Music of the 20th Century

ImpressionismExpressionismJazzMinimalismAleatory (Chance)Neo-Classicism

Impressionism Focused on mood and atmosphere rather

than strong emotion or storyline Musical impressionism occurred as a

reaction to the excesses of the Romantic era

Impressionist art

Impressionist Composers Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Albeniz, Saint-

Saens, Bill Evans (jazz pianist)

Expressionism The tendency of an artist to distort reality

for an emotional effect Its goals were not to create passive

impressions and moods, but to strongly express (hence the name) intense feelings and emotions

The primary expressionist musical movement was atonality

Expressionist Art

Atonality Describes music that does not use a tonal

centre or key Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton

Webern

Minimalism Minimalist music is stripped down to its

most fundamental features and core self expression

Reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells, with subtle, gradual, and/or infrequent variation (no musical development) over long periods of time, possibly limited to simple repetition

Stasis, often in the form of drones, pulses, and/or long tones

Minimalist Art

Minimalist Composers Philip Glass, Steve Reich

Aleatoric Music Music in which some element of the

composition is left to chance or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer

Neo-Classicism This movement started in the early 1920s

and continued to be a leading musical movement throughout the century. This trend is still popular today. Neo-Classicism is a movement which incorporated the music of the Classical era, in terms of clarity of texture and objectivity

Stravinsky