MODERN ART MUSIC

 
(c. 1900-present)
 
 
 
GENERAL BACKGROUND ON THE MODERN ERA
 
 

The Modern Era has been a period of massive

technological and socio-political change, sparked largely by the
increasingly rapid transit of people and information (via
automobiles, airplanes, spacecraft and telephone, radio,
television, satellite transmission, the Internet, etc.). There have
been more wars and outbreaks of social violence in the past
century than in all previous ages combined, including two major
World Wars that dramatically affected all aspects of life in Europe
and America between 1914-18 (WWI) and 1939-45 (WWII). This
era has seen the gradual decline of the worldwide British
Commonwealth (which once included India, Hong Kong and other
parts of the Far East, much of Africa, Canada, and the British
Isles), the establishment of the United States as the major force of
the Free World, and the rise and fall of Soviet Communism. The
ever-changing delicate balance of economic and political power is
now--more than ever--of urgent global significance.
 
 
Important Musical Considerations in the Modern Art Music Era
 

The Modern Era has been a period of turbulent change in

musical style and taste. Many modern "art-music" composers
have explored untraditional sounds and have based their
music on rhythm, texture and tone color, instead of the more
traditional aspects of melody and harmony. During first half of the
20th century, the two World Wars led to political isolation that
impeded the sharing of musical ideas; however, since c. 1950,
there has been a multi-national fusion of styles, driven largely by
many great European composers, performers, scholars and
teachers who sought political asylum in the US.
 Modern technological advances (especially mass media)
have caused rapid changes in musical style, and expanded our
knowledge of music from other cultures, further accelerating
changes in musical taste while providing a wider range of music to
listeners, composers and performers. Today, new musical ideas
and styles can be introduced almost instantly, allowing large-scale
trends to change in months or years, instead of decades.
Computer-based technologies, synthesized sounds, and new
recording techniques continually add new dimensions to today's
music. The commercial music industry, which began in the 1930s,
is now the dominant musical force across the world, leaving
today's art-musicians scrambling to preserve an audience.
 
 
Important Developments in Modern Art Music
 
The Breakdown of TONALITY
As a result of the gradual disintegration of tonality (key-
centered music), various non-traditional modern approaches
to harmony have emerged:
 
- EXTENDED TONALITY (Pan-Diatonicism)
The free use of tonal harmonic/melodic sounds, without their usual
functional reference to a central key.
 

- POLYTONALITY
Two or more tonal centers functioning at the same time within a
musical composition.
 

- ATONALITY
Music with NO TONAL CENTER
 

- SERIALISM
The process of putting pitches into a numerically-ordered SERIES that
becomes the basis for all melodic/harmonic material in an atonal work.
 

- MULTI-SERIALISM (and TOTAL SERIALISM)

An approach in which several (or all) aspects of an atonal work
are serialistically controlled (rhythm, dynamics, melody, harmony,
articulation, instrumentation, etc.).
 
Experimentation with NEW SOUNDS
Modern composers have taken a closer look at rhythm, instrumentation, tone
color, form, performance techniques (etc.). Harmony and melody are no
longer the sole basis of musical structure. Increased use of percussion,
and use of standard instruments in non-standard ways were important
developments in this era.
 
The Influence of MULTI-NATIONAL STYLES
 Since 1945, the sharing of musical styles and approaches from around the
world has accelerated dramatically, due to technological advances affecting
mass media and transportation.
 
The Influence of POPULAR MUSIC
JAZZ, BLUES and other popular styles and technologies have also affected
modern art music.
 
 
Selected Composers of Modern Art Music
 
In the modern era, national "schools" of compositional thought gave way
to more individual approaches:
 
Early-20th century Composers (active before 1950)
 

France
 

Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
The leader of the French Impressionist movement, known for his piano works,
orchestral "tone poems," songs and an opera.
 

 
Austria (The "2nd Viennese School")
 

Arnold SCHOENBERG (1874-1951)
One of the most significant figures in Western art music. He promoted the
revolutionary concepts of atonality, serialism, expressionism and Sprechstimme.
 

 
Russia
 

Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
a Russian-born composer, conductor, pianist recognized as the most influential
composer of 20th century "art music." He is known for his ballets, piano concertos,
symphonic music and operas.
 
United States
 

Henry COWELL (1887-1965)
An American composer known for his highly-experimental piano works.
 

Aaron COPLAND (1900-90)
A nationalistic-oriented conservative American composer of the mid-20th century.
He is recognized for his ballets, song, choral music and orchestral works.
 

 
Late-20th century (active since 1950)
 

United States
 
 Samuel BARBER (1910-81)
an American composer of the mid-20th century; a leading figure in the neo-
Romantic movement; famous for his operas, songs, piano and orchestral works.
 

John CAGE (1912-92)
an American composer/philosopher of the modern experimental (avant garde)
movement. He developed "chance music" and explored non-traditional sounds.
 

Milton BABBITT (1916-2011)
an American composer of the late 20th century & mathematics professor at
Princeton University; noted for his synthesized, totally-serialized music.
 

George CRUMB (born 1929)

this music professor at Princeton is one of the leading figures of the
modern avant garde movement in the 1960s and 70s.
 

Philip GLASS (born 1937)

one of the leading American composers of the late 20th century minimalist
movement.
 

Steve REICH (born 1936)

one of the leading American composers of the late 20th century minimalist
movement.
 

Ellen Taaffe ZWILICH (born 1939)
a conservative late 20th century American composer, known primarily for exploring
modern sounds through neo-Classic approaches to orchestral and chamber music.
 

 
Hungary
 

Gyorgy LIGETI (1923-2006)
a Hungarian composer (Austrian nationalized) who is one of the leading figures in
the "avant garde" movement of the late 20th century. He is known for his use of
new vocal/instrumental techniques and tone colors (see WebBook chapter on
"Choral Music").
 
Poland
 

Krzystof PENDERECKI (born 1933)
One of the greatest musical innovators of the late 20th century, and the leading
Polish composer of the modern era.
 
 
EARLY APPROACHES TO MODERN ART MUSIC
Impressionism
 

The first modern style to emerge was Impressionism—

developed in the late 1890s by the French composer Claude
DEBUSSY as a rejection of excessive Wagnerian German
Romanticism. Modeled after the impressionistic art movement,
 musical impressionism is based on understatement, blurred
effects, and the creative use of color.
 
EXAMPLE of FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM

DEBUSSY: Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (1894)

(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 
 

Expressionism
 

In answer to French Impressionism, Austrian-German

composers developed Expressionism around the turn of the
1900s, as a blatant expansion of Wagnerian
Romanticism. Expressionism is particularly associated with
three composers working in Vienna in the early 20th century:
Arnold SCHOENBERG and his two students Anton
von WEBERN and Alban BERG. These three are collectively
known as the 2nd Viennese School of composers. (The first
"school� of composers to center in Vienna was comprised of
HAYDN, MOZART, and BEETHOVEN in the Classic Era.)
The music of the 2nd Viennese School was designed
to shock listeners, with dissonant, intensely colorful, often
horrific music based on graphically morbid texts or ideas. The
primary reason that this music sounds so harsh is that it
is atonal (has no "home" key, and it rejects
traditional tonal melodies and harmonies). An important
example of
musical expressionism is SCHOENBERG's orchestrally-
accompanied song-cycle Pierrot lunaire (1912), which
features Sprechstimme—an eerie half-sung, half-spoken
singing style.
 
EXAMPLE of AUSTRIAN-GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

 SCHOENBERG: "Mondestrunken" from Pierrot lunaire (1912)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide & translation for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 
Serialism
 

By the mid-1920s, SCHOENBERG and WEBERN were
promoting a compositional technique called 12-tone serialism,
in which the twelve chromatic pitches available on the modern
piano are arranged into an ordered "row" that is strictly
maintained throughout a work. The "row" can be used forward,
backward, or in "mirror image" in either direction:
 
 
EXAMPLE of 12-tone SERIALISM

SCHOENBERG: A Survivor from Warsaw (1946)

(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)
 Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work
 

 
Focus on Rhythm and Tone Color
 

Igor STRAVINSKY, a Russian-born composer who

worked in both Paris and the US, was one of the first
composers to shift the primary focus of his musical style
to rhythm and tone color. His landmark ballet, The Rite of
Spring, explores new instrumental colors/combinations, and
features harsh, irregular rhythmic
accents and ostinatos (short, repeated musical figures) that
create massive percussive effects with the entire orchestra.
 
EXAMPLE of a Modern BALLET (Rhythm & Tone Color)
STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring (1913)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)
 
Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of an excerpt from near the start
of the ballet
This clip is a recreation of the original performance, scenery, and choreography.
 
 
"AVANT GARDE" APPROACHES TO MODERN ART MUSIC
 
The French term avant-garde ("at the forefront") is used to
describe highly experimental approaches "on the cutting edge"
of modern music.
 
Non-Traditional Uses of Instruments and Voices
 

One of the most spectacular modern musical innovations

has been the concept of using traditional instruments
in unusual ways. This avant-garde approach was first
implemented by the innovative American composer,
Henry COWELL in The Banshee (1925). In this modern
programmatic character piece for grand piano, one performer
holds down the sustain pedal, while another performer creates
a myriad of unusual sounds by directly manipulating the strings
of the instrument.
In the 1940s, COWELL's student, John CAGE turned the
musical world on its ear—initially through his compositions
 for prepared piano. In such works, CAGE strategically
inserted objects like erasers, screws and nails between the
strings of the piano to make it sound like an ensemble of
completely different instruments.
 
EXAMPLES of NON-TRADITIONAL USES of the PIANO
COWELL: The Banshee (1925)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 
 
CAGE: The Perilous Night (1944)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 

In the 1970s and 80s, the Polish

composer Krzystof PENDERECKI, the Hungarian
composer Gyorgy LIGETI, and the American composer
George CRUMB used orchestral string instruments and/or
human voices to create unusual sounds in their collage-like
works.
 
EXAMPLES of NON-TRADITIONAL USES of STRING INSTRUMENTS
PENDERECKI: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 
 
CRUMB: Black Angels (1970)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of Movement 7 ("Black Angels!!")

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of Movement 10 ("God Music")
 
Chance Music
Music composed at random or based on an improvised
selection of material is called chance music (in other words,
music in which aspects of composition or performance are left
up to chance). The major proponent of this compositional
approach was the American composer John CAGE. The best-
known example of chance music is CAGE's 4'33"—a multi-
movement work in which the performer makes no sound at all
(the real "sound" of the piece is created by the audience itself,
 and the noise of the concert hall). CAGE has forced musicians
to ponder "What IS a musical work?"—Is it what the composer
has written on the page . . . is it the way the performer decides
to interpret it? . . . or, is it what the listener HEARS and
UNDERSTANDS? Think about it: The same performance
heard by two different people can be perceived in two
completely different ways. Is silence music? Is there ever really
silence? Doesn't every sound heard in the concert hall (noise
and music alike) affect the way the piece is perceived by the
listener?
 
EXAMPLE of CHANCE MUSIC

CAGE: 4'33" (1952)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

(explained, then performed by the composer)
 

 
Electronic Music
Among the first to experiment
with synthesized sounds was the American
composer Edgard VARESE. In
his Poeme electronique (1958), he created entirely new
sounds by using a reel-to-reel tape recorder and electronic
filters to combine and modify "natural sounds" (an avant-
garde approach called musique concr�te).
 
EXAMPLE of Tape-manipulated ELECTRONIC MUSIC

VARESE: Poeme electronique (1958)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

(the artwork on this YouTube clip has nothing to do with the piece)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video describing this work

 
Computer-based Composition and Performance
In the 1960s and 70s, with computers offering new
possibilities for tone colors and complete structural control,
mathematician-composers such as the Milton BABBITT (a
mathematics professor at Princeton) wrote totally-
 serialized avant-garde works, in which all aspects (rhythm,
dynamics, melody, harmony, articulation, instrumentation, etc.)
are controlled by a numerical series. Total-serial works usually
require such precise details that they can only be performed
accurately by machines.
 
EXAMPLE of TOTAL SERIALISM in ELECTRONIC MUSIC

BABBITT: Ensembles for Synthesizer (1962-4)

(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

(the artwork on this YouTube clip has nothing to do with the piece)
 
Minimalism
Minimalism—a more recent avant-garde approach first
developed in the late 1960s—is based on repetition and
gradual manipulation of simple rhythms and/or harmonies, and
short melodic patterns, producing an hypnotic effect. Two
important American composers who use this compositional
process are Steve REICH, Philip GLASS. (Note:
Although minimalistic works are based on small amounts of
material, such works can be quite lengthy).
 
EXAMPLES of MINIMALISM

GLASS: Einstein on the Beach (1976)

(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video explaining this work

 
 
REICH: Violin Phase (1979)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

(this is of a live performance with 4 violins!)
 
 

 
CONSERVATIVE APPROACHES TO MODERN ART MUSIC
 

Some modern composers have chosen to write in the

traditional genres of opera, ballet, symphony, string
quartet, sonata and concerto. Even so, most of these works are
 conceived in untraditional ways, with freer formal designs,
unconventional harmonies and melodies, etc.
 

American Nationalism
In the early 20th century, American nationalism was on the
rise, as reflected in the Romanticized band marches of John
Phillips SOUSA.
In the 1930s, a new generation of US composers set out
to establish a national symphonic arts tradition; thus, Aaron
COPLAND and others
wrote symphonies, concertos and ballets, based on familiar
American melodies, images and themes.
 
EXAMPLE of a conservative MODERN BALLET

COPLAND: Appalachian Spring (1944)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 

Neo-Classicism (the "New Classicism")

Between 1920 and 1940, many composers began to
incorporate traditional Classic/Baroque forms and gestures into
their modern-sounding works. The Russian composers
Igor STRAVINSKY and Sergei PROKOFIEV were among the
first to "update the past" in the style known as neo-
Classicism.
COPLAND's "Simple Gifts" from Appalachian Spring is
neo-classic in its incorporation of a "classic" Theme and
Variations form rendered by classic-sounding gestures in the
orchestra. Ellen Taaffe ZWILICH's Concerto Grosso 1985 is
neo-Classic in its use of traditional ritornello form
and quotation music in which material from an earlier
Baroque composition by Handel is quoted extensively.
 
EXAMPLES of NEO-CLASSICISM
 COPLAND: Appalachian Spring (1944)
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 
ZWILICH: Concerto Grosso 1985
(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)
 Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work
 

Neo-Romanticism (the "New Romanticism)

In the 1950s, many composers reacted against harsh
atonality and experimentation by returning to a more traditionally
expressive compositional approach called neo-Romanticism.
This movement has been primarily spearheaded by American
composers such as Samuel BARBER, whose Adagio for
Strings is a landmark of the style.
 
EXAMPLE of NEO-ROMANTICISM

BARBER: Adagio for Strings (1936)

(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

 
 
The Influence of Popular Music Styles on Modern Art Music
Although most modern art-music composers have
intentionally isolated themselves from the popular and commercial
influences, several leading European art-music composers
including Stravinsky, Milhaud, Debussy and Ravel incorporated
aspects of jazz into some of their works. More notably,
several nationalistic American composers including William
Grant STILL, George GERSHWIN and Leonard BERNSTEIN,
made conscious attempts to bridge the gap between art music
and popular/jazz styles: STILL's Afro-
American Symphony (1931) features Afro-
American spirituals, ragtime,
and blues styles. GERSHWIN's opera, Porgy and Bess (1934-5),
uses blues-based idioms to depict the suffering of American
Blacks during the Great Depression. BERNSTEIN's West Side
Story (1957)—is a "musical" (short for "musical theatre" work)
that adapts Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet into a bitter rivalry
between two New York City gangs.
 
EXAMPLES of JAZZ/BLUES INFLUENCED MODERN ART MUSIC

 BERNSTEIN: West Side Story (1957)

(Right-click to see the Music Guide for this work)

Right-click here to watch a YouTube video of this work

  
 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                                                
 

***
 
SUMMARY OF MAIN MODERN ART MUSIC TERMS,
COMPOSERS AND CONCEPTS