Imports and Allusions

1
Imports and Allusions

• External Influences

2
External Influences

• Composers in the twentieth century started
  drawing upon new and unusual influences for fresh
  sounds
• The Past
• Neoclassicism
• Quotation
• The Present
• Folk music
• Jazz
• The Unfamiliar
• Music from other cultures

3
The Past

• Neoclassicism was a reactionary movement that
  rejected the chromatic saturation of the late
  Romantic and atonal styles.
• It was not an attempt to revive Classical style
  composition, but reflected the philosophy of
  attaining clarity and balance sought in the
  Classical period.
• This approach was widespread from the beginning
  of the second decade to around 1950.
• Stravinsky was the central figure of the
  movement, but others such as Hindemith and
  Poulenc also wrote compositions in the neoclassic
  style.

4
The Past

• Quotation of preexisting music, not previously
  unknown, takes on a new character in the
  twentieth century.
• In the Renaissance, composers borrowed plainsong
  melodies, and in many periods composers borrowed
  music to write variations.
• In the twentieth century, quotation was more
  often a dramatic juxtapositioning of contrasting
  styles or even just a poetic allusion to another
  composer.
• Charles Ives made extensive use of hymn tunes,
  popular songs, and patriotic songs in his music.

5
The Present

• With the rise of Nationalism in the nineteenth
  century, folk music started to exert more
  influence which continued into the twentieth
  century.
• Some composers combined folk with current
  elements, not exactly quoting folk songs, others
  would compose settings of folk melodies and
  spirituals.
• Spain had a particularly strong movement.

6
The Present

• The main influence of jazz started around the end
  of the first World War I and mostly ended by the
  end of the World War II.
• One exception is Third Stream, which was an
  attempt to blend jazz and concert music.
• Gunther Schuller is the main figure in this
  movement which has not really exerted much
  influence outside of a small circle.
• Influences such as improvisation and new sounds
  -- the vibraphone and the Harmon and cup mutes --
  have become common over the last few decades.

7
Music from Other Cultures

• At first, attempts at Exoticism were mainly
  superficial, using timbre (temple blocks and
  gongs) and some compositional devices
  (parallelism and pentatonic scales).
• Composers became more sophisticated as they
  studied the music of other cultures and adapted
  the scales and rhythms to their music.
• Non-Western composers have also contributed to
  the blending of Eastern and Western styles.
• His study of Zen and Indian aesthetic theory led
  John Cage to develop his chance music.