Music Final

Jazz: The First Fifty Years

*First key is improvisation* ~Add ornaments and newly contrived interludes called breaks ~Always making up variations on tunes that they are using *Second feature:* ~Special rhythmic style involving highly developed syncopation ~Occurs when some accent in music are move away from the main beats *More subtle kind: beat syncopation* ~Derived from African drumming ~Accents are moved just a fraction of a beat ahead of metrical points ~Music said to be swing

The High Renaissance Style

-Around 1500 a new style emerged for masses, motets, and chansons hold sway for 16th century -Chief characteristic of high Renaissance was careful blend of two kinds of musical texture: imitative counterpoint and homophony

Imitation

-Most Polyphony was non imitative at the beginning of the 15th, but were by end -Imitative Texture: Balance between multiple voice parts EX: Josquin Desprez Pange lingua

Chance Music

Covers a great variety of music in which certain elements specified by composer in more conventional music are left to chance

medieval modes

D: Dorian E: Phrygian F: Lydian G: Mixolydian

Varieties of Modernism

Modernist/ modernism= special self consciousness on the part of the artists themselves Modernists of 1900 were artists and intellectuals who insisted on a particular vision of modernity: anti traditionalism

John Cage

Most consistent radical figure of postwar music Studied w/ Schoenberg Challenged all assumptions of traditional music rests

Reciting tone

Pitch which text is sung on

John Cage 4'33 (1952)

Saying that silence is an entity too as well as sound

ideal tone color for Sacred music

a cappella

Pentatonic scale

a five note scale playable on the black notes of piano imported from folk song and Asian music

Melismas

groups of notes on one syllable

New Development in Renaissance

~Accurate declamation- words were sung to rhythms and melodies that approximated normal speech ~Matching music to meaning of their words Word painting EX: words fly were set to rapid notes up

Later Medieval Polyphony

~After 1200 CE the most significant dev. In polyphonic music was gradual distancing from church services ~Composer took fragment of Gregorian chant and repeated it several times over in bottom voice ~On top added two more voices w/ own words- love poems, commentaries etc ~This Genre known as Motet ~Little church left, proliferation of words in upper voices medieval polyphonic form, resulted from addition of texts to upper parts while maintaining gregorian chant in lower parts ~The motet was one of the five sections of the ~Mass.Unlike the Mass, which always used the same text, motets could be written for a variety of texts, giving church composers new means of expression.

Ars Nova

~After 1300, the technical dev. Of polyphony reached new heights of sophistication ~Ars nova "new art" or "new technique" ~Motet continued to develop ~Organum from Notre Dame regarded as ancient art- ars antiqua ~Historians compared the 14th to the 12th for breakup of traditions ~Bubonic Plague ~Black Plague, church broke apart cause breakup of traditions ~Church broken up into two rival popes ~Polyphonic music grew increasingly intricate and even convoluted ~Motets reflected intricacy in structural technique employing isorhythm ~Isorhythm: rhythmic patterns of many notes long repeated over and over but w/ diff pitch each time ~Went along w. Other schematic and numerical procedures for mind rather than ear

Homophony

~Almost all polyphony involves some chords as a product of its simultaneously sounding melodies ~Music of Machaut: chords= byproduct ~Medieval concentrate on horizontal aspect of texture instead of vertical ~Chords that resulted from the interplay of these parts were a secondary consideration ~Major achievement: Write rich chordal quality out of polyphonic lines ~Also used simple homophony- passages of block chord writing ~Use homophony both as a contrast to imitative texture and as an expressive resource in its own rights

Modernist Music before WWI

~Avant garde modernist moved away from norm ~Worked out new principles based on material of art itself ~European music before WWI ~Lay special emphasis on dev. In melody, harmony, tonality ~Dev. in tone color and rhythm, (musical sonority and musical time) dominated later stage of avant garde music after WWII

Literature and Art before WWI

~Avant garde music became detached from concert and opera- going public ~Abstracted from a base in society ~Modernist concentration on artistic materials led to abstraction of another kind ~Emphasis on technique welcomed by some relief from the overheated emotionality of late romantic music of Tchaikovsky, Mahler ~In 1920 objectivity was ideal espoused by artists ~Dutch painter Piet Mondrian made pictures out of straight lines at right angles to one another etc ~Igor Stravinsky was known for provocative statements ~Diametrically opposed rubato ~Others fascinated by machine rhythms ~Italian group called Futurists- composed w/ industrial noises

Instrumental Music: Early Developments

~Best 16th cent composers concentrated almost entirely on coal genres ~Except for William Byrd ~Instruments and music for instruments developed significantly during this period ~First violins and harpsichords date from 16 th century ~Others such as the lute ~Around 1500, hardly any music written for instruments specifically ~Instrumentalists would either play along with singers in coal music or else play motets, chansons, and other coal genres by themselves without words ~Principal vocal genre age 1550- madrigal- would not have made sense performed w/o words ~New genres emerging specifically for instrumental performance

Mixing Classical Form and Jazz: Maurice Ravel

~Born in 1975 ~South of France later to Paris ~Carved found between impressionism and Neoclassicism ~Favored clarity precision and instant communications ~Musical exoticism found a modernist voice in Ravel

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

~Born in little town in South France Two miles from Spanish border ~Brought to Paris ~Many his compositions have exotic Spanish resonance ~Spent no fewer than 16 years at Paris Conservatory ~Ravel hated Germany and German music ~Volunteer for military service against Germany in WWI ~Aim for clarity above all ~Most famous compositions make use of classical forms ~Never married or had any close relationships ~Met George Gershwin and Charlie Chaplin ~Contracted rare brain disease ~Died five years later ~Piano Concerto in G 1931 was last work but one -often the Debussy II -less international than Debussy more French

"Ave maris stella" Guillaume Dufay

~Born in north of France near Belgium ~A region that supplied whole Europe w/ musicians ~Worked in Italy- came to know artists and thinkers of renaissance ~Princely patrons who supported them ~Later years spent in glow of celebrity at important french cathedral of Cambrai ~Homophonic setting of a Gregorian Hymn ~Plainchant harmonization ~Addresses Virgin Mary ~D Dorian mode ~Set only even # stanzs 2,4,6 dame entire homophonic paraphrase ~Use isorhythm in love song

Aaron Copland

~By mid 1930s the reputation of another American modernist Aaron Copland was growing ~Rank as America's leading composer ~Passed through several stylistic phases- avant garde modernism ~Influence by Igor Stravinsky ~Most impressive work: set of twenty Variations for piano 1930 ~Reflects Stravinsky's dry rhythmic style and objective anti Romantic bent ~After, his music grew more traditional ~Held back from the most extreme versions of modernism and forged his own style using modernist elements he needed ~Copland adopted a nationalist agenda ~First turned to jazz in orchestral pieces called ~Music for the Theater and El Salon MExico ~Then incorporated cowboy songs in Ballets Old Shaker melody in Appalachian Spring

The Renaissance

~Changes in Europe from the 14th to 16th century ~Began in Italy ~Rediscovering and imitating ancient Greco-Roman Forebears ~Hope to bring about rebirth of their glorious past ~Italy consisted same pack of warring city states that had been at each other's throats all Middle Ages ~Rival Greek and Roman culture provided a powerful model for new values age of Columbus and Magellan, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Galileo, and Shakespeare ~Medieval society was stable, conservative, authoritarian, and orient toward God Renaissance laid groundwork for dynamic Western ~Renaissance artist wanted to make work more relevant to people's needs and desires

Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring (1945)

~Choreographed and danced by Martha Graham, towering figure in American modern dance ~Copland composed the ballet music and later arranged from it a concert suite in six continuous sections ~Section one: catch vast silent landscape at dawn ~Section 2: bride to be and young farmer husband enact emotions ~Sections 3 and 4: pick up tempo, whirling square dance ~Includes quiet statements of hymn ~Section 5: choreographed to set of variations on a Shaker song, "Simple Gifts" ~Section 6: like a prayer. Hymn and the landscape music return once again -written in 1945 -choreographed by Martha Graham -part of post war interest -ballet faded but music score continues

Chief composers w/ modernist in early phase:

~Claude Debussy ~Arnold Schoenberg ~Igor Stravinsky

The Middle Ages

~Collapse of Roman Empire in 5th century CE - age of Columbus ~Tune and polyphony originated around the middle of this period

New Sound Materials

~Composers after WWII demanded for new sound materials ~Ordinary orchestra even as expanded by Debussy, Stravinsky now struck as stiff and antiquated ~Explored new sonorities ~Began w/ composers making new demands on standard sources of music ~Singers instructed to lace their singing w/ hisses etc ~Post war era, percussion became standard

Claude Debussy, Clouds, from Three Nocturnes (1899)

~Debussy Three Nocturnes- like his orchestral works described as impressionist symphonic poems though they only have titles and not narratives ~Suggest various scenes w/o attempting to illustrate them explicitly ~Reference to famous atmospheric painting of James McNeill Whistler ~First: clouds, second: festival's, Third: Sirens ~In clouds: hear quiet series of chords, played by clarinets and bassoons Great cumulus clouds ~ABA's form ~english horn motive (synthetic mode) !pentatonic scale (new tune) ~Much more fluid ~A section of clouds return of clout theme after a more active passage Internal aba' pattern English horn figure in A'

Debussy and Impressionism

~Debussy occupies the border area btwn. Late 19th century and early 20th century ~Investigation of sensuous new tone colors for orchestra and for piano ~Some ways tied to Romanticism other items against ~Tone avoid heavy sonorities that were usual in late ~Romantic music merging instead into subtle, mysterious shades of sound ~Draws on vague-sounding new scales ~Orchestral sound differs sharply from Gustav Mahler ~Treated orchestra more often a single, delicately pulsing totality to which indv instruments contribute momentary gleams of color

Music & the Church

~Determined by Christian church -Church directed, supported, and directed music ~Composers were priests, clerics, and monks -Got training as church choir boys ~Minstrels/ jongleurs: popular musicians ~Music fostered by church was the singing or chanting of sacred words ~Singing was way of uttering words ~Sing words gives concepts in prayer ~Bring humans into beneficial contact w/ unseen spirits

Music and Church Services: Liturgy

~Difference btwn music in church in Middle ages and now= matter of free choice by minister ~Back then it was fixed by a higher authority ~The higher authority was called the liturgy ~Liturgy: set of services arranged for worship -Specifies how to worship etc. -Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity etc- all have complex liturgy ~Liturgies include prescriptions for dress, incense, candles ~In Christianity, central dates of liturgy concern the life of Christ ~Monks and nuns in the Middle Ages spent time praying ~Listening to singing was more for worshipping

Organum

~Earliest type called organum ~First described in music theory treatises around 900 CE ~Actual organum survived in musical notation from around 1000 ~Early organum consists of a traditional plainchant melody to which composer added another melody sung at sometime w/ same words ~Early Organum consists of a Traditional plainchant melody add w/ another melody, sung @ same time w/ same words ~History of Organum ~Added melody/ counterpoint, closely parallels to chant free rhythm ~Rhythm of this early stage is called parallel organum (free rhythm of Gregorian chant) ~Added melody (counterpoint) was treated more indp. (go up when chant goes down) ~Decorate w/ Melisma ~Add 2 counterpoint to chant ~Definite rhythm added

Stravinsky: The Primacy of Rhythm

~Earliest work followed from his teacher Russian nationalist composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov ~Three famous ballet scores written for Ballets Russes in PAris- dev own powerful style ~Ballets reveal fascinating progression toward more and more abstract use of folk tunes ~First ballet: The firebird (1910) Spins romantic fairy tale about magical firebird ~In Petrushka (1911) story of carnival barker and puppet ~Rite of Spring (1913) ~Stravinsky boldly and brutally imagined fertility cults of prehistoric Slavic tribes ~Musical style brought to head in the rites has stuck listeners as barbatic score is enormously loud ~Demands a colossal orchestral show his control and transform

The Late Twentieth Century

~Economic depression began in late 1920s 1930s Hitler came to rise ~Tyranny of Stalin lead to WWII ~JApanese attack ~These events and uncertainties helped prompt a new phase of experimental modernism in 1950s and 1960s

Kemp's Jig Anonymous

~Elizabethan actor, comedian, and song and dance man ~Immortalized for having created comic roles in ~Shakespeare such as Dogberry ~Specialized in popular dance ~Jig perform after main play ~Accompanied w/ pipe and tabor (snare) aab form ~Tune played several times: first by recorder, viol, lute accompanies

The Postwar Avant-Garde

~Experiment and innovation reemerged as driving forces in music during the third quarter of twentieth century ~Highly intellectual constructive tendencies came to the fore ~Efforts to serialize rhythm, dynamics, and timbre ~All composers wanted to question the most fundamental premises that had guided music composition before them ~Mainstream modernism after 1945 questioned every one of the features of musical tradition at once to point of even question composer's role in structuring a work at all

Early Homophony

~Fifteenth century saw beginning of homophony ~Homophony: music in chordal texture ~In simpler plainchant paraphrases- melody often highlighted by accompaniment that doesn't sound polyphonic ~Effect- melody on top supported by harmonization below ~Emphasis is on sensuous effect rather than on more intellectual process of polyphony

Troubadour Song "La dousa votz" Bernart de Ventadorn

~Finest Troubadour poets and musical ~Serve Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine ~Wife of Henry II of England ~G Mixolydian ~Set to same melody for all stanzas -> strophic form: AAA and each stanza a a' b ~Stress secular (non religious) of song ~Troubadours spoke Provencal ~Estampies: one line pieces in which some similar musical phrases are repeated

The cultivated Tradition

~First american musician to gain worldwide reputation were immigrant German composer ~Anthony Philip Heinrich ~Louis Moreau Gottschalk ~Americans were content to look to Italy for opera naf to Germany for instrumental music

Early Modernism

~First major phase of avant garde took place in Paris and Vienna from 1890-1914 ~Revolution in tonality that went along w/ radical reconsideration of melody and harmony caught imagination of early 20th cent

"Pange lingua Mass from the Kyrie & Gloria" Josquin Desprez

~First master of High Renaissance style ~Like Dufay, born in N. France ~Gregorian hymn for corpus Christi ~Patrons: Pope Alexander VI, Sforza family of milan, Estes of Ferrara, Louis XII, King of France ~Wrote 18 different settings of the Mas- all large pieces in standard five sections form ~Feast celebrating Holy Eucharist ~Boy sing high, men sing low ~Phrygian (E) mode ~4 voice/ imitative counterpoint ~Critical spot: homophonic than polyphonic

Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring, Part I, "The Adoration of the Earth" (1913)

~First performance caused a riot ~Audience shocked at violent stage and provocative choreography suggesting rape and ritual murder ~Ballet has no real story ~Intro: halting opening theme played by basson ~Sounds like prehistoric wildlife ~Omens of Spring and Dance of Adolescents ~Dancers presumably register an awareness of spring awakening ~Single dissonant chord repeated ~Derived from Russian Folk song ~Game of Abduction ~New Violence is introduce ~Pounding timpani ~Round Dances of Spring ~Strong downbeat makes meter hypnotic ~4 more section follow Part I ~Stravinsky's later works the barbarism was tamed but fry

The Mass

~Fourteenth century composers like Machaut had used isorhythm even when writing love songs ~Composers now cultivated much simpler style for their polyphonic songs or chansons ~Modest style of these was sometimes used for sacred texts including portions of Mass ~Rejection of isorhythms did not mean composers abandoned the technical dev of their craft ~Means efforts now used to focus on large scale musical construction ~For the first time compositions were written to last over 20-30 min ~Mass- the largest and most important prayer service of Christian liturgy ~Contains numerous items that were sung in plainchant

Folk Music, Nationalism and Modernism: Bela Bartok

~Growing up in Hungary in 1890s ~Swept by international avant garde leaders Debussy and Richard Strauss ~Influenc by close contemporary Stravinsky ~Man of multiple careers: pianist educator and musicologist as well as composer ~Folk music especially of his native hungary ensured Bartok's music would rarely become abstract as music modernist music was ~After his music became more accessible- references to folk were more mellow ~Used in own fashion sonata form and rondo

The Emancipation of Dissonance

~Harmony grew more dissonant ~Consonant chords: sound stable and at rest ~Dissonant chords: sound tense and need to resolve to consonant ones ~Tonality grew more indistinct ~Reached a point at which no tonal center could be detected ~Known as atonal music ~Melody harmony tonality colony relate "holy trinity" of music ~Joint emancipation of the three counts as central style characteristics of first phase of twentieth century avant garde music

Late Renaissance Music

~High Renaissance style was clearest used in church music ~Important new secular genres also made use of this style ~Broad appeal of style is shown by geographical spread of its four most famous masters: Palestrina, LAssus, victoria, and Byrd

New Attitudes

~Humans & nature become measure in philosophy, science, art than God ~Early 15th Century, new way of treating plainchant in polyphonic compositions ~Medieval compose writing organum or isorhythmic motets ~Lengthened notes enormously underneath added counterpoints ~Recast the meterless chant with fixed rhythms ~No longer felt obliged always to use plainchants ~Treat them as melodies to listen to not for polyphonic structures embellished chants w/ extra notes, set w/ graceful rhythms, smoothes out passages known as ~Paraphrase ~Emphasized sonorous & sensuous aspect and not the function as structure & control ~Put Plainchant @ top voice to be heard clearly and not at the bottom

Expressionism

~In Austria and Germany composers pressed forward w music that was increasingly emotional and complex ~Exploiting extreme states extending all the way to hysteria nightmare ~Years before WWI saw publication of first works of Sigmund Freud w/ new analysis of power of unconscious ~Schoenberg leading expressionist in music

Expressionists and Fauves

~In Paris and Vienna- artistic centers that were also centers of avant garde music ~Russian born painter Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) ~Belonged to German movement in arts called expressionism ~Express most extreme human feelings by divorcing art from everyday literalness ~Parallel to expressionists was short lived group in Paris Les fauves "the wild beasts" ~Distorted images ~Violence in bothe Kandinsky and Picasso's work ~Violence in music such as The Rite of Spring (ballet) Stravinsky ~Depicted human sacrifice in fertility ceremonies of primitive Slavic tribes

Italian Madrigal

~In secular music ~Took place around 1530 ~Short composition set to one stanza poem (usually love) points of imitation shorter, less strict ~Sung by one singer per part in intimate setting ~Points of imitation were shorter and imitations itself less strict ~More homophony ~Words assumed more importance ~Bother declamation and word painting were developed

The Motet

~Incented in late Middle ages ~Lived on and been applied to diff music ~Motets by Palestrina or Byrd have little in common w/ those of Machaut or Dufay 16th century motet- relatively short composition w./ Latin words ~Made up of short sections in homophony and imitative polyphony that were staples of High renaissance style ~Words are nearly always religious sometimes from Bible ~Motet is basically similar in musical style to Mass but different in scope and text ~Variety of possible words in motet that recommended it to 16th century composers ~Providing them with new words to express allowed church composers to convey religious messages in music with more power

Progress and Uncertainty

~Industrialization is one of two overriding facts of 19th century ~The other: emergence of modern nation-state ~Heart of 19th century: sense of confidence ~Progress in science and tech ~Confidence was shaken by nontech dev. Into advances in physics, biology, and psychology ~Impact of Einstein's theory ~Uncertainty deepened a crisis in religion: Charles Darwin ~Psychological theories of Sigmund Freud suggested that despite what people thought they were doing, controlled by unconscious

Varieties of American Modernism

~Innovative musical styles began to appear incorporating American jazz, blues, and other popular idioms ~In NY city, SF and others, encourage the composition and performance of new music ~Avant gardist Edgard Varese emigrated from France ~New Music society in SF formed by Henry Cowell issued a quarterly pamphlet making available music of new works ~Ruth Crawford, William Grant Still, and Aaron Copland take part in benefit from these new energies

The English Madrigal

~Italian madrigals became all the rage in ~Elizabethan England and led to composition of madrigals in English ~Reflected taste and interest of Queen Elizabeth I herself ~Queen Elizabeth I "goddess of virginity" ~In 1601, twenty three English composers contributed madrigals to patriotic anthology in ~Elizabeth's honor called The Triumphs of oriana ~All the poems end with the same refrain ~Main functions of court music was flattery

Dance Styles

~Italian: saltarello ~Irish Jig ~French bransle ~Ending with clear cadences ~Phrases were each played twice in succession ~Forms aabb or aabbcc

Music at Court

~Kings and barons gradually gained political power at expense of church ~Assume leadership in artistic matters ~Later on- princely courts joined the monasteries and cathedrals as major supporters of music

Mass

~Kyrie: a simple prayer ~Gloria: long hymn ~Credo: Recital of christian's list of belief ~Sanctus: shorter hymn ~Agnus Dei: simple prayer -One of earliest way to unify these disparate elements is to sye same music to open each movement -Another way was to base each movement on same Gregorian chant- one belonging not to mass but perhaps liturgy of some special day on which Mass is celebrated

Troubadour and Trouvere Songs

~Large groups of court songs have been preserved from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Age of Chivalry ~Noble poet composers of court songs: -Troubadours in S. France -Trouveres in N. France -Minnesingers in Germany ~Among them were knights and princes, and even Kings ~Chivalric Hero: Richard I of England one of the composers ~Troubador society also allowed for women composers and performers ~Countess Beatriz of Dia ~Maria di Ventadorn ~Some noble songwriters penned the words only ~Left music to be composed by jongleurs ~One interesting poetic type was the alba- the dawn song of knight's loyal companion who has kept watch all night and warns him to leave his lady;s bed before castle awakens.

Avante Garde Phases

~Later in 1950- second phase of avant garde ~1900-1920 & 1950-1970- assertive avant garde experimental gain upper hand ~1920-1930- period of consolidation

Maurice Ravel Piano Concerto in G (1931)

~Lighthearted piece for piano and small orchestra Tribute to Jazz ~Everything slightly skewed ~First movement: first theme is not jazzy Folk Like tune is presented ~Piano introduce second theme recalls blues ~Typical of early jazz is use of short breaks ~Back to sonata form - does in in the freest possible way ~At end uses long series of parallel chords -early tribute to Jazz idioms -for 2 handed -noted for elegance and wut *-loose sonata form first mvnt* -no dev -cadenza harp solo

Gregorian Chant "In Paradisum"

~Liturgy for the dead, sung on the way from final blessing of corpse ~Mixolydian G mode Antiphon, sang for the dead ~Refers to Lazarus, poor beggar in Buble who went to heaven while rich man went to hell ~Melismas: groups of notes on one syllable ~Monophonic

Early American Music: An Overview

~Long before Europeans came, Native Americans had own musical styles ~Puritans disapproved if music ~Puritan church services had rhyming versions of psalms were sung like hymns

"Dame, de qui toute ma joie vient" Guillaume de Machaut

~Machaut left numerous examples of secular polyphony ~Many motets of his used isorhythmic technique ~Close enough to trouveres to write beautiful monophonic songs ~Adapted their old traditions of chivalric love songs to complex ars nova polyphony ~Known as Chansons- no trace of Gregorian chant ~Serve courts of France & Luxembourg ~Non imitative polyphony ~4 voices ~Each stanza aa' b arrangement, identical to LA dousa votz

"Alleluia. Diffusa est gratia" Pérotin, Organum

~Many composed for services devoted to Virgin Mary ~Lengthy Mass ~Music probably written by Perotin- not certain ~Upper voice: quick, triple rhythm Diffusa ~Lower voice: rest of chant, not free rhythm ~Alleluia returns twice, first w/ new words in aeternum than in original

Formed specific movement marked by radical experimentation- peaked in years 1890 through 1920- period of breakthrough works by such figures

~Marcel Proust (novelist) ~James Joyce (novelist) ~Poets Ezra Pound and TS Eliot ~Painters Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse

Experiment and Transformation Melody

~Melody harmony and tonality work closely together ~Mahler's audiences were puzzled and irritated by distortions ~Viennese composer Arnold Schoenberg wrote even more complex melodies that made little sense to contemporary listeners ~Intense rhythms and anguish intervals of ~Romanticism exaggerated beyond recog. ~Outside Vienna- disintegration of tuneful melody was acc ~Claude Debussy used only most shadowy motives- constant suggestion of melody w/o clear tunes ~Igor Stravinsky- writing in PAris- seized upon ~Russian folk songs but whittled them down into brief utterly simple frag.- blank "objective" and w/o emotion

Music at the End of Millennium

~Mid 1960s is called minimalists ~Carried on at least one aspect of modernist experimentation: its presentation of long, slowly changing blocks of musical time ~Minimalism has worked wonders for American opera ~Steve Reich- philosophy major at Cornell master of minimalist style ~Early music explores issues of rhythm and timing in rather abstract fashion

Impressionists and symbolists

~Modernism got start in late 19th and peaked in 20th ~Best known movement: ~Impressionism dates from 1870 ~Astonished by flickering of color patches ~Symbolism: consciously unrealistic movement followed impressionism ~Symbolist revolted against realism of words ~Musical was a word the symbolists liked to apply to language ~Fascinated w/ Richard Wagner ~Claude Debussy is often called impressionism in music for fragmentary motives ~Famous text that inspired Debussy ~Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun" ~Poem by Stephane Mallarme ~Opera Pelleas at Melisande ~Play by Maurice MAeterlinck

Music as Expression

~Music can illustrate certain words and to express certain feelings ~Exploration of music's power to express human feelings was a precious contribution buy musician to renaissance ~Derived inspiration for exploration from reports of music of ancient Greece ~Philosophers such as Plato had testified music was capable arousing emotions ~Composers shared this expressive aim of matching words and music leading to two important new dev.

"As vesta was from Latmos hill descending" Thomas, Weelkes

~Never rose beyond provincial cathedral organist choirmaster ~Trouble keeping even that post in later life ~Not a major figure ~Best compose of Madrigal in English ~Six part: 2 soprano, 1 alto, 2 tenor, 1 bass

New Horizons, New Scales

~Non European music began to make inroads into European classical music ~Debussy heard first non-Western music played by native musicians ~Sensed a resonance btwn his own music and shimmering timbres and gamelan ~Pentatonic scale- a five note scale playable on the black notes of piano imported from folk song and Asian music ~Debussy featured pentatonic in Clouds -Whole tone scale divides the octave into six equal parts -All intervals whole steps ~Octatonic scale: specialty w/ Stravinsky -Fits eight pitches into octave by alternating whole and half steps ~Serialism- "new language" for music invented in 1920s by Arnold Schoenberg

Plainchant

~Official music of Catholic Church was a great repertory of melodies designated for liturgy ~System of Plainchant known as Gregorian chant ~Called plain b/c unaccompanied, monophonic music for voices ~Monophonic: (one line) unaccompanied ~Named after famous pope and church father Gregory I

Response of Modernism

~One assumption was visual art had to represent something from external world ~Questioned then abandoned Abstract painting ~Language of cubisnism ~In music basic assumptions concerned the composing of melody and its close associates harmony and tonality ~Thrown into doubt

Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians (1974-1976)

~One of the earliest classics of minimalist style includes four singers but do not sing words ~A cellist ~A violinist ~Two clarinets ~Large percussion group ~Four pianos ~Three marimbas ~Two xylophones ~And a vibraphone

Leading composers

~Philippe de Vitry (1291-1361) ~Guillaume de MAchaut (1300-1377) ~Both churchmen ~City ended life as bishop ~Machaut was greatest French poet of his time Younger English contemporary Geoffrey Chaucer

The Evolution of Polyphony

~Polyphony: the simultaneous combination of 2 or more melodies ~Risen in medieval Europe Development of polyphonic music in late Middle Ages represents a decisive turn in Western music ~Know about the earliest European polyphony from uses in church ~Comes from writings of monks and other clerics ~Polyphony justifies as way of embellishing ~Gregorian chants- enhancing the all important liturgy

Modernism between the Wars

~Radical modernism was primary source of energy in period from before WWI until after WWII ~Many impressive composers active in first half of 20th century- maintained and even increased hold on audiences up to present day

Gregorian Recitation and Gregorian Melody

~Ranged from single pitch with no variation to long melodies ~Recitation used for texts considered fairly routine such as readings from the Old Testament ~Reciting tone: Pitch which text is sung on ~Repeated again and again except for small formulaic variations at beginnings and ends of phrases ~Punctuate the text and make it easier to understand- and sing, since they give the singers time for a breath ~Elaborate melody saved for prayers at Mass and processions ~One of simplest genres showing melody is antiphon ~Antiphon: workaday little pieces (some very moving)

Electronic music

~Recording equipment can reproduce sounds of any sort ~Electronic sound generators can do something else: generate sounds from scratch ~Tech breakthrough during WWII was dev. Of magnetic tape ~Open up exciting possibilities to modify ~Shortly after WWII composers began to incorporate sounds of life into composition ~Called concrete music b/c it used actual sound as contrasted w/ abstract products of electrons sound generator ~Musique concrete lives on in sampling- tech make it easy for anything that is required to put on keyboard ~Synthesizers: designed for music producing modules connected by patch cords to create complex sounds ~First synthesizers worked one note at a time ~Allowed many composers to produce taped music and combine music on tape w/ performed live music ~Computer music: amazing evolution of personal computers over last 35 years allowed for equally amazing evolution ~Synthesizers can interact via computer w/ live musicians

Music in America: Jazz and Beyond

~Rift has been popular in US ~Cultivated music- music that has been brought to this country and consciously dev. Fostered at concerts, and taught in conservatories ~Vernacular music- music we sing and hear as naturally as we speak our native tongue

"Columba aspexit" Hildegard of Bingen

~She is St. Hildegard to Catholic Church ~First woman composer abbess ~Wrote famous book describing religious vision, natural science, and medicine, biographies ~Composed in honor of St. Maximinus ~Late medieval plainchant genere: Sequence AA' BB' CC' series of short tune sung twice with some variation ~Soloist sings A, choir sings A' ~Mizolydian ~Recording includes an instrumental drone- single two notes chord running continuously ~Sometimes drones used to accompany plainchant

Bela Bartok (1881-1945)

~Showed unusual talents as pianist and composer at early age ~Music was avocation of his father who was principal of an agricultural school in Hungary ~After Bartok's mom died, worked as piano teacher promoting Bartok's career ~Prolific composer and fine pianist as was his second wife ~Directed Budapest Academy of Music Mikrokosmos done more than any other work to introduce modernism to musicins ~Undertook large investigation of Hungarian folk music ~Published folk song and folk dance Nationalist composer of 20th century ~Strongly opposed Nazis ~Broke ties w/ German publishers ~Liberal views caused him a good deal of trouble from right wingers in Hungary ~Came to America after outbreak of WWII ~Not well known and little interest ~Last years were a struggle to complete Third Piano concerto and Viola concerto ~superb pianoist ~Imp piano teacher ~pioneer in pedagogical methods ~ethnomusicologist- study music as history -composer - major works: six string quartets -3 piano concerto -violin concertos -two rhapsodies for piano and violin -sonata -various suits -Mirkrokosmos: pedagogical collection

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

~Son of Russian Jewish immigrants living in Brooklyn ~After solid musical education at home went abroad to study in PAris ~Work with Nadia Boulanger ~Gave up composition i deference to talent of her sister Lili ~In America, promoted American music ~Organised important series of concert with Roger Sessions ~1930 attracted by leftist ideology and idea that art should serve the people ~1940's became more accessible and populist ~Well known works- draws on American folk materials ~Appalachian Spring- celebration of traditional American values ~After 1940 Copland headed up the composition faculty at the important summer school Tanglewood, Mass. ~Association w/ Boston Symphony Orchestra, composer position decreased Leonard Bernstein Devoid was his student -trained in France -highly educated composer -tireless promoter -two kinds of compositions: modernist (professionals) and populist Major works: *Ballets* Appalachian Spring, Rodeo, Billy the Kid *Orchestral:* Third Symphony, Lincoln Portrait *Piano:* Piano variation, Piano Fantasy, Sonata

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

~Son of important opera singer ~Studies law and did not turn seriously to music till 19 ~Study w/ Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov ~Rimsky's brand of nationalism served young ~Stravinsky well in famous ballet ~Wrote for Ballet Russes: Russian Company centered in Paris ~Enormously dynamic organization run by Sergei Diaghilev ~After WWI, composed more ballets for Diaghilev ~Outspoken advocate of objectivity in music rejection of Romantic emotionality ~Modeled music on pre Romantic composers such as Bach HAndel Mozart ~Transforming music into NEoclassicism style ~Final work in this vein was opera "The Rake's Progress" ~People regarded him as Neoclassical composer in French orbit ~Died at home in NY in 1971 ~Buried in Venice near Dighilev

On the Boundaries of Time

~Sonority is one of two areas in which avant garde music in its post WWII phase made greatest breakthroughs ~Other area was time and rhythm w/ Webern and Riley we measure time in same units: min and sec ~Feeling of time is diff in the two

The Blues

~Special category of black folk song whose subject is loneliness, trouble, and unhappiness of every shade ~Blues lyrics can also convey humor and hope ~Blues are strophic songs like folk songs ~Many stanza sung to same melody ~Blues consists of 3-4 measure phrases ~Twelve bar blues measure aab form ~Provide jazz musicians w/ emotional patterns for improvisation ~Provide jazz w/ sonorous model ~Trumpet sax and trombone sound infinitely more flexible and human played in jazz style that played in military band ~Sippie Wallace name derive from child hood lisp ~African gospel music- ecstatic choral singing in evangilical church services grew up same time as blues and ragtime ~Wallace was also pianist and songwriter ~Performing career began at little churches in Houston

Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-2006)

~Studies Budapest Academy of Music ~Appointed as professor there ~Pursue unique sound visions under Communist restrictions in Hungary ~Left for West in 1956 ~No distinct rhythm -sound planes- indv notes are affed to a conglomeration of sounds w/ sounds coming thicker and thicker

Period of profound changes in Euro & America

~The period from 1890 to 1940 profound changes in European and American society ~Changes were outgrowths of trends- collapse of ~Romantic political aspirations in 1848 ~Accelerating industrialization and increasingly pronounced nationalism ~Climax with cataclysms of WWI and WWII ~First group= avant garde modernists

Noble poet composers of court songs:

~Troubadours in S. France ~Trouveres in N. France ~Minnesingers in Germany

Characteristics of Plainchant

~Usually non metrical: no established meter, rhythm is free ~No major/minor but medieval modes (around DEFG)

"Pope Marcellus Mass from the Gloria" Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

~Was singer of Rome famous church sistine ~In youth, composed secular compositions ~Compose over hundreds of mass Was supposed to convince pope that complicated polyphonic church music can be heard clearly ~More homophony than Josquin ~Rich, shifting tones ~6 voice mostly homophonic ~Critical spots are more polyphonic

Anton Webern (1883-1945) Five Orchestral Pieces (1913)

~Whole piece is six measures long ~Music exceptionally concentrated b/c relationship btwn notes is strained by atomized ~Each note somehow becomes separate source of tremendous energy

Renaissance Dances

~Widespread Renaissance instrumental genres was dance ~Paran: solemn dance in duple paired w/ galliard faster triple

Bela Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936)

~Work can be thought of as informal symphony in usual four substantial movements ~Constituted small orchestra ~Includes piano harp, celesta, timpani ~Second Movement: music has folk dance fragments ~Pizzicato precedes theme 1 ~Motive a like Beethoven Fifth Symphony ~Motive works well in Timpani ~Has exposition, dev, and recapitulation and coda In Dev. has imitative polyphony -a fugue midway through becomes retrograde -fugue subject appears throughout work -sonata form

Gyorgy Ligeti Lux aeterna (1966)

~Written for sixteen solo singers and chorus ~Often sing chords that include all twelve pitches of chromatic scale ~Starts w/ single pitch then expands both upwards and downwards slowly adding dense mix of pitches ~Lux aeterna taken from Requiem Mass- can scarcely be heard and understood ~Study in sheer vocal sonority ~Wrote other sound complex pieces such as Atmospheres for full orchestra -The performance is acc w/ painting Mark Rothko

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

~first true modernist ~Went through strict curriculum of famous Paris Conservatory of Music ~Enter at 10 yrs old ~Did not do well on piano exams ~Won various awards in theory and comp. ~Award coveted Grand Prix three year fellowship study in Rome ~Before this, Debussy took a job w/ Madame von Meck: patron of Tchaikovsky ~Russian music was one of influences and Indonesian gamelan ~Turned against Wagner and German music ~Long term relationship w/ mistress end bad ~First marriage was bad too ~Married a diff women he eloped had a daughter ~Early 30s Debussy seems to have rather suddenly crystallized musical style reflects influences of ~French symbolist poets and impressionist painters ~Opera Pelleas et MElisande (1902) written to words of play by symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck ~Second opera on Edgar Allan Poe ~Famous for innovations in orchestration and piano writing ~His preludes and etudes for piano are most impressive miniatures since time of early romantics ~Wrote criticism music for short time ~Anti german attitudes ~Died of cancer in Paris during WWI while city was being bombarded by Germans he hated

Other Characteristics

~ideal tone color for Sacred music = a cappella ~Performance by voices alone ~Tempo and dynamics change little in the course of a piece ~Rhythm is fluid without any sharp accents and shifts unobtrusively all the time ~Melodies never go very high or very low in any one voice ~The ups and downs are carefully balanced ~Rarely settles into easy swing of a dance rhythm or into the clear pattern of an actual tune ~Sometimes strike modern listeners as vague

Estampies

~one line pieces in which some similar musical phrases are repeated ~Estampies: unassuming one line pieces in which the same or similar musical phrases are repeated many times in varied forms ~Suggest may have been written down jongleur improvisions ~Marked by lively and inconsistent rhythms in triple meter

Liturgy

~set of services arranged for worship -Specifies how to worship etc.