Radical Modernism - Quiz 4
the atonal style
"Composing with the tones of a motive" is Schoenberg's term for the integration of harmony and melody; it is based on developing variation. A motive of 3 or more pitches is treated as though it were a triad or other chord that can be transposed, inverted, and arranged in any order or register to generate melodies and harmonies By using a limited number of motives along with their transpositions and inversions, he gave his music a consistent sound
The twelve-tone method
- After focusing on vocal works in his atonal period, Schoenberg turned to traditional instrumental forms - Among these works, composed between 1921 and 1949, are: Piano Suite, Op. 25 (modeled on the keyboard suites of Bach) etc.
The twelve-tone method
- As a rule, the composer states all 12 pitches of the series before using a different form of the row (unless two or more statements occur simultaneously) - The series generates the melody, harmony, and counterpoint - The transposition of row forms is analogous to modulation in tonal music - The row is often broken into segments of 3-6 notes, which create melodic motives and chords
Schoenberg's life
- Grew up in Vienna; largely self-taught as a composer - Early works featured a late Romantic style - Began experimenting with atonal music around 1908 - Several years later began developing the twelve-tone technique, which he premiered during the early 1920s
Schoenberg's life
- In 1933, when Hitler rose to power, Schoenberg was dismissed from his teaching post in Berlin because he was Jewish - He fled to Paris with his family and shortly afterward emigrated to the United States - He settled in California and was appointed to the music faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles (pictured) - In 1951, he died in Los Angeles
expressionism
- originally appeared in painting, then in other artistic disciplines - It sought to present the world from the creator's subjective perspective, extending even to subconscious, "dark" emotions - Expressionist arts often portrayed angst, alienation, dread, or irrational fears such as those that surface during nightmares - Figures in paintings can be grossly distorted, with pure colors and dynamic brush strokes
Schoenberg's musical development
- preferred "pantonal" over "atonal" - He stated that he had "emancipated" dissonance. "Emancipation of dissonance" means that dissonance is free to appear anywhere and is free from rules about approach and resolution - He believed that atonality was the next logical step in the evolution of Western music; therefore, he did not consider himself a revolutionary
Berg's Wozzeck (completed 1922)
- the only atonal opera in the standard repertoire - Berg selected 15 scenes from Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck and arranged them into three acts of five scenes each. - He worked directly from Büchner's dialogue without adaptation by a librettist.
Bela Bartok (1881-1945)
-1907, hired to teach piano at the Academy of Music -Performed as a pianist all over Europe -Edited keyboard music of Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and others -1934, left the Academy of Music and became a full-time ethnomusicologist at the Academy of Sciences, where he and others prepared a critical edition of Hungarian folk music -1938, Nazi takeover of Austria brought the threat of fascism to Hungary; Bartók sent his manuscripts to the United States -1940, emigrated to New York, where he lived with financial and health struggles -1945, died in New York
Schoenberg's major works by genre
-4 operas (Erwartung, Die glückliche Hand, Von Heute auf Morgen, Moses und Aron) -Song cycle Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, cantata Gurrelieder, melodrama Pierrot Lunaire, numerous other songs and choral works -Tone poem Pelleas und Melisande, Five Pieces for Orchestra, Variations for Orchestra, 2 chamber symphonies, other orchestral works -5 string quartets, string sextet Verklärte Nacht, Wind Quintet, other chamber works -Piano Suite, Op. 25; several sets of piano pieces
Berg's path to Wozzeck
-Berg saw Büchner's play Wozzeck in 1914 and began his operatic setting of Büchner's text right away. -He saw and worked with the Landau edition, which misspelled "Woyzeck" as "Wozzeck" because Büchner's handwriting had been very difficult to read. -He set the project aside to finish another piece and to serve in the Austrian War Ministry during World War I. -He took up the project again in 1917 and finished in 1922. The opera premiered in 1925, after his teacher Schoenberg had already premiered his 12-tone method.
Features of The Rite of Spring
-Dancing that avoided the graceful movements of classical ballet (Examples: toes turned inward instead of outward; angular poses) -Historically plausible costumes and décor -Genuine folk melodies -No real plot, but rather a series of scenes concluding with the death (by dancing) of the sacrificial virgin
The tragic story of the title character Wozzeck
-Franz Wozzeck, a low-ranking and slow-witted soldier, is impoverished, exploited, delusional, and paranoid -Because of his condition, he is victimized by his captain, his doctor, and his woman -His circumstances, combined with his instability, push him "over the edge"; he commits murder, then accidentally (or deliberately) kills himself -The opera casts light on the plight of the poor and disadvantaged, i.e., "Wir arme leut!" ("We poor people!"), which we hear several times in the opera
Berg's 12-tone period
-He adopted Schoenberg's 12-tone method after Schoenberg introduced it. One of his important 12-tone works is the Lyric Suite. -Six years after Wozzeck, which was freely atonal, Berg began work on a 12-tone opera, Lulu. --He did not live to finish the orchestration of act 3 nor a few minor details in the same act --It was completed by Friedrich Cerha --It is performed much less frequently than Wozzeck -Berg's best-known work apart from Wozzeck is probably his 12-tone Violin Concerto
Famous expressionist compositions (all atonal)
-Pierrot lunaire (1912), a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg -Erwartung (1909), a monodrama (opera with one character) by Arnold Schoenberg -Wozzeck (1922), an opera by Alban Berg Blood and the moon are recurring symbols in expressionist music. Both are present in Wozzeck
Act I: Exposition of Wozzeck
-Wozzeck and his relation to his environment -The captain -Andres -Marie -The physician -The drum major Five character sketches -Suite -Rhapsody -Military march and cradle song -Passacaglia -Andante affetuoso (quasi Rondo)
The music of The Rite of Spring
-includes Russian folk melodies -features a huge orchestra and colorful, unusual orchestration -is frequently dissonant, with some polychords -has a harmonic organization that makes no consistent reference to a key and includes diatonic, octatonic, and whole-tone passages -is characterized by ostinato, shifting meters, irregular accents, and rhythmic canons
Bartók's Mikrokosmos (1929-1939)
153 piano pieces in six books of progressive difficulty It summarizes Bartók's style and exemplifies his synthesis of Eastern folk and Western classical elements
Schoenberg's life
After World War I, he founded and directed the Society for Private Musical Performances in Vienna
Charles Ives's later years
After a health crisis in 1918, he composed little. He turned his attention to editing and self-publishing many works. Gradually, performances of his music increased. In 1939, his "Concord" piano sonata was hailed as a masterpiece In 1947, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Symphony No. 3
Introduction to neoclassicism in music
After the war, a new spirit helped produce one of the clearest and most definitive stylistic changes in history. Composers introduced new ideals: smaller ensembles, objectivity, simplicity & directness, shorter lengths, clear-cut construction These replaced the older Romantic aesthetic of a warm string sound, large colorful orchestra, long lengths, programmatic agenda
Schoenberg's musical development
After these late Romantic works, he felt compelled to find a more original and personal musical language. He began his search around 1905. In 1908, Schoenberg began to compose music without a tonal center and characterized by pervasive dissonance.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Arguably the most important composer of his time Like Picasso in art, he was the very icon of the 20th c. composer. Like Beethoven and Schoenberg, his output falls into three periods. These are... -the Russian period (until around 1920) -the neoclassic period (from around 1920) -the serial period (beginning in the early 1950s)
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
As a youngster, he composed works that were homespun, humorous, or experimental. However, when he studied composition with Horatio Parker at Yale, he wrote more polished and conventional works since Parker had little sympathy for experiments. At Yale he wrote marches and songs for his fraternity brothers and church music for Center Church in New Haven After graduation, he moved to New York and entered the insurance business, first as an actuary and then as the head of his own agency.
Pulcinella (1920) by Igor Stravinsky
At Diaghilev's request, he based this score on music then attributed to Baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736). As he worked, he brought his distinctive stylistic traits into Pergolesi's music. He cited this as the work that marked the beginning of his neoclassical style, i.e., his look backward to the past.
Stravinsky and the neoclassical style
Beginning in 1920 he resided primarily in France, until he emigrated to the U.S. in 1939. He composed in Classical instrumental genres including symphonies chamber music concertos (one for piano, one for violin) He continued to compose ballets and other theatrical types of composition. Russian nationalism had faded from fashion. He now avoided folklorism and sought an international style in which nothing could identify the works as Russian or French.
Georg Büchner (1813-1837)
Berg used one of his plays as the libretto for Wozzeck His plays were a major discovery of Berlin theatre culture of the 1920s. They were virtually unknown until the end of the nineteenth century and did not attract widespread attention until even later.
Bartok's major works
Bluebeard's Castle (opera), The Miraculous Mandarin (pantomime) Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Dance Suite (also published in piano reduction) 3 piano concertos, 2 violin concertos, viola concerto (unfinished; completed by Tibor Serly and later revised by others) 6 string quartets, 2 violin sonatas 1 piano sonata, Mikrokosmos (pedagogical piano cycle), Allegro barbaro, numerous other works for piano Songs, choral works, folk-song arrangements
The 12-tone method
By the early 1920s he had developed a method for composing atonal music according to strict procedures. The basis of this method is called a row or series. The row is a presentation of all 12 pitch classes, in an order chosen by the composer. None of the 12 is omitted nor repeated, except in an immediate context. The tones of the row are used to create melodies and harmonies. It enabled him to return to large instrumental genres, in which he often used or approximated Classical forms.
Staccato and Legato, Mikrokosmos no. 123
Classical elements: Like a Bach two-part invention, with a canon between the hands, inversion and invertible counterpoint, and a tonal structure reminiscent of Bach. Folk elements: Melody adapts the structure of many Hungarian songs; built from a short phrase that rises and falls within a fourth. From both traditions: Many shared elements, from its mixture of diatonic and chromatic motion to its ornamentation.
Stravinsky, Octet for Winds (1923)
Flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones 1. sinfonia (sonata form) 2. theme w/ variations 3. finale (rondo)
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
From 1905, Bartók traveled repeatedly, often accompanied by his friend who?, to farming regions in order to record folksongs. He used audio recording technology.
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
HIs music received little acclaim during his lifetime. However, recognition among scholars and performers grew steadily after World War II, when he strongly influenced certain composers in Germany, France, Italy, and the U.S. His works are... -unusually brief -radically understated -deliberately fragmented in texture (due partly to his preference for 2nds, 7ths, and 9ths)
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
He and his partner, Julian Myrick, proved immensely successful, in large part due to Ives's work in training agents and the idea of estate planning He composed in his spare time, dropping the European Romantic style he had used at Yale. He returned to the experimental ideas of his youth, enriched with new and original ideas. His works had virtually no public performances.
Ives's music (general remarks)
He composed in standard genres but his music exhibits no single style. Some works appear to have been written with little planning. Some works are carefully planned. Some works mix styles. Many pieces include quotations or suggestions of music he heard during childhood, such as... hymn tunes band music, including marches American folk, dance, and patriotic tunes
Stravinsky After The Rite of Spring
He had moved to Paris in 1911. During WWI (1914-1918), he lived in Switzerland. The wartime economy forced him to turn away from the large orchestra toward smaller ensembles, in works such as... -L'histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale, 1918) Ragtime (1918), for 11 instruments. After the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), he realized he could not return to Russia and in 1920 settled in France.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
He rose to fame because of his association with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. His ballet The Rite of Spring (1913), created for Diaghilev, is perhaps the most famous and revolutionary work in all of twentieth-century music. It was the springboard that brought him to prominence as one of the most influential composers of the century.
Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929)
He soon established his own company, the Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet), which performed in Paris and toured Europe and the Americas. He hired the best dancers, set designers, costume designers, choreographers, and composers. He expected these professionals to introduce new, exciting ideas.
Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929)
He was a remarkable Russian impresario (producer) who brought Russian music and culture to European audiences beginning in 1906. He started in Paris, where the music of Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky was already well liked due to the French taste for the exotic and colorful.
Igor Stravinsky
He was born in 1882 into a well-to-do family. His father was a famous opera singer at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. He began piano lessons at age nine and studied music theory in his later teens, but never attended the conservatory. As a young man he studied law, and around age 21 began private study of composition and orchestration with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. He met Diaghilev shortly after Rimsky-Korsakov's death in 1908. His first three ballets for Diaghilev used large orchestras and colorful orchestration; they were premiered in Paris.
Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929)
Her early productions in Paris include: 1906: exhibition of Russian art 1907: season of Russian concerts 1908: production of Boris Godunov at the Paris Opéra 1909: ballets using dancers from the Mariinsky Theatre
Bela Bartok
His compositions combine elements of East European peasant music with elements of West European classical traditions. From both traditions: single pitch center, diatonic or other scales, melodies built from motives that are repeated and varied. From the peasant tradition: rhythmic complexity, irregular meters, modal scales, mixed modes, specific types of melodic structure and ornamentation From the classical tradition: contrapuntal and formal procedures such as fugue and sonata form.
Stravinsky was in the foreground of every major stylistic trend of the century
His major works include: The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Les Noces, Agon (ballets) L'histoire du soldat, Octet for Wind Instruments (chamber works) Symphonies of Wind Instruments, Symphony in C, Symphony in Three Movements (large-ensemble works) The Rake's Progress (opera), Oedipus rex (opera/oratorio) Symphony of Psalms, Requiem Canticles (choral works)
Béla Bartók(1881-1945)
Hungarian virtuoso pianist, educator, ethnomusicologist, composer Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Parents were amateur musicians. Studied piano and composition at the Hungarian Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. 1904, overheard the singing of a woman from Transylvania, sparking a lifelong interest in Eastern European folk music.
Interlude: Stravinsky at mid-century
In 1941, he settled in Hollywood. They had already become U.S. citizens. In 1948, Robert Craft became his assistant. In the early 1950s, he embraced the twelve-tone/serial method. In 1969 he moved to New York, where he died in 1971.
Stravinsky's serial period
In 1952, Stravinsky began to move toward serial composition His best-known serial works include... -In memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954), song cycle Threni (1958), voices and orchestra Movements (1959), piano and orchestra -All show his characteristic style traits
sprechgesang or sprechstimme
In Pierrot lunaire, the speaker delivers the text using a vocal style that combines speaking with singing. it is notated with X's in place of noteheads or with small x's superimposed over the stems
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
Ives was born in Danbury, Conn. His father was a bandmaster, church musician, and music teacher. As a boy, Ives studied piano and organ, and at age 14 was the youngest professional church organist in Connecticut. He also studied theory and composition with his father, who encouraged an experimental approach to sound.
Ives' mature instrumental music is virtually all programmatic
Ives' music deals with topics including... -recollections of his boyhood -people he admired -locations in New England -Americana -metaphysical speculations
Schoenberg's style periods
Like Beethoven, Stravinsky, and several other composers, his compositions can be grouped into three large style periods. 1. Late Romantic period (until 1908) 2. Freely atonal period (1908-1922) 3. Twelve-tone/serial period (1923 and afterward, though in the 1930s his style became somewhat more diverse and included occasional returns to tonality)
Neoclassicism
Many French music critics found the new spirit in music suggestive of the clear styles and forms of the Classical and Baroque periods, so they called the new aesthetic what? Sometimes, this movement is referred to as "back to Bach." Whatever it is called, the movement looks back to the eighteenth century. Stravinsky was one of its leading exponents.
Webern's style as illustrated in his Variations, op. 27 (1936)
Many sevenths and ninths (a few are spelled as diminished octaves). Note that 7th & 9ths are related to 2nd: 1. A seventh inverts to a second 2. A ninth is a second plus an octave; in terms of pitch class, the notes are a second apart
Bartók's style includes...
Melodies and harmonies (not necessarily tertian) derived from pentatonic or modal scales. Asymmetrical meters based on folk rhythms. Great rhythmic vitality. "Night music" textures.
music and politics
Most governments sponsored musical activities directly: -public schools increasingly included music in the curriculum -in most of Europe, radio was controlled by the government and was a major employer of musicians -totalitarian governments insisted that music must support the state and its ideologies
Woyzeck - Buchner
One of Büchner's plays was based on an actual murder trial in Leipzig during 1821-1822. The defendant was Johann Christian Woyzeck, a soldier who had killed his common-law wife. Even though a doctor determined that Woyzeck suffered from a mental disorder, he was executed.
Ives's major works
Orchestra: 4 numbered symphonies plus Holidays Symphony, Three Places in New England, The Unanswered Question Chamber music: 2 string quartets, piano trio, 4 violin sonatas Solo piano: 2 piano sonatas Songs: about 200
Well-known works from Stravinsky's neoclassical period include:
Pulcinella, 1920, the ballet he credited with launching his neoclassical period Octet for Winds, 1923 (a "musical object") Symphony of Psalms, in Latin, 1930
Vasili Kandinsky
Russian abstract artist who attended a concert of Schoenerg's music -He was apparently startled by the dissonant music, which seemed to express elemental, inner states of mind -He believed that he and Schoenberg had a great deal in common regarding "what we are striving for and our whole manner of thought and feeling" -He expressed his reaction to the concert in his abstract painting Impression 3 (Concert), 1911
General William Booth Enters into Heaven (1914)
Setting of a poem by Vachel Lindsay that pictures the founder of the Salvation Army leading the poor and downtrodden into heaven. An art song with content drawn from experimental, American vernacular, and church music: Experimental: piano-drumming, using a standard rhythmic pattern of American drummers Church music: Vocal line derived from the hymn There is a Fountain Filled with Blood Each group of Booth's followers in the poem receives a different musical characterization.
The evolution of Schoenberg's atonal style
Shortly after completing No. 1 of Three Piano Pieces in February 1909, Schoenberg experimented with composing in a stream of consciousness—very quickly and with a minimum of planning. Soon he felt dissatisfied with the results and turned in the opposite direction. He began using motives pervasively and systematically. This is especially evident in his melodrama Pierrot lunaire (Moonstruck Pierrot), 1912.
Ives's music (specific techniques)
Some works use traditional musical materials, while others feature... dissonant chords and tone clusters (dissonant groups of adjacent notes) microtones atonality or polytonality polyrhythms; polymeters; non-coordination among the layers spatial displacement (some of the voices or instruments are offstage)
Stravinsky and the neoclassical style
Stravinsky's postwar compositions, in keeping with the general spirit in the arts at that time, reject the emotional and expressive aesthetic of late Romantic music. Instead, his postwar works are objective impersonal sometimes witty and full of parody often abstract or absolute (as in "absolute music")
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (1913)
Stravinsky's third ballet which depicted an imagined Russian fertility ritual in prehistoric times. -It is marked by primitivism, the evocation of the supposed elemental, simple, natural states of prehistoric peoples -The premiere caused a riot because of the costumes, choreography, and music
Webern's Symphony, Op. 21 (1928)
The entire movement is a double canon in inversion The succession of timbres is an important aspect of the melody.
Stravinsky's The Firebird (1910)
The first ballet based on a Russian fairy tale. The music features the exoticism and techniques of Rimsky-Korsakov: Human characters dance to diatonic music. Supernatural creatures and places are paired with octatonic and chromatic music
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
The first modernist American composer. Synthesized international and regional traditions to create a distinctive personal idiom that combined modernism with Americanism. Worked in comfortable obscurity for most of his career but lived to be recognized as one of the most significant classical composers of his generation.
Stravinsky's Petrushka (1911)
The second ballet about a traditional Russian puppet who feels human emotions. Stravinsky introduced traits that came to characterize his style: -blocks of static harmony with repetitive melodic and rhythmic patterns -abrupt shifts from one block to another
"Night music" texture String Quartet No. 4, mvt. 3
This typically occurs in slow movements. It conveys the impression of small nocturnal creatures (insects etc.) scurrying about in the night. Typically, the "scurrying" is depicted by short, rapid figures against a backdrop of static or ostinato-like pitches, which may create a dissonant tone cluster.
Webern's Symphony, Op. 21 (1928)
This work clearly illustrates Webern's style. A symphony in miniature, it... -is for small chamber orchestra -lasts about 9 minutes -has 2 movements -has an often pointillistic texture -demonstrates his preference for 2nds, 7ths, and 9ths -has an intricately constructed, symmetrical row
Berg's style
Unlike Schoenberg and Webern, much of Berg's music shows an affinity with the late Romantic aesthetic. He did not object to suggestions of tonality, so his music is often highly expressive, with characteristics of the saturated chromaticism of late Romantic compositions.
The Unanswered Question (1906, later revised)
We repeatedly hear a musical question about the meaning of existence, but mankind's attempts to answer are futile. Three distinct layers: -The Silences of the Druids—Who know, See, and Hear Nothing: Soothing, diatonic music from offstage strings -The Perennial Question of Existence: Chromatic music by a solo trumpet; does not duplicate the string pitches -Fighting Answerers: 4 flutes that "bicker" after each question, each time more intensely
Pointillism
Webern's textures are so disjunct that they sometimes "dissolve into a succession of minute splotches of color." They invite comparison with the painting technique known as what
Act III: Catastrophe of Wozzeck
Wozze k murders Marie and atones through suicide -Marie's remorse -Death of Marie -Wozzeck tries to forget -Wozzeck drowns in the pond -Marie's son plays unconcerned Six inventions -Invention on a theme [7 var. + fugue] -Invention on a tone [B] -Invention on a rhythm -Invention on a key -Invention on a persistent rhythm (perpetuum mobile)
Act II: Dénouement of Wozzeck
Wozzeck is gradually convinced of Marie's infidelity -Wozzeck's first suspicion -Wozzeck is mocked -Wozzeck accuses Marie -Marie and the drum major dance -The drum-major trounces Wozzeck Symphony in five movements: -Sonata form -Fantasy and fugue -Largo [ternary form] -Scherzo -Rondo martiale
Pierrot lunaire (1912)
a melodrama (spoken text with instrumental music) for female speaker and chamber ensemble consisting of piano, violin/viola (player doubles), cello, flute/piccolo (player doubles), clarinet/bass clarinet (player doubles) With this composition, Schoenberg began to compose atonal music more systematically: he returned to strict polyphony he deployed motives throughout the texture to unify the work
Pierrot
a stock clown character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte and is typically depicted in a loose white costume
twelve-tone technique
after several years of composing non-tonal (atonal) muisc by instinct, shoenberg developed a method of organizing music that has no tonal center
Schoenberg used several methods to organize atonal music
developing variation: deriving new themes, accompaniments, etc. by varying a germinal idea integration of harmony and melody, which he called "composing with the tones of a motive" (next slide) chromatic saturation: all 12 pitch-classes appear in a segment of music, giving a sense of completion
the atonal style
elements other than pitch depend on the taste of the composer, who chooses the... -melodic styles -meters and rhythms -textures -forms Schoenberg believed that larger forms were incompatible with the spontaneity of atonality, so most works from his atonal period are brief.
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
he was revolutionary because he abandoned tonality and inspired others to do the same (he did not, however, consider himself a revolutionary)
Schoenberg's musical development
his early works were typical of the late nineteenth century: intensely melodious, highly expressive, and permeated by enriched, late-Romantic harmonies These early works include: - Verklärte Nacht (string sextet, 1899) -Pelleas und Melisande (tone poem, 1903) -Gurrelieder (cantata, 1901; orchestration completed 1911) -Songs and chamber pieces
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
his influence on 20th c. art music is incalculable He unexpectedly became a famous and cosmopolitan composer thanks to Sergei Diaghilev, an impresario who brought Russian arts to Western Europe.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
his music displays traits derived from Russian traditions: -undermining of meter, unpredictable accents, frequent changes of meter -pervasive ostinatos -layered texture and juxtaposition of static blocks of sound -discontinuity and interruption -dissonance based on diatonic, octatonic, or other note collections -dry, anti-lyrical, colorful use of instruments
Bartók's symphonic suite Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
illustrates his synthesis of folk and classical elements, as well as several characteristics of his personal style. The third movement features "night music" texture. This movement was used in the classic horror film The Shining
row
its original form is prime stated at the beginning of the work and is then subjected to 3 types of variation can be transposed 11 times, as can each type of variation a row or variation plus its 11 possible transpositions yields twelve versions of each row or variation this yield 48 versions of the row that are available to the composer for a particular piece
Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950)
male superstar dancer of the Ballets Russes -choreographed The Rite of Spring -had startling, avant-garde ideas about choreography
The atonal style
music that has no tonal center/tonic. - All 12 notes of the chromatic scale have equal importance - The composer avoids a sense of tonic by taking care that no single pitch appears more important than any other, by... --writing without a key signature --avoiding repetition of a pitch or doubling at the octave --avoiding tertian triads and other sonorities suggestive of traditional harmony or cadences
pierrot ensemble (or plus percussion)
piano, violin/viola, cello, clarinets, flutes
differences between schoenberg and webern
schoenberg does not disguise his rows; they are easily traced in lines and chords weben tends to interweave numerous forms of the basic row, within a single line and within the texture.
alban berg and anton webern
schoenberg's method was adopted by several of his students including who? a few other viennese composers also took up the method This diversity makes it impossible to speak of any single "twelve-tone style" in music, or even of any single "twelve-tone method."
serialism
some element in a composition (here, the pitches) is ordered into a fixed series before composing begins. 12-tone method is an example of this.
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
student of Schoenberg member of the 2nd Viennese School Lifelong resident of Vienna, where he received a Ph.D. in musicology. While a university student, he began to take lessons from Schoenberg. After a few attempts at tonal composition, he began to write atonal music In 1924 he adopted a version of Schoenberg's 12-tone method
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
student of Schoenberg, composer of Wozzeck He first composed freely atonal music, then adopted the twelve-tone method. He, together with Schoenberg and Anton Webern are often referred to collectively as the "Second Viennese school" (the original "Viennese School" includes Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven).
differences between schoenberg and webern
style, form, and interpretation of the 12 tone principle schoenberg creates textures that are based on melodic themes and chords webern tends to avoid conventional themes altogether; his music is a montage of small motives
music and politics
the period between the world wars brought new links between ____. As the gap widened between modernist music and the ability of audiences to understand it, composers tried to craft widely accessible concert works or to write accessible music for films, theater, and dance Some composers wrote works within the capabilities of amateurs Others used music (especially musical theatre) to engage current social, political, and economic issues
retrograde inversion
the row is backwards and upside down
retrograde
the row is presented backwards
inversion
the row is turned upside down
Remarks about Wozzeck
this "is a work of immense structural complexity in which musical devices and dramatic constructs are tightly integrated." -Its musical language includes: atonality; whole-tone writing; "other devices" passages of "Mahlerian diatonicism" recurring motives; most imp. is ("We poor people!") -Its vocal declamation includes: speech; parlando; arioso Sprechgesang (aka Sprechstimme) -The characters sometimes sing folksongs or lullabies -The orchestra is huge -The orchestra plays an interlude between each scene while the sets are changed -Berg's music for this is atonal. -In Acts I and II, the music for each scene imitates forms or styles drawn from instrumental music. -In Act III, each scene is based on an ever-present musical element.
Webern, Variations,op. 27 (1936)
uses pointillistic texture: "minute splotches of color"
