20th Century MusicMusic that You may know!

And some you won’t

Musical Characteristics

Diatonic Harmony gave way to Atonal Music.

Electronic Music developed with the technology.

Composers experimented with different ideas about how to create music.

Composers were influenced by music from other styles and cultures.

Atonal Music

Atonal music has no key and therefore no hierarchy of pitches.

This means that many of the key aspects of western music no longer function (e.g. cadences, chords, etc.)

Atonal music frequently sounds very dissonant.

Serialism is a type of atonal music developed by a composer called Schoenberg.

Serialism

Schoenberg tried to reintroduce an element of structure into his atonal music. • In Serialism you write a tone row containing each of the 12 chromatic pitches just once. • You then manipulate the tone row using specified techniques: inversion, transposition and retrograde. • Some composers went on to develop Serialism by adapting these techniques to note values, instrumentation, etc.

Electronic

• Electronic music uses sounds generated electronically rather than by acoustic instruments. • Composers who wrote electronic music often used the technology to create new sounds unlike anything that could be played on an acoustic instrument. • Electronic music often sounds crude compared to

the sophisticated electronic sounds we are used to with modern music. • Some composers used electronics to manipulate acoustic sounds rather than generate electronic sounds.

Experimental

• Aleatoric Music – music created using chance. • Graphic Score – music written down as a picture without using conventional notation. The performer has to interpret the picture. • Microtonal – music that uses intervals smaller than a semitone. • Extended Techniques – music that requires the instrument to be adapted or played in an unconventional manner

Neoclassicism

• A reaction against the unpleasant sounding modern music. • Composers revisited older techniques and harmonies but still keeps some of the characteristics of modern music. • Dissonance (in parts) and unusual rhythms are characteristic of Neoclassical music.

Minimalism

• Minimalist music consists of looped layers. • Each layer is gradually altered during the course of the piece. • It is very repetitive and often very

long.

Other Styles of Music

• Many composers were influenced by other styles of music. In particular: – World Music – Jazz – Popular Music

Multimedia

• Other composers are noted for mixing

their music with other art forms such as:

– Film – Graphic Art – Video

Instrumental Music

• Just about any combination of instruments is

written for using any of the musical techniques described before. • The orchestra stays mostly the same but

with the addition of some unusual percussion instruments for particular pieces. • Chamber ensembles become more popular after being almost

Vocal Music

• Vocal ensembles are still the same as they have been since the Classical Era, soloists and choruses with an occasional chamber ensemble. • Voices and instruments are used together

on a more regular basis. • Vocal music (both sacred and secular) is written using any of the techniques described before.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)

20th century expressionist composer who developed a systematic method of organizing atonal music called the 12 tone system

Aaron Copland

American composer who incorporated American folk songs, cowboy songs, revival hymns and jazz in his orchestral compositions

Works include Billy the Kid,Rodeo and Appalachian Spring

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

Russian expressionist composer Famous for three ballets: The Firebird, Petrushka, and the Rite of Spring

Claude Debussy

French pianist/composer who linked the Romantic era to the 20th century

Greatest hits: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

Summary

• Dissonance and unusual rhythms make

music unpleasant to listen to. • Electronic sounds, unusual

instruments, extended techniques all expand the sounds available to the composer. • Repetition and gradual change – minimalist music.