Forms of 20th

century music
1. NEO – CLASSICISM--It is a partial
return to a classical form of writing
music with carefully modulated
dissonances. It made use of a freer
seven-note diatonic scale.
2. IMPRESSIONISM-- It is made use of the
whole-tone scale. It is also applied
suggested, rather than depicted, reality. It
created a mood rather than a definite
picture. Had a translucent and hazy
texture; lacking a dominant-tonic
relationship
3.AVANT GARDE MUSIC- style was associated
with electronic music and dealt with the
parameters or dimensions of sound in space. It
made use of variations of self-contained note
groups to change musical continuity, and
improvisation, with an absence of traditional
rules on harmony, melody, and rhythm’
4. 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.
5. EXPRESSIONISM- Revealed the
composer’s mind, instead of presenting an
impression of the environment. It used
atonality and the twelve-tone scale, lacking
stable and conventional harmonies. It
served as a medium for expressing strong
emotions, such as anxiety, rage, and
alienation
20th Century Famous
Composers and their
Distinctive Styles
1. CLAUDE DEBUSSY -he changed
the course of musical development
by dissolving traditional rules and
conventions into a new language of
possibilities in harmony, rhythm,
form, texture and color.
2. MAURICE RAVEL – his compositional
style is mainly characterized by its
uniquely innovative but not atonal style
of harmonic treatment. It demands
considerable technical virtuosity from
the performer which is the character,
ability or skill of a virtuoso.
3. ARNOLD SCHOENBERG – his
tonal preference gradually
turned to the dissonant and
atonal as he explores the use
of chromatic harmonies.
4. IGOR STRAVINSKY – he added
a new ingredient to his
nationalistic style. A new level
of dissonance was reached and
the sense of tonality was
practically abandoned.
5. BELA BARTOK – he utilized
changing meters and strong
syncopations. His compositions
were successful because of their
rich melodies and lively
rhythms.
 NAME OF COMPOSITIONS
COMPOSERS
1.Claude Debussy Claire de Lune
(Moonlight)
2.Maurice Ravel Bolero
3.Arnold Verklarte Natch
Schoenberg
 NAME OF COMPOSITIONS
COMPOSERS
4.Igor Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

5. Bela Bartok Mikrokosmos

The Rite of Spring ballet is considered
controversial by early-20th century
standards and uses the dissonant
sounds of early modernism and the
avant-garde as a way to shock and
thrust the audience into prehistoric
pagan Russia.
Bolero is a form of dance and music
that originated in 18th-century
Spain, first developed as the dance.
Characteristic music accompanying
the dance would later come to be
known also as ''bolero.''
Bolero refers to two distinct genres of slow-
tempo Latin music and their associated
dances.[1] The oldest type of bolero
originated in Spain during the late 18th
century as a form of ballroom music, which
influenced art music composers around the
world, most famously Maurice Ravel's
Boléro
The original bolero music and dance were
typically performed at a slow tempo. The
musicians used various instruments such as
castanets, tambourines, and guitars, as well as
vocals, and the dance could be performed as a
solo or partnered. This form of bolero is intended
to be a slow, danceable love song,
since romantic love is the main theme of bolero
music.
Verklärte Nacht ("Transfigured
Night") was inspired by a mystical
poem by Richard Dehmel. In cold,
moonlit woods, a woman confesses to
her lover that she carries the child of
another man she never loved but to
whom she yielded for fulfillment.
Verklärte Nacht, (English:
“Transfigured Night”) string sextet for
two violins, two violas, and two cellos by
Austrian-born American Composer 
Arnold Schoenberg that dates to 1899,
before he adopted the 
12-tone method of composition that
became his signature. 
Verklärte Nacht is a tone poem—
that is, an instrumental composition
 with plot content—in the tradition
of Franz Liszt’s Les Préludes and 
Richard Strauss’s Don Juan
"Clair de lune" (French for "Moonlight") is a 
poem written by French poet Paul Verlaine in
1869. It is the inspiration for the third and most
famous movement of Claude Debussy's 1890 
Suite bergamasque. Debussy also made two
settings of the poem for voice and piano
accompaniment. The poem has also been set to
music by Gabriel Fauré, Louis Vierne, Sigfrid
Karg-Elert, and Josef Szulc.
In 1945 Bela Bartók described
Mikrokosmos as a cycle of 153 pieces
for piano written for “didactic”
purposes, seeing them as a series of
pieces in many different styles,
representing a small world, or as the
“world of the little ones, the children”.
The “Mikrokosmos,” literally
meaning the “micro-cosmos,” is a
series of six volumes of piano
compositions composed between
1926 and 1939 designed for the
musical instruction of his son, Péter. 
Listen to the following
musical compositions
and then name the
composer.
 ANSWER KEY:
1. Arnold Schoenberg
2. Bela Bartok
3. Maurice Ravel
4. Claude Debussy
5. Igor Stravinsky