetrical balances produced by phrases or sections of equal length and corresponding thematic content (exemplified by Classical “period”)
The result is a polyphonic texture in which all parts are equally developmental and motivically derived
Schoenberg: First quartet 1905
Musique Concrete
Music made on tape with sounds drawn from nature and man made noises then sometimes altered electronically
As opposed to played on musical instruments
Varese, Messiaen, Berio, Stockhausen, Cage and Boulez
Mystic chord
A chord used by Skryabin consisting of various types of fourths
It occurs prominently in his tone poem Promethee 1908
Neo-Classicism
A tendency to employ the techniques and forms of pre-Romantic periods, principally Baroque and Classical
Commonly applied to works of Stravinsky in the Rakes Progress
Features include: objectivity, motivic clarity, textural transparency, formal balance, tonal centricity and the reliance upon stylistic models
Composers: Prokofiev, Milhaud, Hindemith, Shostakovich
Nielsen, Carl
1865-1931
Danish composer and contemporary of Sibelius
Like Sibelius, he built his work upon the foundation of 19th century symphonic tradition renouncing the innovations introduced by other composers
6 Symphonies true to established classical formal categories with triadic models supporting a traditional tonal structure
His music generally avoids excessive chromaticism quite different from Sibelius
2 operas, concertos for violin and clarinet and chamber works
Orff, Karl
1895-1982
German composer and music educator
Created a style that satisfied the Nazi Regime
Carmina burana 1937 setting of Latin and German songs
simple syllabic settings projected through elemental chant-like melodic figures
Part, Arvo
B 1935
Estonian composer
His works move through a variety of styles:
serialist techniques, aleatoric devices, influenced by Prokofiev, quotes from medieval music, pre-modern music
Tabula Rasa 1977 American minimalism
arpeggiates voices endlessly over long pedal drones which prolongs a single consonant triad which resonates unendingly through the entire piece
Partch, Harry
1901-1974
American composer, instrument maker and performer
Works draw on American folklore immigrant culture, Christian hymns and Native American, African and eastern cultures
43-note scale, alternative tuning systems, microtonal compositions, mixed-media works and minimalist
Most of his works involve dancers and actors as well as musicians
Perle George
B 1915
American composer and theorist
Most of his works reflect his theory of twelve-tone tonality which incorporates hierarchic relations among pitch classes and chords analogous to those found in tonal music
Studies of the music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern
Twelve-Tone Tonality 1977 Book - his theory of 12-tone composition explained
Penderecki, Krzysztof
B1933
Polish composer
Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima 1960 for strings illustrate his experimentation with sound blocks or “clusters”, colors, and textures to create formal structures
His style is characterized by a rich lyricism and Romantic orchestration moving toward modality and tonal centricity and away from serialistic devices
Opera, choral music, instrumental works, chamber works and music for electronic tape
Performance art
Combining pop influence and mixed-media such as film, slides, props, lighting, electronically altered voice, stylized body gestures, violin playing, story telling, poetry and singing
Laurie Anderson B 1947, other composers Reich and Glass
Petrassi, Goffredo
B 1904
Italian composer
Diatonic neo-classical style derived from Stravinsky
Petrushka chord
A poly chord of C major and F# major
Rite of Spring uses a poly chord of Bb7 first inversion over Cb Major
Pierrot Lunaire
1912 Schoenberg famed setting of twenty-one poems by the French poet Albert Giraud
Work is set in German for Sprechstimme (half-speaking, half-singing vocal production) and five instruments (piano, violin, flute, alto flute, cello, clarinet and bass clarinet)
Giraud’s poems express madness and decadence and fit nicely with the eerie quality of Sprechstimme
All 21 poems have different instrumental combinations
Feature use of contrapuntal technique marking a move away from Schoenberg’s earlier free style
Phrase technique
A prominent technique in the music of Steve Reich since 1967 (piano phase)
Two or more melodic lines comparing the same rhythm are presented together and then one line subtlety accelerates until it is one time-unit out of phase with the other. The acceleration occurs enough times to bring the two lines back to the unity of the original presentation
Concentration is on the interaction of the rhythms and rhythmic nuances rather than melody, pitch
Pitch continuum
Or “pitch-space”
A term used by 20th century analysts of 20th century music to describe the division of all audible musical space into half-step increments
Pitch-space or the pitch continuum constitutes all audible musical pitches
Pfitzner, Hans
1869-1949
German composer
Compositions ne’er pass beyond the limits of late Romantic tonal and harmonic practice
Opera: Palestrina 1915
Defender of the Romantic style and against the emergence of 20th century techniques
Poulenc, Francis
1899-1963
One of the Les Six
Probably embodied the ideals of Les Six better than any other
Style tends to be triadic and simplistic with lyric quality best suited to songs
Many religious works: Gloria and Stabat Mater and opera La Voix Humaine (for one singer)
Dialogues of the Carmelites 1956
Three acts; twelve scenes with linking orchestral interludes
Primitivism
Music trend evident in the music of the early 20th century (Bartok and Stravinsky)
Countries that were less “advanced” artistically and lacked well-defined artistic goals often drew strength from their pasts and their sense of primitive folk beginnings
Uses of folk-tunes, melodic grace notes, unusual scalar formations (pentatonic and octatonic) asymmetrical phraseology, and sonorities of primitive of folk instruments
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (no authentic folk tunes) is the epitome of this style both in terms of musical construction and programmatic content
Prokofiev, Sergei
1891-1953
Anti-Romantic and anti-emotional
His classical symphony meant to evoke the style of Haydn betrays Neo-Classicism
Music for the piano, seven symphonies, two violin concertos, three piano concertos, the ballet: Romeo and Juliet and Love of Three Oranges
Purists
A group centered in France and led by the architect Le Corbusier
The group reacted to the absurdity of Dada and idealized simplicity, the use of industrial materials
Ravel, Maurice
1875-1937
Ravel once stated that his goal as a composer was to achieve technical perfection
Many of his works feature exoticism (Scherezade, Rapsodie espagnole), jazz and antiquated musical styles, forms, and gestures
Virtuoso orchestrator (Pictures at an Exhibition, Bolero)
His music owes a great deal to Debussy in its use of freely employed non-harmonic tones and richly extended triadic harmonies though his style is more firmly rooted in traditional functional tonality
He preferred to polish and update current techniques rather than create anew
Reich, Steven
B 1936
Participated in the first performance of Riley’s “In C” highly predicated on repetition
His first works were tape loops and out of this grew innovations with phase technique
Most of his music features brief diatonic figures, steady rhythmic pulsation and percussive attacks played with machine-like accuracy
Some of his later works start to employ contrapuntal techniques so they sound more traditional
Riley, Terry
B 1935
First composer to experiment with repeating tape loops
He was the composer of “In C” 1960s The piece is based on 53 standard patterns of 18th century tonal music all in C Major performers then play these snippets in any sequence with any number of instruments performing at the same time, the surface rhythm is strictly dictated by regular eighth notes Cs played on the upper register of the piano, other performers play their piece at their own rate of speed, repeating each one until they decide to go to the next one
Rochberg, George
B 1918
A composer who integrated pre-existing music into his compositions
His music alludes to tonal music even though its not tonal itself
Rzewski, Frederic
B 1938
American composer who adopted a popular style out of political convictions
Satie, Erik
1866-1925
French composer who most set the tone for the rejection of German Romanticism in France
His harmonic language (evident in the Gymnopedies for piano) is diatonic but not tonally-directed and probably derived from Chabrier and Faure
Many of his pieces have humorous titles or verbal indications (slow-down politely)
His most famous work was the multi-media production of Parade he put on with Jean Cocteau
Schnittke, Alfred
B 1934
Musical pluralist Russian composer who has used styles and quotations from many different historical periods
Schoenberg, Arnold
Serenade Opus 24 section titled “Sonett” was the first 12-tone piece
Three Piano Pieces op 11 earliest consistently atonal and first ones to be published
Sequenza
A series of pieces composed by Luciano Berio in the 1950s for solo instrument and voice
These pieces were meant to be virtuosic showpieces of newly-developed 20th century techniques for the given instruments
Sessions, Roger
1896-1985
Musical output small
Started out neo-classical in focus (somewhat like Copland) but moved away from Stravinsky and more towards Schoenberg
Very expressive and personal in nature (not a neo-classical trait)
He felt that music should be popular in nature and moved toward ever-increasing complexity in his works
12-tone work still remains expressive
Sessions is the best symphonist produced by America and many of his works trace a direct line back to German-Romanticism
Shapey, Ralph
B 1921
Developed total chromaticism including an unsystematic use of 12-tone procedures
Concerned with combinations of sounds rather than transformations or development of sound
“Spatial” approach to music
Shostakovich, Dmitri
1906-1975
Lady MacBeth opera
Style features expressive tonal language but extremely chromatic and features the use of dissonant counterpoint
His music displays an amazing display of Affects
Sibelius, Jean
1865-1957
Finnish composer
Most of his works are symphonic in construction and based on programmatic conceptions inspired by Finnish national literature
Seven symphonies dominated his creative output
Uses no actual folk-melodies in his music, though it still retains a national character due to the dark orchestral colors and use of modal scales
Skryabin, Alexander
1872-1915
Russian composer who most consequentially carried out the tradition of late 19th century Russian musical experimentation
Most of his early works are for piano
Final break with tonality in Prometheus and extended orchestral work
Along with Prometheus a number of the later piano sonatas and short piano pieces are all based on the “mystic chord”
Characteristic of this music is the fact that melody and harmony are derived from the same course, “Melody is dissolved harmony, harmony is vertically compressed melody”
Societe Nationale de Musique
An attempt in 1871 to counter the pervasive influence of Wagner and the trend towards late Romantic chromaticism
Founded by Saint-Saens, Chabrier, and Faure with the purpose of inspiring a musical renaissance of specifically French character
Emphases was placed on resurrecting absolute music and returning to the ideals of order, clarity and restraint
Society for Private Musical Performances
Group founded by Schoenberg in 1919 to perform a wide range of new music encompassing such varied composers as Debussy, Bartok, Berger and Schoenberg and his pupils
the idea was to present contemporary music in a setting conducive to its proper appreciation
Compositions were carefully rehearsed difficult works were repeated, publicity was avoided and critics were barred
Only lasted for 3 years but it furnished an early reflection of the isolation of “new music” from “official” concert institutions
Sprechstimme
Vocal style half way in between speaking and singing
Calls for the approximate reproduction of pitches
Often notated with an “X” on the note head
Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire
Statistical music
A type of music explain by Stockhausen as music which depends upon only approximate designations
Density of texture become so great that individual notes can no longer be accurately precieved, everything tends to melt together in a generalized total affect. Obviously one type of statistical music would be stochastic music
Stochastic music
Based on probability theory
Individual details not as important as the movement of large blocks of sound (just as the movement of individual atoms are not important in the movement of clouds)
Metastasis 1954 - Iannis Xenakis
Technique de mon langage musical
Book by Oliver Messiaen written in 1944
Known for the technique of “added value” and the use of non retrogradeable rhythms, rhythmic pedals and canons, and polyrhythmic textures
He is also noted for the progressive transformation of one rhythm to another, coloristic approach to Harmony, and the modes of limited transposition
Testimony
Memories of Shostakovich
Thompson, Virgil
1896-1989
American composer
Studied with Nadia Boulanger and met Satie, Cocteau and Les Six
The Mother of us All (based on the life of Susan b Anthony)
Music often makes allusions to Protestant hymns, popular song, and folk dances
Instrumental works include a violin sonata, two string quartets a series of instrumental portraits and others
Tippet, Michael
B 1905
British composer who wrote in nearly every genre and many styles
Draw on other musics, like African American spirituals, blues, English Folk song
Late works draw on avant-garde music
tone cluster
new timbres of 20th century
First used on the piano by Henry Cowell in the 1920s, later by John Cage in his prepared piano pieces
Union of Soviet Composers
The single most important musical organization in the Soviet Union
Establish in 1932 by the government in reaction to a group of young composers headed by Shostakovich
The idea was to end the permissive period of music making and control Soviet Culture
Varese, Edgard
1883-1965
Pioneer of new music
Explored new musical sound
First on power to exploit percussion and raise rhythm to an equal plan with pitch
Vaughn-Williams, Ralph
1872-1958
The foremost English composer in the first half of the 20th century
Motivated by national and cosmopolitan sources (English folksong, hymnody, and English literature as well as s Bach, Handel, Debussy and Ravel)
He is widely known for his composition of new hymns
Sea Symphony, Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis, The London Symphony, The pastoral symphony and many songs
Villa-Lobos, Hietor
1887-1959
Brazilian composer
Represents nationalism in Latin America
Best known works are the 14 Choros a series of compositions for various vocal and instrumental combination
Walton, William
1902-1982
Style close to Les Six even though he was an English Composer
Later works tend to reflect English style in descendent from Elgar
Two operas, a famous oratorio (Belshazzar’s Feast) and a few chamber works
Webern, Anton
1883-1945
One of Schoenberg’s disciples
Uses Klangfarbenmelodie, where a motif or phrase is distributed among several instruments
His style is economic and concentrated often with imitative counterpoint
Textures are very thin rhythms are complex and the sound rarely rises above a forte
Instrumentation is unusual
Movements are very shorts
Language is very compressed demanding a lot of attention from the listener
Weill, Kurt
1900-1950
One of Germany’s leading dramatic composers
The Three Penny Opera an adaption of Gay’s Beggar’s Opera and The Seven Deadly Sins
Incorporated a lot of popular music elements
Most of his music was meant as a social commentary and a means to motivate people to fight oppression
Xenakis, Iannis
1922-2001
Greek Composer who explored new timbres of traditional instruments
Focused on finding new ways in which mathematical structures could be realized into musical sound
Metastasis is based on the Fibonacci series
Experimented with electronic music, aleatoric music and computer music to carry out mathematical equations
Young Classicism
Named by Busoni to his conception of a hoped-for new music which would take into account all the gains of previous experiments and their inclusion in strong and beautiful forms
Microtonal divisions of the octave, electronic instruments, new notational systems, and the overthrow of the tyranny of the major and minor systems
Direct reaction to Romanticism
Young, La Monte
B 1935
One of the pioneers of the minimalist movement
The Tortoise: His Dreams and Journeys 1964 - What is an improvisation in which instrumentalists and singers come in and out on various harmonics over a fundamental played as a drone on a synthesizer. He also experimented with works that had verbal instruction and no notes.
Zappa, Frank
1940-1993
Rock song writer who was first recognized with the band Mothers of Invention
Beginning in the 1980s he was involved in avant-garde composition and performance
Album Jazz From Hell was written on the synclavier
Zeitoper
German for “opera of the time”
Referred to the practice of writing libretti which feature modern people in contemporary situations
Hindemith’s Neues vom Tage (News of the Day 1929) in which there is an office scene with twelve type-writers contributing to the music and a woman who sings an aria from a bathtub
Zimmerman, Bernd Alois
1918-1970
German composer
Opera Die Soldaten 1965 gave him international stature
Combines serialism, expressionistic orchestration, jazz interludes bach chorales, Gregorian chant and other styles in a “pluralistic texture”
He applied this collage technique to other works as well
