IMPRESSIONISM - French movement in the late 19th and early 20th century –
took place between 1890-1920.
-Impressionism was an attempt not to depict reality but merely to suggest it.
-Transport you to a place with a peaceful place where the wind blows gently,
being out in the sea sometimes calm, sometimes it’s not.
Composers
CLAUDE DEBUSSY - He was the primary exponent of the impressionist
movement and the inspiration for other impressionist composers.
-He is considered to be the “Father of the Modern School of Composition”.
CLAIRE DE LUNE
MAURICE RAVEL - He was born in Ciboure, France to a Basque mother and a
Swiss father.
-His works are defined with intricate and sometimes modal melodies and
extended components. Chordal
BOLERO
EXPRESSIONISM-First originated in the visual arts and was later applied to
music and other arts in the early 20th century. Following impressionism in art
and music, the harsh, bold expressionism era can be considered a
counterpoint to impressionism’s gauzy sweetness.
PRIMITIVISM - Primitivism in music rarely suggests lack of conventional
technique. Rather, it seeks to express ideas or images related to antiquity or
to some “primitive” culture or attitude. Primitivism can also be understood as
a late development of 19th century nationalism.
Composers
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG - Was born in a working-class suburb of Vienna,
Austria on September 13, 1874. Was an Austrian-American composer who
created new methods of musical composition involving atonality, namely
serialism and the 12- tone row.
He was also an influential teacher; among his most significant pupils were
Alban Berg and Anton Webern.
PIERROT LUNAIRE
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) - was a Russian composer who revolutionized
20th-century music, and provoked riots with The Rite of Spring.
-The premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, in Paris in June 1913, caused
a sensation, and Stravinsky was catapulted from obscurity to stardom
literally overnight.
-The notorious performance, interrupted throughout by a hail of farmyard
noises from the gallery, ended in chaos with rival factions shouting abuse at
each other, and the conductor and musicians fleeing in disarray.
BELA BARTOK - As a neo-classicist, primitivist, and nationalist composer,
Bartok used Hungarian folk themes and rhythms.
-He also utilized changing meters and strong syncopations.
-His compositions were successful because of their rich melodies and lively
rhythms.
ROMANIAN FOLK DANCES STRING ORCHESTRA
NEO-CLASSICISM – Neo-classicism was a moderating factor between the
emotional excesses of the Romantic period and the violent impulses of the
soul in expressionism.
Composers
SERGIE PROKOFIEV -Born in the Ukraine in 1981.
-His style is uniquely recognizable for its progressive technique, pulsating
rhythms, melodic directness, and a resolving dissonance.
ROMEO AND JULIET
FRANCIS POULENC-Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a member of the group
of young French composers known as “Les Six.”
-His compositions had a cooly elegant modernity, tempered by a classical
sense of proportion.
FLUTE SONATA
AVANTE GARDE -Improvisation was a necessity in this style, for the musical
scores were not necessarily followed as written
-The unconventional methods of sound and form, as well as the absence of
traditional rules governing harmony, melody, and rhythm, make the whole
concept of Avante Garde music still so strange to ears accustomed to
traditional compositions.
Composers
GEORGE GERSHWIN – “Father of American Jazz,” He is a true “crossover
artist,” in the sense that his serious compositions remain highly popular in
the classical repertoire, as his stage and film songs continue to be jazz and
vocal standards
RHAPSODY IN BLUE
PHILLIP GLASS-His distinctive style involves cell- like phrases emanating from
bright electronic sounds from the keyboard that progressed very slowly from
one pattern to the next in a very repetitious fashion.
METAMORPHOSIS
LEONARD BERNSTEIN-Bernstein’s philosophy was that the universal
language of music is basically rooted in tonality.
-He achieved pre-eminence in two fields: conducting and composing for
Broadway musicals, dance shows, and concert music.
SIMPLE MASS 1971
ELECTRONIC MUSIC-The capacity of electronic machines such as
synthesizers, amplifiers, tape recorders, and loudspeakers to create different
sounds was given importance by 20th century composers like Edgar Varese,
Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Mario Davidovsky.
*Musique Concrete = Music that uses tape recorder*
Composers
EDGARD VARESE - “Father of Electronic Music”.
-He invented the term “organized sound,” which means that certain timbres
and rhythms can be grouped together in order to capture a whole new
definition of sound.
-He was described as the ”Stratospheric Colossus of Sound.”
POEME’ ELECTRONIQUE
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN-He is the central figure in the realm of electronic
music.
-His music was initially met with resistance due to its heavily atonal content
with practically no clear melodic or rhythmic sense.
Licht
CHANCE MUSIC - Chance music refers to a style wherein the piece always
sounds different at every performance because of the random techniques of
production, including the use of ring modulators or natural elements that
become a part of the music. Most of the sounds emanate from the
surroundings, both natural and man-made, such as honking cars, rustling
leaves, blowing wind, dripping water, or a ringing phone
Composer
JOHN CAGE -He challenged the very idea of music by manipulating musical
instruments in order to achieve new sounds. He experimented with what
came to be known as “chance music.”
-He became famous for his composition Four Minutes and 33 Seconds
(4’33”), a chance musical work that instructed the pianist to merely open the
piano lid and remain silent for the length of time indicated by the title.
MODERN NATIONALISM - A looser form of 20th century music development
focused nationalist composers and musical innovators who sought to
combine measu techniques with folk materials. However, this common
ground stopped there, for the different breeds of nationalists formed their
own styles of writing.
Composers
Russian Five”---- Modest Mussorgsky, Mili Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Cesar
Cui and Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov----
