Twentieth Century Declarative Knowledge

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Twentieth Century Declarative Knowledge

Debussy and Impressionism

1. The Impressionist Painters

o Impressionism was a French movement developed by painters

Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir

o "First impression" of a subject captured by use of light and color

o Abandoned grandiose subjects of Romanticism

2. The Symbolist Poets

o Literary response to tradition

Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud

All influenced by American poet Edgar Allan Poe

Concern with the sound of a word as well as its meaning

Achieved an abstract quality in the text

3. Impressionism in Music

o Sentiment that the possibilities of the major/minor system had been exhausted

Attraction to ancient scales (church modes of the Middle Ages), exotic scales

(chromatic, whole tone)

o Interest in non-Western music flourished

Moorish music of Spain, Javanese, and Chinese orchestras (as heard at the 1889

World Exposition in Paris)

o A departure from Classical harmony is witnessed in Impressionism

Unresolved dissonances, parallel chords, ninth chords

Use of the chromatic scale and whole-tone scale parallel chords, ninth chords

o Orchestral color was exploited in new ways

o The pulse in Impressionist music tended to be obscured

o The large forms of the past were abandoned in favor of short lyric forms

4. Claude Debussy (1862–1918): His Life and Music

o French composer, trained at the Paris Conservatory

Rebelled against compositional traditions at Paris Conservatory

At age 22, won the Prix de Rome with cantata The Prodigal Son

o Fame came after the premiere of his opera Pelléas and Mélisande (1902)

o WWI robbed him of his interest in music

Died in 1918 during German bombardment of Paris

o Composed slowly, relatively small output

Most recognized works

Orchestral: La mer, three nocturnes, Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"

Piano: Clair de lune, Evening in Granada, Reflections in the Water, The

Sunken Cathedral

o He also composed chamber music and French songs


French song: independent of the German Lied

Chamber music: String Quartet in G minor, sonatas for cello and piano; violin and

piano; flute, viola, and harp

5. Debussy: Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun" (Listening Guide 65)

o Symphonic poem, based on a Mallarmé pastoral poem

Mythological faun

o Free ternary form

o Chromatic melody

o Rich orchestration creates evocative mood expressing poem's sensuality

Ravel and Post-Impressionism

1. Ravel's need for order and organization caused him to return to basic forms o His music falls between the ideals of Impressionism and Neoclassicism

2. Maurice Ravel (1875–1937): His Life o French composer, trained at the Paris Conservatory o Group of friends nicknamed the apaches (French for "ruffians"): avant-garde poets,

painters, musicians o Music reflects "exotic" interests o After WWI, Ravel was in high demand as composer and conductor o Visited the U.S. in 1928 o Influenced by American jazz o Died after surgery meant to repair a rare brain disease

3. Ravel's Music o National artist, drawn to French Impressionist images o Exploited "exotic" and ancient musical styles

Music of Spain and medieval scales o Often compared to Debussy in terms of style o Drawn to Classical forms o Master of the French art song o Orchestral works won him international admiration

Spanish Rhapsody, Mother Goose, Boléro 4. Ravel: Don Quixote to Dulcinea, two songs (Listening Guide 66) o This song cycle is Ravel's last work

Originally began as a film score Text, by Paul Morand, is drawn from Cervantes Evokes the mystique of Spain

o Each song is based on a Spanish dance rhythm 1) guijira rhythm alternates between metric feel of 3 and 2

Text portrays a chivalrous knight-errant 2) Prayer to St. Michael and St. George

Slow-paced meter based on Basque dance zortziko 3) Boisterous drinking song


Rhythms evoke Spanish jota (vigorous triple-meter dance) Melismatic singing suggests flamenco singing

Main Currents in Early Twentieth Century Music

1. The Reaction against Romanticism

o Early-20th-century music was the product of a reaction against Romanticism

Sought to escape refinement, adopt primitive, uninhibited, spontaneous style

o Turned towards non-Western sources (Africa, Asia, eastern Europe) for primal,

powerful rhythms, and fresh concepts

2. New Trends in the Arts

o Futurism, Dadaism, Cubism

Movement had an effect on artists (Erik Satie and Les Six in France)

3. Expressionism

o Expressionism was German response to Impressionism

Explores the worlds of the subconscious, hallucinations, and dreams

o Artists: Kandinsky, Klee, Kokoschka, Munch

o Composers: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern

o Musical characteristics:

Expressive harmony

Extreme ranges

Disjunct melodies

4. Neoclassicism

o Revival of balance and objectivity in the arts

o A return to formal structures of the past

o Began in the early 1920s

o Composers preferred absolute to program music

New Elements of Musical Style

1. The New Rhythmic Complexity

o Revitalization of rhythm

o Polyrhythm, polymeter, changing meter, irregular meters

2. The New Melody

o Becomes instrumental, not vocal, in character

Abounds in wide leaps and dissonant intervals

3. The New Harmony

o Beyond traditional systems of tonality

o Polychords, polyharmony

o New Conceptions of Tonality

The major-minor system was no longer dominant


It was expanded, combined, and avoided

Perceived drive toward the tonic is weakened

Polytonality: presentation of two or more simultaneous keys

Atonality: abandonment of tonality, all 12 tones are equal in importance

o The Twelve-Tone Method

Also known as serialism or dodecaphonic composition

Atonal method devised by Schoenberg

Strict system based on and unified by tone row

Tone row: arrangement of all 12 chromatic tones

Forms of the row: transposed, inverted, retrograde, retrograde inversion

o The Emancipation of Dissonance

Extreme dissonances become a normal part of the sound

No obligation to resolve to consonance

Texture: Dissonant counterpoint

Sparse linear texture (counterpoint)

o Orchestration

Leaner, smaller orchestra

String section no longer the "heart" of the orchestra

Composers favored the darker instruments (viola, bassoon, trombone)

Emphasis on rhythm brings percussion to the foreground

Piano becomes an orchestral instrument

o New Conceptions of Form

Composers revisit Classical ideals of tight organization and succinctness

Revival of older forms (toccata, fugue, concerto grosso, suite, etc.)

Formalists valued form over expressiveness

Stravinsky and the Revitalization of Rhythm

1. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): His Life

o Stravinsky embodied the most significant impulses of his time

o Russian composer, studied at the University of St. Petersberg

Left law studies for career in music

Studied with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov

o Serge Diaghilev (impresario of Ballets Russes) commissioned 3 ballets from Stravinsky

Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (1913)

The Rite of Spring incited a near riot on opening night

o 1920: Stravinsky settled in France

o 1939: visited the U.S. (Harvard University)

o At the outbreak of WWII, decided to stay in U.S.

Settled in Southern California, outside of Los Angeles


1945 became an American citizen

o Died in 1971 at the age of 89

2. Stravinsky's Music

o His music reflects changing trends (post-Impressionism, classicism, serialism, etc.)

o Leader in the revitalization of rhythm

o Considered one of the great orchestrators

o Early works

His music reflects nationalism

Reacted against the restless chromaticism of Romanticism

Three ballets for the Ballets Russes, The Soldier's Tale

o Neoclassical period

Oedipus Rex: opera-oratorio

Symphony of Psalms: for chorus and orchestra

The Rake's Progress: opera based on a series of engravings by Hogarth

o 12-tone music

Threni: Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah

3. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Listening Guide 67)

o Subtitled Scenes of Pagan Russia

Primitive-like theme, matched by primitive rhythms

o Expanded ensemble

8 French horns, 5 trumpets, 5 of each woodwind, a battery of percussion

o Melodies modeled after Russian folk songs

o Music is liberated from constraints of metric regularity

o Part I: Adoration of the Earth

Begins with bassoon melody in the uppermost range

The Dance of the Youths and Maidens

Strings play dissonant chords, elemental pounding heightened by the use of

polytonal harmonies

Game of Abduction

Uses Russian folk theme against ostinato

Section closes with Dance of the Earth

o Part II: The Sacrifice

Bitingly dissonant harmonies

Closes with frenzied climax, Sacrificial Dance

4. Stravinsky: The Royal March from The Soldier's Tale (Listening Guide 68)

o Small-scale theater work

o Written near the end of WWI, while Stravinsky was in exile in Switzerland

o Folk tale by Alexander Afanaseyev adapted by C. F. Ramuz

Commentary on the composer's exile from his homeland

o Scored for 7 instruments, 3 actors, and a female dancer

o Neoclassical elements abound: tonality, traditional forms, etc.


o The Royal March

Ternary form

Inspired by a memory of a bullfight band

Rhythmic intricacies and polyrhythm provide humorous backdrop

Spanish-dance melody (paso doble) is heard in the A section

Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School

1. The German Expressionist movement was manifested in the music of Arnold

Schoenberg and his followers

o The Second Viennese School is comprised of Schoenberg and his students

2. Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951): His Life

o Austrian composer, conductor, teacher, artist

o Largely self-taught composer

o Proponent of atonality and serial composition

o Teacher of Alban Berg, Anton Webern

o Emigrated to the U.S.

On faculty of USC and UCLA in Los Angeles

3. Schoenberg's Music

o Three style periods

Early works reflect post-Wagnerian Romanticism

Transfigured Night

Second period reflects Atonal-Expressionism

Pierrot lunaire

Third period reflects the creation of the 12-tone method and his time in America

A Survivor from Warsaw

4. Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire (Listening Guide 69)

o Song cycle from 1912

Texts by Albert Giraud (in German translation)

o Tale of a sad clown obsessed with the moon

All in rondeau form

o For voice and varied chamber ensemble

o Atonal work: no home key

No distinction between consonance and dissonance

o Use of Sprechstimme (spoken voice)

Klangfarbenmelodie (tone-color-melody)

o No. 18, The Moonfleck

For voice and 5 instruments

Highly contrapuntal and dissonant

Pierrot's frustration is heard in the atonality


o No. 21, O Scent of Fabled Yesteryear

Voice and 8 instruments

Melancholic and serene

Pierrot is at peace

More consonance is used to reflect the innocent past

Berg and Early-Twentieth-Century Opera

1. Alban Berg (1885–1935): His Life

o Austrian composer and teacher

o Student of Schoenberg

o Humanized the abstract methods of atonality and serialism and infused them with

feeling

o Served in the military during WWI

o Ardent supporter of techniques of Second Viennese School

o Hitler banned the works of 12–tone composers

o Died an unfortunate death at 50 of blood poisoning resulting from an insect bite

2. Berg's Music

o Style rooted in German Romanticism

o Leaned towards formal patterns of the past

o Adopted atonality and serialism of Schoenberg

o Best-known works include the Lyric Suite and 2 operas

Wozzeck, Lulu (unfinished)

3. Berg: Wozzeck (Listening Guide 70)

o Based on Expressionist play by Georg Büchner

Play is based on real-life events

o Berg wrote the libretto himself

Plot: Wozzeck's unhappy love affair and resulting tragic events

o Atonal harmony

o Use of leitmotifs

o Incorporates Sprechstimme

o Act III, Scene 4

Wozzeck returns to the scene of the crime, hallucinates, and commits suicide

o Interlude between Scene 4 and 5

Symphonic interlude in D minor

A passionate lament

Evokes the Romanticism of Mahler

o Act III, Scene 5

Marie's child is told of his mother's death


Webern and Serial Technique

1. Anton Webern (1883–1945): His Life

o Webern's works are brief, subtle, and fleeting

o Austrian composer and musicologist

o Followed Schoenbergian ideals

o Career suffered under the Third Reich

o During WWII sought refuge with family near Salzburg

Broke curfew to smoke a cigar and was shot to death, at age 62, by American

soldier

2. Webern's Music

o Removed himself almost completely from the tonal past

o Favored short forms, like others of the Second Viennese School

o His music is marked by unusual orchestration and extreme ranges

Sparse textures in very brief works

Strict use of 12-tone technique

o Extended 12-tone concept to include rhythms, timbres, dynamics

o New application called total serialism

3. Webern: Symphony, Opus 21 (Listening Guide 71)

o Scored for a chamber orchestra

o Entire symphony lasts less than 10 minutes

o Expanded use of Klangfarbenmelodie

o Texture is pointillistic

o Complex contrapuntal procedures (double canon, etc.)

o I: sonata-allegro form, based on a tone row

o II: theme and variations, based on row from first movement

Bela Bartok and the European Tradition

1. Twentieth-century nationalism differed from 19th-century trends

o Composers approached traditional music with a scientific spirit

New students of folklore took recording equipment into the field for authenticity

2. National Schools

o French: Les Six (Satie, Milhaud, Honegger, Tailleferre, Poulenc, Auric)

o Russian: Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian

o English: Elgar, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Britten

o German: Hindemith, Orff, Weill

o Hungarian: Bartók, Kodály

o Czech: Janáček

o Nordic: Sibelius


3. Béla Bartók (1881–1945): His Life and Music

o Hungarian composer

o Sought to end domination of German musical culture

o Separated true Hungarian music from music of Roma (Gypsies)

o Studied folklore

o Emigrated to the U.S. in 1940

o Suffered from leukemia, received help from ASCAP

o Died in New York City at 64

o Musical characteristics

Adhered to the logic and beauty of Classical from

Musical language based on Eastern European traditional music

New scales, polytonal harmonic language

Fought the "tyrannical rule of the major and minor keys"

Rhythmic innovator, changing meters, syncopations

4. Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (Listening Guide 72)

o Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra

o Five movements

I: Introduction, sonata-allegro, use of folklike pentatonic scale

II: Game of Pairs, featuring different pairs of winds

III: Elegia, contemplative and rhapsodic nocturne

IV: Interrupted Intermezzo, one theme borrowed from Shostakovich's Symphony

No. 7

V: Sonata-allegro form

American Traditions: The Music of Charles Ives and William Grant Still

1. Many 20th-century nationalists based their works on traditional and popular music

o Ives and Still in particular incorporated influences of "home grown" popular music

traditions

2. Popular Music in Late-Nineteenth-Century America

o Strong tradition of devotional music (spirituals and gospel hymns)

o Music publications were largely devotional, "white spirituals"

Shape-note system designed for easy reading of music

Tunes were set in simple 4-part harmonizations

o Parlor and minstrel songs of Stephen Foster were popular and remain popular

Oh, Susannah! Camptown Races, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair

o By the Civil War era, the military marched to the sounds of brass groups

After the war, members of military bands formed concert and dance groups

o Bandmaster John Phillip Sousa promoted and fostered the American wind band

Conducted the U.S. Marine Band and formed the group "Sousa's Band"

Wrote over 130 marches for band, dance music, and operettas


Sousa created a national music for the U.S.

3. Charles Ives (1874–1954): His Life and Music

o American composer and businessman

Studied at Yale with Horatio Parker

o Successful career in the insurance business

Composed after-hours and on weekends

His contributions were recognized late in life

o Drew on music of New England (hymns, patriotic songs, brass band, and dance music)

o Incorporated polytonality and polyrhythm, quarter tones (half the size of a half step)

o Central works were his 4 symphonies

4. Ives: The Things Our Fathers Loved (Listening Guide 73)

o Ives wrote the text

o Quotations from patriotic, religious, and popular tunes

o Dissonant harmony

5. William Grant Still: His Life and Music

o A major part of the "Harlem" Renaissance, an early-20th-century movement

o His Afro-American Symphony was the first work by an African-American composer to

be performed by a major symphony orchestra

o Born and raised in the south (Mississippi, Arkansas)

o Attended Wilberforce University in Ohio for a while

o Hired to work for W. C. Handy's bands in Memphis

o Served in WWI, then studied for a while at Oberlin

o Hired again by Handy to work in New York

Quickly gained a reputation as an arranger for radio and musical theater

o Studied with French expatriate Edgard Varèse

o Sought his voice in the music of his black cultural heritage

o Afro-American symphony premiered in 1931

Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Howard Hanson conducting

o 1934 won a Guggenheim Fellowship

Left New York for Los Angeles; composed for film and television

o New York City Opera performed his opera Troubled Island in 1949 (another first)

o Musical characteristics

Finely wrought, fairly conservative, often inspired by African-American themes

6. Still: Afro-American Symphony, II (Sorrow) (Listening Guide 74)

o Sought to elevate popular blues to realm of art music

o Each movement is in modified sonata-allegro form

o Blues harmonic pattern and influence of spirituals is evident


Nationalism in the Americas: Aaron Copland and Silvestre Revueltas

1. Aaron Copland (1900–1990): His Life and Works

o American composer, born in Brooklyn

o Studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger

o Incorporated jazz idioms in his works

o Experimented in Neoclassicism and 12-tone composition

o Composed piano pieces, orchestral works, ballets, film scores

2. Copland: Billy the Kid, Scene 1, Street in a Frontier Town (Listening Guide 75)

o Ballet on the story of William Bonney

o Later arranged the ballet as a concert suite

o Music includes tunes of the Wild West and Mexican dance (jarabe)

3. Silvestre Revueltas and Art Music Traditions in Mexico

o Mexican culture is a mixture of Amerindian, African, and Hispanic cultures

o Catholic Church has maintained a high profile since 1519

o The Mexican Revolution of 1910 served to stir up a strong sense of patriotism

Manuel Ponce and Carlos Chávez were leaders in the new nationalist movement

Chávez also directed the Orquesta Sinfónica de Mexico and the National

Conservatory, promoting the music of Mexican composers

4. Silvestre Revueltas (1899–1940): His Life and Music

o Mexican composer, born in Durango

o Child prodigy (violin), studied at the National Conservatory and in San Antonio, Texas

o Returned to Mexico as the assistant conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Mexico

o Traveled to Spain to support the Loyalist government during the Spanish Civil War

Inspired to compose the Homenaje a Federico García Lorca

o Returned to U.S. in 1937, periods of depression, alcoholism, and self-destruction

o Died at age 40 of alcohol-induced pneumonia

o His music is colorful and folkloric, without actually borrowing from known traditional

songs

o Mexican mestizo music is evoked through lyrical, direct melodies

Mariachi sound is gained by pairing melodic lines in thirds

o Political themes abound in his music

Homenaje is an overt anti-Fascist statement

Orchestral work Sensemayá inspired by verses of the anti-Fascist Afro-Cuban

poet Nicolás Guillén

5. Revueltas: Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (Listening Guide 76)

o I: Baile (Dance), a quick-paced duple-meter dance

Bears both indigenous and mestizo musical influences

o II: Duelo (Sorrow), based on soulful emotional melody

o III: Son (traditional dance), evocative of mariachi ensemble

Rondo-like form, celebrates Lorca's life in dance


Evokes flavor of rural dance and sound of mariachi

6. Music from the Mariachi Tradition

o Origins of mariachi are found in west Mexican state of Jalisco

Music is mestizo, a mixture of European and indigenous characteristics

o Early mariachi were small groups

Violins, guitars (including the guittarón and vihuela), sometimes harp

o After 1930, mariachi added trumpets and more violins

Exposure in film popularized mariachi across Mexico and in U.S.

Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán is the most famous from film and radio

o After 1950s, mariachis wear a traje de charro, the costume of a stylized rancher

Instrumentation consists of violins, trumpets, vihuela, guitars, guitarrón and

sometimes diatonic harp

o Mariachi repertory consists mostly of dance music

Rhythm alternates between a triple and duple feel, called sesquialtera

One of the most famous dance pieces is the Jarabe tapatío (known as the

Mexican Hat dance)

o Mexican son is mixture of indigenous, Spanish, and African traditions

Many regions have distinct son style and regional folkloric dance as well

o The son from Jalisco, the birthplace of mariachi, is the son jalisciense

Dance style for the son jalisciense is the zapateado

o Modern mariachi play all types of music

Mambo, salsa, cumbia, and other popular styles

o Mariachi festivals are popular in Mexico and in the southwestern U.S.

Many U.S. universities sponsor mariachi ensembles in their music programs

7. Son jalisciense: El Cihualteco (The Man from Cihuatlán) (Listening Guide 77)

o A popular son jalisciense

o Standard verse/chorus structure

Four-line verses (coplas) alternate with chorus (Ay sí sí, ay no no)

Verses are witty and flirtatious

o Melodic lines played in parallel thirds

o Sesquialtera provides restless unpredictability in the beat


Ragtime, Blues, and Early Jazz

1. Jazz is a 20th-century American musical style

o Drew from African traditions and traditions from the West, began in New Orleans

o Roots of jazz are in West African music (call-and-response), and 19th-century African-

American ceremonial and work songs

o Ragtime, a precursor to jazz, developed from African-American piano style

characterized by syncopated rhythms and sectional forms

2. Scott Joplin (1868–1917) and Ragtime

o American Composer

o "The king of ragtime"

o Joplin and ragtime gained notice during a performance at the 1893 World Exposition

(Chicago)

o Left St. Louis for Chicago, then went to New York

o Active in New York as teacher, composer, performer

o Sought to elevate ragtime to a serious art form

o After poorly received opera premiere (Treemonisha), fell into period of depression

o Died in New York in 1917

o Revival of Treemonisha in 1972 earned Joplin a posthumous Pulitzer Prize

o Some of his piano rags are preserved on recordings made by Joplin on Steinway player

piano rolls

3. Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag (Listening Guide 78)

o Regular sectional form

o Four strains, each repeated

o Syncopated rhythms

4. Blues and New Orleans Jazz

o Blues: an American form of folk music based on a simple, repetitive, poetic-musical

structure

o The term refers to a mood as well as harmonic progression

Harmonic progression is usually 12 (or 16) bars in length

Characteristic is the blue note (slight drop in pitch)

Blues texts typically consist of a 3-line stanza, the first 2 lines are the same

o Vocal style derived from work songs

o The art of improvisation is critical in blues

5. Louis Armstrong (1901–1971) and Early Jazz

o American musician (cornet and trumpet)

Nickname "Satchmo"

o Success in Chicago with the New Orleans–style ensemble King Oliver Creole Jazz Band

Great improviser

Used variety of mutes to expand capacities of trumpet in range and tone color

o Recording of Heebie Jeebies introduced scat singing (syllables without literal meaning)


o Jazz chorus is a single statement of a melodic-harmonic pattern

Armstrong introduced solo rather than ensemble choruses

o Style influenced generations of musicians

6. The Jazz Singer Billie Holiday (1915–1959)

o American blues and jazz singer

Nickname "Lady Day"

Tragic childhood

o Discovered by talent scout, sent to record with Benny Goodman

Sang with the top jazz musicians of her day

o Life deteriorated into drug and alcohol abuse

o Died at 44 from cirrhosis of the liver

o Recognizable singing style

7. Holiday: Billie's Blues (Listening Guide 79)

o Recorded with Artie Shaw on clarinet and Bunny Berigan on trumpet

o 12-bar blues

Short introduction and six choruses

o Begins with 3-line strophe, but becomes freer

o Demonstrates her masterful rhythmic flexibility

The Swing Era and Beyond

1. Early jazz gave way to the swing, or big band, era of the 1930s and 1940s

o Jazz provided new opportunities for black musicians

2. Duke Ellington (1899–1974) and the Big Band Era

o American composer, pianist, orchestrator, and big-band leader

Advent of big band brought a need for arranged (written-down) music

o Ellington was a brilliant orchestrator

His orchestral palette included a larger ensemble

o One of the Ellington Orchestra's most popular tunes was Take the A Train

3. Strayhorn: Take the A Train (Listening Guide 80)

o Written by composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn

o "A Train" is the subway line that runs to Harlem

o Form: A-A-B-A (Introduction and three choruses)

o Introduction features Ellington at the piano

4. Bebop and Later Jazz Styles

o Rebellion against big band results in bebop and cool jazz

o Bebop (also known as bop) mimics the trademark 2-note phrase of the style

Leaders of the style included: Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Charlie Parker

(saxophone), Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk (both piano)

o Bebop includes the subtypes


Cool jazz: Miles Davis

West Coast jazz: Dave Brubeck Quartet, Gerry Mulligan Quartet

hard bop, soul jazz

o Latin American bandleaders brought Latin dance music into the mainstream (rumba,

mambo, chachacha)

5. Gillespie/Parker: A Night in Tunisia (Listening Guide 81)

o Charlie Parker ("Bird") on saxophone, Miles Davis on trumpet

Improvisation is key to this work

Introduction is marked by an ostinato in the bass

o Tune is presented in Chorus 1 (A-A-B-A) form

Three improvised choruses follow

o Coda (same ostinato as Intro) closes the work

6. George Gershwin and the Merger of Classical and Jazz Styles

o European and American composers were drawn to ragtime, blues, and jazz

Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel, Copland

o George Gershwin (1898–1937) mastered the fusion of jazz and classical styles

Accomplished pianist and songwriter

Tin Pan Alley pianist

Musical theater productions: Girl Crazy, Porgy and Bess

Great success in vocal works, often collaborated with brother, Ira

Instrumental works were also popular

Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, An American in Paris

7. Gershwin: Piano Prelude No. 1 (Listening Guide 82)

o Loose ternary form

o Syncopations, use of blue note

o Highly rhythmic and jazzy style

Musical Theatre

1. The development of American musical theater

o Roots in European operetta (Gilbert and Sullivan)

o Romantic plots, comic moments, appealing melodies, large ensemble, and dance

numbers

o Early plots were often contrived and silly

o Composers soon turned to sophisticated literary sources for plots

o Composer/lyricist teams emerged

Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe

o Rock musicals emerged in the late 1960s

o 1970s: Stephen Sondheim's musicals increased in sophistication

o European composers took over the American genre


Andrew Lloyd Webber, Claude-Michel Schonberg

o Disney has a strong tradition of animated musicals and Broadway shows (Beauty and

the Beast, The Lion King)

o Dance musicals are also popular (Riverdance, Contact, Stomp)

o "Jukebox" musicals feature songs by a popular artist or group (Mamma Mia)

2. Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)

o American composer and conductor

o Appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic at age 25

o At 40, became first American-born and youngest conductor of NY Philharmonic

o His music combines the worlds of serious and popular music

Composed symphonic and choral music, film music, and musical theater works

o In West Side Story, Bernstein attempted a union of jazz with musical theater

3. Bernstein: West Side Story, excerpts (Listening Guide 83)

o Based on the story of Romeo and Juliet

o Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

o Set among street gangs of New York City

Jets vs. Puerto Rican rivals, the Sharks

o Influence of Latin dance music and jazz

o Favorite tunes: Mambo (Afro-Cuban dance)

o Tonight love duet in A-A-B-A form found in jazz

Rock and the Global Scene

1. Rock and roll emerged in the 1950s

o Origins in rhythm and blues, country-western, pop music, and gospel

o Crossed racial lines: white singers drew from black music; African-Americans got the

attention of white audiences

o In the 1960s a bevy of teen idols emerged

At the same time, black America turned to soul and Motown

o The Beatles took America by storm in the early 1960s

Later Beatles music reflected non-Western musical influence (India)

The Beatles' success inspired the British Invasion (the Rolling Stones)

o California groups raised the standard for studio production (the Beach Boys)

Folk rock also emerged in California, groups influenced by Bob Dylan and Joan

Baez

o Eclectic musical styles emerged: acid rock (the Doors, Jimi Hendrix)

o Culminating event for rock music in the 1960s was Woodstock Festival in 1969

o Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd spawned a new generation of improvisational bands and

trance music


2. The Eclecticism of the 1970s

o Art rock (progressive rock) served to unite classical instruments and form with rock

o Moody Blues; the Who; Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; Frank Zappa

o Latin rock was the fusion of Latin jazz with rock and roll

Santana's distinctive sounds comes from Latin and African percussion

o Other offshoots of rock and roll: heavy metal, glitter rock (glam rock), punk rock, disco,

reggae, new wave

3. The 1980s and Beyond

o The 1980s saw the development of the music video

MTV was important in the dissemination of rock

o Technological developments added synthesizers and stereo turntables to the music

Rap and hip hop became one of the most popular forms of music

o Soul and rhythm and blues divas were successful

Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey

o Grunge rock, alternative rock, and global pop are more recent developments

o "Alternative" rock of the late 1990s defies specific definition

Eclecticism represented by artists like Beck and Björk

o Women artists find success in all genres

Artists-singer-songwriters, folk music, pop-punk, country, rap, etc.

o Significant revivals have occurred and early rock bands enjoy continued success

Eagles, Rolling Stones, Elton John

o Older styles (blues, country, soul, ska, punk, etc.) are being updated by new artists

White Stripes, Alicia Keys, No Doubt, Green Day

o Popularity in rock is fleeting

4. Country-Western Music

o Country-western music evolved out of Appalachian folk songs

Early recordings have this type of music labeled "hillbilly" music

o Hollywood began to make movies featuring singing cowboys in the 1930s

o The Grand Ol' Opry was the place where many new acts were introduced

Bluegrass, Nashville sound

o Honky-tonk was electrified folk-derived music

o In the 1970s, classic country music and mainstream country emerged

Country rock or "southern-fried rock" was a successful crossover style

5. Global Pop

o Universalistic movement, not a single style

Promotes popular music of the third world, ethnic and traditional music from all

over the globe, and collaborations between Western and non-Western musicians

6. BeauSoleil and the Revival of Cajun Music

o Two distinct cultural groups in Southwestern Louisiana

Creoles: mixed French, Spanish, and African or Afro-Caribbean descent

Cajuns: French colonists of Canada, exiled by the British, settled in Louisiana


o The two groups shared French as a common language

Cajun music was mostly vocal, influenced by all southern music

o Zydeco music arose in midcentury as a blend of African-American, Caribbean, and

Cajun styles

Incorporates voice, fiddle, accordion, electric guitar, washboard

7. Think of Me (Jongle à moi), by BeauSoleil (Listening Guide 84)

o Traditional dance song

o Cajun fiddle techniques

Drones, double-stops, slides, trills

o Text is in Cajun French

8. Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Music of South Africa

o Paul Simon's collaborative album Graceland (1986) furthered the cause of the black

population in South Africa

Features mbube: choral singing style of South Africa

Mbube linked to protest against apartheid

A cappella choral responses, call-and-response patterns, irregular phrasing,

syncopated rhythms

o Group Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a voice for peace and freedom

Represents urbanization of traditional choral music

9. Homeless, by Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Listening Guide 85)

o A combination of English and Zulu lyrics

o Call-and-response singing style

o Verse/chorus structure

o Solo interjections, trills, vocal glides, and clicks (word painting)

o Speaks of the devastation left after a major hurricane

New Directions

1. Innovations of the latter half of the century have surpassed the "new music" of any era

2. The Arts since the Mid-Twentieth Century

o Post WWII social turmoil was reflected in the arts

o Musical trends mirrored movements in the arts

Abstract expressionism, pop art, postmodernism

o Feminist as well as ethnic art and literature flourished

o Literature and poetry have been the subject of widespread experimentation

Authors continued to create and have won awards (National Book Award,

Pulitzer, Nobel)

Recent new genre spawned by Zadie Smith = hysterical realism

Many authors have stirred controversy


Jonathan Franzen questioned the value of his book's listing on the Oprah

Winfrey's Book Club list (The Corrections, 2002)

Salmon Rushdie's novel (The Satanic Verses 1988) has been condemned by

the Muslim world

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is controversial among conservative

Christians

o Modern theater and music have merged in performance art

A multimedia genre explored by John Cage and Laurie Anderson

o National schools of filmmaking have developed in recent years

Especially in Germany, China, Poland and the U. S.

3. Toward Greater Organization in Music

o Later generations applied Schoenberg's 12-tone method to elements other than pitch

o The resultant total serialism is an extremely complex, ultrarational music

4. Toward Greater Freedom in Music

o Counter to total serialism was the desire for freedom from predetermination

Composers let chance determine great portions of the musical "happening"

Resultant indeterminate music is called aleatoric music

The flexible structure is known as open form

o Collage: a technique in which fragments of compositions (old and new) are layered

o Musicians sought to free themselves from the restrictions of the chromatic scale

Evolution of electronic instruments makes microtonal scales more practical

Intervals smaller than semitones in a microtonal scale

Originally a part of a variety of world musics

5. The Postwar Internationalism

o Leaders in compositional experimentation hailed from all over the world

U.S.: Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman

Italy: Luciano Berio

Greece: Iannis Xenakis

Poland: Krzysztof Penderecki

Germany: Karlheinz Stockhausen

France: Pierre Boulez

Russia: Sofiya Gubaidulina

o Postwar Era voices in the United States

Elliott Carter pioneered a technique he called "metric modulation"

George Perle reconciled serial procedures with tonality

Henry Brant, Canadian composer, experimented with spatial relationships


The New Virtuosity of the Modern Age

1. Contemporary music calls for new and highly virtuosic technique

o Some performers specialize in avant-garde music

Cathy Berberian, Jan DeGaetani

2. Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992): and the Postwar era

o French composer, organist, and educator

o Messiaen's music is an expression of his religious faith

Draws on medieval church modes, chant, and Eastern sounds (India, Java)

o His love of nature, especially bird song, is reflected in his music

3. Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (Listening Guide 86)

o Written while a POW in Germany, 1940

Imprisoned with a violinist, cellist, and clarinetist

Composed while interred and gave a concert to other prisoners

o The work is based on a passage from the Revelation of St. John

Scored for piano, violin, cello, clarinet

8 movements that incorporate the sounds of birds, of Gregorian chant, the

expressive quality of the cello, and Messiaen's mysticism

4. Pierre Boulez (b. 1925) and the French Avant-Garde

o French composer

o Influenced by Messiaen, Debussy, Stravinsky, Webern

o Embraced total serialism

o Emotional content of Boulez's music is broad

o Fond of the sound of the gamelan

o Recent works combine media (orchestra and electronic equipment)

An example of this is his concerto for MIDI flute

Flute communicates with a computer in performance

o Conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra

o Co-founder of IRCAM, the French center for computer music research

5. Boulez: Notations IV (Listening Guide 87)

o One of his chief early works

o Composed in 1945 (piano), orchestrated in 1978

Revision calls for a huge orchestra

o Constructed from three hexachords (6-note sequences)

o Unified by an ostinato, which is manipulated through a complex process Boulez calls

frequency multiplication

o Boulez describes the work as "organized delirium"

6. George Crumb (b. 1929) and Avant-Garde Virtuosity

o American Composer, numerous awards and honors

Pulitzer, Grammy Award

o Emotional, dramatic, expressive music


o Professor of composition at the University of Pennsylvania until 1999

o Affinity for the poetry of Federico García Lorca

7. Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children (Listening Guide 88)

o Cycle of songs for soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin, harp, electric piano,

percussion

o Voice is used like an instrument

o Opens with a vocalise (wordless melody)

o Includes singing into an amplified piano, singing microtones

o Percussion includes instruments from around the world

o Mysterious music reflects dark intimations of poetry

Contemporary Composers Look to World Music

1. The West has always felt the influence of other cultures

o A number of composers responded to the philosophy of the Far East

In particular, Californians Henry Cowell, Harry Partch, and John Cage

2. Important Experimenters

o Henry Cowell (1897–1965) drawn to a variety of non-Western musics

Student of the music of Japan, India, Iran, rural Ireland and America

Experimented with foreign scales

Innovations include tone clusters

Adjacent tones are struck with the fist, palm, etc.

o Harry Partch (1901–1974)

Serious proponent of microtonal music (he devised a scale of 43 pitches)

Unique now instruments (cloud-chamber bowls, diamond marimba, etc.)

3. The Music of John Cage (1912–1992)

o American Composer

o Student of Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg

o Invented the prepared piano to simulate the sound of the Javanese gamelan

Consisted of items (nails, bolts, etc.) inserted in the piano strings

o Preoccupied with East Asian philosophy

o Quest for tranquility pervades his life and work

o Composed music based on chance (indeterminacy)

o Explored the role of silence: 4'33" (a piece of silence)

4. Cage: Sonata V, from Sonatas and Interludes (Listening Guide 89)

o A group of 16 pieces for the prepared piano

Bits of materials inserted in between strings

Approximates the sounds of the Javanese gamelan

o Captures the meditative character of Oriental thought

o Set in binary form (A-A-B-B)


5. The Javanese Gamelan

o Indonesia comprises many diverse cultures and musical traditions

o The gamelan is central to the musical traditions

Composed of melodic percussion instruments

o Music is played from memory, passed as an oral tradition

o Played for ritual ceremonies (court, shadow-puppet theater)

o Two tunings: sléndro (5-note), pélog (7-note)

6. Javanese Gamelan Music: Patalon (Listening Guide 90)

o Patalon serves as an overture to the shadow puppet play

o In shadow puppet theater (wayang), a master puppeteer

Operates the puppets

Narrates and sings the songs

Leads the gamelan

o The performance begins in the early evening and continues until dawn

o Rhythmic structure is cyclic (colotomic structure)

o Melodic framework (balungan) interacts with rhythmic structure

o Instruments played are metallophones (metallic percussion)

7. Multicultural Influences in Contemporary Society

o The impulse toward a world music sound continues with contemporary composers

o Today's artists are more exposed to multicultural influences than ever before

8. György Ligeti's (1923-2006) and his Etudes for Piano

o Hungarian composer

o Active in electronic music, serial music, incorporation of world music

o Innovator of "micropolyphony": interweaving complex polyphonic fabric

o Shape is derived from barely perceptible shifts in timbre, dynamics, texture

o Resultant effect is a murmuring continuum

o Most popular works: Atmosphéres, Lux aeterna (included in Kubrick's film 2001: A

Space Odyssey)

9. Ligeti: Disorder (Désordre), from Etudes for Piano, Book I (Listening Guide 91)

o Explores rhythmic manipulation

o Method derivative of sub-Saharan African and Indonesian rhythm

Ligeti was particularly interested in the region of Uganda

o Book I, Disorder: additive meters (5 + 3, 3 + 5) over triple patterns

o Virtuosic ability needed to play complex rhythms

10. Music from East Africa

o Uganda is in eastern Africa (bordering Kenya and Lake Victoria)

o Many outside forces have significantly influenced the culture

o Musical instruments of the region: chordophones, aerophones, idiophones, and

membranophones

o Pentatonic music is favored in this region


11. Eastern African Music: Ensiriba ya munange Katego (Listening Guide 92)

o Tale of a sub-chief who loses his good luck charm

o Played by an entenga (prestigious court drumming ensemble)

Melodic drums play using a pentatonic scale

o The work has a dense polyrhythmic texture

o Music is transmitted orally through the master/apprentice system

12. Bright Sheng (b. 1955) and the Meeting of Musical Cultures

o An innovative composer, he blends Western and Asian cultures

o His Chinese name is Sheng Song-Liang (Liang means "bright lights")

His Anglicized name is a combination of English and Chinese

o Born and raised in Shanghai

o In 1966, the Red Guards took away his piano because it was considered "bourgeois"

o Sent to Tibet during the Revolution

Learned to play other instruments and gathered folk songs

o In 1976, the Revolution ended and he entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music

o Studied in the U.S.

Queens College, Columbia University

o Successful musical career in the U.S.

o Works to preserve Eastern traditional musical cultures

Collaborates in this project with Yo-Yo Ma

o Merger of Eastern and Western ideas enriches the listener's understanding of both

cultures

13. Sheng: China Dreams: Prelude (Listening Guide 93)

o A symphonic suite composed between 1992 and 1995

o Four movements for large orchestra

o Nostalgic in tone

o Combines Western and Eastern musical ideas

o The opening Prelude evokes Chinese folk music

In particular the northwest region

Pentatonic melodies, sliding glissando figures

Three-part structure

o Fanfare is more agitated and percussive

Reflects unpleasant memories of China

o The Stream Flows draws on a well-known folk song

From southern China Yunnan province

o The Last Three Gorges of the Long River

Inspired by a dream, refers to the Yangtze River

14. An Introduction to Chinese Traditional Music

o To understand Bright Sheng's music, exploring Abing's (1883–1950) music is helpful

o Chinese composer, born Hua Yanjun

o Orphaned and later adopted by Daoist monk


Began studying music as an apprentice Daoist

Expelled for playing sacred music in secular settings

o Before dying in 1950, recorded 6 of his works

o His music is highly revered and part of the standard repertory at modern

conservatories

15. Abing: The Moon Reflected on the Second Springs (Er quan ying yue) excerpt (Listening

Guide 94)

o Originally conceived for solo erhu

Bowed two-string fiddle, played upright, with a snakeskin-covered sound box

o Modern version adds the yangqin

Hammered dulcimer with trapezoidal sound box strung with metal strings and

struck with bamboo strips

o Based on a pentatonic scale (D-E-G-A-B)

o The melody is repeated 4 times, each with more ornamentation

Music for Films

1. Music has helped to create some of the most memorable moments in film history

2. The Role of Music in Film

o The most important function of music in film is to set a mood

o Supplying music that contradicts what is seen creates irony

Technique known as running counter to the action

o There are two principal types of music in a film

Underscoring: comes from an unseen source, often an invisible orchestra

Source music: functions as a part of the drama, from a logical source

o Leitmotifs create musical unity within the context of the drama

3. Music in the Silent Film Era

o Silent films were generally accompanied by solo piano or organ

Special organs were capable of producing effects (gunshots, animal noises, etc.)

Music was one of three types:

Classical music, arranged well-known tunes, and new music

4. The Sound Era

o The late 1930s is considered the Golden Age of films and film music

o Major composers of early Hollywood: Max Steiner, Eric Korngold (both Austrian)

Germany, France, and the Soviet Union also pursued filmmaking

Shostakovich was known as composer for Stalin's propaganda films

Prokofiev wrote 8 Soviet films (including Alexander Nevsky)

5. Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953): His Life and Music

o Russian composer, started his musical training in the conservatory at 13

Early success as a pianist and composer


o Emigrated to Paris after the Revolution of 1917

Frequently traveled across Europe and into the U.S.

o Returned to Russia

Accused by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of "bourgeois

formalism" (influenced by European modernism)

Was censored, and his music was removed from the repertory

His works found their way back into the concert hall nonetheless

o Died on March 5, 1953, one day after Stalin

6. Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Seventh Movement (Listening Guide 95)

o Sergei Eisenstein production, 1938

o Based on the life of a folk hero who defeated the Germans

o Prokofiev wrote the film score, later arranged it into a cantata

o The cantata has 7 movements

Scored for chorus, mezzo-soprano, and orchestra

Alexander's Entry into Pskov, movement 7

Triumphal return of conquering hero

7. The Postwar Years

o Financial constraints curtailed the lush symphonic score of the Golden Age

o Composers used popular genres as well as 20th-century art music

o Major composers of the postwar years: Bernard Herrmann, Miklós Rózsa

Rózsa used the Theremin was used to create eerie effects

o Later composers included Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein

o After the late 1940s, film music was newly composed or borrowed from Classical or

popular repertory: rock, country-western, and jazz

o In the 1950s, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith emerged as film composers

8. Beyond Star Wars

o Star Wars (1977) revolutionized the industry in terms of visual and aural effects

o The score by John Williams was immensely popular

Incorporated full symphony orchestra, use of leitmotifs

o John Williams (b. 1932)

Wrote for television in the 1950s and 1960s

Began to compose for films in the 1960s

1970s successes

Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman

1980s, 1990s, and the present:

Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter films, Munich

o James Horner (b. 1953)

Studied in Los Angeles (University of Southern California, UCLA)

Successes include Star Trek II & III, Apollo 13, Titanic, etc.

o Synthesizers were a major part of the sound of 1980s film scores

Synthesizers are largely the domain of popular musicians


o Danny Elfman (b. 1953)

Founder of the rock group Oingo Boingo

Worked with director Tim Burton

Successful scores for many films

Beetlejuice, Batman, Men in Black, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

o Hans Zimmer (b. 1957)

Comes from a popular music background

Successes include: Rain Man, The Lion King, Gladiator, Pearl Harbor,

Madagascar, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

o Rachel Portman (b. 1960)

First woman to win an Academy Award for Best Music (Emma, 1996)

Successes include: The Joy Luck Club, The Cider House Rules, The Manchurian

Candidate

o During the 1990s and into the 21st century, American composers of art music turned

to film

John Corigliano, The Red Violin; Tan Dun, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Elliot

Goldenthal, Frida

o Minimalism made its way into film in the 1990s

The Matrix and The Hours with scores by Philip Glass

9. Williams: Raiders March, from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Listening Guide 96)

o Heard in its entirety during the closing credits of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Fashioned from two leitmotifs in the film (Indiana Jones and Marion)

o Three-part form (Indiana Jones theme, Marion's theme, Indiana Jones theme)

o Instrumentation and beat of a traditional march

Technology and Music

1. The Technological Revolution

o Two trends emerged simultaneously in the late 1940s and early 1950s

o Musique concrète: Paris-based movement headed by Pierre Schaeffer

Relied on recordings of natural sounds that were manipulated through external

devices

The American offshoot of tape music incorporated artificially generated sounds

o Electronische Musik: Cologne-based movement headed by Herbert Eimert

Major proponent was Karlheinz Stockhausen

The heart of the system was the oscillator (electronic waveform generator)

Waveforms were subjected to many types of manipulation

o Eventually the many components were combined into a synthesizer

o Synthesizers

RCA first delivered the synthesizer in 1955


A second version was delivered to Columbia-Princeton's Electronic Music Center

in 1959

o Robert Moog and Donald Buchla created a more compact and affordable synthesizer

in the 1960s

o First electronic piece commissioned by a record company: Morton Subotnik's Silver

Apples of the Moon (1967)

o Widespread popularity of the synthesizer came after the 1968 recording Switched-On

Bach by Walter (later Wendy) Carlos

o Digital frequency modulation synthesis replaced analog systems (developed by John

Chowning at Stanford)

Chowning sells rights to Yamaha—developed Yamaha DX7 (1983)

o Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) adopted in 1983

o Technology became affordable in the mid-1980s

o Digital samplers re-created realistic sounds of any noise

o Composers combined computer savvy with musical inspiration

o Hiller and Issacson's software MUSIC generated musical compositions (1956)

2. Important Figures in Electronic Music

o Edgard Varèse (1883–1965), French expatriate in the U.S.

Turned to electronic medium late in life

Poème electronique (1956–58)

Commissioned for a sound-and-light show at Philips Pavilion at the 1958

Brussels World's Fair

Consisted of electronic and concrète sounds recorded on a multi-channel

tape

Pavilion was designed by Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis (who later

became a composer)

Music accompanied the lighting effects and projected images

The piece was played on more than 400 speakers in the pavilion

2 million people experienced the composition by the end of the World's

Fair

o Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934)

Argentine-born American composer

Combines electronic sounds with live music

Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York

Currently teaching at Harvard University

Best-known works: Synchronisms (1963–88)

o Milton Babbitt (b. 1916)

American composer

Composed at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center

Combined electronic music with live performers

Representative works: Philomel (1964), Phonemena (1974; soprano & tape)


o Pauline Oliveros (b. 1932)

American Composer

Helped found the San Francisco Tape Center; became director in 1966

Explores mixed media, multichannel tape and live performers

Known for experiments with live electronic music and "deep listening"

perception process

3. Tod Machover (b. 1952) and Musical Interactivity

o A leader in the contemporary music scene

o Embraced technology as creative tool

o Spent five years as Director of Musical Research in Paris at IRCAM

o Explores American music styles (art and popular, including rock)

o Goal in music is to "make people pay attention and listen carefully"

o Professor of music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Creates "smart" computers that follow gestures and intentions of performers

Dextrous Hand Master

4. Machover: Hyperstring Trilogy: Begin Again Again . . . , excerpts (Listening Guide 97)

o Piece for solo cello, inspired by J. S. Bach's Cello Suite No. 2

Cellist is in control of an array of live computer electronics

o Written for Yo-Yo Ma, premiered at the Tanglewood Festival in 1991, recently revised

o Conceived as the first in a trilogy based on Dante's Divine Comedy

Explores the possibility of renewal after suffering

o Form is in two large parts, each with a theme and four variations

Some Current Trends

1. Highly intellectual music caused reactionary trends that seek immediate audience

appeal

o Minimalism and New Romanticism are primary movements

2. Minimalism and Post-Minimalism

o Minimal art first found expression in painting and sculpture

o Composers of this style stripped their compositions down to the barest essentials

Features: repetition of melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns with very little

variation

o The listener's attention is focused on a few basic details

o Turns away from the highly intellectual style of the serialists

o Minimalists often incorporate non-Western ideas

o Widely known composers of minimalism: Steve Reich (b. 1936), Philip Glass (b. 1937)

o Spiritual minimalism: offshoot of minimalism

Mainly a European trend, deeply meditative


Nonpulsed music inspired by religious beliefs

Expressed in chains of lush modal or tonal progressions

Primary composers: Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki, John Taverner

3. Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) and Spiritual Minimalism

o Estonian composer

o Concert, film, and stage composer

o Explored 20th-century techniques (Neoclassicism, serialism)

o Religious convictions made life in the Soviet Union difficult

o Left for West Berlin

o Composes Latin and Orthodox Church choral music

o Created a new style called tintinnabulation (from the Latin word for ringing of bells)

4. Pärt: Cantate Domino canticum novum (Listening Guide 98)

o Inspired by medieval chant

o Latin text, based on Psalm 95

o Uses notation system similar to Gregorian chant, not traditional notation

o Scored for SATB chorus and organ

o Tintinnabular (bell) style

o Incorporates word painting

o Varied texture, use of counterpoint

5. John Adams (b. 1947) and Post-Minimalism

o American composer

o Educated at Harvard, steeped in serialism

o Influenced by rock music

o Moved to San Francisco

Advocate for contemporary music in the Bay Area

Taught at the San Francisco Conservatory

o Incorporates late Romantic expressive harmonies in minimalist music

o Often collaborates with director Peter Sellars

6. Adams: Tromba Lontana (Distant Trumpet) (Listening Guide 99)

o Short orchestral fanfare

One of two fanfares written in 1986

Short Ride in a Fast Machine = exuberant and propulsive

Tromba lontana = quiet and introspective

o Commissioned by the Houston Symphony

Includes 2 solo trumpets placed at opposite sides of the stage

o Evokes Eastern music with sues of crotales and string harmonics

o Mesmerizing, repetitive accompaniment in the orchestra

7. The New Romanticism

o New Romanticism is a reaction to the intellectual and alienating 12-tone movement

o New Romanticism favors a harmonic language from the late Romantic era

o Precursors to the movement include Samuel Barber, Ned Rorem


o John Corigliano (b. 1938) follows in this tradition

Composes in a wide variety of genres including film music (The Red Violin, 1999)

8. Libby Larsen (b. 1950) and the Musical Voice of Women

o One of very few composers making a living with music alone (not an academic

position)

o Born in Delaware and raised in Minneapolis

Co-founded the Minnesota Composers' Forum

Now the American Composers' Forum

Key group in a time of limited support for the arts in the U. S.

o Has held some very diverse composer-in-residence positions

o Inspired largely by nature and writings of women

9. Larsen: Sonnets from the Portuguese, Nos. 5 and 6 (Listening Guide 100)

o Worked closely with singer Arleen Auger in composing this 6-song cycle

Auger premiered the work and the recording won a Grammy in 1994

o Set to poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Love poems secretly written during the courtship with Robert Browning

o Larsen describes the songs as "metaphor[s] of resolved and unresolved harmonies"

o No. 5 "Oh, yes!" features:

Disjunct lines

Quick exchanges between solo voice and woodwinds

Alternation of speechlike quality with lyrical lines

Dissonance and chromaticism with reference to Musselmans and Giaours

o No. 6 "How do I love thee?" features:

Free-flowing, arched lines according to the text

Expressive use of instruments

Subtle text-painting


The Twentieth Century (1900-2000)

o The Era

Technological explosion, scientific advances, two World Wars, the nuclear

bomb, mass availability (inevitability) of music in everyday life.

o Major Composers:

John Philip Sousa (American,1854-1932)

Claude Debussy (French, 1862-1918)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (English 1872-1958)

Maurice Ravel (French, 1875-1937)

Charles Ives (American, 1874-1954)

Sergei Rachmaninoff (Russian, 1873-1943)

Arnold Schoenberg (Austrian, 1874-1951)

Bela Bartok (Hungarian, 1881-1945)

Igor Stravinsky (Russian, 1882-1971)

Edgar Varese (French 1883-1965)

Anton Webern (Austrian, 1883-1945)

Alban Berg (Austrian)1885-1935)

Sergei Prokofiev (Russian,1891-1953)

Aaron Copland (American, 1900-1990)

Dmitri Shostakovich (Russian, 1906-1975)

Elliott Carter (American 1908-)

Oliver Messiaen (French, 1908-1992)

John Cage (American, 1912-1992

Benjamin Britten (English, 1931-1976)

Leonard Bernstein (American, 1918-1990)

Karlheinz Stockhausen (German, 1928-)

George Crumb (American, 1929-)

Krzysztof Penderecki (Polish, 1933-)

Steve Reich (American, 1936-)

Philip Glass (American, 1937-)

o Style:

Form Continued use of most older principles of form.

Melody Extreme range, wide leaps, disjunct motion, asymmetry.

Tone Color Exploitation of extremes in texture and timbre, exploration of

electronic and synthesized sounds.

Harmony Emancipation of dissonance. Unresolved, or new resolutions of

dissonance, atonality, polytonality, pantonality, clusters, stacked chords,

quartal harmony.

Rhythm Extremes of tempo, changing meter, cross-rhythms, polyrhythms,

irregular accents

o Genres


Impressionism - term borrowed from painting. “Objective.” Whole tone

scales, parallel chord movement, unresolved dissonance, especially seventh

and ninth chords. “Shimmering, floating quality.”

Expressionism - extremely subjective approach of Schoenberg, Berg and

Webern. “Art should express the inner consciousness of its creator rather

than external reality,” thus, extremes, distortion, exaggeration.

Primitivism - the deliberate evocation of primitive power through insistent

rhythms and percussive sounds, as in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

Neoclassicism - emotional restraint, balance and clarity, a return to forms

and stylistic features of the 18th century.

Nationalism - late Romantic trend, deliberate use of folk music and themes

to give music a distinct national flavor.

Avant-garde - on the leading edge of a change in style.

o Vocabulary

aleatory - chance music; element of composition left to the performer

atonality - absence of key or tonal center

bitonality - two clearly established tonalities occuring simultaneously

glissando

serial music

microtone

minimalism

Moog synthesizer

musique concrete (Fr.)

ostinato

pentatonic

polychord

polyrhythm

polytonality

retrograde

quartal harmony

Sprechstimme (Ger.)

tone cluster

whole tone scale

Time Band I REPRESENTATIVE WORKS (in-depth study):

o African Sanctus

o The Rake's Progress

o Petroushka

o The Rite of Spring

o The Firebird

o Wozzack

o A Survivor from Warsaw


o Different Trains

o Music for 18 Musicians

o Concerto for Orchestra

o Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

o Ancient Voices of Children

o Pierrot lunaire

o Poeme Electronique

Documents

Twentieth Century Declarative Knowledge