Tags & Description
New Simplicity in France
-moving towards modern music- jazz, dance halls, music for the modern man
-Post WWII
Erik Satie and Les Six
-looked for clarity and simplicity, everyday music for the everyday man
-produced film scores and popular music
Darius Milhaud
-eclectic music tastes, influenced by those around him
-interested in latin and jazz
-was commissioned to write a ballet about African folklore: “The Creation of the World”
La Creation du Monde
Darius Milhaud
-first serious piece of music to utilize jazz
-ballet
New Objectivity in Germany
-reaction to romanticism
-again, aimed to reach a wider audience
-cabaret, jazz, and folk tunes
Gebrauchsmusic
-practical music for amateurs and film music for the amateur man
-music education and music for children: Orff and Kodaly
Kurt Weill
believed jazz was the musical style of his generation
used dance in composition- tango and fox trot
liberal
Die Dreigroschenoper
Kurt Weill
“Three penny opera”
used jazz instruments
Paul Hindemith
big into the new simplicity
best known for his sonatas
believed modern day instruments needed up to date solo repertoire
“what is the duty of an artist during political turmoil?”
Symphony Mathis der Maler
Hindemith
written from excerpts from his unfinished opera about 16C painter
Socialist Realism
-everything has to be socialist now
-music should be accessible to the people
-government will provide access to music (as long as it loves russia)
-denounced 20C experimentalism (BOO THE WEST)
Union of Soviet Composers
The official guide for socialist music
art must be understandable by the masses
2. must be worthy of the great classical and russian traditions
musical expression must be optimistic (no more minor melodies ☹ )
Dimitri Shostakovich
-wrote music for the masses (i love russia major)
-kept music he wrote for himself locked in his desk (i hate russia minor)
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
Shostokavich
criticized for being “formalist” - aka too western
Henry Cowell
-experimented with composition and performance techniques popularzed by other composers
-wrote tone clusters
-introduced elements of chance
The Banshee
Henry Cowell
played inside the piano on the strings
Prepared Piano
Placing items on the strings of the piano or playing the strings themselves
popularized by Henry Cowell
Edgard Varese
STEM dude moved to music (you can guess how that turned out)
Hyperprism
Edgard Varese
sounds like it was composed by an engineer
George Gershwin
started out as a piano/music tester in stores
wrote music for AMERICANS
became famous for broadway and revues
wrote sophisticated popular music
jazz and blues lover
Raphsody in Blue
Gershwin
ternary form (A BA + A)
commissioned for a concert called “experiment in music”
was met with silence
Aaron Copland
studied in paris to learn all the isms
wrote American music, then atonal music, then went back to American music
Appalachian Spring
Copland
variations on simple gifts (boo and boring)
William Grant Still
Wrote art music
blues, swing, gospel
Afro-American Symphony
William Grant Still
first symphony by a black composer performed by a major orchestra
Olivier Messiaen
CATHOLIC
organist
loved medieval chant
played with musical time
Quartet for the End of Time
Messiaen
first performed by prisoners
8 mvmnts
violin, cello, clarinet, piano
Benjamin Britten
choral guy
composed operas in english
Peter Grimes
Benjamin Britten
english opera
story about an outcast
tonal
Samuel Barber
committed to tonality
Adagio for Strings
Samuel Barber
Associated with mourning- JFK
Neotonal
Chance Music
composers also gave complete control over to performers for all musical decisions
John Cage
wrote sonatas and interludes for prepared piano
“music is what is happening naturally- there is no purpose it just exists”
Music of Changes
John Cage
wrote by tossing coins and yi jing sticks and he wrote down what they landed on
music by chance
Serialism
post WWII
inspired from 2nd viennese school
tonality is dead
12 tone methods now applied to other musical ideas- timbre, dynamics, rhythm
WEBERN
Pierre Boulez
engineer → musician
studied with messiaen (big surprise)
“music should be written completely logically and mathematically”
Structures, Book I
Boulez
integrates serialism in to all musical elements
le marteau sans maître
Boulez
different sounds!!
New Virtuosity
using voice as text
how can we get new sounds for the voice, instruments, objects
Sequzenzas
Luciano Berio
composed vocal stimming
Electronic Music
wasn’t a thing until the tape recorder
came from real sounds and was cut and spliced by hand in studios
Edgard Varese
most vocal lad in electronic music
Poeme Electronique
Varese
Philomel
Milton Babbitt
love electronic performance
Texture/Process Music
loss of detail but a general shape of sound
Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
Penderecki
spatial notation- uses bands of sound
Lux Aeterna
Ligeti
for mixed choir
Wind Ensemble
shifted from military/brass band to community, schools, and experimentation
Music for Prague 1968
Husa
cumulative form
variations of a czech choral
Minimalism
became a standard tool over a style
establishes musical motives played in repetition
small changes feel monumental
rhythm and phase - windshield wipers
In C
Terry Riley
Akhnaten
Philip Glass
Minimalist opera
moves incredibly slow
Phyrigian Gates
John Adams
differences in texture are very noticeable and important
Trace the history of the symphony from Beethoven to Corigliano
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, "Eroica"- Beethoven to Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor Mahler to Symphony of Psalms- Stravinsky to Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp Minor- Prokofiev to Symphony No. 1 "Of Rage and Remembrance" - John Corigliano
Trace the history of opera from Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini to Richard Strauss
“Barber of Seville” - Rossini to “Lucia di Lammermoor” - Donizeti to “Norma” - Bellini to “Tristan und Isolde” - Wagner to “La Boheme” - Puccini to “Salome” - Strauss
In your opinion, what title would you give to 20th-21st century music and why?
The current term that is most often used is “post-modern”. This definition means that composers are borrowing from many different ideas, cultures, or styles to create something new which we can see across the board starting in the early 20th century to now as many composers do not stick to one style, they use styles as tools.