DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

REGION III
Schools Division of Cabanatuan City
Maharlika Highway, Cabanatuan City

Quarter 1: Module 1 – Distinctive

Musical Elements of given of the
20th Century (MU10TC-Ia-h-2)
MUSIC

SELF-LEARNING MODULE

Writer: August B. Tuazon (Teacher I, San Josef National HS)

Illustrator: August B. Tuazon (Teacher I, San Josef National HS)
Layouter: August B. Tuazon (Teacher I, San Josef National HS)

Project EL AR:
Enhance Learning
thru Adequate Resources
 GUIDE FOR THE LEARNER, PARENTS,
GUARDIANS AND LEARNING FACILITATOR

To You, Learner:
Welcome to Music 10 Self-Learning Module (SLM) on the Music of the 20th Century! This
module is made to give you fun and meaningful time for guided and independent learning at your
convenience. You will be able to process the contents of this module while being an active learner.
To You, Parent/s, Guardian/s, and Learning Facilitator/s:
This Module is collaboratively developed and reviewed by the teachers, the school heads and
the supervisors of DepEd Division of Cabanatuan City to assist you in helping the learners meet the
standards set by the K to 12 Curriculum while overcoming their different constraints in schooling. As
a facilitator, you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this module. You also need to keep
track of the learners' progress while allowing them to manage their own learning. Furthermore, you
are expected to encourage and assist the learners as they do the tasks included in the module.
This module is about understanding the different musical styles and their characteristics
brought by the 20th century music composers. You will be able to accomplish the assigned tasks by
exploring each part of this SLM and by reading and answering the given activities written here. This
SLM will enable you to describe the distinctive musical elements of given pieces in 20th century styles
through identifying the key elements of music used in different styles and discuss their characteristics
that will lead you to appreciate on how they shaped the development of our music at present.
Please, do not worry because this SLM is very simple and easy to use. Most of the important
information are included here. All you need to do is to get a copy of this SLM and answer it. You are
free to finish this anytime and anywhere. Just remember to follow the sequences of this SLM and do
not forget to submit this once you are finished.
Enjoy learning and be safe at home!

2
10
 OBJECTIVES

1. Identify the distinctive musical elements of different musical styles from the early 20th century
famous composers.
2. Discuss the characteristics of 20th century music.
3. Appreciate how the distinctive musical elements and characteristics shape the development of
music at present.

COMPETENCY

Describes distinctive musical elements of given pieces in 20th century styles.

MU10TC-Ia-h-2
 WHAT DO YOU ALREADY KNOW?

Pre-test. Activity 1. Write a title of a popular song inside the table that starts in each
letter of MODERN MUSIC. You can write your answer either in English or Tagalog. Tag-
lish is also acceptable. Do this in your notebook.

M O D E R N M U S I C

Pre-test Activity 2. In the boxes below are pictures and texts of related contents of
our lesson and some are not. You are going to check ( √ ) which pictures you think are
included in this lesson. Do this activity in your notebook.
EXPRESSIONISM
ATONALITY

2 4
WHOLE
1900 -
TONE
1990 SCALE
1 3 5
Claude Debussy

2000 to AVANT-
GARDE
Present 9

10
6 8 The Theramin

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Debussy_1900.jpeg

3
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin#/media/File:Theramin-Alexandra-Stepanoff-1930.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138224835@N02/39557420685
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130720149@N05/16775033971

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Presentation of the Lesson

What type of music you are listening to? Do you like old music? (Opera, Symphony Orchestra,
Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn) Or, do you like the modern sound? (Rock, Hip-hop, Pop, Disco). Do music
have a significant impact on how you think and do things in your daily life? “Kapag in-love ka o broken-
hearted, gusto mong ma-inspire, kung nalulungkot ka at sa panahong may problema, anong kanta ang
gusto mong naririnig? Nakaka-relate ka, di ba?”
During our past lessons in Music from Grades 7 to 9, the goal was very simple - to appreciate
the historical and cultural background of different music around the world. Grade 10 music is not a
new thing because at the end of the quarter, you will be able to discover that this lesson is made for all
of us in this era.
MUSIC OF THE 20th CENTURY
In the beginning of the 20th century, we saw the rise of distinct musical styles that reflected a
move away from common practices of earlier Western classical music. These new styles were:
impressionism, expressionism, neo-classicism, avant-garde music, and modern nationalism.
The distinct musical styles would not have developed if not for the musical genius of individual
composers such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Rave, Arnold Schoenberg (shun-berg), Bela Bartok, Igor
Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofieff (ser-jey prokofiv), and George Gershwin. They stood out as the moving
forces behind the innovative and experiment styles that they have accomplished and others have
followed including the development of electronic and chance music.
IMPRESSIONISM
One of the earlier forms of 20th century music was known as impressionism, based on an art
movement started by 19th century Paris-based artists which found its way to music in the late 19th
century among French composers. The sentimental melodies and dramatic emotionalism of Romantic
period had themes and melodies that were easy to recognize and enjoy, and was replaced in favor of
moods and impressions in this musical style.
CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPRESSIONISM

• Extensive use of different timbre (tone color or tone quality) and effects, vague melodies, and
innovative chords and progressions leading to mild dissonances through orchestration,
texture, or harmonic usage.
• Highly expressive program music, or music with preconceived visual imagery.
• New combinations of extended chords and harmonies, whole-tone, chromatic, and pentatonic
scales.
• It was meant to create and emotional mood rather than a specific picture. (ARTS)
• Impressionistic forms were translucent and hazy, as if trying to see through a rain-drenched
4 window. (ARTS)
• The sound of different chords overlapped lightly with each other to produce new subtle
musical color. Chords do not have a definite order a sense of clear resolution.
• Lack of a tonic-dominant relationship which normally gives the feeling of finality to a piece,
 • Harmonic vagueness about the structure of certain chords
• The use of whole-tone scale
• Most of the impressionist works centered on nature and its beauty, lightness, ad brilliance.
EXPRESSIONISM
The term “expressionism” was probably first applied to music in 1918, especially to
Schoenberg as he avoided "traditional forms of beauty" to convey powerful feelings in his music.
Theodor Adorno (2009) interprets the expressionist movement in music as seeking to "eliminate all
of traditional music's conventional elements, everything formulaically rigid". It is a music seeking "the
truthfulness of subjective feeling without illusions, disguises or euphemisms". It is also concerned with
the unconscious, and states that "the depiction of fear lies at the center" of expressionist music, with
dissonance predominating, so that the "harmonious, affirmative element of art is banished".
Expressionist music often features a high level of dissonance, extreme contrasts of dynamics,
constant changing of textures, "distorted" melodies and harmonies, and angular melodies with wide
leaps.
Expressionism revealed the composer’s mind, instead of presenting an impression of the
environment. It used atonality and the twelve-tone scale, lacking stable and conventional harmonies.
It served as a medium for expressing strong emotions, such as anxiety, rage, and alienation.
NEO-CLASSICISM
Neo-classicism was a moderating factor between the emotional excesses of the Romantic
period and the violent impulses of the soul in expressionism. It was, in essence, a partial return to an
earlier style of writing, particularly the tightly-knit form of the Classical period, while combining tonal
harmonies with slight dissonances. It also adopted a modern, freer use of the seven-note diatonic scale.
Examples of neo-classicism are Bela Bartok’s Song of the Bagpipe and Piano Sonata. In this latter piece,
the classical three-movement format is combined with ever-shifting time signatures, complex but
exciting rhythmic patterns, as well as harmonic dissonances that produce harsh chords. The neo-
classicist style was also used by composers such as Francis Poulenc, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Paul
Hindemith, and Sergei Prokofiev.
Neo-classicism was simply a partial return to a classical form of writing music with carefully
modulated dissonances. It made use of a freer seven-note diatonic scale.
Have you ever watched a film or a movie that didn’t have musical background or musical 5
effects on each scene? What does it do to the film you are watching? These musicals style maybe weird
for you or difficult to understand, however, most of the music produced from this era are felt and heard
today especially in films, stages and animated movies. Lest us continue to other musical styles emerged
 PRIMITIVISM
Primitivistic music is tonal through the asserting of one note as more important than the
others. New sounds are synthesized from old ones by juxtaposing two simple events to create a more
complex new event.
Primitivism has links to Exoticism through the use of materials from other cultures,
Nationalism through the use of materials indigenous to specific countries, and Ethnicism through the
use of materials from European ethnic groups. Two well-known proponents of this style were
Stravinsky and Bela Bartok. It eventually evolved into Neo-classicism.
AVANT-GARDE
The avant-garde style was associated with electronic music and dealt with the parameters or
dimensions of sound in space. It made use of variations of self-contained note groups to change
musical continuity, and improvisation, with an absence of traditional rules on harmony, melody, and
rhythm.
It exhibited a new attitude toward musical mobility, whereby the order of note groups could
be varied so that musical continuity could be altered. Improvisation was a necessity in this style, for
the musical scores were not necessarily followed as written. For example, one could expect a piece to
be read by a performer from left to right or vice versa. Or the performer might turn the score over, and
go on dabbling indefinitely in whatever order before returning to the starting point.
MODERN NATIONALISM
Modern nationalism is a looser form of 20th century music development focused on nationalist
composers and musical innovators who sought to combine modern techniques with folk materials.
The new musical styles created by 20th century classical composers were truly unique and
innovative resulted to emerge new styles of electronic music and chance music as they experimented
with the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, tempo, and timbre in daring ways never attempted
before. Some even made use of electronic devices such as synthesizers, tape recorders, amplifiers, and
the like to introduce and enhance sounds beyond those available with traditional instruments. These
expanded the concept of music far beyond the conventions of earlier periods, and challenged both the
6 new composers and the listening public.
20th CENTURY MUSIC COMPOSERS

7
8
 WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?

Post-test. Write ONLY THE LETTER of the correct answer on your activity
notebook.

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______1. It was the music that was created after the 19th Century which brought impressionism,
expressionism, neo-classicism, avant-garde and modern nationalism.
a. Modern Music
b. Popular Music
c. Classical Music
d. Baroque Music
______2. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic or style of the modern music?
a. Avant-garde
b. Impressionism
c. Expressionism
d. Romanticism
______3. Which of the following techniques or methods cannot be related to modern music of the 20th
century?
a. Blur and Translucent
b. Traditional
c. Experimentation
d. Innovation
______4. Which of the music styles was NOT developed or innovated by the following composers?
a. Primitivism (Bartok)
b. Neoclassicism (Prokofiev)
c. Modern Nationalism (Ravel)
d. none of the above
______5. Which of the music styles was NOT developed or innovated by the following composers?
a. Stravinsky (Neoclassicism)
b. Bernstein (Avant-Garde)
c. Schoenberg (Impressionism)
d. none of the above
______6. Which of the music styles was NOT developed or innovated by the following composers?
a. Impressionism (Debussy
b. Expressionism (Schoenberg)
c. Avant-garde (Gershwin)
d. None of the above
______7. To whom 20th century composer does the 12-tone scale is attributed?
a. Claude Debussy
b. Igor Stravinsky
c. George Gershwin
d. Arnold Schoenberg
a. None of the above

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 ______8. This musical style made use of the whole-tone scale.
a. Chance Music
b. Electronic
c. Impressionism
d. Neo-classicism
______9. It made use of variation of self-contained note groups to change musical continuity, and
improvisation with the absence of traditional rules of musical composition.
a. Avant-garde
b. Classical Music
c. Electronic
d. Expressionism
______10. This new style experimented with the elements of music by means of electronic devices to
introduce and enhance sounds beyond those available with traditional instruments.
a. Avant-garde
b. Impressionism and Expressionism
c. Chance and electronic
d. None of the above

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 ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 1

DISSECTING THE ELEMENTS. Study the column table about elements of music
and the styles of 20th century music below.
You are going to describe the elements of music with the musical styles
emerged in the early 20th century. You can do this by finding the right answer
written from the presentation of the lesson. Write your answer in your
notebook.

Musical Styles Impressionis Expressionis Neo- Avant-Garde

Elements m m Classicism
Scale Ex. Whole-tone 1. 2.

Tonality/ Melody Ex. Atonality 8.

Texture 3.

Harmonies 4. 9.

Chords 5. Ex. Self-

(note group) contained
Rhythm/ 6. 10.
Rhythmic
Patterns
Timbre/Musical 7.
Color
Tempo

Dynamics

Note: You do not have to complete all the spaces in the table. Write only the numbered
elements and musical styles.

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 ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 2

Watch, Listen, and React! This activity is something that you always do while
you are at home. All you need to do is watch movies, stage plays, or musical
concerts videos. Listen to all the music that you can hear. Then, write your
reactions or comments on what you have felt while listening and watching
those things. Write your answers in your notebook.

Title of Video
Playlists. Titles of music you
have heard from the video

Write your reactions or comments about the video you have watched
and listened to. Check the icons below for your reactions and write
the comments below.

Note: Watch videos that are related to the musical styles and works of the
composers of the 20th century.
 ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 3

There are two titles of music composed by the 20th century composers below.
Draw some images that will interpret the title of the songs. Use some colors
to make it livelier and more creative. Do this in your notebook.

Claire de Lune (Moonlight)

The Rite of Spring - “A Tribe Offering Ritual”

13
RUBRIC for the Output
CRITERA 4 3 2 1
Relevant to the The artwork is The artwork is The artwork is
The artwork is
theme or message perfectly describing the real describing the real
describing the real
of the music describing the real message of the message of the
message of the
message of the 20th century music 20th century music
20th century music
20th century music given but with at given but with at
given but with at
given. least three least two least one
inconsistency or inconsistency or
inconsistency or
incorrect incorrect incorrect
interpretation. interpretation.
interpretation.
Artistry The artwork The artwork The artwork The artwork
displays the displays the displays the displays the
evidence of evidence of evidence of evidence of
application of all application of five application of four
application of
the elements and elements and elements and three elements
principles of art. principles of art. principles of art.
and principles of
art.
Creativity The learner uses The learner uses The learner uses The learner did
her imagination by her imagination by her imagination by not use her
using materials or using materials or using materials or imagination in
strategies above strategies as the strategies below using materials or
the expected expected the expected strategies
standards given by standards given by standards given by /standards given
the teacher the teacher the teacher by the teacher
15 14
What Do You Already Know? What Have You Learned?
1. check 1. a
2. check 2. d
3. check 3. b
4. check 4. c
5. check 5. c
6. no check 6. d
7. no check 7. d
8. check 8. c
9. check 9. a
10. check 10. c
Activity Number 1
1. 12-tone
2. seven-note diatonic
3. translucent and hazy
4. lacking stable and conventional
5. harsh
6. exciting
7. new subtle
8. absence of traditional rules
9. absence of traditional rules
10. absence of traditional rules
ANWER KEYS
 REFERENCES

Books

1. Raul Sunico, Evelyn Cabanban, Melissa Moran HORIZONS: Music and Arts Appreciation for Young
Filipinos Grade 10 Learner’s Material (Philippines: Tawid Publications, 2015), page/s 3-31

Journals or Magazines

Online Sources

1. Expressionist music. Wikipedia. Accessed on June 21, 2020.

@https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionist_music#:~:text=Expressionist%20music%20often%20f
eatures%20a,melodies%20with%20wide%20leaps%20(Anon.

Royalty-Free Pictures and Illustrations

1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Igor_Stravinsky_1965.jpg 06/21/2020
2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arnold_sch%C3%B6nberg_man_ray.jpg 06/21/2020
3. https://tr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosya:Bart%C3%B3k_B%C3%A9la_1927.jpg 06/21/2020
4. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sergei_Prokofiev_circa_1918_over_Chair_Bain.jpg
06/21/2020
5. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Gershwin_1937.jpg 06/21/2020
6. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonard_Bernstein_(1987).jpg 06/21/2020
7. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Glass_018_crop.jpg 06/21/2020
8. https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talaksan:Maurice_Ravel_1925.jpg 06/21/2020
9. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikolay_A_Rimsky_Korsakov_1897.jpg 06/21/2020
10. https://www.pianoversal.com/en/?limit=4&start=32 06/21/2020
11. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Debussy_1900.jpeg 06/18/2020
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin#/media/File:Theramin-Alexandra-Stepanoff-1930.jpg
06/18/2020
13. https://www.flickr.com/photos/138224835@N02/39557420685 06/18/2020
14. https://www.flickr.com/photos/130720149@N05/16775033971 06/18/2020
 Quarter 1: Module 1 – Describes
distinctive musical elements of given
pieces in 20th century styles
(MU10TC-Ia-h-2)

This Module is about understanding the different musical styles and its characteristics brought by
the 20th century music composers. As you walk through with this SLM, you will be able to describe the
distinctive musical elements of given pieces in 20th century styles through identifying the key elements of
music used in different styles and discuss its characteristics that will lead you appreciate on how it shaped
the development of our music at present.
The SLM is very simple and easy to use. Most of the important information are included here. Just get
a copy of this SLM and answer with the help of your parents/guardians. This is free and allows you to finish
the activities anytime and anywhere. Make sure you follow the sequences of this SLM and do not forget to
submit this once you are finish.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Region 3
Division of Cabanatuan City
16 Curriculum Implementation Division (CID) 17
Learning Resource Management and Development System (LRMDS)
This self-learning module (SLM) is developed by the SDO Cabanatuan City CID-LRMDS Team under Project
EL AR: Enhanced Learning thru Adequate Resources.
Cover and page elements illustrations by Carl Jan B. Briones. Project EL AR logo by Gemmarie G. Rivas