7/29/2019 20th Century Music Essay
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/20th-century-music-essay 1/4
1
The development of music in the20th Century Impressionism, British Mainstream and SerialismBy Harry Haden-Brown
If you listen to a piece of
Baroque music by Bach, Vivaldi
or Purcell, and are familiar with
their works, you may be able to
tell whose is whose, but even a
classically trained ear would find
it hard to distinguish between
Mozart, Salieri, and Clementi!
Despite there being different
types of work be it Sacred or
Secular, Sonatas or Concerti,
much of the composing up until
the Romantic period was done
by the same ‘crowd’, and was
restricted by tonality, structure,
harmony, instrumentation, and
just about every other aspect of
the music. In the middle of the
19th Century composers beganto explore and develop the
freedom that the romantic era
had granted them with. With
tonality being pulled further and
further away from the Tonic-
Dominant rules of the classical
period, and program music
allowing composers to tell a story
or evoke emotion rather than
simply write music for music’s
sake, all this experimentation
was leading to what would be
described by some as music’s
most exciting century yet. The
explosion of genres and ideas
that began in the 1900’s was to
see the definition of music
stretched to it’s very limits in
some cases (Serialism - the idea
of music without tonality, and
experimental and aleatoric
music) and in others taken right
back to it’s roots with the simple
p l a i n c h a n t - e s q u e s a c r e dminimalism work of Arvo Pärt
and John Tavener.
The horror and suffering of
not one, but two world wars at
the beginning of the 20th
century was certainly a reason
society changed so dramatically.
People were searching for ways
to express a whole range of
emotions, not only anger and
upset, but also a sense of
wanting to express hope and
looking to the future. Massive
leaps forward in science,
technology and travel also
contributed to the diversity of
styles with musicians being
subjected to more cultures than
ever. All these factors together
created a fertile and turbulent
platform which gave birth to
many o f today s g rea te s t
composers and was a catalyst for
the wide variety and rapiddevelopment of music which has
undoubtably shaped and formed
the music we create today.
MODERNMUSIC
“I am quite certain inmy heart of heartsthat modern musicand modern art is nota conspiracy, but is aform of truth andintegrity for those whopractice it honestly,decently and with alltheir being.”
-Sir Michael Tippett
M a r c h 2 0 1 3
H a r r y H a d e n - B r o w n
7/29/2019 20th Century Music Essay
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/20th-century-music-essay 2/4
2
M O D E R N M U S I C
M a r c h 2 0 1 3
Debussy’s ‘Lacathédrale engloutie’The Sunken Cathedral
Many of the influences of Gamelan can
be directly heard in Debussy’s tenth
prelude ‘La cathédrale engloutie’. Notable
examples are his use of the Eastern
pentatonic scale heard extensively in
Javanese music, and also his use of
pedals. In the excerpt shown below a
low ostinato is to be played an octave
lower than written and pedaled heavily.
The low rumbling sonority this
technique produces is very reminiscent
of the lower Gamelan Gongs and there
are countless other examples of drones
being played very low in the pianos
range in the rest of the piece.
The ambiguous musical direction flottant
et sourd (Floating and muffled - written
in French, not Italian as was previously
most common) along with other
directions such as Peu à peu sortant de la
brume (emerging from the fog little by
little) show how focussed Debussy was
at portraying the exact character and
mood he envisaged. Another feature
very typical of Debussy was his use of
parallel movement. Despite being
avoided at all costs in the Baroque and
classical periods, it was used by many
composers in the 20th Century as italludes to a much earlier musical
period, the parallel fifths very similar to
9th Century Organum or Middle-Age
Plainchant.
Impressionismand Claude Debussy
Of course, it wasn’t just the music
world that was being completely
renovated and turned on it’s head in
th e 20 th Ce nt u r y, th e t e rm
impressionism was originally used to
describe the paintings of Monet, andwas ironically used in a negative
fashion, referring to the vague nature
of his work and his lack of precision,
conciseness and reality.
This ideology and approach to
painting in the example of Monet was
mirrored musically by one of France’s
most well-known and influential
composers, Claude Debussy. Short
thick strokes in impressionist art are
meant to capture the essence of a
subject rather than it’s details, and it isthis sense of attempting to portray and
evoke emotions, and experiences rather
than simply describe them that Debussy
encapsulated in his music, although that
isn’t to say that any elements of
Debussy’s music or Impressionism as a
whole are thoughtless, on the contrary,
many of his performance directions,
tempo markings and orchestrations are
very specific. As opposed to losing any
detail, Debussy simply broke the pre
established rules regarding structure and
tonality in order to write his music
purely as he wanted to hear it,
something that other composers in the
late romantic period had dipped their
feet into, but not necessarily gone the
whole way. Born in 1862, Debussy
straddled and no-doubt led the
transition between romantic and
modern music, and, inspired by
Gamelan music at the 1889 Exposition
in Paris sought to “free it [music] from
barren traditions which stifle it”. This
Indonesian music, which must have
seemed very strange to those only
accustomed to Western Classical music,
really ignited Debussy’s imagination.
Debussy refers to Western Tonal music
as goal-orientated, and designed to
carefully develop musical ideas, whereas
he found the world music exposed to
him in 1889 was about timelessness,
death and rebirth, and rising and falling.
His use of static harmony and lack of
strict tonality reflect the ambient drones
of the lower gongs and meditative
repetition heard in Gamelan, although
his use of ostinati and pedals only occur
for several phrases at a tim they are
certainly a distinct feature of his music.
“Some people wish
above all to conform to
the rules, I wish only to
render what I can hear.
There is no theory. You
have only to listen.
Pleasure is the law.”
Claude Debussy
About the image
The image Debussy seeks to convey is a Celtic
folk-tale about a sunken, or submerged,Cathedral which occasionally rises above thesurface. Chanting monks, church bells, andthe grand organ can all be heard, althoughsometimes muffled by the water.
7/29/2019 20th Century Music Essay
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/20th-century-music-essay 3/4
3
“Art for art's sake has never flourished in
England. We are often called inartistic
because our art is unconscious. Our
drama and poetry, like our laws and our
constitution, have evolved by accident
while we thought we were doing
something else, and so it will be with
music. The composer must not shuthimself up and think about art, he must
live with his fellows and make his art an
expression of the whole life of the
community – if we seek for art we shall not
find it.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Maecenas non quam. Cras erat. Aliquam pede. vulputate eu,
estmorbi tristique senectus et netus et male. Aliquam pede.
Proin neque est, sagittis at, semper vitae, tincidunt quis,
Praesent malesuada. bibendum. Donec feugiat tempor libero.
Nam uut, massa. Maecenas vitae ante et lacus aliquam
hendrerit. Curabitur nunc eros, euismod in, convallis at,
vehicula sed consectetuer posuere, eros mauris dignissim
diam, pretium sed pede suscipit: Adiam condimentum purus,
in consectetuer Proin in sapien.
Fusce urna magna,neque eget lacus. Maecenas felis
nunc, aliquam ac, consequat vitae, feugiat at, blandit vitae,
euismod vel, nunc. Aenean ut erat ut nibh commodo suscipit.Maecenas non quam. Cras erat. Aliquam pede. vulputate eu,
estmorbi tristique senectus et netus et male. Aliquam pede.
Proin neque est, sagittis at, semper vitae, tincidunt quis.
Praesent malesuada. bibendum. Donec feugiat tempor libero.
Nam uut, massa. Maecenas vitae ante et lacus aliquam
hendrerit. Curabitur nunc eros, euismod sed in, convallis at,
vehicula sed consectetuer posuere, eros mauris dignissim
diam, pretium sed pede suscipit: Adiam condimentum purus,
Proin in sapien. Fusce urna magna,neque eget lacus.
Maecenas felis nunc, aliquam ac, consequat vitae, feugiat at,
blandit vitae, euismod vel, nunc. Aenean ut erat ut nibh
commodo suscipit. Maecenas non quam. Cras erat. Aliquampede. vulputate eu, estmorbi tristique senectus et netus et
male. Aliquam pede. Proin neque est, sagittis at, semper vitae,
tincidunt quis, Praesent malesuada. bibendum.
Donec feugiat tempor libero. Nam uut, massa. Maecenas
vitae ante et lacus aliquam hendrerit. Donec feugiat tempor
libero. Nam uut, massa. Maecenas vitae ante et lacus aliquam
hendrerit. Curabitur nunc eros euismod in convallis at,
vehicula sed consectetuer posuere, eros nunc mauris
dignissim diam, pretium sed pede suscipit: Adiam quam leo
condimentum purus, in consectetuer Proin in vitae ante et
lacus sapien Cras erat. Aliquam pede nunc eros vulputate eu,
estmorbi tristique senectus et netus et Maecenas non quam.
Cras erat. Aliquam pede condimentum purus, in amet
liberoconsectetuer Donec feugiat tempor libero. Nam uut,
massa. Maecenas vitae ante et lacus aliquam hendrerit
dignissim netus vitae ante lacus ante nunc eros vitae ante.
British Mainstream
and Ralph Vaughan Williams
M O D E R N M U S I C
M a r c h 2 0 1 3
7/29/2019 20th Century Music Essay
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/20th-century-music-essay 4/4
4
Nullam wisi arcu, suscipit consectetuer.
Vestibulum imperdiet nonummy sem. Vivamus sit
amet erat nec turpis tempus consequat. Praesent
malesuada. Donec vitae dolor. Donec at lacus acmi vehicula bibendum. Donec feugiat tempor
libero.
Nam uut, massa. Maecenas vitae ante et lacus
aliquam hendrerit. Curabitur nunc eros, euismod
in, convallis at, vehicula sed consectetuer posuere,
eros mauris dignissim diam, pretium sed pede
suscipit: Adiam condimentum.
Rus, in consectetuer Proin in sapien. Fusce
urna magna,neque eget lacus. Maecenas felis
nunc, aliquam ac, consequat vitae, feugiat at,
blandit vitae, euismod vel, nunc. Aenean ut erat ut
nibh commodo suscipit. Maecenas non quam.
Cras erat. Aliquam pede. vulputate eu, estmorbi
tristique senectus et netus et male. Aliquam pede.
Proin neque est, sagittis at, semper vitae, tincidunt
quis.
Nullam wisi arcu, suscipit consectetuer.
Vestibulum imperdiet nonummy sem. Vivamus sit
amet erat nec turpis tempus consequat. Praesent
malesuada. Donec vitae dolor. Donec at lacus ac
mi vehicula bibendum. Donec feugiat tempor
libero. Nam uut, massa. Maecenas vitae ante et
lacus aliquam hendrerit. Curabitur nunc eros,
euismod in, convallis at, vehicula sed consectetuer
posuere, eros mauris dignissim diam, pretium sedpede suscipit: Adiam condimentum purus, in
consectetuer.
Consectetuer arcu ipsum ornare pellentesque
vehicula, in vehicula diam, ornare magna erat felis
wisi a risus. Justo fermentum id. Malesuada
eleifend, tortor molestie, a fusce a vel et. Mauris at
suspendisse, neque aliquam faucibus adipiscing,
vivamus in. Wisi mattis leo suscipit nec amet, nisl
fermentum tempor ac a, augue in eleifend in
venenatis, cras sit id in vestibulum felis in, sed
ligula. In sodales suspendisse mauris quam etiam
erat, quia tellus convallis eros rhoncus diam orci,
porta lectus esse adipiscing posuere et, nisl arcu
vitae laoreet.
Morbi integer molestie, amet gravida
suspendisse morbi, amet maecenas, a maecenas
mauris neque proin nisl mollis. Suscipit nec necligula ipsum orci nulla, in posuere ut quis ultrices,
lectus eget primis vehicula velit hasellus lectus,
vest ibulum orci laoreet ince ptos vi tae, at
consectetuer amet et consectetuer. Congue porta
scelerisque praesent at, lacus vestibulum et at
dignissim cras urna, ante convallis turpis duis
lectus sed aliquet, at tempus et ultricies. Eros sociis
cursus nec hamenaeos dignissimos imperdiet,
luctus ac eros sed massa vestibulum, lobortis
adipiscing praesent Nullam wisi arcu, suscipit
consectetuer. Vestibulum imperdiet nonummy
sem. Vivamus sit amet erat nec turpis tempusconsequat. Praesent sit amet erat nec sit amet.
“...if it is art, it is not for all, and if it is
for all, it is not art.”
Arnold Schönberg
Serialismand Arnold Schönberg
M O D E R N M U S I C
M a r c h 2 0 1 3
Fusce ac leo
Purus, in consectetuerProin in sapien. Fusceurna magna,nequeeget lacus. Maecenas
felis nunc, aliquam ac,consequat vitae,feugiat at, blanditvitae, euismod vel.
Top Related