Music%201900-1945

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Music 1900-1945
MODERNISM
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But first . . .
A PRELUDE TO MODERNISM . . .
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DEBUSSY
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listening example
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Prelude a
l'apres-midi d'un faune) (1894) -- inspired by a
poem inspired by a painting of a Classical
mythical story -- exoticism, mythical pastoral --
ambiguous (vague?) harmony -- very little, if
any, recognizable conventional or traditional
form -- very well received at its premiere by
the public it baffled the musical
establishment -- emphasis on sonority (timbre
colorful harmony) -- called Impressionist,
although Debussy hated the term
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Music 1900-1945
MODERNISM
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TRENDS

• DISSONANCE LIBERATED
• PRIMITIVISM MORE GENERALLY FOLK MUSIC, AN
  ALTERNATIVE TO STANDARD PATTERNS FORMULAS
• CHAOTIC SURFACES, CONSISTENT INNER WORKINGS
• EXPRESSIONISM
• IRONY DISTANCE dissimulation

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Dissonance as sonority
LISTENING EXAMPLES CHOPIN Prelude No.
2 TEXTBOOK CD EXAMPLE SCHOENBERG Etwas Rasch
(somewhat fast) from Six Little Piano
Pieces, Op. 19 (1911)
(previously, 1600-1900 dissonance is
functional, functioning to drive melody and
harmony forward)
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Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps) (1913
for very large orchestra) -- a ballet with a
story line written in part by an
anthropologist -- interested in primitive or
exotic materials what is behind the mask of
civilization?
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Stravinsky
The Rite of Spring -- radically new non-tonal,
harsh unresolved dissonance, percussive,
brilliant orchestral effects, extreme ranges,
rhythmically and metrically very irregular and
quite innovative -- a riot (somewhat staged) at
its premiere much publicity ensues
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Stravinskys drawing
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Serialism
developed by Arnold Schoenberg An order of the 12
possible chromatic pitches is the basis of the
organization of a piece of music, not a key or
tonality or a scale Schoenberg his 2 pupils,
Alban Berg Anton Webern, become known as the
2nd Viennese School
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Schoenberg
Listening example Suite, Op 29, 1925 For 3
clarinets 3 strings piano Uses 12-tone
method of composition
Blue self-portrait, 1910
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Schoenberg
amateur Expressionist painter
The Red Gaze, 1910
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Webern

• STUDIED WITH SCHOENBERG
• STUDIED EARLY MUSIC HE WENT BACK TO MACHAUT,
  JOSQUIN AND OTHERS
• Modernist very influential in the European
  avant-garde and among American academic
  composers, particularly in the 1950s virtually
  unknown to the general public

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Webern listening example
first movement of Symphony, Opus 21 (1928)--
serialism -- emotionally concentrated, like
feelings frozen into a crystal-- very short
(only two movements)-- very small orchestra (can
be played by as few as 9 instruments)--
premiere at a society for private performances of
music in Vienna
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Stravinsky

• 3 periods
• Russian (Primitivist)
• Neo-Classical
• Late (Serialist)

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Stravinsky - Picasso

• 3 periods
• Russian (Primitivist)
• Neo-Classical
• Late (Serialist)

• several periods
• Primitivist
• Cubist
• Neo-Classical

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Picasso, Femme
Neo-classical
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Neo-Romanticism
BACKWATER OR MAINSTREAM?
SAMUEL BARBER Adagio for Strings, 1936
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Modernism Romanticism intensified?
Folk interest/exoticism ? primitivism Demons ?
Subconscious? (inner demons) Artist as prophet ?
Artist as prophet Artist as outsider/rebel ?
Artist as outsider/rebel What is new? ? What is
New? Historicism?
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TRENDS

• DISSONANCE LIBERATED
• PRIMITIVISM MORE GENERALLY FOLK MUSIC, AN
  ALTERNATIVE TO STANDARD PATTERNS FORMULAS
• CHAOTIC SURFACES, CONSISTENT INNER WORKINGS
• EXPRESSIONISM

CHAOS v. ORDER