Music 1900-1945

MODERNISM

But first . . .

A PRELUDE TO MODERNISM . . .

DEBUSSY

listening example Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune) (1894)

-- inspired by a poem inspired by a painting of a Classical mythical story

-- exoticism, mythical pastoral

-- ambiguous (vague?) harmony

-- very little, if any, recognizable conventional or traditional form

-- very well received at its premiere by the public; it baffled the musical establishment

-- emphasis on sonority (timbre & colorful harmony)

-- called Impressionist, although Debussy hated the term

Music 1900-1945

MODERNISM

TRENDS• DISSONANCE “LIBERATED”

• “PRIMITIVISM” – MORE GENERALLY: FOLK MUSIC, AN ALTERNATIVE TO

STANDARD PATTERNS & FORMULAS

• CHAOTIC SURFACES, CONSISTENT INNER WORKINGS

• EXPRESSIONISM

• IRONY & DISTANCE – dissimulation

Dissonance as sonority

LISTENING EXAMPLES

CHOPIN Prelude No. 2

TEXTBOOK CD EXAMPLE:

SCHOENBERG Etwas Rasch (somewhat fast) from Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 (1911)

LISTENING EXAMPLES

CHOPIN Prelude No. 2

TEXTBOOK CD EXAMPLE:

SCHOENBERG Etwas Rasch (somewhat fast) from Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 (1911)

(previously, 1600-1900 – dissonance is functional, functioning to drive melody and harmony forward)

Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) (1913; for very large orchestra)

-- a ballet with a story line written in part by an anthropologist

-- interested in primitive or exotic materials; what is behind the mask of civilization?

Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring

-- radically new: non-tonal, harsh unresolved dissonance, percussive, brilliant orchestral effects, extreme ranges, rhythmically and metrically very irregular and quite innovative

-- a riot (somewhat staged) at its premiere; much publicity ensues

Stravinsky’s drawing

Serialismdeveloped by Arnold Schoenberg

An order of the 12 possible chromatic pitches is the basis of the organization of a piece of music, not a key or tonality or a scale

Schoenberg & his 2 pupils, Alban Berg & Anton Webern, become “known” as the 2nd Viennese School

Schoenberg

Listening example:

Suite, Op 29, 1925

For 3 clarinets & 3 strings & piano

Uses “12-tone” method of composition

Blue self-portrait, 1910

Schoenberg

amateur Expressionist

painter

The Red Gaze, 1910

Webern

• STUDIED WITH SCHOENBERG

• STUDIED EARLY MUSIC – HE WENT BACK TO MACHAUT, JOSQUIN AND OTHERS

• Modernist; very influential in the European avant-garde and among American academic composers, particularly in the 1950s; virtually unknown to the general public

Webern – listening example

first movement of Symphony, Opus 21 (1928)-- serialism -- emotionally concentrated, like feelings frozen into a crystal-- very short (only two movements)-- very small orchestra (can be played by as few as 9 instruments)-- premiere at a society for private performances of music in

Vienna

Stravinsky

3 periods:

• Russian (Primitivist)

• Neo-Classical

• Late (Serialist)

Stravinsky - Picasso

3 periods:

• Russian (Primitivist)

• Neo-Classical

• Late (Serialist)

several periods:

• Primitivist

• Cubist

• Neo-Classical

Picasso, Femme

Neo-classical

Neo-Romanticism

BACKWATER OR MAINSTREAM?

SAMUEL BARBER

Adagio for Strings, 1936

Modernism – Romanticism

intensified?Folk interest/exoticism primitivism

Demons Subconscious? (inner demons)

Artist as prophet Artist as prophet

Artist as outsider/rebel Artist as outsider/rebel

What is new? What is New? Historicism?

TRENDS

• DISSONANCE “LIBERATED”

• “PRIMITIVISM” – MORE GENERALLY: FOLK MUSIC, AN ALTERNATIVE TO

STANDARD PATTERNS & FORMULAS

• CHAOTIC SURFACES, CONSISTENT INNER WORKINGS

• EXPRESSIONISM CHAOS v. ORDER