EXPRESSIONISM MUSIC

Listening Activity:

Sad = sad face

Happy = stand and dance
Anger = stomp feet
Scared = crouch and hide faces
What is the implication of the
activity?

How does music affects us?

 Expressionism VS. Primitivism

*Differentiate or characterize the

two compositions

Which of the two is an example of

Expressionism Music? Primitivism
Music? How do you say so?
Which of the two is an example of
Expressionism Music? Primitivism
Music? How do you say so?
 What is the basic idea of
Expressionism Music?
Why is it known as expressionism
music?
 The word expressionism was
probably first applied to music in
1918, especially to Schoenberg,
because just like Wassily
Kandinsky, he avoided traditional
forms of beauty to convey powerful
feelings of music.
https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/ Composition VIII, 1923
Wassily Kandinsky
https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/ Composition VII, 1913
Wassily Kandinsky
The Scream, 1910
Edvard Munch
Tempera on cardboard

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ed
vard_Munch_-_The_Scream_-
_Google_Art_Project.jpg
Characteristics:

▪ Music that expresses true emotions

with exaggeration
▪ It uses polyrhythm, polytonal
harmony and instrumental
combinations
Characteristics:
• Revealed the composer’s mind,
instead of presenting an impression
of environment
• Used atonality (music with no
relationship to a key) and 12-tone
scale, lacking stable and
conventional harmonies.
Characteristics:
▪ Features a high level of dissonance
▪ Extreme contrast in dynamics
▪ Constant changing in textures
▪ Distorted melodies and harmonies
Representative Composers:

➢ Arnold Schoenberg
➢ Anton Webern
➢ Allan Berg
➢ Igor Stravinsky
 Arnold Schoenberg
1874-1951

➢Developed the 12-

tone row / serial
technique /
serialism
(Chromatic Scale)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
▪ Was born in a working-class suburb
of Vienna, Austria on September 13,
1874.
▪ He taught himself with music theory,
but took lessons in counterpoints
▪ His style constantly undergoing
development
▪ His music is full melodic and lyrical
interest and extremely complex thus creating
heavy demands on the listener.
▪ He is credited with establishment of the 12-
tone system
▪ His musical compositions total more or less
213 which include concerti, orchestral
music, piano music, operas, choral music,
songs and other instrumental music.
➢ Systematized atonality which give
importance to the 12-chromatic scale
tones
➢ The tone row can be played forward,
backward, upside down, backward and
upside down
Compositions:
✓ Pierrot Lunaire
✓ Verklarte Nacht, Three Pieces for
Piano, Op. 11
✓ Gurreleider
✓ Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured
Night)
Igor Stravinsky
1882-1971
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• Was born in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia
on June 17, 1882.
• His early music reflected the influence of his music
teacher, the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-
Karsakov.
• Stands along fellow-composer Schoenberg, painter
Pablo Picasso, and literary figure James Joyce as one of
the great trendsetters of the 20th century.
• Adapted the forms of the 18th century with his
contemporary style of writing
• Despite its “shocking” modernity, his music is also
very structured, precise, controlled, full of artifice,
and theatricality.
• Musical output approximates 127 works, including
concerti, orchestral music, instrumental music, operas,
ballets, solo vocal, and choral music.
Compositions:
✓The Firebird Suite
✓The Rite of Spring
✓Petrouchka
✓The Rake’s Progress
Dr Rosa Schapire
Tate
1919
Street With
Women
Wassily Kandinsky
1908
PRIMITIVISM
MUSIC
• Tonal through the stressing of
one note as more important than
the others
• New sounds are synthesized from
old ones by placing together two
simple events to create a more
complex new event.
• Has links to EXOTICISM – use of
materials from other cultures
• NATIONALISM through the use of
materials indigenous to specific
countries
• ETHNICISM through the use of
materials from European ethnic groups
•Eventually evolved to Neo-Classicism
 BELA BARTOK
(1881-1945)

➢ Was born in
Nagyszentmiklos,
Hungary (now
Romania) on March
25, 1881.
• He started piano lessons with his
mother and later entered Budapest
Royal Academy of Music in 1899.
• He was inspired by the performance
of Richard Strauss’s “Also Sprach
Zarathustra” to write his first
nationalistic poem, Kossuth in 1903.
• In 1906, he published his first
collection of 20 Hungarian folk
songs with his fellow composer,
Kodaly.
• He was a neo-classicist,
primitivist, and nationalist
composer who used Hungarian folk
themes and rhythms.
• His musical compositions total
more or less 695 which include
concerti, orchestral music, piano
music, instrumental music, dramatic
music, choral music, and songs.
Compositions:

✓Six String Quartets (1908-1938)

✓Concerto for Orchestra (1943)
✓Allegro Barbaro (1911)
✓Mikrokosmos (1926-1939)
Peasants Picking Apples
Nathalia Goncharova
1911
Spring
Mikhail Larionov
1912
Listening Activity:

Create or paint a scenery/

situation/emotions felt while
listening to the music. Draw
inspirations from the experiences
during the pandemic or the current
time.
Criteria:

Artistic Style/
Creativeness – 10 points
Neatness of the work – 5 points
Total - 15 points
Assignment:
Musical Style Characteristics Representativ Works/Compo
e Composers sitions (at
least 2)
Impressionism
Music
Expressionism
Music
Primitivism
Music
THANKS