Final Study Guide: Music History II
1) Define Programmatic Music and Symphonic Tone Poem.
2) Define Nationalism in Music and the dates. What were some of the ways in which
composers depicted their native country through music?
3) Know the historical context of 20th century music and how it affected the arts in
general and music in particular (pages 279-285).
4) Be able to define and describe the following musical styles from the early 20th
century: Impressionism, Expressionism, and Primitivism. List composers from
each period.
5) List 2 American 20th century composers and tell which musical styles influenced
them.
6) Know where and who developed jazz. Be able to define the different styles of
Jazz Music: Ragtime, Blues, and Dixieland.
7) Define the following musical styles post 1945: Chance or Aleatoric Music,
Minimalism, Electronic Music, and Liberation of Sound.
8) Be able to define the following terms: Polytonality, polyrhythmic, tone cluster,
graphic notation, Sprechstimme and who developed it, atonality verses tonality.
9) Know 3 out of 5 of the programs for (stories behind) Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and
Juliet, Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, Debussy’s Prelude to an Afternoon
of a Faun, Smetana’s The Moldau and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
Historical Context of the first half of the 20th Century:
Turn of the 20th century was a time of a lot of change. There were many accelerated
technological changes and cultural changes. Musical styles went through accelerated change as
well. Romanticism stressed the individual , personal and expression Expressive desires and
extremes of emotions of the 20th composers out grew the ability of the tonal language of the 19th
century to describe them. So, a new musical language was developed during the first 10 years of
the 20th century, where there was a modern impulse to create a new musical language which
could create more emotional extremes, even shocking effects and often times sounds harsh and
unpleasant as compared to music of the past. Composers needed to extreme musical means to
make extreme musical statements. The average listener today has a problem with music of the
20th century We should try to understand 20 the century music and art because what is new and
difficult in a work of art is what is most unique, original , powerful and lasting. We may not
like it at first hearing. It may not be instantly popular and relatable. But some of this music has
stood out and has been deemed worthy of study and listening about it.
I)
A time of new technology--technological change. Birth of Mass Media and a faster turn
over of information.
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1892 Telephones
1893 First car
1895 Motion picture camera
1895 Radio
1899 First magnetic recording of sound
1901 first motorcycles
1903 first airplane.
1903 first RPM records of music
1920.s Radio broadcasts of live and recorded music began to reach large
audiences. People could hear music from all over the world
1927 First Television
Music can now reach many people more readily available. Birth of Mass Media. The arts will
never be the same. The arts reach more people more easily and more vastly.
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Computers, developed around 1946, began to be used in music in the 2nd half of
the 20th century.
II) A time of new ideas (intellectual ideas):
• In 1905 Freud develops psychoanalysis
• 1905-1916 Einstein develops the theory of relativity (there are no absolute truths)
III) A time of international unrest and conflict and revolt
• 1914-1918: World War I
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1917: Russian Revolution began
1922: Fascist Revolution in Italy
1929: Great Depression begins
1933: Nazi Revolution begins in Germany
1939-1945: World War II
IV) A time of musical diversity
• The diversification of styles that began in the Romantic Period continued through
the 20th century. There is no longer a universal style as in the classical period.
• 20-th century composers not only had different styles but different musical
languages.
• It was the time of Impressionism, Expressionism, Primitivism, Jazz, Nationalism
in the US. Below are descriptions of the different styles:
Summary: Nationalism through Modern Music
Nationalism was a movement beginning in the second half of the 19th century in Europe
as a reaction against the supremacy of German Music by composers such as Beethoven,
Brahms and Wagner and the Napoleonic Wars. Nationalism is characterized by a strong
emphasis on national elements and resources of music. It is based on the idea that the
composer should make his work an expression of national and ethnic traits, by drawing
on the folk melodies and dance rhythms of his country and by choosing scenes from his
country’s history or life as subjects for symphonic poems.
Characteristics of Nationalistic Music
1) Quote folk tunes or in the “spirit” of folk melodies (i.e. the shape of the folk tunes are
based on similar scales and rhythms).
2) Repetitive (due to an influence of the folk tunes and perhaps their lack of formal
training)
3) Freedom of Form (a reaction again the German Style of the Classical Composers)
4) Used dance rhythms.
5) Programs were about the country, landscape, history, folk legends, architecture.
Mussorgsky was a Russian Nationalist.
Dvorak and Smetana were Czech Nationalists.
Nationalism spread to the United States in the early part of the 20th century. American
composers such as Gershwin and Copland used patriotic tunes, hymns, folk music,
spirituals, jazz and blues in their music as well as depicting scenes and life in the U.S.A.
Impressionism: An artistic movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that was
distinctly Parisian.
Impressionism in Art: began as a movement in French painting in the late 19th century
begun by the painter Monet. His famous painting, Impression Sunrise, was the paining
that coined the phrase, Impressionism. It was a derogatory use of the word at first but has
since become a well known and loved movement in art . There was a dramatic break
from the realism of the past painters. Impressionistic art hints rather than states. It
suggests rather than to describe. Art was vague and intangible. Literal representations
were rejected in favor of impressions of the object. The paintings look imprecise in detail
and are often misty and blurred achieved through brush strokes and pastel colors.
Impressionism relies on allusion and understatement. Impressionistic painters abandoned
the grandiose subjects of romanticism and were concerned with effects of light, color,
and atmosphere. They shifted their focus from human form to light itself. There themes
were the “unimportant,” contemporary life, dancing girls, every day outdoor scenes,
boating, picnics, café scenes, nature in all it beauty and Paris in all its moods. Most of all
they were obsessed with water and light.
Characteristic of Impressionism in Music: The aim of musical impressionism is to
present the ear with sensations of tones, impress, or evoke, but not to specifically
describe a mood, feeling or object. Musical characteristics give impressions as well. The
follows describes how they achieve this. 1) vague and ambiguous tonality: difficult to
tell what key the piece in is because the major-minor system used since the Renaissance
Period way back in the 1450 was abandoned the major-minor system (which had been in
use since the Renaissance Period) and used whole tone scales, chromatic scales and
pentatonic scales making the music tonally ambiguous. 2) used parallel chords and 13th
chords (tonally ambiguous) 3) open 4ths and 5ths (sounds hollow and tonally
ambiguous) 4) The painting looks ethereal and dreamlike, like things are floating
=rhythms were floating and dream life not toe tapping, no sense of pulse to create a
dreamlike quality 5) Colors blur together in the painting, instruments used in unusual
pairs to create unique orchestral colors- there is veiled bleeding of timbres and colors.
One instrument flows into another 6) used small forms rather than the large forms 7)
Impressionists loved beautiful sounds, program music, tone painting, and nature,
lyricism, and emphasized mood and atmosphere. 8) colors are light and pastel in the
painting, in the music light textures are used with only one or two instruments being
combined at a time. Huge orchestras from the Romantic period were not used.
An example of an Impressionistic piece of music: Prelude to an afternoon of a Faun
by Debussy. The story is by a symbolist writer. Symbolist writers suggested stories but
did not outright state them. The story behind this programmatic piece of music evokes
the dream and erotic fantasies of a pagan forest creature who is half man and half goat.
While playing a long solo on his flute the intoxicated faun tries to remember if he carried
off two beautiful nymphs(imaginary or only dreamed of doing so. Exhausted by the
effort he falls back to sleep in the sunshine.
Debussy: Claire de Lune (Moolight) Character Piece for Piano in ABA with
Impressionistic characteristics.
Primitivism: Music that seeks to deliberately evoke primitive power and pagan imagery
and tribal life. Barbaric . This movement was begun in the early 20th century. An
example of art making use of this style is a painting by Picasso called Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon (the ladies of Avignon).
Stravinsky, a Russian composer, composed this type of music.
His most famous piece in this style was the Rite of Spring (This pieces is about a Pagan
Rite or Ritual in which a virgin was sacrificed to appease the god of spring by dancing
herself to death. It was a pagan belief that something had to die for new life to happen.
Music Characteristics of Primitivism: 1) Insistent Rhythms and percussive sounds
consists of changing and irregular meters and sometimes has several meters at once. 2)
Ostinatos or repeated rhythmic patterns were frequently used in his music. 3) Wrote for
small chamber groups with unconventional combinations of instruments to create
interesting and innovative tone colors for instance a violin is set against a trumpet. 4)
instruments were asked to play in unusual registers. 5) Brutal/Harsh dissonances 6)
percussive orchestration in fact the percussion section was made larger 7) rapidly
changing meters and violent offbeat accents 8) used bitonality (two keys at once) 9)
used folk-like melodies 10) Rhythmic and melodic Ostinatos (a repetitive patterns) giving
the music a ritualistic, hypnotic quality
Example of Primitivism: The Rite of Spring by Stravinksy: The Program of the Rite
of Spring is based on a vision that Stravinsky had of a solemn pagan rite: wise elders
seated in a circle, watching a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her
to please the god of spring.
Expressionism in Art (1905-1925 in Germany) developed around the time of the theory
of relativism (there are not absolutes) by Einstein and of Freud and psychoanalysis which
sought to uncover the dark drives, hidden terrors and mysterious motivations of human
behavior. It was also a time of international unrest and conflict such as WWI, Russian
Revolution and Fascists Revolution in Italy. In art, physical reality is not absolute. Nonrepresentational, art was not a straight forward presentation of the external world.
Distorted shapes and colors; exaggerated forms, cubism (cylinders, sphere and cones).
Art portrays human terror, haunting anxieties, nightmarish fears, and anguish. Flat and
not 3 dimensional. Creates shock and chaos. The Scream by Edvard Munch (Monk) is an
example:
Expressionism in Music was developed around 1918 by Schoenberg. The absolutes of
key, meter gave way to music with no tonal center or meter. This is known as 12-tone
music. No hierarchy of pitches or chords. No one pitch is more important than another.
Clashing dissonance was used. The music sounds random and chaotic, it doesn’t make
sense. Makes use of a new technique called Sprechstimme (which is a vocal line that
sounds somewhere in between of speech and song). Great emotional intensity and
emancipation of dissonance. Sounds chaotic and meant to shock.
A Musical Example is Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, which translates to Moonstruck
Pierrot or moon obsessed Pierrot (in terms of psychoanalysis). So, basically it is about a
crazy (psychotic), sad clown who is obsessed with the moon. Pierrot is a clown usually
depicted with white faced clown with a black tear drop to represent sadness.
This piece is a set of 21 songs based on Poems by a French poet, Albert Giraud, for
sopranos and a small groups of instruments including a flute, violin, piano, clarinet and
cello). The soprano does not exactly sing or speak but performs in an in between style
called Sprechstimme (speech song). Pierrot Luniare is expressionist in its weird text,
eerie Sprechstimme, unique instrumental effects and atonal music language. The first
song of the 21 is called Moondrunk. Pierrot is drunk on moonlight. Moonlight is equated
to “wine that we drink through the eyes.” Pierrot becomes intoxicated on moonlight.
Read text. The beginning sounds like liquid moonlight.
The 8th song is called Night and it is about Sinister giant black butterflies that eclipse the
sun.
JAZZ STYLES: 1900-1950
About the same time that Schoenberg and Stravinsky were changing the language of
music in Europe, a new musical style called jazz was being developed in the untied
States. Musicians created it – predominately African Americans – performing in the
streets, bars, brothels, and dance halls of New Orleans and other southern cities. Jazz can
be described generally as music rooted in improvisation and characterized by syncopated
rhythm, a steady beat, and distinctive tone colors and performance techniques. Jazz
probably was heard as early as 1900 but became popular around 1917. Jazz has
developed a rich variety of styles:
Elements of Jazz: jazz is played by a small group of three to eight players or by a “big
band” which is 10-15. The backbone of jazz is the rhythm section, usually made up of a
piano, plucked bass, and percussion. The percussionist is able to create a wide variety of
sounds from several drums, cymbals, using sticks, mallets; wires brushes, and bare hands
to create many diverse sounds. The main solo instruments of jazz include the cornet,
trumpet, saxophone, piano, clarinet, vibraphone, and trombone. Brass players produce a
wide variety of sounds by using different mutes. A Jazz performance usually involves
both solo and ensemble sections. In all, the distinctive sounds of jazz are easy to hear but
hard to describe. A jazz sound is a result from the particular way tones are attacked and
released; from the type of vibrato used; and from a variety of pitch inflections that might
be described as “smears”, “scoops” “falloffs” and shakes”. At the heart of jazz lies
improvisation. Not all of jazz music is improvised but most jazz music contains both
improvised and composed sections. There is usually a piece made up of a melody that
lasts 32 measures. Then, each time the song is repeated it is varied and changed. The
music is held together by underlying 12 bar chordal progressions. Jazz melodies use a
major scale with a lowered or flattened 3rd, 5th, or 7th. These are called “bent” or “Blues”
notes.
Categories of Jazz:
I) Ragtime: Ragtime is a style of composed piano music that flourished from the 1890’s
to about 1915. Ragtime piano music is generally in duple meter and is performed at a
moderate march tempo. The pianist’s right hand players a highly syncopated melody,
while the left hand steadily maintains the beat with an oom-pah accompaniment.
II) Blues: The term refers to a form of vocal and instrumental music and to a style of
performance. Blues grew out of African American Folk Music, such as work songs,
spirituals, and field hollers of slaves. It developed around the 1890’s as it was sung in
rural areas of the south. Vocal blues is intensely personal, often dealing with the pain of
betrayal, desertion, and unrequited love. The lyrics consist of several 3-line stanzas, each
are 12-bars in length and the music is 4/4 meter. The scale uses the (blue) bent note scale
and involves a lot of scooping, shadings, and sliding by the singer.
III) New Orleans Style: or Dixieland style was typically
played by a small group of 5-8 performers and began around 1900. The melodic
instruments or front line included the trumpet, clarinet, and trombone. These players
would improvise several contrasting melodic lines at once. A rhythm section that clearly
marked the beat and provided background chords supported the front line instruments.
This section usually included drums; chordal instruments such as a banjo, guitar or
piano, and a plucked bass. New Orleans jazz was usually based on a march, church
melody, a rag, a popular song, or 12 bar blues.
Musical Styles Since 1950
1. Chance Music or Aleatoric (Latin for “dice”) Music. Elements of the music are left
to chance either by the way in which it was composed or performed. For instance,
composers choose pitches, tone color, rhythms and dynamics by random methods
such as throwing dice or flipping coins or allowing a computer to randomly choose
almost like a lottery. Or, the composer may ask the performer(s) to perform the piece
by chance by shuffling pages or movements around.
2. Minimalist Music. Developed in the mid-1960’s and was a reaction against
complexity of serialism and the randomness of chance music. A steady pulse, clear
tonality, and an insistent repetition of short melodic patterns characterize minimalist
Music. Its melodic fragments, dynamics and textures tend to stay constant for fairly
long stretches of time, creating a trance-like or hypnotic effect. Minimalist music
grew out of the same intellectual climate as minimalist’s art, which features simple
forms, clarity, and understatement.
3. Electronic Music. Since the development of tape studios, synthesizers, and
computers in the 1950’s and 60’s, composers have had potentially unlimited
resources for the production and control of sound. Electronic music is diverse
including rock, chance music, or serialism. Electronic instruments allow composers to
control tone color, duration, dynamics, and pitch with unprecedented precision.
Composers are no longer limited to human performers. The audiotape of a
composition is the composition. Thus, a composer alone is now responsible for
putting into music the subtle variations of rhythm, tone color, and dynamics that once
rested with the performer. Some composers have felt the need to humanize their
compositions by combining electronic music with live performers.
4. Liberation of Sound. This is the right to make music with any and all sounds. This
may include electronic sounds, environmental sounds, novel sounds from voices and
non-electronic instruments such as coughing, sneezing, a whistle, they may sing
phonetic sounds rather than words. More examples include instrumentalists
achieving strange sounds with their instruments such as wind and string players
tapping or scraping their instrument. Another example includes brass or woodwind
performers humming while playing, thus creating two pitches at once or a pianist
reaching inside the piano and plucking the strings or running a chisel along the strings
to create a sliding sound. To communicate their intentions to performers, composers
may devise new systems of music notation, because standard notation makes no
provision for many noise-like sounds. This new system of notation is called graphicnotation. Recent musical scores contain graph-like diagrams, new note shapes and
symbols, and novel ways of arranging notation on the page.
Examples of Graphic Notation:
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