MUSIC 10

MUSIC OF THE
2 0 T H C E N T U RY

PREPARED BY: CLEISTHENESS M. BONJOC

IMPRESSIONISM
EXPRESSIONISM
NEO-CLASSICISM
ELECTRONIC MUSIC
AVANT-GARDE CHANCE MUSIC
MODERN NATIONALISM
IMPRESSIONISM
Based on an art movement started by
19th century Paris-based artists
(Claude Monet) which found its way
to music in the late 19th century
among French composers.
 I M P R E S S I O N I S M
The sentimental melodies and
dramatic emotionalism of Romantic
period had themes and melodies that
were easy to recognize and enjoy,
and was replaced in favor of moods
and impressions in this musical style
 Dissonance Modality

the lack of agreement traditional way of

and consistency in the composing was
progress of harmony abandoned in
of music. Impressionism music.
 Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
• most influential & leading composers
of the 20th century.
• eradicating traditional rules &
conventions into a new language of
possibilities in harmony, rhythm,
“Father of the
form, texture & color.
Modern School of
Composition”
 Born: August 22, 1862
St. Germain-en-Layein, France

Died: March 25, 1918

in Paris, France
 Composition:
more or less 227 masterpieces
• String Quartet
• La Mer (1905)
• Premiere Arabesque
• Claire de Lune (Moonlight)
Maurice Ravel
(1875 - 1937)
EXPRESSIONISM
Emotions of the music are taken to
the extreme, leading to disturbing,
unsettling and sometimes violent.
Served as a medium for expressing
strong emotions such as anxiety &
rage.
 Characteristics:

A high degree of dissonance

Arnold Schoenberg
(1874 - 1951)
American composer born in Vienna,
Austria. He taught himself music
theory, he was influenced by R.
Wagner as evident in his symphonic
poem Pelleas et Melisande, Op. 5
(1903).
Born: September 13, 1874
in Vienna, Austria

Died: July 13, 1951

in Los Angeles, California
• Verklarte Nacht
• Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11
• Pierrot Lunaire
• Violin Concerto
• Skandalkonzert (a concert of the
Wiener Konzertverein)
 Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• one of the greatest trendsetter of the
20th century.
• was influenced by his teacher (Nikolai
Rimsky Korsakov).
• first successful composition, “The
Firebird Suite (1910).
• musical style added new flavor to his
nationalistic musical style.
 Born: June 17, 1882
in Lomonosov, Russia

Died: April 6, 1971

in New York City, USA
 Composition:
approximately 127 works
• Ballet Petrouchka (1911)
• The Nightingale (1914)
• Three Tales for Children (1917)
• Pulcinella (1920)
• Duo Concertant (1932)
• The Rake’s Progress (1951)
NEO-CLASSICISM
It was a partial return to a classical
form of writing music with carefully
modulated dissonances. Also
adopted a modern, freer use of the
seven-tone diatonic scale.
Sergie ProkofieffHis style is uniquely recognizable for
(1891-1953)
its progressive technique. Equipped
with his great talent as a composer
and pianist. His contact with
Stravinsky gave him the chance to
write music for the ballet “Romeo &
Juliet” & “War & Peace”
 Born: April 23, 1891
in Sontsivka, Ukraine

Died: March 15, 1953

in Moscow, Russia
• Peter and the Wolf
• Concerti
• Chamber Music
• Film Scores
• Operas
• Ballets
 France Poulenc (1899-1963)
• member of the group of young French
composers (Les Six).
• rejected the heavy romanticism of
Wagner & the so-called Imprecision of
Debussy and Ravel.

• composition had a cooly elegant

modernity sense of proportion.
Born: January 7, 1899
in Paris, France

Died: January 30, 1963

in Paris, France
 Composition:
total around 185
• Concert Champetre, the Concerto fo
Two Pianos
• Solo piano
• Vocal solo
AVANT-GARDE
Closely associated with electronic
music. It made use of variations of
self-contained note groups to change
musical continuity & improvisation.
The absence of traditional rules on
harmony, melody & rhythm.
 George Gershwin (1898-1937)
• his brother Ira was his artistic
collaborator who wrote the lyrics of
his songs.
• composed “Rhapsody in Blue” & “An
American in Paris” which
incorporated jazz rhythms with
classical form.
“Father of American
• he was more fascinated with classical
Jazz”
music.
 Born: September 26, 1898
in Brooklyn, New York, USA

Died: July 11, 1937

in Los Angeles, California, USA
Leonard Bernstein Known as charismatic conductor,
(1918-1990) pianist and composer. He received
pre-eminence in 2 fields: conducting
and composing for broadway
musicals, dance shows and concert
music. Best known for his
composition for “West Side Story”.
Philip Glass Violinist & flutist, formed the Philip
(January 31, 1937)
Glass Ensemble and produced works
such as “Music in Similar Motion” &
“Music in Changing Parts” with rock-
type grooves at extreme volumes.
Produced a four-hour opera “Einstein
on the Beach”.
 ELECTRONIC MUSIC
Electronic music is the process of creating music using
computer system in synthesizing or producing digital audio
signals. Using the electronic way of producing sound, we
can produce music out of the range of traditional musical
instruments and create other sounds from nature and the
environment which are of larger range, higher pitch, and
with different qualities of sound.
 Edgard Varese (1883-1965)
• considered as an “Innovative French-
born Composer”.
• pioneered and created new sounds that
bordered between music and noise &
spent his life and career mostly in the
United States.

• also dubbed as the “Stratospheric “Father of Electronic

Colossus of Sound”. Music”
Born: December 22, 1883
in Paris, France

Died: November 6, 1965

in New York, USA
• an emphasis on timbre & rhythm
• “organized sound” (certain timbres
and rhythms can be grouped together
to capture a whole new definition of
sound).
Karlheinz Stockhausen
(1928-2007) a central figure in the realm of
electronic music. His music was
initially met with resistance due to its
haevily atonal content with practically
no clear melodic or rhythmic sense.
Still, he continued to experiment with
musique concrete.
Born: August 22, 1928
in Cologne, Germany

Died: December 5, 2007

in Kürten, Germany
 Composition:
total around 31
• Gruppen (1957)
• Kontakte (1960)
• Hymnen (1965)
• Licht (light)
 CHANCE MUSIC
also called aleatory music which is derived from the Latin
word alea, meaning “dice”. As the name suggests, it is a
composition created by chance rather than its logical
order.
It is a style of music where different sounds, musical or
non-musical, are assembles and combined to create any
kind of musical composition based on chance.
 John Cage (1912-1992)

• one of the 20th century composers

with the broadest array of sounds in
his works.
• challenged the very idea of music by
manipulating musical instruments to
attain new sounds and became the
“Chance Music”.
 Born: September 5, 1912
in Los Angeles, California, USA

Died: August 12, 1992

in New York, USA
 Cage created a “prepared” piano,
where screws and pieces of woods or
paper were inserted between the piano
strings to produce different percussive
possibilities.
 Notable for his work “The Four
Minutes and 33 seconds (4’33")”, a
chance musical work that instructed
the pianist to merely open the piano
lid and remain silent for the length of
time indicated by the title.
THANK YOU
SEE YOU ON OUR NEXT LESSON!