MUSIC OF 20TH CENTURY.

★ MUSIC OF 20TH CENTURY ★ EXPRESSIONISM

➔ The start of the 20th century saw the rise of ➔ This revealed the composer’s mind,
distinct musical styles that reflected a move instead of presenting an impression of
away from the conventions of earlier the environment.
classical music. These new styles were: ➔ It used atonality and the twelve-tone scale,
1. impressionism lacking stable and conventional harmonies.
2. expressionism ➔ It served as a medium for expressing
3. neoclassicism strong emotions, such as anxiety, rage, and
alienation.
4. avant garde music
➔ It is a style of music where composers
5. modern nationalism
seek to express emotional experience.

★ IMPRESSIONISM
★ NEOCLASSICISM
➔ Impressionism was an attempt not to
➔ It was a moderating factor between the
depict reality, but merely to suggest it. It
emotional excesses of the romantic period
was meant to create an emotional mood
and the violent impulses of the soul in
rather than a specific picture.
expressionism
➔ one of the earliest musical forms that
● A partial return to an earlier style of writing,
paved the way to this modern era.
particularly the tightly-knit form of the
● Is a significant 20th century movement.
Classical period, while combining tonal
● It was a French movement in the late 19th
harmonies with slight dissonances.
and early 20th century.
● adopted a modern, freer use of the
● The sentimental melodies and dramatic
seven-note diatonic scale.
emotionalism of the Romantic Period were
replaced in favor of moods and impressions.
COMPOSERS IN EXPRESSIONISM AND NEO:
● New combinations of extended chords,
harmonies, whole tone, chromatic scales,
and pentatonic scales came.

IN IMPRESSIONISM:
1. The sounds of different chords overlapped
lightly with each other to produce new
subtle musical colors.
2. Chords did not have a definite order and
a sense of clear resolution.
3. This musical style uses a whole-tone scale.
Bela Bartok Igor Stravinsky
However in this musical style, it lacks a
tonic- dominant relationship which
normally gives the feeling of finality to a
piece, moods and texture and harmonic ★ AVANT GARDE
vagueness. ➔ Associated with electronic music
● This movement dealt with the parameters
or the dimensions of sound in space.
extensive use of colors and effects, vague
melodies, and innovative chords and ● Avant-garde music employs unconventional
progressions leading to mild dissonances. sound and form.
● It lacks traditional rules for harmony,
melody, and rhythm.
COMPOSERS IN THIS ERA:
● This makes it unfamiliar to those used to
traditional compositions.
● This style exhibited a new attitude toward
musical mobility, where the order of note
groups could be varied so that musical
continuity could be altered.

Maurice Ravel Claude de Bussy

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COMPOSERS IN AVANT GARDE:
George Gershwin Leonard Bernstein
John Cage Philip Glass
★ MODERN NATIONALISM
➔ A looser form of 20th century music
development focused on nationalist
composers and musical innovators who
sought to combine modern techniques with
folk materials.
● This common ground stopped there, for the
different breeds of nationalists formed their
own styles of writing.
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)
● Known as the Father of the Modern School
of Composition
● He was the principal exponent of the
impressionist movement and the
inspiration for other impressionist
composers.
● was one of the most influential and leading
composers of the 20th century.
● He reformed the course of musical
development by eradicating traditional
rules and conventions into a new language
of possibilities in harmony, rhythm, form,
texture, and color.
● He composed a total of more or less 227
masterpieces, which include orchestral
music, chamber music, piano music, operas,
ballets, songs, and other vocal music.
● Some of his famous works are:
1. String Quartet
2. La Mer (1905)
3. Première Arabesque
4. Claire de Lune (Moonlight)
Debussy was influenced by Monet, Pissaro,
Manet, Degas, and Renoir; and from the literary
arts by Mallarme, Verlaine, and Rimbaud. Most
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of his close friends were painters and poets
who significantly influenced his works.
JOSEPH MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)
➔ was born in Ciboure, France, to a Basque
mother and a Swiss father.
● At 14, he entered the Paris Conservatory,
where he was musically nurtured by a
prominent French composer, Gabriel Faure.
● The compositional style of Ravel is mainly
innovative but not atonal style (music that
is written in a way that is not based on any
particular key) of harmonic treatment.
● His works are defined with intricate and
sometimes modal melodies and extended
chordal components. It demands
considerable technical virtuosity from the
performer, which is the character, ability, or
skill of a virtuoso—a person who is
exemplary in musical technique or
execution.
● Ravel was a perfectionist and every bit a
musical craftsman. He strongly adhered to
the classical form, specifically its ternary
structure. A strong advocate of Russian
music, he also admired the music of Chopin,
Liszt, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.
● Ravel's works include the following:
1. Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899)
2. String Quartet (1903)
3. Sonatine for Piano (1904)
4. Rhapsodie Espagnole
5. Bolero
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874-1952)
If it is art,
It is not for all.
If it is for all,
It is not art.
➔ Is influenced by Richard Wagner
➔ He experienced Triskaidekaphobia (fear
of number 13).
➔ Is an Expressionist composer.
● Schoenberg is credited with the
establishment of the twelve-tone system.
● His musical compositions are both
Melodic, lyrical and extremely complex.
● His musical compositions total more or less
213 which include concerti, orchestral music,
piano music, operas, choral music, songs,
and other instrumental music.
● His works include the following:
1. Verklarte Nacht,
 2. Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11
3. Pierrot Lunaire,
4. Gurreleider
5. Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured
Night, 1899),
★ NATIONALISM
Igor ● His music is influenced by his
Stravinsky teacher and a russian
composer, Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov
● Added a new ingredient to his
nationalistic musical style.
● Has over 127 compositions.
● One of his famous work is the
“The Rite of Spring.”
Bela ● Born in Nagyszentmiklós,
Bartok Hungary
● Was inspired by Richard
Strauss and Sprach
Zarathustra and wrote his first
nationalistic poem
● He also utilized changing
meters and strong
syncopations.
● His compositions were
successful because of their
rich melodies and lively
rhythms.
● Is famous for his Six String
Quartets, the greatest
achievement of his life.
● Has over 695 works.
● One of his works is the
“Mikrokosmos.”
Sergei ● Born in Ukraine (1891-1953)
Prokofieff ● A combination of
neo-classicist, nationalist and
avant garde composer.
● He set out for the St.
Petersburg Conservatory
equipped with his great talent
as a composer and pianist.
Francis ● Born into a wealthy and
Poulenc privileged family.
● He is a member of young
french composers known as
Les Six.
● Poulenc was a successful
composer for piano, voice, and
choral music.
● His compositions had a coolly
elegant modernity, tempered
by a classical sense of
proportion.
● His musical compositions total
around 185 pieces.
● Other members of Les Six are:
1. Georges Auric
2. Louis Durey
3. Arthur Honegger
4. Darois Milhaud
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5. Germaine Tailleferre
George ● Father of American Jazz
Gershwin ● Was born in New York to
Russian Jewish Immigrants.
● His older brother Ira was his
artistic collaborator who wrote
the lyrics of his songs
● His first song was written in
1916 and his first Broadway
musical La La Lucille in 1919
● His melodic gift was
considered phenomenal, as
evidenced by his numerous
songs of wide appeal
● He is a true Crossover artist in
a way that his compositions
remain highly popular in the
classical repertoire, as his
stage and film songs continue
to be jazz and vocal standards.
● His works total around 369
Leonard ● Born in Massachusetts
Bernstein ● His big break came when he
was asked to substitute for
the ailing Bruno Walter in
conducting the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra in a
concert on November 14, 1943.
● The overnight success of this
event started his reputation as
a great interpreter of the
classics as well as of the more
complex works of Gustav
Mahler.
● Composed the music for the
film “The Waterfront”
● Has a television series called
“Young People’s Concerts”
● And has “Harvardian
Lectures” distributed to
Harvard Students.
Philip ● One of the most successful
Glass commercial minimalist
composers.
● His style involves cell-like
phrases emanating from
bright electronic sounds.
● His music is often criticized as
uneventful and shallow, yet
startlingly effective for its
hypnotic charm.
● Became a Violinist and Flutist
at age of 15
● Became inspired by the music
of an Indian renowned sitarist,
Ravi Shankar.
● His total compositions round
up to about 170 pieces.
Concerto is a musical composition for a solo
instrument or instruments accompanied by an
orchestra, especially one conceived on a
relatively large scale.
 ★ ELECTRONIC MUSIC John Cage ● Was known as one of the
20th-century composers with
➔ The ability of electronic machines such as
the broadest array of
synthesizers, amplifiers, tape recorders, and sounds in his works.
loudspeakers to produce different sounds ● challenged the very idea of
was popularized by 20th century notable music by manipulating
composers. musical instruments to attain
➔ The first electronic devices for performing new sounds and became the
music were developed at the end of the "chance music."
● In one instance, Cage
19th century, Theremin
created a "prepared" piano,
where screws and pieces of
wood or paper were
Edgard ● Father of Electronic Music
inserted between the piano
Varese ● Was considered as an
strings to produce different
“innovative French born
percussive possibilities.
composer.”
● Became notable for his work,
● He pioneered and created
“The Four Minutes and 33
new sounds that bordered
Seconds [4`33``] a chance
between music and noise.
musical work that instructed
● His compositions are
the pianist to merely open
categorized by:
the piano lid and remain
1. An emphasis on
silent for the length of time
timbre and
indicated by the title.
rhythm
2. Organized sound
● Was dubbed as the
Stratospheric Colossus of
Sound.

Karlheinz ● a central figure in the

Stockhausen realm of electronic music.
● Developed his own style
called Serialism together
with Pierre Boulez
● It has led him to dream of
concert halls in which the
sound attacks the listener
from every direction.
● His works total around 31.
● Some of his works include: Sergei Prokofieff Francis Poulenc
1. Gruppen (1957)
2. Kontakte (1960)
3. Hymnen (1965)
4. Licht (Light)

★ CHANCE MUSIC
➔ also known as Aleatoric music, refers to a
style in which the piece always sounds
differently at every performance because Karlheinz
of the random techniques of production, Stockhausen
Edgard Varese
including the use of ring modulators or
natural elements that become a part of the
music, such as honking cars, rustling leaves,
blowing wind, dripping water, or a ringing
phone.
➔ An example of Chance music is John Cage's
Four Minutes and Thirty-Three Seconds
(4'33"), where the pianist merely opens the
piano lid and keeps silent for the
duration of the piece.

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