GOODMORNING

STUDENTS !
Music of the 20th
Century
What Genre of Music do you
Listen to?
The musical works of the 20th century introduced new styles and
movements of music with dissonances, percussive sounds, and
irregular rhythms. Music of the 20th century was greatly
influenced by the movements in Europe in the context of
Impressionism, Expressionism, Neo-classicism, Avant-Garde and
Modern Nationalism. These musical movements contribute
various styles and distinctive compositions and arrangements
behind their innovative and experimental styles.
 1. IMPRESSIONISM

It is a musical style that produces new indirect musical colors that lightly
overlapped in different chords with each other. It works on nature sounds
like the splashing of the waves, flowing river, chirping of the birds, and the
soft music evoked and its beauty, likeness, and brilliance. Impressionism
normally gives the feeling of finality to a piece, moods and textures,
harmonic vagueness about the structure of certain chords, and the use of a
whole-tone scale. Among the most famous impressionist composers in the
world, both developed a style of composition were Claude Debussy and
Joseph Maurice Ravel.
 1. IMPRESSIONISM

French movement in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Characteristics of Impressionist Music:

• Use of tone color
• Creating atmosphere in music
• Use of unusual chords
 Composers of Impressionism

Joseph Maurice Rovel Claude Debussy

Father of the MODERN SCHOOL OF
COMPOSITION
 2. EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionism presents atonality and the twelve-tone scale

revealing composer’s mind, expressing strong emotions,
anxiety, rage, and alienation. It expresses the meaning of
emotional experience rather than physical reality. One of
the proponents of expressionism is Arnold Schoenberg
 2. EXPRESSIONISM

• Centers Emotional Expression

• High level if dissonance, extreme contrasts of dynamics,
constant changing of textures, distorted melodies and
harmonies.
 3. NEOCLASSICISM

Neo-classicism music is different from the two movements. This is light,

entertaining, cool, and independent of its emotional content. The composition
style used by the composer was the seven-note diatonic scale. This period
combines tonal harmonies applying with slight dissonance which has a three-
movement format like shifting time signatures, complex but exciting rhythmic
patterns, as well as harmonic dissonance that produce harsh chords. The
composers of this time in neo-classicism are Francis Poulenc, Igor Stravinsky,
Paul Hindemith, and Sergei Prokofeiff.
 3. NEOCLASSICISM

• Revival of classic music

• Addition of modern features to the established
standards of classical music.
• Less conventional style of Romantic music + some
elements of the reactive musical Expressionism.
• Stability > Experimentation
 4. AVANT-GARDE

This form of music was considered as the vanguard of experimentation or

innovation period. The existing aesthetic and conventional type of music has
been put on to criticize, rejecting the status quo in favor of unique or original
elements. Adopting extreme composition within a certain tradition the so-
called “Experimental Music”. The new attitude will be altered toward musical
movement and it varies in the continuity where the notes being grouped into.
The proponents of the Avant-Garde Movement of Music are George Gershwin,
Leonard Bernstein, and Phillip Glass.
 4. AVANT-GARDE

• Uses the twelve-tone

• Musicians improvises during performance
• Innovation musical instruments
• Unconventional use of new elements in music
 5. MODERN NATIONALISM

Nationalistic composers and musical innovators were misled in the

20th century music development combined with modern techniques
with folk materials. Prominent Russian composers like Bela Bartok
and Sergei Prokofieff who were the neoclassicist infused classical
techniques crossing rhythms and shifting meters. They made
extensive use of polytonality that uses two or more tonal centers
simultaneously.
ANY QUESTION?