MUS 337

Instructor:

Dr. Frank T. Restesan

 Key Terms

Extension of Serialism
Total Serialism serial technique applied
not only to pitch but also to duration,
intensity, timbres, etc
Darmstadt Summer School (est.1946)
Late Twentieth Century
1900 1950 2000
 Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)
Degree in mathematics & composer
Studied with Robert Sessions @ Princeton
1935 - New York University College of Arts
and Science
1938 music faculty @ Princeton
1943 taught mathematics @ Princeton
1958 Article in High Fidelity: Who Cares
if You Listen?
 Cont. Babbitt: style &
listening (2)
1961 - produced his Composition for
Synthesizer (worked for RCA on Mark II
Synthesizer)
1973 faculty @ Juilliard School (NYC)
Famous students: Kenneth Fuchs &
Stephen Sondheim
Style: traditional style for conventional
ensembles, electronic media or their
combination (Philomel 1964 for soprano
& synthesized accompaniment)
 Cont. Babbitt- OUTPUT(3)
1) 1st Period:
Vision and Prayer for Soprano and
Synthesized Tape (1961)
2) 2nd Period:
String Quartet No. 4 (1970)
3) 3rd Period:
Concerto Piccolino for Vibraphone (1999)
Listening: Clarinet Quintet (1996)
http://nku.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?
cid=INNOVA746
 Pierre Boulez (b.1925)
French composer, conductor and author
Adopted Messiaens method stated in Mode Values
(serialism applied to both pitch & duration)
Lectured at Darmstadt, Yale, Harvard, etc.
OUTPUT: 60 compositions
to date
Livre pour Quatuor (1948)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyS6lhwnBE0
 Cont. Boulez- LISTENING (2)
The Hammer without a Master 1955
Style: serial-pointilistic
Genre: Song cycle
9 Movt. on text by Rene Char (surrealist)
Instrumentation: Singer + instruments
Vocal techniques: wide skips, glissandos &
Sprechstimme
Link:http://nku.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalo
gue/item.asp?cid=CAP21581
 Karlheintz Stockhausen
(1928-2005)
German composer (Darmstadt School)
Student of Olivier Messiaen (Paris)
Composed electronic music, aleatoric
(controlled chance), serial compositions &
musical spatialization
Compositions & theories remain widely
influential, not only on composers of art music,
but also on jazz and popular-music
1960s -Taught at University of Penn and
University of California, Davis
 Karlheintz Stockhausen
(1928-2005)
New techniques: Quotations & Collages
relating music of the present with the past
Ex. Hymnen (1967) incorporates different
national anthems / combinations of electronic
music with voices & traditional instruments
Ex. Opus (1970) (bicentenary of
Beethovens birth) recorded fragments of
recognizable Beethoven works played in
speakers over live music
 Cont. Stockhausen-
LISTENING (2)
Kreuzspiel for piano, oboe, bass-clarinet and
percussion (1951, Darmstadt)
Method: Total Serialism
o Row Permutation: Complex process of rotation
o Each pitch (chromatic scale) linked to a certain
duration & a certain dynamic level
o Pitch Register - controlled through serial process
o All elements cross in the middle of the piece
Link:http://nku.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?
cid=MO782096