20th Century

Poulenc

Drew on parisian popular song, cabarets, revues. Mildly dissonant harmonies, song like melody. Wrote harpsichord concerto, and opera abut carmelite nuns during french revolution.

Alexandar Scriabin

Due to being sick on Thursday the 21st and not being able to come to class, I assume that the written summary this week is on Alexander Scriabin. Before studying this composer, the only thing I knew was that he was an avant-garde composer whom enjoyed writing impossible and extremely chromatic piano music. For that reason I was extremely shocked while listening to his wide variety of compositions. His early works especially caught me off guard because they were quite pleasing to listen to and had beautiful melodic lines. It is interesting to see how in his youth he modeled his compositions off of successful composer's compositions, but as time wore on he explored his own new musical sensibilities. This pattern is extremely common in the arts; most artists copy their teachers or important figures in their field, until they find their own corner in their artistic world. This made me reflect on myself as a flutist, and how the foundation of my flute playing came from my teachers and big flute figures throughout history. Scriabin had Chopin and Brahms as his muses, and today I feed off of James Galway and Jean-Pierre Rampal. It is important to notice how well known musicians are known for the new ideas and perspectives they bring to the table, rather then their imitations of others. Scriabin's Etude that very closely resembles Chopin's piano compositions has not received much attention because Chopin had already demonstrated that specific type of composition. Scriabin's most famous works are all known for their symbolism, mysticism, atonal nature, and theosophy influenced circle of fifths. Overall, Scriabin seemed to have a Romantic-esque life. When I say that, I mean that his life was quite dramatic and turbulent. I read multiple summaries of his life and it appeared like he had quiet a difficult time as a child, and his luck stayed relatively grim. His hands were small for a piano players and he ended up damaging his hand while practicing the piano. He was a strange character apparently and did not get along well with his peers or family members throughout his lifetime as well. When he was studying at the Moscow conservatory we was barely allowed to graduate in piano performance because one of his professors, Anton Arensky, severely disliked him. Scriabin's biographer states that, "No one was more famous during their lifetime, and few were more quickly ignored after death." It is sad that he was so quickly dropped as a composer, and to only be displayed today as an avant-garde musician. I read that Scriabin was a notable pianist despite his small hands, which makes me wonder how much his hands hampered his career. It would be interesting to know whether he wanted to be a piano virtuoso but wasn't able to achieve that because of his hands? It would also be interesting to know how his hand was injured while playing the piano. Hand injuries are extremely common in musicians and I would like to research whether smaller hands are more susceptible to practice related injuries.

William Grant Still

First african american to do a lot of things in america. First to conduct major symphony orch. First opera produced by major company, first to have opera televised on national network. Wrote a lot of art music. Afro-American Symphony, first symphonic work by AA composer to be performed by major american orch. Traditional 4 mov european form, african elements like call response, sync. varied rep of short melodic/rhythmic ideas, jazz harmonies, ect.

Composers that fled to America

Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartok, Milhaud, Krenek, Weill, Hindemith.

20th Century Tonal Music

Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Serge Rachmaninoff, Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams. New possibilities with tonality, but never left tonality.

Dmitri Shostakovich

Shostakovich had such a weird and sad relationship with the Soviet Government. Before we studied this composer, I knew he struggled with the government, but I had no idea what a topsy-turvy relationship they had with each other. At times the government supported him, and because of that he received a lot of fame. He was also given awards and titled as the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. I think it is funny that he failed an exam about Marxist methodology in 1926 when he was at college, which obviously showed his previous lack of interest in politics. His music began to be politically influenced as he made his Second Symphony a patriotic piece with a great pro-soviet choral finale. It is interesting that music had to be Soviet for it to be good music. It is interesting that his denunciation as a composer just began because Stalin didn't favor his theater production of Lady Macbeth. The Pravda, a music journal of the time, was a huge part in the denunciation of Shostakovich. This must have been very scary, because at the time there was the Great Terror, where many composers' friends and relatives were killed or imprisoned. I cant imagine how frightening it would be to know that his friends and relatives could be hurt simply because the Soviets did not approve of his music. I think it is fascinating that Shostakovich attempted to change his compositional style for his Fourth Symphony, which was written before and during the time the unfortunate articles appeared from the Pravda music journal. I wonder if Shostakovich knew that danger was on the horizon, and was trying to accommodate his style to the Soviet's liking before he got into trouble. This symphony has western styling elements and Mahler influences that greatly differ from his previous symphonies. Shostakovich pulled back even more with his Fifth Symphony that was written in 1937. Learning about the changes in his Symphonies in comparison to his relationship with the government is quite sad. The political influences of the time were obviously more important to him than his personal aesthetics and compositional style. Comparing his First Symphony to his Fifth is quite shocking, because there are so many differences that can be traced to the political climate rather than his personal taste as a composer and musician. Luckily, there are a few compositions created by Shostakovich at that particular time that were unmarred by political influence. His string quartets and chamber works were less public, and therefore he felt freer to experiment and express his musicality. I think it is wonderful that Shostakovich finally grew the courage to compose what he wanted, and I think the Eighth Symphony written in 1943 is the well-deserved slap in the face to the Soviet government. It is amazing that he managed to slide that work past the government without being severely punished. Shostakovich's story makes me feel very grateful for the freedom musicians are given today in America with their music. It is scary to think that there was a time composers had to fear imprisonment or worse if they were not liked by the government.

Symphony of Psalms

Neoclassicism in Stravinsky. Step back from modernism, when ww2 is picking up. Choral symphony, 20th century version of 18th century sounds. Classical things: Absolute music, setting of psalm, no story line Emotional objectivity Avoidance of strings, more wind dominated. Strings are romantic. Diatonic and triads. Modern things: few meter changes crosscutting referencial tonality Ostinatos in double reeds

Serial Music after WW2

Prominent after ww2. Schoenberg invented 12 tones, several composers adopted his methods like Berg, Webern, Krenek, Crawford. His methods introduced to us by Adolph Weiss. After Nazi regime, German composers begin exploring music that used to be condemned.

Les Six

Six composers to were influenced by neoclassicism but wanted to escape political influences. Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, Louis Durey. Like the mighty five of russia. Inspired by eric satie. Fully french and anti romantic.

Klangfarbenmelodie

(German for sound-color melody) is a musical technique that involves splitting a musical line or melody between several instruments, rather than assigning it to just one instrument (or set of instruments), thereby adding color (timbre) and texture to the melodic line.

Claude Debussy

1862-1918. Wanted pleasure and beauty, not intensity like mahler and strauss. Drew from french tradition, restraint. Influenced by russian composers, and asian music. His music is impressionist, detached observation, no deep emotions. Normal chord progressions avoided, have key centers but no resolutions. Most of his peices have pictoresque titles. Orchestral Music- instruments assosiated with a certain motive. Uses big orchestra, just for more tone colors but not volume. Afternoon of a Faun.Poem by stephane mallarme. Pelleas et Melisande.Response to wagners tristan and isold. Made his reputation, subdued and restrained expression. VOices supported but not odminated. La mer. The sea, captures movements of the sea. 3 Nocturnes, Nuages (clouds) Fetes (festivals) Sirenes (greek sirens). oscillating 5 and 3rds, keeps appearing with different tone colors. THe pattern dissapears at the end, like the clouds are dissapearing. Prominent english horn. Etudes. Chamber Sonatas.

Maurice Ravel

1875-1937. Also considere impressionist. More of an assimilator, variety of influences with his distinctive stamp. Stays tonal usually. Any dissonant sonoritives must resolve. Ravel sometimes made more spiky dissonances than Debussy liked. Piano piece Fountains is impressionistic of water. Daphnis et Chloe ballet. Rapsodie espagnole orchestral suite. Le tombeau de Couperin (memorial for couperin). Prchestrated a lot of his piano pieces. Example of neoclassism. 6 mov suite. each mov dedicated to the memory of a friend who died while serving french military during the war.

Sergey Prokofiev

1891-1953. He started out carreer pretty modernist, left russia and traveled us and europe with his works. Soviet promised him money for commissions, returned to Russia. Wrote symphonic fairy tale peter and the wolf for narr. And orch. Wrote opera The love for three oranges. Symphonies for film scores of Romeo and Juliet. Also had absolute music at end of his carreer, no. 6-8 piano concertos, and 5th symphony. Largely tonal works. More tonal works more popular than earlier modernist works. Died the day stalin died. 1948 crackdown. Soviet controlled works his best works.

Dmitri Shostakovich

1906-1975. Educaton and carreer in Soviet system. His first symphony rocketed him to fame at 19 yrs old. Wrote Lady Macbeth opera, lots of succes till stalin saw it and hated the modern dissonant music, review in newspaper Pvrada bad. Survived purges, where polit figures, intellectuals, artists killed ect. Fifth symphony had great success, said it was a soviet artists reply to just criticism. Framed as heroic symphony like beeth. and tchaikovsky. Music is tonal and matches with soviet requirements, but it sounds very sad. All his works created in political atmosphere, lots of people look for oduble meanings. 1948 soviet crackdown. Denounced with Prokofiev, had to write patriotic music to regain favor. Seventh symphony before crackdown, program about heroic defencse of leningrad against hitlers armies

Stratified Textures

A widely used textureal device in 20th century music, mostly french, is planing. Refers to a series of chords that move in parallel or near parallel motion. This minimizes the independence of elements in the texture. Stratification intensifies the independence of elements in the texture. Parts are distributed into discreet clearly defined layers.

1920s composers went to france to study from Boulanger

Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris, Walter Piston, Ross Lee Finney, Elliott Carter.

Samuel Barber

American, tonal and romantic. Wrote Adagio for Strings, Piano concerto, Violin concerto. Known for his vocal music. Vocal song about a cat, cat is E, Eb together, ect.

Elliott Carter

American, wrote for virtuosos like Berio. Wrote Cello Sonata. Metric Modulation slow change from one meter and tempo to another, like a development into the next meter. Also metric modulation in his String Quartet.

Charles Ives

American. Modernist like bartok stravinsky and berg who drew on own nations music to develop distinctive idiom w/o classical tradition. Studied with Horatio Parker. FIrst to create a distinctly american body of art music, and the founder of experimental muic tradition in the US. Wrote vernacular music, protestant church music, european classical music, and experimental. Combined all of these. His Symphony models beethovens 9th, schuberts unfinished, tchaikovskys pathetique, dvoraks new world. Liked Polytonal works- melody in one key, accomp in another. Layer different rhythms, stacked similar intervals. wrote The unanswered question- music sounds very unanswered, mix of tonal and atonal.Used cumulative form (like sibelius telegelogial genesis) in his symphony. Wrote General Wiliam Booth Enters into Heaven, art song. Random blocks of melody, hodgepodge of popular songs at the time, american drumming patterns. National music helped create distinctive voice while continuing in classical tradition.

Spain: Albeniz, Granados, Falla

Attempting to define nations musically. 20th century reclain mational tradition. Albeniz, Granados: Best known for piano music. Both wrote operas.Blend spanish melodies with dance rhythms, scarlatti keyboard sontas, flamenco guitar, ect. Falla: principle spanish copower of twentieth century. Divere nationalism that resisted just the exotic. Collected national folk songs. Mix popular and baroque music of spain. resist the overwhelming influence of french music.

George Crumb

Black Angels! Electric string quartet. Assasinations and vietnam war that year, crumb said there was devilry afoot. Sul Ponticello on bridge, thin metallic sound. Performers play percussion, shout ect. Evil-dires ire, devils trills from tartinis sonata, good- nature sounds, triads, water goblets.

Mexico Composer

Carlos Chavez, conductor of mexicos first prof orch. Used indian melodies, in a modernist way.

Elliot Carter

Catenaires

Indeterminacy, Aleatory. Chance

Chance: way to determine certain aspects of the music without imposing composers intentions. Indeterminacy: composer leaves certain aspects of the music unspecified. a composing approach in which some aspects of a musical work are left open to chance or to the interpreter's free choice. John Cage, a pioneer of indeterminacy, defined it as "the ability of a piece to be performed in substantially different ways". The earliest significant use of music indeterminacy features is found in many of the compositions of American composer Charles Ives in the early 20th century. Henry Cowell adopted Ives's ideas during the 1930s, in works allowing players to arrange the fragments of music in a number of different possible sequences. Beginning in the early 1950s, the term came to refer to the (mostly American) movement which grew up around Cage. This group included the other members of the New York School. In Europe, following the introduction of the expression "aleatory music" by Meyer-Eppler, the French composer Pierre Boulez was largely responsible for popularizing the term.

20th Century Post-Tonal Music

Claude Debussy, Alexandar Scriabin, Leos Janacek. Personal musical languages that follow their own rules. New ways composers found to organize pitch.

New Patronage

Composers paid by government or universities or art agencies or grants, ect. Paid by university, allowed to create whatever they want rather than to please someone. Variety in styles, not about pleasing anyone.

Appalachian Spring-

Copeland- Appalachian Spring, first written as ballet with 13 instruments. Better known as orchestral suite. Has varriations on Shaker hymn Tis a gift to be simple. Wide sonorities, diatonic dissonances, empty fifths and octaves.

Benjamin Britten

English composer, tonal and neotonal. Wrote music for films, like copland mixed modernism with simplicity. Interest in writing for children and amateurs. English choral tradition inspired him to write amateur choral works. Homosexual, operas have themes that relate to homosexuality. wrote Peter Grimes: First english opera since purcell to enter international rep. Fisherman who is disliked by village, persecuted unjustly, driven to suicide. Grimes not a sympathetic character, see ourselves in the ugly croud. Pacifist- objection to war in any form, expressed in War Requiem, choral masterpiece. Mix of latin requiem mass and english soldier's poems during wwI.

Alban Berg

Expressionist. Used 12 tone and atonal methods of schoenburg. Music much more approachable. Opera Wozzeck. Used expressive gestures, characteristic styles, ect that conveyed feelings to listeners, more interesting music. Violin Concerto- uses 12 tones but makes it so much more understandable than Schoenburg. References vioin tuning notes, viennese waltz, folk song, and bach chorale in the piece.

Pierre Boulez

French composer, conductor, writer and organiser of institutions. Started Controlled Chance in Third Piano Sonata. While in Cage's music the performers are often given the freedom to create completely unforeseen sounds, with the object of removing the composer's intention from the music, in works by Boulez they only get to choose between possibilities that have been written out in detail by the composer‍. He was one of the dominant figures of the post-war classical music world. As a young composer in the 1950s he quickly became a leading figure in the musical avant-garde, playing an important role in the development of integral serialism and controlled chance music. he pioneered the electronic transformation of instrumental music in real time. Boulez became one of the most prominent conductors of his generation. He was particularly known for his performances of the music of the first half of the twentieth-century—including Debussy and Ravel, Stravinsky and Bartok, and the Second Viennese School—as well as that of his contemporaries, such as Ligeti, Berio and Carter. His work in the opera house included the Jahrhundertring—the production of Wagner's Ring cycle for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival Le Marteau sans Maitre- the masters hammer. Chamber song cycle. 9 movements. Mound of instruments more important than the notes. Complex serialism.

France and Germany

French had a lot of anti german sentiment after the franco prussian war. Even more anti germany after wwi. Turned to NEOCLASSICISM, trying to disregard german romanticism to their nationalistic roots.

Richard Strauss

From my undergraduate education, I had a limited opportunity to learn about Richard Strauss. What we had learned about him was that he was a German Late Romantic composer and that he wrote operas. The main opera we studied was Salome. When we studied Salome, I learned that this opera was based on a biblical story where a young girl danced for Herod and demanded for John the Baptist's head. There is a heavily orchestrated dance in this opera titled the "Dance of the Seven Veils", where she demands the head of the prophet on a silver platter. At the end of the opera Salome is presented the head on the platter, and she ends up kissing the head. Herod finally realizes that she is a nut job and commands his soldiers to kill her. From that story, I assumed that Strauss was very bold to put a story like that onto a stage, and I assumed that he was similar to the other more avant-garde composers studied in my undergraduate contemporary composer class. I now realize that avant-garde composers were anti-beauty when it came to music. Beautiful music directly contrasts with the music of the avant-garde, and it turns out that Strauss's music is exceptionally beautiful. When we were talking about Strauss in class last week I was surprised with the new information that was presented both in my research on Strauss and with the comments given in the classroom. I learned that he was not only the composer of Salome, but that he composed many other important operas, he composed gorgeous tone poems, and he also wrote instrumental works. As an instrumentalist, I was sad to have only learned now that Strauss composed music for instruments outside of the Opera. One of the pieces that particularly stuck me was the piece Metamorphosen, a heart-breaking orchestral work/lament that I had never heard before. I had not realized that Strauss was alive during the Nazi regime and this orchestral piece was a gorgeous tribute to world suffering, and the destruction of German culture during WWII. His instrumental works were similar in style to the opera snippets I had heard before by him, and I was struck with the way he added emotion and drama into melodies that did not contain lyrics. One of the biggest surprises I had during my research on Strauss was that he composed Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks. There is a huge important flute orchestral excerpt that comes from this tone poem, and for some reason I never connected the dots that Salome Strauss was Till Eulenspiegel Strauss. For some reason I didn't believe that a composer could create a musical chronicle of pranks and misadventures on one hand, and on the other hand ruthlessly portray the murder of a prophet. I feel like I have a much deeper understanding of that particular excerpt now that I know whom the composer is and his particular style of composition. Knowing that this excerpt comes from a Late Romantic expressive Germanic composer brings a whole new perspective to my flute playing.

US national styles into European genres

George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, William Grant Still, Virgil Thompson, Roy Harris, Cowell's later works, ect.

Brazil Composer

Heitor Villa-Lobos 1887-1959. Most important Brazil composer, modern techniques with traditional brazilian elements. Spent a lot of time in paris where music performances brought him fame. 14 pieces titled Choros, after popular ensemble music he played as a youth. Various ensembles in the pieces. 9 pieces titled Bachianas Brasileiras, neoclassical, tribute to bach, baroque harmony counterpoint, ect with brazilian folk and long melodic lines.

Gorecki, Tavener, Part

Henryk Gorecki I almost did not remember studying the composer Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki before this class so I was happy to learn more about him, especially concerning his classical music. The main work we studied from him was the Variations "von aninushka". The last time I studied Gorecki we learned about his influence in Polish avant-garde music after the reign of Stalin. I knew that he was influenced by serialism and wrote very dissonant music. His style changed later on and became more minimalistic, as well as more influenced by the sacred. I had not known that Gorecki was one of the most successful classical composers of his time, as stated by Alex Ross. I had not heard his Third Symphony before, but this is one of his most famous works: commemorating the memory of those lost during the Holocaust. It is interesting that he was not concerned with his commercial success however, and didn't try at all to repeat the success that he had with the Third Symphony and refused to compose again in that particular style. It is not extremely common for composers to completely switch their style halfway through a successful career, but Gorecki definitely did. His later music is more traditional, romantic, and inspired by human voice. To me, this music sounds infinitely more beautiful, but to Gorecki, he affronted the avant-garde establishment due to this change. His romantic style was not dissonant, or serialistic, but gestural and full of small motifs. John Tavener Tavener's most famous work that jumpstarted his career was named The Whale. The Whale was a cantata lightly based on the story of Jonah and the Whale. This piece seems extremely avant-garde to me, in that the libretto consists mostly of encyclopedia entries about whale facts, and the eight strange segmentations of the work. Though the music is strange and the like, Tavener avoided crazy dissonance and focused on beautiful religious harmonies. The fact that Tavener wrote a concerto for the harpsichord clearly points out his inspiration drawn from the classical composers that came before him. Arvo Part Part's music is gloriously simple and reminds me very strongly of the simplicity, melody, harmony, and structure found in Gregorian chant music. In a way he seems avant-garde because he turns the idea of Gregorian chant into a more modern and trance-like, dissonant, static, and spiritual experience. Part's music is described as a machine, that the music basically plays itself. A lot of avant-garde music was created in this fashion: like a never-ending, fluctuating canon. However, Part's music is so extraordinarily minimalistic and reminiscent of the past it could be just as easily classified as classical music. Part is similar to Tavener, in that they both started out with a more avant-garde style, and then deviated from it later in his life. His work Nekrolog, written before he began studying medieval and Renaissance music, is focused heavily upon serialism. Wrote 7 magnificat Antiphones- Syllabic, no meter. rhythm generated by text, stressed syllables longer. Medieval chant choir. 2 different choirs alternate musical phrases. Antiphonal. Tintinnabuli, ringing bells. Diatonic.

George Ligeti

Hungarian, family died in Auschwitz. Escaped to vine. Etude no 9 Vertigo- sounds like notes are falling, someone afraid of heights. Micropolyphony- multiple and inaudible counterpoints no meter. dynamics rise and fall, thick and thin textures.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

I am glad we spent this week studying Rachmaninoff because I haven't spent much time focused on classical Russian music before this point in time. It amazed me that Russian classical music developed from European traditions, and that it didn't necessarily develop on its own in Russia. Mikhail Glinka in particular stood out to me in class, because his name sounded very familiar. It was cool to learn that he was the foundation of Russian classical music, and from there, there is a "lineage" of classical composers that develop off of his ideas. Tchaikovsky and Korsakov were the two main classical composers at the end of the 19th century, and from them came a handful of powerful Russian composers known as the Mighty Five. I had no idea that Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov influenced Rachmaninoff, but now that I know, it makes a lot of sense. Tchaikovsky was romantic and conservative, as well as highly influenced by European forms and ideas. Rachmaninoff was well known for his romanticism and expressiveness as well. Korsakov was very interested in Russian art music and Russian art music is found quite often in Rachmaninoff's compositions. Two of my family members spent years in Russia, and it was interesting to talk to them about the revolution in 1917. They spoke about the rampant governmental corruption and resistance from ethnic minorities. It was interesting to hear their accounts from Russian natives about the turmoil they experienced during the time, and it gave me a different perspective on Rachmaninoff's experiences during that time period. It made me sad that he was forced to leave Russia, until I realized the freedom that leaving the country provided him with his music. He was not only allowed to freely express himself from music, but he had access to the rest of the forward thinking European musical community. In class we discussed how he was depressed to leave, and I wish I knew why he was depressed. Was he mostly sad to be disowned by his homeland? Was he sad that he couldn't stay and help? Was it hard for him to be in Europe and to be treated as a Russian? How did the European people feel about him during his time period? It would be interesting to know whether or not Rachmaninoff would have become a freelance pianist if he had stayed in Russia for his entire life. Was he forced into freelance piano playing just because he left, or was it something he enjoyed? I wonder if he would have disappeared into history if he would have stayed in Russia, because it is certain that he would be less known for his piano playing, and would have less global recognition due to the stone wall that came down around Russia after the 191 Revolution. It is said that Rachmaninoff regarded himself more a as a composer who played the piano, so it makes me wonder that his European piano career was rather out of necessity than desire.

Maurice Duruflé

I am very glad we studied Maurice Duruflé in our class because I had not previously learned about him! It is surprising that he is not in normal music history course books, because he seems to be a highly respected and talented composer. It is interesting how we only hear about certain prolific composers, and how sad it is that some incredible people are lost in history. Duruflé was not only a great composer, but he was a talented French organist and professer. He was talented enough to go to school at the Conservatoire de Paris, and while he was there he was given first prizes in organ, harmony, piano accompaniment, and composition. He was good enough as an organist to first be nominated as the assistant organist at Notre Dame for as long as he was living, and the titular organist at St-Etienne-du-Mont. I looked up Duruflé's works and was disappointed to see that there was only one composition created for the flute. The piece is a flute/viola/piano prelude and variations that was written in 1928. The viola and flute both share substantial parts of the melody, and it requires relatively advanced performers. It is an extremely beautiful piece, and though I wish he had composed more for the flute I am very excited to add this particular trio to my flute repertoire knowledge. Requiem, Op. 9 was such a cool piece to learn about. It is super interesting to learn about Duruflé's interest in Gregorian chant and how he incorporated chant text into his compositions. Some consider this piece his most popular work, and it is clear to see why. There are a few different versions of this work, one for organ, one for orchestra, and a later version for organ and strings and a few additional instruments. I love how the piece changes, from homophony, counterpoint, to monophony. Prelude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain was also very interesting to learn about. Duruflé created a theme out of his friend's last name, Jehan Alain. Since he couldn't write notes that corresponded with the letters in Alain's last name, he used a technique that Ravel had used in the past. He extended the musical alphabet past G, and ALAIN became ADAAF in his composition. Jehan Alain was a talented composer but passed away too soon during the Second World War in 1940. Duruflé also gave a tribute to Alain in the piece by quoting a section of Alain's most popular composition Litanies, in the final section of the Prélude. It was good to know how critical Duruflé was of his own compositions, when looking at his musical scores. Some composers publish works and consider them complete, but Duruflé continued to revise and republish his pieces over his lifetime. When searching for his works, it is so helpful to know to look for later editions of his compositions to find the most complete versions of his works.

Francis Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen

I really enjoyed learning about French composers during the last half of the 19th century, particularly about Francis Poulenc. It was interesting to see the other composers during his time and their similarities. I have played many flute works by these composers, such as Milhaud, Honneger, Poulenc, and Taillefaire, and I had noticed before a similar theme to the compositions. I had definitely not realized that they all had a similar aesthetic and were influenced by Eric Satie. The quote we discussed from the Coq et l'arlequin really stood out to me, "The beautiful seems easy. That is what the public scorns." It is hard to believe that people at the time scorned beautiful music. I am sure that music minded people and people of higher education at the time would have possibly scorned beautiful music, because they understood the complexity of newer avant-garde music, but I am pretty positive that the general public would consider beautiful music more enjoyable to listen to. The same is true today. I am performing an extended technique piece on the flute for my Graduate Recital and though my fellow flutists and professors admire the work, my parents and non-musical family think it is the oddest and most unpleasant creation that was ever invented for the flute. It is great when composers experiment and try new things out, but it is also dangerous. Sometimes when composers and musicians experiment, the public follows and supports this musical change. However, there are other times when composers go too extreme and the public does not follow. There are a lot of avant-garde works that have been created that the public easily scorns, but there are also times where the composer's ingenuity and risk bring about inspiration and admiration from the public. I like that composers in the late 19th century such as Poulenc realized that there is something to admire about simple music, and that the avant-garde music of that time was perhaps leaving the public too far behind. I really enjoyed the move we watched about Olivier Messiaen. There is so much to admire about this composer, especially with how he interacted with others. It is so refreshing to see an important person in the music community treat those around him with constant love and respect. He seemed to understand that music is about enjoyment and happiness, instead of social roles and hierarchy. I also like that he schooled himself in composition. I can imagine it is easier to find your own musical voice, when you don't rely on other's compositional ideas. I love that Messiaen was so interested in bird song and how he integrated it into music. He took a new idea, of notating bird song, and made it accessible to the general public and musicians alike. It was a revolutionary idea, and not simple to say the least. It also did not take beauty away from his music, which in my personal opinion, is very admirable. He made a new age idea enjoyable to listen to.

Philip Glass

I think it is super exciting that we are learning about a composer that is still alive today! We hardly covered Glass in my previous Contemporary music course, so I am super happy we are covering him more in depth now. I had not realized how many works that he has composed, and it has been fun to become more familiar with his repertoire. In my Contemporary course, I had learned that Glass was a minimalist, but I did not realize that Glass wanted to distance himself from being labeled as a minimalist. He used to have rather been called a composer of music with repetitive structures. I think it is funny that he currently wants to be called a "classicist", because he says he was trained in harmony/counterpoint from Schubert, Bach, Mozart, and Nadia Boulanger. It was interesting learning about his childhood and education, because it was so random. I had no idea that his family was from Lithuania, or that he grew up with a father who owned a record store. It is clear to see that his father and being surrounded by contemporary music records influenced his career. I had no idea until recently that Glass studied the flute when he was growing up. I wish that he would have kept his passion for the flute and that he would write music for the flute. I also didn't know that, while studying keyboard at Juilliard, his other fellow students included Steve Reich and Peter Schickele. I knew that he worked with these two during his career, but I didn't know they were introduced to each other as classmates at Juilliard. I really enjoyed learning about Glass's Portrait Operas. It was interesting to learn about how Glass struggled with text, and the reasoning behind his text choices in his operas. I love that he just used equations and numbers for his Einstein on the Beach opera. In his second opera, Satyagraha opera, he uses Sanskrit, which is almost a dead language. Because of that, hardly anyone can judge him on how poorly he paired text with music in that opera. We also learned about his third portrait opera, Akhnaten, was written in Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, and Ancient Egyptian. Yet again, he can hardly be judged on his text setting because the languages he uses are extremely obscure. Akhnaten is quite interesting because of the strange orchestration for this opera. Glass was commissioned to write this opera for the Stuttgart Opera House, which was under construction at the time. Therefore, he had to use a nearby playhouse with a small orchestra pit. They decided that they could not fit the full orchestra from this pit, so Glass decided to eliminate the violins from his opera. The elimination of the violins makes the orchestra have a dark menacing sound that is pretty unique for an opera. The opera was dark and mysterious, so the elimination of the violins helped aid the opera's character and subject. I would like to continue studying about how Glass became interested and acquainted with Indian, non-metered, music; because it seems like that influence had a huge effect on his ideas and career. Overall, he is a very interesting composer.

Avante garde

John Cage, questioned the role of composer, demanded attentive listening

Luciano Berio

Postwar years a new generation of excellent performers emerged, champions of this new really difficult music. Berio was italian. Wrote a series of Sequenzas for unnacompanied solo instruments like FLUTE. Each composed for specific performer. Sequenza means a sequence of harmonic fields explored over the piece.

Osvaldo Golijov

La passion según San Marcos- passion according to st mark. modeler after bach's st marks passion. MULTICULTURALISM, many different languages and music types.

Saariaho

Lamour de loin- opera. Maalouf librettist. Interest in conflict between different cultures and religions. Spectralism in this opera- emphasis on timbre, not pitch.

John Cage

Leading avante garde composer postwar. Studied from Cowell and Schoenburg. Searched for new sounds, approaches to music. Wants people to hear sounds as sounds, no emotions or meanings. Most important innovation- organize music in units of time, not by melody or rhythm relationships. Like indian tala rhythms. Invented the Prepared Piano. Thought people shouldnt focus on music of the past, just the present moment. Like Buddhism. Spoke in Darmnstat about his views. FOunder of Chance and Indeterminacy .Chance some elements are determined by chance, indeterminate music some elements are left unspecified by composer. Sounds just are. Wrote Music of Changes for piano, toss coin 6 times to determine the answer from a list of 64 possibilities. Used Chinese book of Prophecy, I-ching to help decide choices. Constellations are more complex chords. 29 and 5/8 is the structure. No goal to this piece.

Continuing 12 tone, atonal, performers pushed to extremes

Milton Babbit, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter.

Steve Reich

Minimalism but with new emotionalism. Minimalism is industrial in style, simple reaction against increasing complexity. Jew, set spasms. Tehillim- 4 solo voices and chamber orch. Canons in voice. speech rhythms.

Impressionism

Named after claude monets painting impresion, sunrise. First in a series of modern artistic movements. Not realistically, convey atmosphere and sensuous impressions from nature. Detached observation, rather than direct emotions. Capture instant in time, before reason can process it. viewers fill in missing details.

After WW2

Nationalism a dangerous relic of the past. Some followed classical traditions in new ways, others searched for the new. Every nation had diversity in styles. Music types: tonal, neotonal, 12 tone serial explorations, chance and indeterminacy, new instruments and sounds, electronic music, quotation/collage music. Commonalities: increasing demands on listener and performer, experimentation, borrowing.

Nazi Music

Nazis had a lot of requirements for their music. Didn't support a lot of german composers, but relished the german romantic music of the past. Especially liked Wagner. Strauss was appointed first president of the reich music chamber until he refused to stop working with jewish librettist. Carl Orff was a german composer they liked. he wasnt sympathetic to the nazis but stayed in germany when others left. Pseudo-antique Carmina Burana, nazis gave hostile review. Medieval poems set to goliard tunes. He also developed methods and materials for kids to be taught at schools, movement singing, playing to help learn.

Pointillism

Pointillism also refers to a style of 20th-century music composition. Different musical notes are made in seclusion, rather than in a linear sequence, giving a sound texture similar to the painting version of Pointillism.[6] This type of music is also known as punctualism or klangfarbenmelodie.

Adams

Post minimalist. Doctor Atomic: Opera about Robert Oppenheimer, director of manhattan project during WW2. Post minimalistic, romantic minimalism. Music Emotional. Peter sellars librettist. About hours before first test of nuclear bomb. Aria, now i am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Short ride in a Fast Machine.

Olivier Messiaen

Post tonal, based on artificial modes, harmonic sasis, non metric rhythm, colorful harmonies. Extended Debussy and Stravinsky techniques. Most important French 20th century composer. Studied organ comp at paris conserv. Taught boulez and stockhausen. Devout Catholic, wrote religious subject music like Quartet for the end of time vl cl cello, piano. written at german military prison camp, written for him and prisoners. Music=contemplation, meditation. Does not develop themes, static ideas like Deb and Strav. Wrote Birdsong in notation, used in several compositions. Harmonic Stasis. Duration, not Meter like music mesuree. Additive Rhythm: add short note in middle of rhythm to offset meter and beat Nonretrogradable RHythm: same forewards and backwards, likea mirror. These make sound go outside of time.

Stravinsky Style Periods

Russian Ballets Neoclassicism Serialism

Easily understood music

Samuel Barber and Benjamin Britten

First Viennese School

Schoenburg, Webern and Burg

Pierrot lunaire-

Schoenburg- 21 song cycle. Womans voice with chamber ensemble of 5 performers, but they play 9 instruments. Combo of instruments different every movement. Uses Sprechstimme speaking voice. Pierrot a clown has gruesome visions provoked by moonbeam that takes different shapes.

Ragtime

Scott Joplin most well known rag composer, classical repertoire. Made School of ragtime etudes to legitimize ragtime as a musical style. Maple leaf rag. Constant bass with syncopated rhythms on top, very african cross rhythmy.

Modernism

Search for a place among the classics. Don't care about attractiveness, immediate understanding, pleasing viewers. Make viewers work to understand the art. Offer something new and distinctive while continuing the old traditions.

Aaron Copland

Started writing with dissonance then later combined modernism and national american traits. Jewish, Gay. Big american composer, promoted works from Ives Chavez and Thomson. Influenced Elliott Carter and Leonard Bernstein. Studied with Nadia Boulanger. Learned to write clearly logically and elegant. Wanted to appeal to large audience, depression made him feel strongly about socialism, wrote music in a language broad masses oculd understand. Mix of a little bit modernist and simplicity. Wrote americanist ballets. After ww2 it was embarassing and not cool to have political ties, talk about politics ect. You can see this with Coplands transition from american music to more abstract 12 tone music.

Composers paid by government or universities or art agencies or grants, ect. Paid by university, allowed to create whatever they want rather than to please someone. Variety in styles, not about pleasing anyone.

Strauss, Bernstein, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Poulenc, Hindemith, Barber, Britten

Block construction

Stravinsky loved this. Blocks of sound

Anton Webern

Student of schoenberg. Believed music operates to natural law rather than to taste. Evolution of art is necessary and that history can only move forward not backward. Making discoveries in music, not inventions. Backed Schoenburg's 12 tone row. Romantic who wanted deeply expressive music, but only should do whats nessesary, so music is very concentrated and short. textures stripped, quite bare. described as pointelistic, only one to 3 or 4 notes at once or in the same instrument in succession. Dynamics very seldom rise above forte. Symphony Op 21- first movement is double canon in inversion in sonata form. uses Klangfarbenmelodie.

Octet for Wind Instruments-

combines classic forms and baroque figuration, and back like counterpoint. 18th century harmonies mixed with modern dissonance, octatonic melodies, meter changes, interruptions. Doesn't follow old tonality, doesn't go from I-V. TOnic down a semitone.

Edgard Varese

Studied at schola cantorum. Wrote Hyperprism, liberate compositions from convential melody, harmony, meter, pulse, trad orchestration. Structured music with organized sound, all sounds acceptable. Sound masses move through space and interact. Varese says you dont start with form.Used a TON OF PERCUSSION instruments. Influenced Cage and Feldman in Us, Boulez and Stockhausen in Europe. Poem electronique, piece played with tape, winds and percussion. Poem Electronique: electro acoustic tape piece.No score. Written for Philips pavilion at Brussels worlds fair. Bring together music and architecture. Measured in seconds, not beats.

Ruth Crawford Seeger

Studied with Charles seeger who was a musiciologist, married him. Edited american folk songs from field recordings. Preserved american traditional music and one of the very few women in the ultramodernist group. String Quartet dissonant counterpoint new techniques in harmony.

Milhaud

TONS of different music types. Left to US after wwii when germany took over france because he was a jew. Inspired by brazilian music, and jazz music. Used jazz styles in his ballet la creation du monde (the creation of the world).

Tailleferre, Auric

Talliferre was the most neoclassic, wrote piano concerto. Auric was the most inspired by eric satie.

4th String Quartet, Op. 37-

The Fourth String Quartet of 1936 is very much representative of Schoenberg's late style. The slow movement opens with a long unison recitative in all four instruments while the finale has the character of a march, similar to the last movement of Schoenberg's Violin Concerto written about the same time.

Le Marteau sans Maitre- The Hammer without a Master)

The Hammer without a Master) for ensemble and voice Boulez refined his compositional language, loosening the strictness of total serialism into a more supple and strongly gestural music. Piece uses Pitch Multiplication-

Russia: Rachmaninoff and Scriabin

Their work show wide variety of personal styles. Classmates at Moscow Conserv. Rachmaninoff: (closest to tonal harmony) made living primarily as pianist. Passionate and melody. No harmony innovations, just fresh melodies. Dont make stark contrast to what we know, but doing convential in new way. Left russia in the wake of russian revolution to US. 3 Symphonies, symphonic poem Isle of the dead. The Bells is a choral symphony. 4 piano concertos. Rhapsody on a theme of paganini for piano and orch. Mix of russian orthodox liturgy music tchaikovsky and mendelssohn and chopin. Scriabin: (went furthest from tonal harmony) wrote like chopin, gradually absorbed chromaticism of liszt and wagner. exotic elements from Rimsky. Made complex harmony voca of his own. chords feature tritones with octatonic and whole tone scales. evade conventional tonal resolution. Evade daily existance, glimpse of the divine. Wrote symphonies also, Poem of esctacy, prometheus. Different colored light in the concert hall for prometh. like synaesthesia. Pitch linked to colors. Referential chords made out of two tritones plus some, basis of piece. Vers la flame tone poem for piano. shows referential sonority of two tritones at the begining. from the octatonic scale.

Milton Babbitt

Three Compositions for Piano, first composer to use serialism in duration. Really went extreme with serialism and tone rows. He did a little bit of Total serialism, but boulez and stockhauzen more so. Philomel- monodrama. King rapes girl, cuts out tongue, turned to nightingale and able to speak again. Live soprano and tape. Tape is of greek chorus. Written for Bethanie Beardslee. some sprechstimme, madrigalists, say E on note E.

Kryzsztof Penderecki

Threnody: to the victims of Hiroshima. Tone poem for orchestra. Loved pitch bending, only strings. Music based on texture. No serialism, new sounds, textures, no melody. TEXTURE music. Each section has a unique effect going on.

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Total serialism. Made piece called Kreuzspiel (Cross Play) for piano, ob, bass clarinet and percussion. Has basic pitch row, and moves the outside pitches to the middle of the tone row throughout the song.

Neo-Romanticism

Trend in france during and after Wwi. Movement fom 1910-1950 which composers revived forms of preromantic music. Form of rejection of German romanticism.

Socialist Music

Union of socialist composers, wanted socialist realism in socialist arts. Realistic style, and portray socialism in a positive light. Simple, melody centeredm folklike styles, and patriotic subject matter. Formalism is what they would call music that was too modern or for its own sake, they didnt like that. Shostakovich and Prokofiev skirting these lines.

Graphic notation

Used by John Cage and Morton Feldman. Indicates register in general terms rather than specifying precise notes.

New sounds and Texture composers/ New Technologies of electronics, manipulation, recording

Varese

Bela Bartok

Virtuoso pianist. Hungarian. Ethnomusicologist. Collected thousands of songs and dances and put them in collections, even with sound recordings. Thought peasant music offered odern composers a new start, free from Romantic sentientality. From Hungary, had to leave to America because Nazis brought fascism threat to hungary. Known most for string quartets and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, and Concerto for orchestra. Mikrokosmos- 153 piano pieces in 6 books of graded difficulty. Etude books. Basically uses classic traditions and forms to peasant music, hungarian tunes. Uses small themes like bach, haydn, schoenburg, stravinsky. National music helped create distinctive voice while continuing in classical tradition.

Gesang der Junglinge- mass for electric sounds and voices. The work, routinely described as "the first masterpiece of electronic music", is significant in that it seamlessly integrates electronic sounds with the human voice by means of matching voice resonances with pitch and creating sounds of phonemes electronically. In this way, for the first time ever it successfully brought together the two opposing worlds of the purely electronically generated German elektronische Musik and the French musique concrète, which transforms recordings of acoustical events. Gesang der Jünglinge is also noted for its early use of spatiality; it was originally in five-channel sound, which was later reduced to just four channels (mixed to monaural and later to stereo for commercial recording release).Biblical story in The Book of Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar throws Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a fiery furnace but miraculously they are unharmed and begin to sing praises to God. Wouldnt let him perform it in a church, not aplace for loudspeakers.

When more than notes are put into a series, like duration, intensities, timbres, ect. Milton Babbit and Karlheinz Stockhausen. And Boulez. All of these people talked about this at Darmnstat summer courses.

Wozzeck

Wozzeck is a soldier, victim of his environment, despised by fellow men, forced by poverty to submit to doctors experiments, betrayed in love, driven finally to murder and madness. ATONAL, has sprechstimme sometimes. Three acts with continuous music. Uses leitmotives that are pitch class sets for each main character. Takes old forms like suites, rhapsody, march, passacaglia, rondo, ect. End of third act the forms get more abstract, showing how wozzeck is going nuts.

Henry Cowell

Wrote a lot of experimental pieces. Invented Tone Clusters, groups of diatonic or chromatic seconds, fist or forearm on piano, used a lot in his Piano Concerto. The Aeolian Harp players strum piano strings. The Banshee assistant holds up damper pedal on piano, rake fingers and fingernails down the strings to sound like banshee howl. Interest in world music, not western music. 1930s turned from experimentation to American, irish, asian music.

Igor Stravinsky

Wrote some of the most successful and enduring 20th century music. Russian nationalist, became cosmopolitan. Rimsky-Korsakov his teacher. Undermines meter with unpredictable accents and rests, or rapid meter changes. Ostinatos, layering, ect. Sergei Diaghilev heard his works and commissioned him to write for his company the Ballets Russes in paris. Wrote most famous works The Firebird, Petrushka, The rite of Spring. Choreographer was Mikhail Fokine founder of modern ballet style. Favorite choreographer was George Balanchine, founded the New York City Ballet. Late works are 12 tone serial. After Russian period has Neoclassical Period- popularized it. started when Diagalev asked him to orchestrate some of Pergolesi's music. Music has emotional detachment but his same musical style. Borrowed from all sorts of classic composers. The Rakes Progress neoclassic opera written by him modeling after mozarts opera comiques. Symphony of Psalms- a neoclassic symphony, mixed chorus and orchestra. avoids romantic orchestral sound. no violins, violas, and clarinets (emotional instruments). this symphony is neotonal- finding new ways to establish a single pitch as tonal center. Serial period- wrote Threni for voices and orch, on text from lamentaitons from jeremiah. Stravinsky and Schoenburg leaders of two branches of modernism with common concerns but on opposite spectrums. Anton Weburn and Alban Berg are Schoenburgs students. Bela Bartok and Charles Ives develop nationalism and modernism in classical tradition.

Avante garde and Eric Satie

avante garde- opposite of something new in classical tradition. Exploring new teritory, departs from convention. For art that seeks to overthrow accepted aesthetics and start fresh. Not writing for classical rep, ask listeners to focus on whats happening present. Eric Satie- french nationalist like debussy and ravel, but more radical break with classic tradition. set of 3 Gymnopedies for piano. all plain and unemotional, same slow tempo, accomp pattern, melodic rhythm, ect ect. Opposite of romantic expression. Pieces have commentary and directions just for the player, funny titles. Made fun of titles and expressive directions of other compoers that have descriptive programatic music. Music for perfomer, not for audience. Made fun of classical masterpieces. wrote Dried embryoes, makes fun of chopin saying his funeral march is actually schuberts mazurka, makes fun of wagnerian lietmotives, and long obligatory cadenza that pounds the tonic making fun of beethoven symphonies. Challenge traditions. Question listeners expectations, lost followers all the time. Paved way for American avant garde John Cage. Influenced Milhaud and Poulenc. Used traditional instruments and notes.

Sonatas and Interludes (JC)

best known prepared piano piece. Sixteen sonatas (super brief movements) binary form without thematic returns. 4 interludes.

Honneger

bold colors, dissonance, short melodies, symphonic movement pacific 231, about a locomotive, impression of it. Oratorio king david mix styles from jazz to gregorian.

Expressionism

came from impressionism. the artist or writer seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world.

Sinfonia (Berio)

dedicated to bernstein who conducted the premiere. ommissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its 125th anniversary. Composed in 1968-69 for orchestra and eight amplified voices, it is a musically innovative post-serial classical work, with multiple vocalists commenting about musical (and other) topics as the piece twists and turns through a seemingly neurotic journey of quotations and dissonant passages. The eight voices are not used in a traditional classical way; they frequently do not sing at all, but speak, whisper and shout words by Claude Lévi-Strauss, whose Le cru et le cuit provides much of the text, excerpts from Samuel Beckett's novel The Unnamable, instructions from the scores of Gustav Mahler and other writings.

England/Britain

english musical renaisance began late 19th century. Want distinctive english voice after always being dominated by foreign styles. English composers collected and published hundreds of english folk songs. These two students together and became leaders of new english school. Vaughan Williams: wrote norfolk rhapsodies. More national in style than holst. 9 symphonies, other big works. inspired by folk song, and english hymnody, and thomas tallis, henry purcelll. wrote art music and practical music. composed a lot of hymn tunes. Gustav Holst: wrote for large ensembles, infulenced by english song and hindu sacred texts. Best known for non national work, orchestral suite the planets. also somerset rhapsody.

Musicals

feature popular music and dance numbers in a spoken play with comic/romantic plot. English theater manager George Edwardes setablished genre. Combine variety shows, comic operas, pllays.

Ultramodernist

focus on developing new musical resources like Edgard Vrese, Henry Cowell, Ruth Crawford Seeger.

12-tone method, serialism

form of atonality based on systematic orderings of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale. Groups of four consecutive notes from the row are called Tetrachords. Row or Series is 12 pitch classes of chromatic scale arranged in an order chosen by composer. Treated the same as normal scales, melodically, harmonically, ect.

Vernacular Music

intended to reach broad musical public, widely understood language, rather than appealing to elite. Recordings preserved so much more vernacular music than other generations. Received permanence like classical music.

Futurists

italian, forget about notation, musical instruments. Make their own instruments. Music not permanent, instruments destroyed. Complete restart on music.

Gesang der Junglinge

mass for electric sounds and voices. The work, routinely described as "the first masterpiece of electronic music", is significant in that it seamlessly integrates electronic sounds with the human voice by means of matching voice resonances with pitch and creating sounds of phonemes electronically. In this way, for the first time ever it successfully brought together the two opposing worlds of the purely electronically generated German elektronische Musik and the French musique concrète, which transforms recordings of acoustical events. Gesang der Jünglinge is also noted for its early use of spatiality; it was originally in five-channel sound, which was later reduced to just four channels (mixed to monaural and later to stereo for commercial recording release).Biblical story in The Book of Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar throws Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into a fiery furnace but miraculously they are unharmed and begin to sing praises to God. Wouldnt let him perform it in a church, not aplace for loudspeakers.

Atonality

music that avoids establishing a tonal center.

Band Classical Repertoire

not much till 20th century, just associated with military ect. Gustav Holst made suites for band. Percy Grainger Linconshire Posy,Ralph vaughn williams English folk song suite. Drew on folk songs for content. More symphonic.

Arnold Schoenberg

one of most influential composers of 20th century. expressionist. Known for atonal and 12 tone. Associations with Richard Strauss, got him position at conservatory. Students Webern and Burg. Came from jewish family, changed to lutheranism because of nazis. Nazis removed all jew instructors from faculty, went to france than america. Died on July 13, feared 13. Started tonal, late romantic style. Turned away from romantic giganticism after a while to chamber music. Liked Brahms developing variations.Variations take the place of repeating ideas. He wanted to continue developing on german classical composers ideas.Build on the past. Atonal- thought late romantic pieces harmonic ambiguity made arriving at tonic a waste of time. "the emmancipation of the dissonance" freeing dissonances from the need to resolve. Atonal organization: eveloping variation, harmony and melodoy, chromatic saturation, gestures in music. Used Pitch Class Sets- making random note chords out of the 12 notes. Chromatic Saturation- playing all 12 notes in a short segment of music leaves a feeling of completeness. A way to phrase. Hugo Wolf used this a teensy bit. Ewartung- short one character opera thats atonal, no themes or melodies ever return, stuck ina nightmare. Expressionistic piece.

Paul Hindemith

one of the most prolific composers of century, summation of german tradition from bach through brahms. Taught a lot of musicians, performer first. Experiencing performace was a big deal in his works. Went through a lot of different styles, romantic, expressionist, new objectivity ect. 1920s, concerned about gulf between modern composers and passive public. had Gebrauchsmusik composing style. Music for use, different from music for its own sake. Goal- create for young performers music thats high quality, modern style, and challenging/rewarding to perform. Wrote opera Mathis der Maler about artist during german peasants war leaves his art to fight, and realizes that he was supposed to be doing his artwork. 1930s, had more neoromantic style. Used Harmonic Fluctuation, consonant chords to dissonant to consonant like a wave.

New Objectivity

opposing expressionism and emotional intensity of late romantics. German thought in 1920, music should be widely accessible, communicate clearly, connect to events and concerns of the time. Like Baroque concept of the afections, objective in its expression. NOT subjective or extreme. Krenek- wrote opera that has african americans in it, nazis called degenerate. Weill- wanted operas to entertain every day people not elites. wrote opera called Three Penny Opera, libretto based on the beggars opera. Jazzz instruments, nazi called it decadent, banned it. Went to US became broadway musical composer.

4.33 (JC)

piece that shows indeterminacy. Performers sit silent at their instruments for a span of time specified in the title. Three movements. Concert hall noise or outside noise is the music.

George Gershwin

reputation of broadway shows and pop songs. Most famous and performed american classical composers. Added jazz influences to classical music like Milhauds La creation du monde. Wrote Rhapsody in Blue. Jazz concerto for piano and jazz ensemble. Wrote Porgy and Bess, folk opera, continuous music and returning motives like verdi or wagner. African american characters, jazz, blues, spirituals.

The Rite of Spring

russian subject, imagined fertility ritual set in prehistoric russia. Adolescent girl chosen for sacrifice and must dance herself to death. Music Primitiveism-deliberate rep of crude uncultured.Audience was shocked, broke out into riot. No metric stability.Listener disorientated but music cleverly concieved for ballet with eight measure periods. Ostinatos in bass and english horn. Uses block construction again. The Firebird: based on russian folk tale, humans are diatonic music, supernatural have octatonic or chromatic music like Korsakov did. Petrouchka: Blocks of static harmony with abrupt shifts from one block to another. Unconnected musical events interrupt eachother without transition. Like Cubism. Make each sound block as different as possible. Petrushka chord is c major and F# major triads combined.

Sprechstimme

speaking voice, no exact pitch

Early Jazz

started as mix of dance music, blues and ragtime. New Orleans where it started. Carribian ties, and strong African ties. Small ensembles, 2-3 melody instruments. Differ from ragtime by performance- did not play music straight, mess with arrangements. Swinging note values, lots of offeats, grace notes, ect. After WWI jass became opular, emblem of modernity.

Neoclassicism

the revival of a classical style or treatment in art, literature, architecture, or music.

Eastern/Northern Europe: Sibelius and Janacek

urgent political concertn, music that reflected language and traditions assert independent national identities. Recignize as a nation. Janacek- czech composer, wrote opera mostly, national style.Trying to get away from austria/german traditions. Collected moravian folk music. Studied peasant speech and song. long and short vowels without stress accent at the beginning of a word he used in music. Wrote opera Jenufa, based on moravian subject. Sibelius- Finland. sweden controled finland, he changed name to finish name, stopped speaking swedish, finlands leading compower. Finnish patriot. Wrote most famous and political Finlandia. supported by finnish gov as national artist. Sibelious violin concerto, 2 symphonies. Style-modal melodies, uncomplicated rhythms, repitition of brief motives, ostinatos. Sibelius form- reworking sonaa form in novel ways. Used thematic transformations like Rotational form- repeatedly cycle through a series of thematic elements that vary each time. Teleological genesis- generate theme from motivic fragments over an entire movement or symphony. These can be found in slow 3rd mov of Sib 4th symphon.

Prepared Piano (JC)

various objects are inserted between strings, makes different percussive sounds. One person percussion ensemble.

Avante Garde

wanting to overthrow artistic traditions from the past and start afresh