20th Century 1

2020thth Century Century

(Modern Classical music)

20th Century 2

Impressionist musicImpressionist music

• Impressionism is a term borrowed from painting. – vague and hazy

outlines.

• Debussy wrote L'Apres-midi d'un Faune in 1894 his first “impressionist” work

• A reaction to the late romantic German style.

20th Century 3

ImpressionistImpressionist

• Chords are used for their expressive “colour”

• The usual laws of harmony are suspended

• Discords and sounds are allowed to merge (e.g. using the sustaining pedal in piano pieces)

20th Century 4

ImpressionistImpressionist• Flowing streams of Parallel Chords

-7ths,11ths, and 13ths

20th Century 5

ImpressionistImpressionist• Debussy uses:• Pentatonic scale

• MODES - Scales that are neither major or minor but ancient or non western collections of notes with different patterns of tones and semitones.

• Ostinato –repeated patterns (like riffs) in the accompaniment

• Programme Music- “evokes” or “suggests” a picture or a scene

20th Century 6

ImpressionistImpressionist

• Debussy uses:

• WHOLE TONE SCALE the intervals between each of the notes is a tone, whereas in major and minor scales the intervals are a mixture of tones and semitones

Genie Scale WHOLE New World

20th Century 7

ImpressionismImpressionism

• Debussy's Impressionist pieces include: » La Mer» Nocturnes» Images

• Other composers wrote in an impressionist style e.g.

• Respighi -Pines of Rome• De Falla -Gardens of Spain

20th Century 8

• Jazz influences• As well as folk influences some composers

experimented with jazz and Blues in their compositions. They used:

• The blues Scale.• Syncopation and complex rhythms to make the

music sound improvised.• Jazz instruments added to the orchestra -

MUTED brass, saxophones etc.• Jazz effects - GLISSANDO- sliding between

notes.

20th Century 9

• Examples of Jazz influences in 20th Century music include:

• George Gershwin -Rhapsody in Blue

20th Century 10

Rhapsody in BlueRhapsody in BlueThe Orchestra used borrowed certain Jazzy Features such as:

Clarinet GlissandoBanjoTrumpets played with Wah wah mutesBlues scale

SyncopationJazz Chords

20th Century 11

The prominence of the piano makes the piece more like a piano concerto

20th Century 12

Rhapsody in BlueRhapsody in Blue

20th Century 13

2020thth Century features Century features

• Irregular metre: changing time signatures or unusual time signatures

• CROSS RHYTHMS playing conflicting rhythms against each other to create excitement

• Smaller orchestra using percussion and wind instruments more than the more lush and expressive strings.

20th Century 14

• What else makes the music sound like it was written in the 20th Century?

• Abrupt modulations• Deliberate wrong notes/ Discords and

note clusters (where the notes are close together rather than evenly spaced as they are in a chord)

• The music can often sound angry or disturbing

20th Century 15

• Piano used as part of the orchestra• lots of percussion• unusual instruments• Instruments played in unusual ways:• COL LEGNO - string instruments played

with the back of the bow• FLUTTER TONGUING- rolled "rrr.." sound

while playing wind instruments.• MUTED on string instruments but

particularly on Brass instruments where the timbre is made thinner and more metallic sounding.

20th Century 16

2020thth century Atonal music century Atonal music

• 20th Century ATONAL• Schoenberg and his pupils Webern and

Berg are a group of composers working in Vienna at the turn of the Century who are sometimes called the Second Viennese school

• In his early music Schoenberg wrote in the expressive late romantic style.

• As the music became increasingly chromatic it ultimately became ATONAL, rejecting key or tonal centre

20th Century 17

2020thth century Atonal music century Atonal music

• the 12 notes of the chromatic scale are laid out in a random order and called a theme– They can be developed by ;

• reversing them (retrograde)• Turning them upside down (Inversion)• Both, (Retrograde inversion)

• Any music that sounds deliberately ugly or “random” is probably from the 20th century

20th Century 18

2020thth Century Atonal Century Atonal

• ALEATORIC or Chance-choice music• Uses unpredictability as part of composition or

performing process• improvisation• eg players choose when and/or what to play• All about experimenting (like performance art)

20th Century 19

More recent modern musicMore recent modern music

• MINIMALIST. – many repeated patterns – repeated sections, – deceptively complicated,

• cross rhythms,• polyrhythms• polytonality.( two different keys at the same time)

• composers: Philip Glass and Steve Reich

20th Century 20

20th Century 21