Music (Finals)

• Impressionism


  An art movement or style that originated in France in the late 19th century
• Impressionist music


  • Focuses on suggestion and atmosphere rather than depicting reality
• Characteristics of Impressionism


  • Color
  • Atmosphere
  • Chords
• Timbre


  Also known as tone color or tone quality, distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musical instruments
• Whole Tone Scale


  Impressionist composers experimented with writing music by using an unusual scale
• Claude Debussy


  • The principal exponent of the impressionist movement and the inspiration for the other impressionist composers
  • He broke the traditional rules of music theory through his harmony, rhythm, form, texture, and color
  • He has approximately 141 compositions
• Claude Debussy's works

  • L'enfant prodigue (The Prodigal Son)
  • Petite suite
  • String quartet in G minor
  • Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun)
  • Pelléas et Mélisande
  • La mer (The Sea)
  • Clair de Lune (moonlight)
• Maurice Ravel


  • His works are defined with extended chordal components that demand considerable technical virtuosity or skill of a virtuoso
• Maurice Ravel's works

  • Rapsodie espagnole
  • Bolero
• Expressionism


  It emerges in reaction against impressionism, seeking to express disturbed conditions of the mind through abstraction
• Characteristics of Expressionism

  • Dissonance
  • Atonal
  • Dynamics
  • Texture
  • Distorted melodies and harmonies
• Arnold Schoenberg


  • His styles in music change from time to time, and his tonal gradually evolve to something dissonant and atonal
  • He was responsible of the 12-tone system
  • He also served as mentors to Alban Berg and Anton Webern
• Arnold Schoenberg's works

  • Pierrot Lunaire
  • Three Piano Pieces, Op. II
• Igor Stravinsky


  • He was a Russian composer and conductor, widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music
  • He has approximately 127 compositions
• Electronic Music


  Music that involves electronic processing of the output (i.e., through speakers), including musical instruments such as synthesizers and electronic instruments, as well as recordings, tape recordings, and editing and processing done digitally using computers
• Synthesizer


  The first synthesizers back in the 1960s were machines that electronically generated and modified sounds with the use of a computer, capable of producing sounds far beyond the range and versatility of conventional musical instruments
• Theremin


  Creates electromagnetic fields that create sounds at different pitches when the musician moves his or her hands around it, producing a high, warbling sound most famous for its use in 1950s horror and science fiction movies
• Musique ConcreteIn musique concrete, the composer is able to experiment with different sounds that cannot be produced by regular musical instruments, which were considered representative of the natural world
• Karlheinz Stockhausen


  • One of the most prominent German composers of the 20th century, whose music was initially met with resistance due to its heavily atonal content with practically no clear melodic or rhythmic sense, but he continued to experiment with musique concrete
• Edgar Varese


  • Considered as an innovative French-born composer, his compositions emphasized timbre and rhythm and were made of "sound masses", which were considered "amusical" by some but he viewed music as an organized sound
• Chance Music


  Also known as Aleatoric music, refers to a style in which the piece always sounds differently at every performance because of the random techniques of production, including the use of ring modulators or natural elements that become a part of the music
• John Cage


  • One of the innovative composers of 20th century Western music, known for his composition 4' 33, a work for any instrument wherein the performer or instrumentalist would do nothing with his or her instrument for four minutes and 33 seconds
• From the early 16th century to the late 19th century, slaves from the continent of Africa were brought to the Americas, and music became their expression amidst the hardships of work
• Banjo


  The African slaves brought with them the BANSHAW in the 17th century, known today as BANJO
• Negro Spirituals


  Songs that expressed the hardships of the slaves and their longing for freedom, for their safety, and for relief as they perform difficult tasks, also serving to give them hope that eventually life may improve for them
• Ragtime


  Black musicians during the 19th century would call syncopated rhythms as a way of "ragging" a tune, and ragtime's basic character is its syncopated rhythm
• Blues


  One of the simplest musical genres that evolved from the music of black or African Americans, requiring flexibility and a high level of improvisation in their performance
• Jazz


  The most creative and complex genre of music America has produced, combining the traditional black sound of New Orleans and the characteristics of the blues, where the performer becomes the composer as his or her musical spontaneity creates an entirely unique musical experience
• Dixieland


  One of the early forms of jazz that started in the early 1920s in New Orleans, a combination of the traditions of blues, ragtime, and brass band, usually instrumental in nature
• Big Band


  A jazz subgenre which saw its rise in the 1920s, specializing in swing music, a highly danceable music type that became famous until the 1940s, composed of 10 or more players with basically the same instrumentation as that of Dixieland
• Bebop


  A bebop group is relatively small, as compared to the big bands of the 1920s, with just 4 to 5 musicians, characterized by complex melodies and chord progressions and not suitable for dancing, from which the following subgenres followed: boogie-woogie, rock and roll, rock, disco, rap, and techno
• 20th century song composers in the Philippines


  • Developed their uniqueness of musical styles and characteristics, with many of their composed kundiman becoming part of the popular cinema music repertoire, provision for varied programs, nationalistic events, weddings, social gatherings, and even funeral rites
• Constancio De Guzman


  • From Guiguinto Bulacan, studied under Nicanor Abelardo, became the director of FILSCAP (Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), famous composition: Maalaala Mo Kaya
• Mike Velarde


  • Born in Manila, studied under Antonio Molina and Ariston Avelino, became a musical scorer of Sampaguita Pictures, famous composition: Dahil Sa'yo
• Ernani Cuenco


  • From Malolos Bulacan, studied at UST and Sta. Isabel College, member of orchestral groups and soloists, famous composition: Gaano Ko Ikaw Kamahal
• Levi Celerio


  • From Tondo, Manila, took violin in UP College of Music, became the PH sought-after lyricist, famous composition: Ikaw
• George Canseco


  • From Manila, journalist and musician, famous composition: Ngayon at Kailanman
• New Music


  Characterized by the use of improvisations and innovations applied in a composition, combining New Music and traditional musical instruments and rhythms
• Jose Maceda


  • His musical style changed in 1953 when he encountered the music of the indigenous tribes in Mindoro, focused on understanding and preservation of Filipino traditional music, collected recorded music from remote mountain villages and far-flung inland communities, used a compositional approach combining Western style with sounds of the environment and ethnic instruments, usually for large groups of musicians
• Jose Maceda's works

  • Pagsamba (1968)
  • Cassettes 100 (1971)