Music Flashcards
Features of Minimalism
20th Century Music
- Slow harmonic rhythm
- Simple, repetitive musical ideas
- Not much dynamic change
- Not much tempo change
- Not much pitch change
- Not much change overall
How did minimalism come about?
20th Century Music
It was a reaction to expressionism which was seen as too complicated for a wider audience. This movement was paralleled in the art world.
What is phase shifting?
20th Century Music
- Compositional device
- Where two or more identical patterns of music are repeated gradually ‘phasing’ out of sync of each other
- Creates a constantly changing pattern of notes and change in texture
- It has links to Gamelan music
Name a composer who used phase shifting
20th Century Music
Steve Reich
Who is Arvo Part?
20th Century Music
- Arvo Part came up with the technique, Tintinnabuli.
What is tintinnabuli?
- It is characterised by simple harmonic language with a focus on interplay between two parts.
- The word is derived from the Latin “tintinnabulum” meaning ‘bell’. Pärt used the cluster chords created from bell-ringing and weaved elegant melodies around this.
Features of tintinnabuli
20th Century Music
- built around a triad
- often arpeggiated
- provides stable harmony
- slow harmonic rhythm
Who created modular music?
20th Century Music
Terry Riley
What is modular music?
20th Century Music
- what is it
- results in
- unique thing
- combines…
- example
- Repetition and overlapping of musical ideas
- Results in an always changing texture
- Differs from performance to performance
- Combine aspects of minimalism and graphic scores
- Most famous example is In C
What is a graphic score?
20th Century Music
A score that instead of using a stave and notes illustrates music in in symbols or pictures.
What is expressionism?
20th Century Music
- A reaction against Romantic music, which also focused on emotional expression but by using more uniform, traditionally-established structures and harmonies. Expressionism wished to break free from these constraints
- It is characterised by a focus on intense emotional expression, often representing the turbulent and unpredictable nature of the times
- Can also be seen in the art world
Features of expressionism
20th Century Music
- extreme dissonance - atonality
- frenzied, disjunct ‘melodies’
- extremes of pitch
- use of large ensembles - experimentation with timbre and sonority
- extended instrument techniques - novel ways of creating sound
Who ‘created’ serialism? And when?
20th Century Music
Arnold Schoenberg in the early 1920s (he’d previously been expressionist - he approached serialism with a strict and mathmetical strategy)
What is serialism?
20th Century Music
Similarly to expressionism, serialism moves beyond major and minor tonalities, and focuses on a twelve-tone technique which is atonal. All 12 tones must be stated before another row can begin.
What is a prime (in serialism)?
20th Century Music
The prime row is the original order of pitches as decided on by the composer. The twelve pitches can be arranged in any order, at any octave and can be combined into chords.
