Chapter 16 - American Modernism and Postmodernism
Electronic Music
1877- Thomas Edison patented the phonograph 1920s- radio broadcasts of music 1936- magnetic tape recorder 1940s/ 1950s- synthesizers 1990s- CDs, followed by MP3 and MP4 files
John Cage
4' 33"
Copland's Style
Americana: American folk and popular songs to soften the dissonant harmonies and disjunct melodies of European Modernism
Minimalism
Began in the early 1960s Aesthetic -rejected modernism and Neo-Romanticism -reduction to the most essential elements
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Brooklynn native studied in Paris (1921-1924) During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Copland sought to forge an American style by incorporating into his music elements of jazz, a distinctly American product dissonance and atonality alienated ordinary citizens turned to western and rural themes
Concerto Grosso 1985 (1985)/ commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Handel's birth
Commissioned by the Washington Friends of Handel a twentieth-century musical procedure generally called Neo-classicism
Charles Ives Reputation
Greatest and most eccentric American composer first to use polytonality "college art" blended dissonant harmony with traditional music
Jazz Age
Name for the 1920s, because of the popularity of jazz-a new type of American music that combined African rhythms, blues, and ragtime
Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut from Three Places in New England
Programmatic Incorporates well-known American tunes -Yankee Doodle -Hail, Columbia -The British Grenadiers
bebop
a complex, hard-driving style of jazz that emerged shortly after World War II; it is played without musical notation by a small ensemble
swing
a mellow, bouncy, flowing style of jazz that originated in the 1930s
big band
a mid-to large-size dance band that emerged in the 1930s to play the style of jazz called swing
F. Scott Fitzgerald
a novelist and chronicler of the jazz age
Appalchian Spring (1944)
a one-act ballet that tells the story of "a pioneer celebration of spring in a newly built farmhouse in the State of Pennsylvania in the early 1800s." A new bride and her farmer husband express through dance the anxieties and joys of life in pioneer America. composed for Martha Graham "Simple Gifts" -19th century Shaker tune -theme and variations form
Concerto Grosso 1985 Elements of Baroque Musical Style
a regular rhythmic pulse a repeating bass pedal point a walking bass terraced dynamics harpsichord
free jazz
a style of jazz perfected during the 1960s in which a soloist indulges in flights of creative fancy without concern for the rhythm, melody, or harmony of the other performers
Cool Jazz (Miles Davis)
a style of jazz that emerged in the 1950s that is softer, more relaxed, and less frenzied than bebop
Postmodernism - Post WWI
abandon the idea that history is progress blurring of "high" and "low" culture -eclecticism and irony -anything a valid subject for art globalization and Pluralism In music: -all genres of equal value -non goal oriented forms -mix of acoustic and electronic resources
Postmodernism
an all-inclusive style in the arts that developed after 1945 and in which almost anything goes, with all works valued equally
New Orleans Jazz
an early style of jazz that emphasized improvisation by a small group of soloists (cornet, clarinet, and trombone) and a rhythm section
blues
an expressive, soulful style of singing that emerged from the African-American spiritual and work song at the end of the nineteenth century; its texts are strophic, its harmonies simple and repetitive
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b. 1939)
born in Miami educated at Florida State University first woman to earn a doctorate in composition from the Juilliard School of Music (NY) first woman composer to win a Pulitzer for her First Symphony
Edgard Varese (1883-1965)- Poeme electronique
electronic composition synthesized sounds combined with mystique concrete techniques used by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, George Lucas (guy who did Star Wars) sampling and scratching technique
Copland's Music
evokes a sense of space in his music by means of a distinctive kind of orchestration called "open scoring." creates a solid bass, a very thin middle, and a top of one or two high, clear tones, such as those of the clarinet or flute.
Peanuts Gallery
in response to being concluded in a Peanuts' cartoon generated another cartoon by Schultz as well as a documentary about the work
Jazz
lively, energetic music with pulsating rhythms and scintillating syncopations, usually played by either a small instrumental ensemble (a combo) or a larger group (a big band).
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Aesthetic
modernism integrated with earlier traditions genres and forms of European concert music seeks to communicate with ordinary listeners
symphonic jazz
music (mostly of the 1920s and 1930s) that incorporates idioms of jazz into the genres and forms traditionally performed by the classical symphony orchestra
John Adams (1947)
music has an electric quality best termed a "post-Minimalist" Short Ride in a Fast Machine (woodblock)
Jazz
originated as African-American popular music, much of it improvised spontaneously.
Neo-Classicism
the use of the genres, forms, and aesthetics of the Baroque (1600-1750) or Classical (1750-1820) periods to inform a new, Modernist composition.
Copland's Harmony
tonal and slow harmonic
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
went to Yale Businessman, not a professional musician -made a fortune in insurance -Not dependent upon audience reception -composed to suit himself