Early 20th Century: Issues and Themes

1. Name some of the technological and scientific advances that were changing life in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries.

2. Name several ways in which accepted wisdom was being challenged at the beginning of the
20th century in fields such as physics, philosophy, psychology, etc.

3. How did ideas about art change at the beginning of the 20th century?

4. What aspect of music could be considered “accepted wisdom” at the beginning of the 20th
century, and how was it challenged?

5. What is meant by the statement that tonality was being attacked from within and from without
in the last decades of the 19th century?