Era/Composers/Traits Flashcards
(21 cards)
Austro-German Expressionism
Years: 1900-1918 Modernism
Traits: Expressed very complex emotions, instead of the one note emotions from the late romantics
Liberation of dissonance, it doesn’t not need to resolve
Beginnings of the Second Viennese School
Composers: Arnold Schoenburg (Pierrot Lunaire)
Alban Berg
Anton Webern
Stravinsky’s Modernism
Years: 1900-1918 Modernism
Traits: Primitivism/Russian phase
Music that was primal or ritualistic
Violent in rhythms, timbre, harmonies, etc.
Rejected the beautiful and emotional nature of romantic with something more raw and abrasive
Composers: Rite of Spring
French Modernism
Years: c1900-1918 Modernism
Traits: Impressionism
Inspired by art impressionism and the symbolism poetic movement, that focused on imagery and vagueness to lead to many interpretations
Giving the impression of objects, an interpretation of them instead of a direct copy
Was decorative
Removed the over emotionality of late romanticism
Rejection of goal oriented form and harmony
Focus on atypical compositional concerts i.e. timbre, texture, ornamentation
Composers: Claude Debussy (Preludes Footsteps in the Snow)
Maurice Ravel (3 poemes of Stephan Mallarme)
Erik Satie inspired the above (Gymnopedies)
French Objectivity
Years: c1918-1945 Interwar Objectivity, post WWI
Traits: Similar to Austro-German Objectivity
Objectivity in music made it relatable and relevant - Jean Cocteau (inspired Les Six too)
“Everyday music”, relating to Austo Germans again
Music should intersect with the modern world’s technology and entertainment, short dry and to the point.
Composers: Erik Satie (furniture music, music meant to be in the background, inspired Les Six)
Les Six: Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, (Pacific 231, emulates train sounds) Germaine Tailleferre, Louis Durey, Georges Auric)
Austro-German New Objectivity
Years: c1918-1945 post-WWI
Traits: They became disenfranchised with the grand works of the romantics, wanting more relatable music.
Composers concerned with everyday life, and relating their works to the people (populist/everyday)
Music was accessible
Zietoper (opera of the times) borrowing traits from popular styles like jazz.
Gebrauchsmusik (music for use, ie an occasion or particular setting)
Spielmusik (music for enjoyment of performers)
Composers: Kurt Weill (Three Penny Opera)
Paul Hindermith (Funeral Music)
Austro-German Serialism
Years: c1918-1945 post-WWI
Traits: In contrast to new objectivity, it was abstract and numerical.
The the twelve tone method is invented by Schoenburg, arranging these pitches and altering them in different ways to generate the material for the piece
Became actually known as the Second Viennese School
Composers: Arnold Schoenburg
Alban Berg
Anton Webern (Symphony Op. 21)
American Ultramodernism
Years: c1918-1945 post-WWI
Traits: Free atonality and serialism made their way to the U.S.
U.S. composers saw these tools as avant garde and suitable for modern music
Ives was an influence!
Composers
Henry Cowell (The Banshee)
Ruth Crawford Seeger (String Quartet)
Neoclassicism
Years: c1918-1945 post-WWI
Traits: Consciously evokes or emulates an earlier style combined with new elements
Drew upon the baroque and classical styles, avoiding the emotional romantic style
Stravisky inspired some composers in France, including some members of Les Six
Composers
Igor Stravisnky (Pulcinella)
Germaine Tailleferre (Piano Concerto)
Art Music Beyond the West
Years: c1900-1945 post-WWI
Traits: New influences reached the west and art music reached non-western places via colonialism/capitalism
French Composers
Sought inspiration beyond the borders of France sometimes resulting in appropriation, particularly in Eastern Asia. Became an imagined version of these musics.
Composers
Alberto Ginastera String Quartet No. 1
Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachiana Brasileiras
Claude Debussy “Pagodes” from the Estampes
Olivier Messiaen Turangalîla
Colin McPhee Tabuh-tabuhan: Toccata for Two Pianos and Orchestra
Folk Song Influences
Years: c1900-1945 post-WWI
Traits: Musicians began to realize that traditional folk music was being lost, so some went around to these places and recorded their music
“folk-song collectors”
Composers inspired by this music sought to create modernist styles with their nation’s music
(the connection between folk music and modernism can be found in Stravinsky’s primitivism works)
Composers:
Béla Bartók String Quartet No. 4
Ralph Vaughn Williams The Lark Ascending
An American Sound
Years: c1900-1945 post-WWI
Traits: “An american sound” is trying to be created by composers. More types people were allowed into art music i.e. African Americans in the U.S.
Composers: Charles Ives Central Park in the Dark
Aaron Copland Appalachian Spring
William Grant Still Three Visions, “Summerland”, Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American”
Duke Elllington Take the A Train
French Musique Concrète/IRCAM
Years: c1900-1945 post-WWII
Traits: Musique Concrète
Radical french genre of electronic music using tape technology and commercial radio recordings
IRCAM
Electronic music center founded in 1977, run by Pierre Boulez for many years. It was funded by the government to aid experimentation in music.
The first group came from the Darmstadt school while the second were spectralists.
Spectralists used the technology to analyze the properties of sound, especially relating to the patterns of overtones. They used this knowledge to compose music and organize sound in new ways.
Composers:
Pierre Schaeffer Etude pathétique / Etude aux casseroles
Henri Dutilleux (Métaboles)
Gérard Grisey (Partiels)
Austro-German Reconstruction/Darmstadt
Years: c.1945-1989 post WWII
Traits: Austro-German culture was tainted because of the Nazi’s claiming German supremacy, also because Hitler worshiped Wagner, and his anti semitic ideals.
Cultural revival as well as actual reconstruction was encouraged.
The Darmstadt Summer Course was taught by Americans in the part of Germany still occupied by U.S. Troops. It taught previously oppressed by the Nazi Regime composers new avant garde ideas
Total serialism became the style of Darmstadt, which expanded the serialist ideas into more than just pitch, i.e. timbre, rhythm, form. Etc. as a need for order and discipline and to minimize the need for emotion.
(Connected to “Schoenberg is Dead” by Pierre Boulez)
Composers: Karlheinz Stockhausen Stimmung
U.S. Complexity/Composition as Research
Years: c. 1945-1989 post
WWII
Traits: Extension of Ultramodernist ideals
Highly complex
Babbitt pioneered the idea of a music composition Phd
Composers: Milton Babbitt Philomel
Elliot Carter
George Crumb
Iannis Xenakis Metastasis
New Complexity
Years: c. 1945-1989 post WWII
Traits: Pushing the boundaries of music notation, incredibly dense scores
Composers: Brian Ferneyhough developed his own radical personal style at Darmstadt
Postwar Life, Innovating in Expectation
Years: c. 1945-1989 post WWII
Traits: People left the “ivory tower” of art music resulting in many types of popular music. Ex, Jazz, singer-songwriters
Recordings, radio, and TV allowed for widespread listening, casual and serious.
The canon continued to rule in the concert hall.
Some composers were ok with writing music that did not break expected boundaries and maintained some success.
Composers: Dmitri Schostakovich Symphony No. 5
Benjamin Britten
John Cage and Fluxus
Years: c. 1945-1989 post WWII
Traits: Inspired by the ultramodernists and other experimental artists of the time John Cage was at the forefront of rethinking music.
He used:
indeterminacy, when musical parameters are left to the performer or chance
aleatory, chance determined by actions like rolling dice
found sounds, unconventional sounds typically not found in music, ie prepared piano or radio sounds.
4’33, Sonata V, from Sonatas and Interludes
The Fluxus movement was a group of experimental artists.
In music, they pushed the boundaries of what art music can be.
Composers: John Cage Sonata V, from Sonatas and Interludes
La Monte Young Compositions 1960
Minimalism
Years: c.1945-1989
Traits: Musical materials reduced to a minimal and procedures are simplified
Early minimalism emphasized the idea of “process”, setting a pattern and letting it play out as opposed to having a series of intricate compositional choices.
Represented a counterculture to art music of the time
Electronics and tape recording played a part in minimalisms development
By the 70s/80s minimalism meant repeating patterns, slow transformations, pulsing rhythms, static harmonies.
It was accessible and popular with audiences.
Composers: Steve Reich Piano Phase, Music for 18 Musicians
Terry Riley In C
John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Post-minimalism
Years: c. 1945-1989
Traits: Idioms/styles inspired by minimalism, several approaches taking some sort of principle from it.
One way connected with with popular music,
Another was spiritual minimalism, creating a meditative sound with no driving rhythms.
Composers: Julius Eastman the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc
Arvo Part Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten
New Simplicity
Years: c. 1945-1989
Traits: A reaction against new complexity, had simple materials repeated in short pieces
Composers: Howard Skempton Prelude, from Images
Music in the Postmodern Age
Years: c. 1989-2024
Traits: Many, many styles
Technologies like internet have increased access to many cultures and types of music from all over the world and throughout history
This has given composers a wealth of things to take inspiration from
Rejection of meta-narratives (main cultures/stories) and importance on multiple viewpoints
Music from different times and places, postmodern music has great variety
Common styles include
Drawing on styles from the past or other cultures and combining them into a personal style
Conveying multiple ideas by being contradictory, collage-like or fragmentary
Exploring high vs low art/elite vs popular genres and the juxtaposition of them
Not taking itself to seriously with irony, playfulness, or cynicism
Placing importance on the interpretation/experience of the listener versus importance on the composer’s intention
Polystylism combines different stylistic traits in one piece
Crossover intertwines one genre with another
Composers: Luciano Berio Sinfonia
Alfred Schnittke Concerto Grosso
Kaija Saariaho (Six Japanese Gardens)
Caroline Shaw Allemande, Partita for 8 Voices
Pamela Z Quatre Couches
Julian Anderson Book of Hours
