Ch. 33- 34 Study Questions
*Describe the musical philosophy of John Cage and the "chance," or aleatoric, procedures he used to create music. How do pieces such as 4'33 challenge and expand traditional definitions of music? Compare and contrast Cage's music and philosophy to that of the total serialists.
Cage and many others at this time wanted to eliminate the writer's ego and/or personality from the artistic product. This became a modernist idea that Cage, and others, pushed to the extreme. Cage went wholly outside of what anyone could possibly think of mainstream music. He devoted his whole career to countering the supremecy of traditional pitch organization. Just as Stravinsky emancipated rhythm, and Schoenberg emancipated dissonance, Cage now had to emancipate sound. 4'33 is conneted to ideas of zen buddhism that clears the mind of any expectations. His chance operations gave up all traditional artistic values. And although his works were composed in different ways, they still resembled those of total serialists more than either group was willing to admit. Their motives were also similar, but their means were what made them different. They both sought to remove the person from the work. Cage's works are not easily accepted as "music" in some cases. He expands the definition of music by using unusal instruments and "organizing" sound by chance. 4'33 challenges even his own definition of music as the "organization of sound" in that this piece is purely silence. Audiences are to listen to the ambient sounds of the world as they would listen to a symphony. It forces people to think of the conventions of both musical works and of concert life.
*Describe the different ways in which Aaron Copland's works represent "Americanist" style. How was Copland's music influenced by the political landscape and his own political beliefs?
Americanist: Ballets Billy the Kid - New Mexico cattle rustler and murderer and Robin Hood figure. Cowboy songs. Rodeo - Square Dancing and familiar folk tunes. Appalachian Spring - variations on "simple gifts" ... He was drawn to Mexico and South America. El Salon Mexico - named after famous dance hall in Mexico city. Popular tunes from published collections. Openness in harmonic language, a lot of fifths. American folk songs. Political: Copland wrote a mass song that was supported by communists Since he was influenced by folk songs, he seemed to merge well with Communist politics. His political commitments and populist inclinations made their way into the fore his music and his life. He even made a speech that supported Communism and voted to support the communist presidential ticket. He composed a one-act ballet that satirizes a corrupt American Courtroom. He wrote a mass song that won a Communist-sponsored contest.
*In what ways does Benjamin Britten's depiction of Peter Grimes differ from that of George Crabbe's original poem? What does Britten do to make Peter a sympathetic character? Why has Peter Grimes been viewed as an allegory for the mid-twentieth-century stigma surrounding homosexuality?
George Crabbe: Poem - The Borough. Depiction of rustic life in the coastal district of Suffolk. Peter Grimes is a cruel fisherman responsible for the death of his three apprentices. Britten found that Peter Grimes was not a clear-cut villain and could be used to expose social hypocrisy and injustice. Instead of a villain, Grimes is a lot like Wozzeck, a pitiable and delinquent anti-hero. Britten mirrored the Lucia "Mad Scene." She had murdered her husband and only the audience could understand why she had done it, and they sympathized with her because they were allowed to see her inner thoughts. The people around her only thought she was crazy. This makes the audience sympathetic to Lucia, and Britten uses the same method to make audiences feel sympathy for Peter Grimes. Peter Grimes has a similar moment. He is going through social rejection and only the audience can see what his thoughts are. Benjamin Britten was a homosexual in a society that was very against that lifestyle. So, he had Peter Grimes portray the kind of seclusion from Society that homosexuals felt, especially at that time.
*Explain the political background behind the increasing popularity of American folk music in the 1930s and '40s. What was the popular front, and why did it use folk music to achieve its aims?
In the 1930's, the Great Depression called for music that could sustain faith and eloquence rather than hustle and "metropolitan madness." A new national image of populist patriotism in America. There was an international reach of Communism from the Soviet Union trying to create alliances and coalitions. Large anthologies of "mass songs" appeared. This was part of the overall policy called the Popular Front. It's aim was to achieve national ties to the USSR and emphasize their indigenous roots. American Communists could draw on "revolutionary" quotations from founding fathers to promote these ideas. Folk music became very popular as propaganda on behalf of labor movements of farmers and workers that were most affected by the Great Depression. Folk Music was performed as an adjunct to progressive political action. Songs like "This Land Is Your Land" would morph into feel-good hymns for the nation. In other words, folk music was good for rallying people/the masses, especially when they promised goof things for the people affected by the economy. The new deal.
*Discuss the philosophy expressed by Milton Babbitt in "Who Cares If You Listen?" How was it rooted in nineteenth-century historicism?
Many composers such as Strauss, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, etc. faced varying degrees of opposition as relates to their music, but in many cases their music was eventually embraced by the public. Babbitt, however, did not win such acceptance, nor did he seek it. He valued artistic autonomy and technical innovation as opposed to communication with society. Babbit's view of music was a mocking of the musical public. People would have to be trained in physics or mathematics to understand his music, so instead of trying to get people to understand, he concluded it was better just withdraw from the public opinion. It is a view of music as for the scholarly and the scientific as was education. He concludes that because of this withdraw from the public, they will little be affected by it. However, because of that, music would cease to evolve and therefore cease to live. In that sense, it is much like the ideas of historicism that focus on the evolution and progress of music.
What were Britten's views on the social responsibility of artists, and how are these reflected in his war requiem
NOT ON TESTBritten felt the artist should compose for a purpose. Music for Use. Occasions and people. His war Requiem was composed because he was a pacifist and since he did not feel like he could kill anyone, he did not go to war. Instead, he composed music like the War Requiem in response to the war and as a way to speak about it.
*Describe the aesthetic trends that gave rise to electronic music. What were some of the new musical instruments created through technology? what is the difference between musique concrete and elektronische musik? Who were the main contributors to each genre?
Serialism, quest for new sounds and instruments, chance procedures, etc. links with 20th century science through the creation of electronic music. Electronics allow for precision that was desired by composers like Milton Babbitt: "to become complete master of all you survey." John Cage predicted that the use of sound would eventually continue to progress until it reached electronics. (In other words, electronic music comes from the progress of music to instruments other than those conventionally used in the classical era as well as from the attitude of progress and use of sound as music) It offered the chance to truly wipe the slate clean of all traditional uses of music. One of the earliest instruments was the theremin (Lev Sergeyevich Termen) that set up an electromagnetic field, into which the intrusion of the signal would touch off the signal from a radio oscillator. The ondes Martenot (Maurice Martenot) was similar to the Theremin, but it also included a keyboard to make conventional tunings available. Messiaen was the foremost composer for this instrument. The Magnetophon (germany) stored sound on a paper tape. Cage, Babbitt, and others used this idea to splice together different things to make collages of sound. There was also opportunity to alter playback time, timbre, and pitch with this Magnetophon. You could even play things on loop and create a variety of sounds for which there is no conventional musical notation and there were no rules of composition. Musique concrete (France) has a connection to real world sound (Pierre Schaeffer) because it uses sounds that exist in the world, instead of those created by people. Elektronische musik (Gremany) refers exclusively to electronically synthesized sounds - the purer, the better. It had an appeal in Germany because its ability to be free from association with the world. Composers: Eimert, Cologne. Stockhausen - did both.
*Describe the types of experimental music composed in the U.S between 1910 and 1940. Who were the leading composers. and how did they experiment with new types of sound? In what respects were these composers outside the mainstream culture of art?
Tone clusters - Henry Cowell Futurism = "art of noises" replaces the conventional music with more appropriate sonic representations of the machine age. Ives, Cowell, Cage, Varese, Parch, Harrison, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Varese - Liberation of sound. : Ionisation - percussion, Big scores, urban noise makers. Far cry from Neoclassicism and jazz styles of the time. Parch - made his own instruments. 43 interval scale. Lou Harrison - also made own instruments, Indonesian influence, microtones. Microtones and quarter tones - splitting conventional harmonies (Ives). Cage - prepared piano Ruth Crawford Seeger - string quartet Ultra-modernists were inspired by Ives. During Great Depression people used music to make themselves feel better, but Ultra-modernists weren't interested in engaging with society, doing really weird stuff instead of trying to be uplifting.
*What is total serialism? What were the first pieces to experiment with it? What social and political factors contributed to its emergence in the 1950s?
Total Serialism is the serializing of elements other than just pitches. The process is extended to dynamics, rhythms, note values, and timbre. rejecting emotionality, romanticism. Piece: Boulez = biggest player in total serialism with "structures" Messiaen's "Scheme of note values and Dynamics" Everything in the piece was systematically catalogued through a table that precedes the score. The cold war was looming over everyone's heads as everyone expected an atomic war to break out at any moment. No one knew who to trust, and they were dealing with the horrors of what had happened in the holocaust, etc. People wondered what kind of art would be created and if any would be created at all. People felt the need to start from scratch (Zero Hour, Germany). Composers in the America and Western Europe saw a resurgence of 12-tone/serialism. This was considered "serious" music - to be set apart from entertainment music. Schoenberg's music had been previously banned and therefore made a resurgence after the second world war, contributing to 12-tone revival. Schoenberg had died and although he was a 12 tone composer, Webern was the one who rose up for the ideal position on 12 tone technique/serialism. Boulez wrote a book about it called "Schoenberg est mort." And he advised that serialism should be expanded to more than just notes, and Total Serialism was born. People wanted something real and pure, to start over. What could be more "real" and more "pure" than numbers?
