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A Brief History of 20 Century Western Music

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A Brief History of 20th Century Music There are many different styles of music in the 20th century; this is because of improved communications. Transportation between different countries became faster, cheaper and safer. The record was invented and later the cassette tape, video and CD. The telephone, radio and Internet also had great impact in letting new composers hear each other's compositions, even if they lived in different countries. Compare these circumstances with those faced in 1700, and you will understand why things changed so quickly. There was also a desire for new ideas. Old rules were questioned more freely, especially after the failures of the European governments during the First World War. Composers often tried more than one style, however you will only be expected to know the following information. Study these different styles, try to hear the differences between them, as well as learning the various facts. Impressionism This style emerged even before the start of the 20th century, but for the sake of this book it counts as the first 20th century style. In Europe many countries found themselves in competition with each other, economically, politically and eventually militarily. Countries looked to define themselves, in music it was the Germanic styles which seemed to lead the way, however in France a composer called Debussy tried to find a distinctive French style. He was inspired by a new group of French painters called the Impressionists. They would paint in a way which made it hard to see exact lines, for example where the sky meets with the horizon. Often they would try to show movement, either as shadows or water or even as steam. If you screw up your eyes a little you will see the type of effect they were trying to achieve. The problem for Debussy was how to do the same in music.

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1.To get the feeling of movement he used different rhythms at the same time, for example 3 notes per beat at the same time as 4 notes per beat. 2. He introduced new harmonies by using parallel 9ths (CEGBBbD-DF#ACE) basically a normal chord plus 2 extra notes, going to another chord treated the same way. 3. He used new scales to, the pentatonic scale (the black notes on the piano), and the whole tone scale (cdef#g#a#), these scales created new sounds to the Western ear. 4. Lastly his choice of instruments is often light, he prefers the Flute, Harp and French horn. His music is seldom loud and "brassy" like the late Romantic composers. Listen to L'Apres-midi d'un Faune composed by Debussy, and see if you can hear any of the features that were mentioned. KEY WORDS Debussy - L 'Apres-midi d'un faune Pentatonic scale tone scale Parallel 9ths Instrumentation

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Neo Romanticism Some composers did not like the new sounds that could be heard in the 20th century. Some of them preferred the tunes and harmonies offered in the Romantic period. These composers decided to ignore many of the new ideas, and continued to compose in a Romantic style, using normal harmonies and tonal tunes (tunes in a key). Large orchestras were often used with big brass and percussion sections. This type of 20th century music sounds exactly like late Romantic music; you cannot tell the difference between Neo Romantic and Romantic music, they sound the same. Some of these composers would include folk tunes from their countries in the music. These composers are called Nationalists. However an example of a Neo Romantic composer who claims not to have used any folk tunes in his musi 3

is Sibelius. Most of his compositions are for large orchestras. He wrote 7 symphonies and several symphonic poems. A symphonic poem is a bit like a symphony except has only 1 movement and is about something, for example the Alpine symphony by Richard Strauss is about the Alps. Sibelius composed Finlandia, which is a symphonic poem about Finland; another example by him is En Saga. You can recognise Neo Romantic music because: 1. It will sound "normal", that is not weird like many atonal compositions. 2. There will be a large orchestra playing: often you will hear the brass and percussion sections playing very loudly. This makes it different from Impressionism. 3. Composers tried to make their music dramatic. KEY WORDS Sibelius – finlandia Nationalist

Romantic style

Tonal

Minimalism Minimalism began in the 1960s. It uses a steady pulsing beat, incessant repetition of notes or very simple tunes. These tunes are repeated with only very slight changes. Its roots lie in the musics of India and S.E. Asia. Its most important early composers included Terry Riley (b.1934), Steve Reich and Philip Glass. One of the more famous pieces of minimalism is the opera Einstein On The Beach (1975) by Philip Glass. Glass was born in the United States and after studying tradition Western music he studied in India with the famous sitar player Ravi Shanker. He became the leading composer of minimalism. KEY WORDS Einstein On the Beach by Philip Glass Repeating melodies with small changes 4

Atonality/Serialism At the beginning of the 20th century composers regularly added extra notes to their chords, sometimes these extra notes sounded "wrong". A composer who became interested in these "wrong" sounding notes was Schoenberg. He got involved with a group of painters called Expressionists, they would try to express their innermost thoughts and fears, sometimes the results suggested madness! Schoenberg used these wrong sounding notes to create expressionist music. An example of this is his opera Pierrot Lunaire. An interesting feature of this composition is that he uses speech sang or speech song. This type of singing calls for the singer to "slide" between the notes, the result is that the singer sounds mad!! Schoenberg decided that this new type of music (expressionism) needed some rules. He was using so many "wrong" sounding notes that his music was atonal, (music without a key), because it was atonal, all the old rules of composition were not applicable. After some time he came up with a set of rules, which are called Serialisim, here are those rules. 1. Select all 12 notes and put them in an order. (This is called a tone row or series). 2. You can play any note as many times as you wish, but once you have gone on to the next note in your tone row you can't go back to the previous one. 3. You can play the tone row forwards, or backwards which is called retrograde, or upsideAn example of a piece of music composed by Schoenberg in a serial style is his Variations for orchestra. Some other composers liked these ideas and joined Schoenberg to form what is known as the second Viennese school of music. (This was not a proper school, more a group of people who held the same opinions). These other composers were Berg and Webern. Webern is 5

interesting because he formed another type of Serial/Atonal music called Pointillism. In this style Webern would play short notes, he would also only give one or two notes of the tune to anyone instrument before another instrument would continue the tune. His pieces were very short, some lasted just 17 seconds. An example of a composition by Webern in a Pointillist style is Five orchestral pieces. You will not have to tell the difference between atonality, serialisim or pointillism, (in fact both serialism and pointillism are types of atonal music) however you will have to recognise atonal music, here are some guidelines: 1. Atonal music is not tonal! That means it will sound weird, perhaps a little like music from a horror film. 2. 3.

There are no "nice" sounding tunes. Normal orchestral instruments are used.

KEY WORDS Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire, Variations for orchestra Webern - Five orchestral pieces Berg - Lulu Second Viennese school. Expressionism. Serialism Pointillism. Tone row (12 note series) Retrograde. Inversion Neo Classical Some composers turned to earlier styles for inspiration, often to the Baroque or Classical periods. These types of compositions would have small orchestras and clear homophonic textures, that is, 1 tune plus an accompaniment. If they copied the Baroque period the tunes would be decorated and sound very "fancy", if it was from the Classical period the tunes sound simple, but remember if they copied the Baroque style or the Classical style it is still called Neo Classical.

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An example of a composer who composed in this style is Stravinsky. Stravinsky was already famous for composing ballets. His first neo classical composition came about because a man called Diaghilev (who organised ballets), asked Stravinsky to compose a new ballet called Pulcinella. Pulcinella is a fictitious character from Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. Pulcinella is kind hearted and has a good sense of humour but can sometimes be naughty. To reflect this Stravinsky decided to copy the style of an Italian baroque composer. He chose to copy the composer Pergolesi who was quite famous in Italy around 1740. Even though Stravinsky makes his music sound Baroque, every now and again there seems to be "wrong" sounding notes in it. This gives the music its 20th century feel. Don't get confused with Neo Romantic music, remember Neo Romantic compositions sound the same as compositions from the Romantic period, Neo Classical compositions sound different because they have some "wrong" sounding notes in the music. KEYWORDS Stravinsky Pergolesi

Diaghilev Pulcinella

Other composers turned to nature for inspiration, Messiaen spent a great deal of time travelling the world and writing down in music the various birdcalls he heard. Messiaen would then use these birdcalls in his music. Sometimes, if the bird had a prominent colouring he might even try to show the colour of a bird as well. An example of one of Messiaen's compositions is Oiseaux Exotiques.

Experimantal By the 1950s composers increasingly began to ask what is music? If you take a little time to think about it you will find it is not such an easy question to answer. For example could some drums playing by themselves be called music, of course you might reply, what about if instead of drums used 18 pencils? Is it 7

still music? What about if I recorded myself being sick! - Is that music and if not, why not? There certainly were some strange ideas, for example John Cage composed a piece of silence lasting 4 minutes and 33 seconds, the pianist sits at the piano for the allotted time and then receives his applause without ever having played a note this composition was called 4 minutes 33 seconds. This piece raises several questions, what is silence, does it exist and what role has it to play in music? Varese was also an experimental composer, he focussed on rhythms rather than tunes, he used what he called rhythmic cells, which were basic rhythms, which he then developed. An example of this type of composition by Varese is Ionisation. This composition uses just percussion instruments and 2 sirens (like they used in World War 2 to warn people of air raids Lutoslawski spent some time experimenting with chance music or Aletory music. In this type of composition there would be an element of chance in what you would hear. For example the composer might role a dice, if a 2 came up the trumpet must play whatever he wants until another 2 came up. Meanwhile if a 3 is thrown the flute must start to play etc these compositions in theory might not end for ages if the conductor doesn't throw the correct number to stop the composition! An example of a composition by Lutoslawski, which has some Aleatory elements in it, is Jeux Venitiens. Stockhausen experimented with electronic music, sometimes by recording something and playing it back at a different speed with special effects added, or maybe playing backwards. Another way he used electronic music was by using sine wave generators and modulators, these are standard features on modern synthesisers. A sine wave generator produces a pure sound which you can increase the volume and vary the pitch while the modulator changes the timbre of the note. 8

Test Yourself I.

Name a piece of music by Varese?

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What source from nature did the composer Messiaen use in

his compositions? 3. How many notes are there in a tone row? 4. Name a composer of Impressionism? 5. What 20th Century style of composition was Sebelius famous for? 6. Name one serial composer? 7. What is Aleatoric music? 8. Name a composer of Neoclassicism? 9. Name one instrument favoured by impressionist composers? 10. Name a scale used by impressionist composers? 11. Name a composer of electronic music. 13. Who composed the piece of music Finlandia? 14. Who composed L'Apres Midi D'un Faun? 15. What is the backward version of the tone row called 16. What is "Sprechstimme"? 17. Who were the "Second Viennese School?" 18. What does tonal mean? 19. Who wrote "Einstein On The Beach"? 20. Who was "Pergolesi"?

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