" IMPRESSIONISM "One of the earlier but concrete forms declaring the entry

of 20th century music was known as impressionism. It is a French

movement in the late 19th and early 20th century.The and dramatic
emotionalism of the preceding Romantic Period (their themes and melody
are easy to recognize and enjoy) were being replaced in favor of moods and
impressions. There is an extensive use of colors and effects, vague melodies,
and innovative chords and progressions leading to mild dissonances.

. CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) One of the most important and influential

of the 20th century composers was Claude Debussy. He was the primary
exponent of the impressionist movement and the focal point for other
impressionist composers.

He changed the course of musical development by dissolving traditional

rules and conventions into a new language of possibilities in harmony,
rhythm, form, texture, and color.

Debussy was born in St. Germain- en-Laye in France on August 22, 1862.
His early musical talents were channeled into piano lessons. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1873.
He gained a reputation as an erratic pianist and a rebel in theory and Harmony.

He added other systems of musical composition because of his musical training. In 1884, he won the top
prize at the Prix de Rome competition with his composition L’ Enfant Prodigue (The Prodigal Son).

This enabled him to study for two years in Rome, where he got exposed to the music of Richard Wagner,
specifically his opera Tristan und Isolde, although he did not share the latter’s grandiose style.

Debussy’s mature creative period was represented by the following works: • Ariettes Oubliees • Prelude
to the Afternoon of a Faun • String Quartet • Pelleas et Melisande (1895)—his famous operatic work
that drew mixed extreme reactions for its innovative harmonies and textural treatments.

• La Mer (1905)—a highly imaginative and atmospheric symphonic work for orchestra about the sea •
Images, Suite Bergamasque, and Estampes—his most popular piano compositions; a set of lightly
textured pieces containing his signature work Claire de Lune (Moonlight)

His musical compositions total more or less 227 which include orchestral music, chamber music, piano
music, operas, ballets, songs, and other vocal music.

MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)

Ravel’s works include the following: • Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899), a slow but lyrical requiem •
Jeux d’Eau or Water Fountains (1901) • String Quartet (1903) • Sonatine for Piano (c.1904) • Miroirs
(Mirrors), 1905, a work for piano known for its harmonic evolution and imagination,
• Gaspard de la Nuit (1908), a set of demonic-inspired pieces based on the poems of Aloysius Bertrand
which is arguably the most difficult piece in the piano repertoire.

• These were followed by a number of his other significant works, including Valses Nobles et
Sentimentales (1911) • Le Tombeau de Couperin (c.1917), a commemoration of the musical advocacies
of the early 18th century French composer Francois Couperin,

• Rhapsodie Espagnole • Bolero • Daphnis et Chloe (1912), a ballet commissioned by master

choreographer Sergei Diaghilev that contained rhythmic diversity, evocation of nature, and choral
ensemble • La Valse (1920), a waltz with a frightening undertone that had been composed for ballet and
arranged as well as for solo and duo piano.

• The two piano concerti composed in 1929 as well as the violin virtuosic piece Tzigane (1922) total the
relatively meager compositional output of Ravel, approximating 60 pieces for piano, chamber music,
song cycles, ballet, and opera.

"Expressionism"

Was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of
the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it
radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.

The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including expressionist architecture, painting, literature,
theatre, dance, film and music.

The term expressionism "was probably first applied to music in 1918, especially to Schoenberg", because
like the painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) he avoided "traditional forms of beauty" to convey
powerful feelings in his music (Sadie 1991, 244).

Characteristics of expressionism in music:

* episodic, fragmentary form and structure

* abrupt musical language

* clashing dissonances

* interest in common man

* tonality, triadic harmony, and consonance vs.

dissonance are not valid anymore

* abstract procedures

* great emotional intensity

Arnold Schoenberg

-Schoenberg was an Austrian composer who became one of the most dominant and controversial figures
of modern music.

Arnold Schoenberg remains one of the most controversial figures in the history of music. From the final
years of the 19th century to the period following World War II, Schoenberg produced music of great
stylistic diversity, inspiring fanatical devotion from students, admiration from peers like Mahler, Strauss,
and Busoni, riotous anger from conservative Viennese audiences, and unmitigated hatred from his many
detractors.

Born in Vienna on September 13, 1874, into a family that was not particularly musical, Schoenberg was
largely self-taught as a musician. An amateur cellist, he demonstrated a particular aptitude for
composition at an early age. He received rudimentary instruction in
harmony and counterpoint from Oskar Adler and briefly studied
composition with Alexander Zemlinsky, his future brother-in-law. Early in
his career, Schoenberg took jobs orchestrating operettas, but most of his
life was spent teaching, both privately and at various institutions, and
composing. His moves between teaching jobs were as much a result of
seeking respite from the bouts of ill health which hampered him as they
were to his being offered a position.

The composer's early works bear the unmistakable stamp of high German
Romanticism, perhaps nowhere more evident than in his first important
composition, Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (1899). With works like the Five
Orchestral Pieces (1909) and the epochal Pierrot lunaire (1912), Schoenberg embarked upon one of the
most influential phases of his career. Critics reviled this "atonal" (Schoenberg preferred "pantonal")
music, whose structure does not include traditional tonality. Still, the high drama and novel expressive
means of Schoenberg's music also inspired a faithful and active following. Most notable among
Schoenberg's disciples were Alban Berg and Anton Webern, both of whom eventually attained stature
equal to that of their famous mentor. These three composers -- the principal figures of the so-called
Second Viennese School -- were the central force in the development of atonal and 12-tone music in the
first half of the 20th century.

Schoenberg's Suite for Piano (1921-1923) occupies a place of central importance in the composer's
catalog as his first completely 12-tone composition. Though the 12-tone technique represents only a
single (and by no means predominant) aspect of the composer's style, it remains the single characteristic
most closely associated with his music. Schoenberg made repeated, though varied, use of the technique
across the spectrum of genres, from chamber works like the String Quartet No. 4 (1936) and the Fantasy
for Violin and Piano (1949) to orchestral works like the Violin Concerto (1935-1936) and the Piano
Concerto (1942), to choral works like A Survivor from Warsaw (1947).

Schoenberg fled the poisonous political atmosphere of Europe in 1933 and spent the remainder of his
life primarily in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1941. During this phase of his career,
he returned to frank tonality at times, as in the Theme and Variations for band (1943), reaffirming his
connection to the great German musical heritage that extended back to Bach. For Schoenberg, the
dissolution of tonality was a logical and inevitable step in the evolution of Western music. Despite a
steady stream of critical brickbats throughout his entire career, the composer, whose life inspired one of
20th century's great novels, Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, persisted in his aims, insisting that his music
was the result of an overwhelming creative impulse. Though debate over the man and his music rages
on, Schoenberg is today acknowledged as one of the most significant figures in music history. The
composer, a well-known triskaidekaphobe, died in Los Angeles, California on July 13, 1951.

Igor Stravinsky

Conductor, Songwriter, Pianist (1882-1971

Born: 1882

Died: 1971

Nationality: Russian

Publisher: Chester Music

Stravinsky’s relations with his various publishers would make a fitting subject for a long-running TV soap
opera, complete with

courtroom dramas, emotional farewells, some embarrassing contractual wrangles, and of course
background music based on the ‘Ronde des princesses’ in The Firebird. The association with Chester
Music would certainly provide some of the best episodes. Stravinsky landed in Chester’s lap after the
First World War, a conflict which, among other things, played havoc with international publishing. And he
remained with them until he signed an agreement with Editions Russes de Musique (ERM) in September
1923. Before the war he had first been taken up by the Moscow house of Jurgenson, who published The
Firebird, and then by Koussevitsky’s recently founded ERM, who brought out Petrushka and the piano-
duet score of The Rite of Spring, and had its full score in proof when war
broke out and put paid to their Russian operation for good. After the
Revolution in 1917 Jurgenson’s firm was nationalized. However, his
German office continued to function, and Jurgenson later (apparently
without telling the composer) sold the rights in The Firebird to the
Leipzig house of Robert Forberg (a conjunction which recalls Stravinsky’s
American train as Mr Fireberg). This transaction subsequently gave rise
to a lawsuit between Forberg and Chester.
PROJECT IN
MUSIC

Angela C. Gano
X-A.Esteban