The Impressionist and Modern Eras

Name: ___________________________________ Date: _________________

Impressionism Dates:

Characteristic 1:

Characteristic 2:

Characteristic 3:

Whole tone scale

1880 – 1925 Represented water & lightUsed whole tone scaleDistinctly French

All whole stepsC D E F# G# A#C# D# F G A B

Claude Debussy

Influential 4th/5th harmony, water music

Maurice RavelOrchestral Impressionism - Bolero

“Before I compose a piece, I walk round it

several times, accompaniedby myself."

Dates: 1866 – 1925

1. Unusual person2. Got rid of elements of music such as time signature

3. Wrote “furniture music”

Modern MusicDates:

Characteristic 1:

Characteristic 2:

Characteristic 3:

Neoclassicism

1900 to present

Logical and mathematical

Experimental

Abandons tonality (no key)

Use classical rules of structure and composition, but create new, 20th century sound.

Piece that uses all 12 notes before it returns to repeat a note.

12 tone composition

Not used in western music until modern – smaller than a half step (cannot produce on piano)

Aleatoric music – relies on some chance to determine how it is performed (dice, darts, etc.)

Chance Music

AtonalNot in any key.

Very little movement, few note names, slow changes.

Minimalism

Quarter Tone

Modern Composers

Paul Hindemith

George Gershwin

Arnold Schoenberg

12 tone music

American jazzy orchestra

German neoclassicist

Igor Stravinsky

Aaron Copland

John Cage

Rite of Spring – ballet

American folk in orchestra style

“What is sound?”

Modern Composers

Class WorkName: _____________________________________

Date: ______________________________________

Listening Activity #1Piece Title Year Descriptive Word Like Y/N

Concerto for Cello and Orch.

Fanfare for the Common Man

West End Blues

Concerto in F

“Cool” from W.S.S.

Petroushka

Nacht (Night)

Tambourine Man

Wozzeck

Listening Activity #2Respond to this question while listening to music from the Rite of Spring.

Why do you think people reacted so violently to the performance of the Rite of Spring? Would it be possible for you to go to a concert and have that kind of reaction?

1972

1942

1928

1924

1961

1911

1912

1965

1925

Listening Activity #3How does each piece give you the feeling of war victims? Think. Each answer is worth three points: 1) Complete sentence, 2) Includes at least one unique descriptive adjective (not the same adjective for each piece) and 3) Includes at least one musical term (melody, harmony, dynamics, timbre, tempo, etc.)

Example: This piece has harsh sounding harmonies which represent the painful emotions that victims in war experience.

Piece 1: A Survivor From Warsaw

Piece 2: A Quartet for the End of Time

Piece 3: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

Piece 4: Black Angels

Listening Activity #4

Listening Activity #5 Why it IS music Why it ISN’T music

Sounds You Hear Music? Why or why not?