MUSIC OF THE 20TH CENTURY (Music m1 Q1)

• Impressionism


  Is a classical composition style originating during the late-Romantic era that aimed to create moods, emotions, and atmospheres
• Characteristics of Impressionism Music:

  • Innovative chords and progressions leading to mild dissonances
  • Based from the 19th century painting of Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise
  • Translucent and hazy forms, as if trying to see through a rain-drenched window
  • Melodies were meant to create an emotional mood rather than a specific picture.
• Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

  • Father of Modern School Composition
  • Most popular piano composition: Clair De Lune (Moonlight Sonata)
  • Made a total of more or less 227 compositions.
• Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)


  • Composed Bolero featuring the largest crescendo ever created
  • Made a total of 60 musical pieces
• Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)


  • He taught himself music theory and is credited with the development of the twelve-tone system and explored on the chromatic harmonies
  • Composed 213 musical pieces
• Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)


  • He featured shifting rhythms and polytonality
  • His musical outputs are 127 pieces
• Expressionism was originally borrowed from visual art and literature.
• How did Expressionist artists create their works?

  Artists created vivid pictures, distorting colors and shapes to make unrealistic images that suggested strong emotions.
• What did Expressionist composers explore in their music?

  Composers poured intense emotional expression into their music and explored the subconscious mind.
• Characteristics of Expressionism Music:

  • Extremes of pitch
  • High level of dissonance
  • Constantly changing textures
  • Distorted melodies and harmonies
  • Extreme contrasts of dynamics
  • Angular melodies with wide leaps
• Vincent Van Gogh


  • One of the most influential figures of the post-impressionism movement in France.
  • Also seen as a pioneer of 20th century Expressionism.
  • His use of color, rough brushwork and primitivist composition, anticipated Fauvism (1905) as well as German Expressionism.
• Two musical styles of the 20th century:

  1. Primitivism
  2. Neo-classicism
• Primitivism 


  It uses raw and instinctual rhythm and sounds and combines two familiar or simple ideas together creating new sounds.
• The two well-known proponents of Primitivism:

  Igor Stravinsky and Bela Bartok
• P - Primitivism

  E - Exoticism

  N - Nationalism

  E - Ethnicism

  N - Neo-Classicism
• How does Primitivism relate to Exoticism and Nationalism?

  It has links to Exoticism using materials from other cultures to Nationalism through the use of indigenous materials
• Shorter terms (Discussion Terms):

  • Exoticism - other cultures
  • Nationalism - Cultural Identity
  • Ethnicism - Sense of Belonging
• Characteristics of Primitivism:

  • Rhythms have clear profiles
  • Meters can have beats of unequal length
  • Two or more meters can be juxtaposed on top of each other to create poly meters
  • Composers often emphasized the musical element of rhythm in their effort to express an ancient or aboriginal (cultural beliefs/values) attitude
• Neo-Classicism 


  • Reviving classical with modern
  • Showed a moderating factor between the emotional excess of the Romantic period and the violent impulses of the soul in impressionism
  • Ex. Peter and the Wolf, 1920s
• Characteristics of Neo-Classicism:

  • Combined tonal harmonies with slight dissonances
  • Modern, freer use of the seven-note diatonic scale
  • Emphasis on Rhythm
  • Contrapuntal Texture
  • Expanded tonal harmony
• Avant-Garde


  French term which means favoring or introducing experimental or unusual ideas
• Characteristics of Avant-Garde:

  • Alters musical continuity
  • Expresses strange sound to the ears
  • Improvising unique instruments is a necessity
  • Acquires a new attitude toward musical mobility
  • Deals with dimensions of sound in space
  • Does not conform to traditional rules in harmony, melody, and rhythm
• Atonal


  No central key