Test 3 Flashcards
(136 cards)
1
Q
The End of Tonality: Arnold Schoenberg
A
Todays Topic
-Schoenberg did not see himself as a total break with tradition but a continuation of tradition
2
Q
Modernism: Innovation
A
- Impressionism vs. Expressionism
- 1899: Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams”
- Freud theorized the subconscious, something below your thoughts - The unconscious, expressing inner turmoil
- Impressionism - not trying to compose “the thing” just give an impression of it.
3
Q
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
A
- Born to a Jewish family, converted to Lutheranism (was it sincere?)
- Survived WWII in America
- Started out as a romantic
- imperative of originality
- the idea that you have to be original you can’t just copy
- you have to keep pushing music forward - Modernism means you have to be creating new!
4
Q
Schoenberg’s Abandoning of Tonality
A
- “Emancipation of Dissonance”
- Dissonance no longer has to resolve - Preferred the term “pantonality”
- hated the term atonality, he said he was composing with tones not without them. - No pitch hierarchy
- no pitch should feel like home - Minimize repetition
- repetition creates a sense of home
5
Q
Pierrot Lunaire
A
-Tet is a German translation of Albert Giraud
-Pierrot
-character from Commedia dell’Arte
-iconic sad clown
Commedia dell’arte - style that is semi-improvised, comedy
6
Q
Pierrot Lunaire
A
- reciter (not singer) + 5 musicians playing 9 instruments
- 21 songs, no ensemble repeated
- similar to a song style
- Sprechtstimme
- reciter - part not sung but recited in sprechtstimme, notes have x’s or slashes instead of circles on line. Hit the notes more in speech than in song. Stylized speech
7
Q
Set Theory
A
- Pitch-classes vs. Pitch
- Defined by interval content
- Arrange sets in the most compact way, count half steps from lowest note.
8
Q
Serialism
A
- Solved the originality problem of free atonality
- “Method of composing with twelve tones which are related to each other
9
Q
Serial Technique
A
- All 12 pitches arranged in a row
- Perform procedures on that row: Inversion, retrograde, and retrograde inversion
10
Q
The Second Viennese School: Berg and Webern
A
Todays Main Topic
11
Q
Schoenberg as Teacher/Theorist
A
- German, into german tradition
- Two major pupils: Alban Berg and Anton Webern
- “Second Viennese School”
- Atonality and serialism
- first Viennese school was Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven - Berg’s pieces tend to sound a little more tonal
- Initially influential, but philosophy and ethnicity proved problematic after 1933
- Schoenberg was Jewish and wrote Atonal - Fled to America, taught at UCLA
12
Q
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
A
- Born to a wealthy family in Vienna
- Studied with Schoenberg, 1904-1911
- Difficult relationship - Schoenberg tried to get Berg to promote his music
- Berg wasn’t feeling it - Sounds more “tonal” than Schoenberg
- Berg thought Schoenberg favored Webern
13
Q
Wozzeck
A
- Berg
- Based on Woyzeck, unfinished play by Georg Buchner
- Misfortunes of a poor soldier who commits murder
- Political implications
14
Q
Construction of Wozzeck
A
Break down online
-Act 1 scene, 5 drum major seduction in Rondo
15
Q
Act III, Scene 3: Variations on a Rhythm
A
Online
- previous scene is the murder scene, Marie is dead
- Haupststimme
- More info online
16
Q
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
A
- Contemporary student with Berg
- Music should express only that which something else cannot
- Economy of expression
- music viewed as dry/sparse
17
Q
Symphony, op. 21
A
- Webern
- 12-tone, elements of sonata form
- Exposition
- two canons, one lyrical, one more energetic
- Klangfarbenmelodie - sound, color, melody
- Exposition
- Canons
- Plays with tone color
- Development: Palindrome
- Recap: Same rows, same order as exp., different rhythms, registers
18
Q
Igor Stravinsky and the Ballet Russes
A
Topic 11/3
19
Q
The Next Generation of Russians: Igor Stravinsky
A
- 1882-1971
- Born near St. Petersburg
- Trained by Rimsky-Korsakov
- Octatonic scales
- Three major compositional periods
- Big in Nationalism
- 19th century culture
- Parallels with mazorgsky
20
Q
The Ballet Russes
A
- Paris still a cultural capital
- still interested in Exoticism
- Impresario Sergei Diaghilev
- he decided he was going to create a ballet company that brought together all of the best most modern artists, dancers, composers, designers, etc.
- The Ballet Russes - Dringing Modernist artists together
- Star Dancer/choreographer - Vaslav Nijinsky - Diaghilev’s lover
- Opened in 1909
21
Q
Stravinsky and the Ballet Russes
A
- First Ballet: 1910, “The Firebird” - Stravinsky
- Next, “Petrouchka” - Petrouchka chord (c major chord layered with F#, you get an ochtatonic collection)
- Both: Based on russian subjects, lots of octatonicism, folk music
- Leon Bakst, costume design for “The Firebird,” 1910
22
Q
The Rite of Spring - Stravinsky’s most famous work
A
-Third ballet of Diaghilev
-Scenario: Scenes from Pagan Russia
–“Primitivism” - more violent, animalistic. Dance style was very primitive.
-All-Star line-up: Stravinsky, choreographed by Nijinsky, sets and costumes by Nicolas Roerich
-Riot! (dancing, not the music?)
-initially a disaster because it was not the typical sexualized ballet. People would talk through it and cause the dancers to not be able to hear the music.
Rite of Spring Reconstruction
23
Q
“Danse des Adolescentes”
A
- Similarity to the Mighty five
- similarities to Boris Godunov - Blocks of music
- Russian folk melodies
- The Dinosaurs from the original fantasia
- a lot going on vertically but horizontally its very repetitive
24
Q
Danse des Adolescentes 2
A
- Polytonality
- “spring” or “Augurs” chord
- E-flat dominant 7 and F-flat major - Vertical layers
- Ostinatos - Cubism - brought to the forefront by Picasso. Show three dimensional objects in a two dimensional way
25
"Danse Sacrale"
- Constantly shifting meter
- moveable downbeat?
- whenever Stravinsky wanted an accent he inserted a downbeat.
26
Neoclassicism - Stravinsky strikes back
todays topic
27
The Long 19th Century
- 1789-1914 (French Revolution-World War I)
- Devastation of World War I - most disastrous war ever to take place in Europe.
- First war fought Modern weaponry
- Guns and Mustard gas
- a lot of people blamed nationalism for WWI
28
From Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est"
- "If in some smothering dreams..."
| - people became disillusioned with nationalist music
29
Stravinsky after the Rite
- Stranded in Switzerland by the Russian Revolution (1917)
- WWI ends in 1918
- 1919: Pulcinella (Ballet), arranges this piece by Pergolesi
- Inspires "Neoclassical" Period
- Stravinsky a Fascist, not a communist
- A man without a country when in Switzerland
- Music becomes anti-nationalism
30
Neoclassicism
- Draws on all pre-Romantic idioms
- Two related goals:
- Anti-Romaticism
- Anti-Nationalism
- more similar to Baroque
- a lot of Bach Influence
- Stravinsky didn't want his music to express emotion because emotion leads to War, Nationalism leads to war.
- One country isn't better than another
31
Stravinsky on Musical Expression
- Stravinsky wrote a lot about music, his music
- He was often quoted instead of writing about himself
- Composer's quotes of the time were often questionable.
- You couldn't get composers to shut up at this time
- STRAVINSKY QUOTE ONLINE
- Difference between beauty and emotion
- Music of this time should be objectively beautiful
32
Symphony of Psalms
- Commissione by the Boston Symphony for Stravinsky
- Premiered in 1930
- memorial piece for WWI
- Influences:
- Fugual moments
- a lot of repetition
- openning similar to the Eroica
- not meant to be listened by just anyone coming off the street (just enjoyed). Meant to be listened to intellectually.
33
Symphony of Psalms: Neoclassical elements
- Opening: similar to Eroica
- Bach-like arpeggios
- Mostly wind ensemble (Renaissance Consort?)
- Gregorian-chant
34
-Symphony of Psalms: Continuity with the Russian Period
- Blocks of Sound - m.24 big break followed by something new. Music that is built in chunks
- Ostinatos
- "Neotonality"
- Psalms Chord - standard e minor chord, but played spread out with the 3rd doubled (emphasized).
- scale degree 1 > scale degree 2
- this piece keeps switching between G and E
35
Stravinsky's Later Career
- Famous conductor
- Emigrated to America in 1939
- Last period: serialism. (after Schoenberg was dead)
- they weren't enemies but they weren't friends
36
The Search for New Sounds
Todays topic
37
Bela Bartok
- 1881-1945
- Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (area that is now Romania)
- Fascinated with "peasant" (folk) music
- Famous concert pianist
- Served on the League of Nations
- Outspoken against the Nazis
- Experienced the 19th century serge of Nationalism
- went against this by looking into folk music
- His Parents were teachers
- Interested in Pedagogy
- Studied at the Royal Academy of Music
- One of the first Ethnomusicologists, interested in teaching
- Famous Pianist and toured Europe, ended up in USA
38
Bartok as Ethnomusicologist
- Worked with Zoltan Kodaly
- Focused primarily on Eastern European music
- Romanian/Hungarian nastionalist
- Stopped collecting, started studying around 1920
- Trianon of Trianon in 1920 that broke up and established the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
- Became a full-time professor of ethnomusicology in 1934
39
Bartok's Style
-Mixing folk and modernist elements:
Quotes online
sounds similar to stravinsky. Saying his sound isn't nationalist but anti-romantic.
- Using folk music to search for new sounds. You can't use music to promote someone's nationalism after WWI.
- Get the sentimentality out
40
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
- Atonal fugue subject of Movement I appears in all four movements.
- infusion of Folk music characteristics. Doesn't directly quote any folk tunes.
41
Movement III, ("Night Music")
- Folk-like elements:
- A section: drones, trills, ornamentation
- C Section: orchestration
- Symmetry: orchestra setting, "Bridge" form
- Bartok was very into symmetry, Palindrome
- Breakdown online
- He would brake his orchestra in half when performing on stage.
42
Art Music in America
- 19th Century sees a rise in symphony orchestras. some American symphonists
- 1892: Antonin Dvorak recommends American composers use folk music.
43
Charles Ives
- 1874-1954
- Father was a bandmaster, church musician
- encouraged a different way of listening to music
- Exposed to lots of American popular song
- Wasn't recognized as a brilliant musician until the 1930's or 40's
- Only started publishing his music in 1918
- Studied at Yale, did study music
- Previously an insurance salesman.
44
"General William Booth Enters into Heaven"
- William Booth founded the Salvation Army
- Patriotic
- Booth was blind
- Collage: Quotation
- Cumulative form
- "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood"
- Sounds like Sister Act
45
Jazz Comes to Europe
todays topic
46
Jazz in Europe
- Jazz started in New Orleans
- WWI
- The American GI's bring with them their music
- Touring Bands
- music was sent over to entertain the troops
- African Americans decide to stay
- James Reese Europe - forefront of bringing Jazz to Europe
- Early 1920's Jazz caught fire, particularly in Paris.
- Parisians saw jazz as kind of the African primitive music
- France had African colonies
47
Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1972)
- Member of Les Six (similar to Russian 5)
- Wanted to "un-germanify" French music
- Trip to Harlem in 1922 - 23
- hears Jazz and decides to incorporate it into his music
- sees Jazz as strictly African, not an american music
- At the time French music was very Wagnerian
48
La Creation du Monde
- Milhaud's most famous piece
- Primitivism
- The Creation of the World
- the saxophone is down with the strings
- music is similar to a jazz band
- Dorian mode
- Whats classical about his music
- uses orchestral instruments (string section)
- very rhythmic (quick, fast, almost baroque)
- melody is heard in all different parts (like a jazz fugue)
49
La Creation du Monde 2
- Traditional elements
- form
- ensemble
- Jazz elements
- saxophone instead of viola
- prominent woodwinds
- texture
- Modernist elements
- polyrhythm/meter (m. 1, piano and percussion)
- polytonality (m.24) left in C major right in D
- three beat ostinato in piano
- percussion has 6
50
1920's in Germany
- Germany was forced to pay for the war
- Weimar Republic
- first time Germany was ever a democratic government
- this new government was based in Weimar
- symbolic gesture towards humanism/enlightenment
- didn't work out that way
- Inflation
- in debt so just started printing money
- Political instability
51
Kurt Weill
- 1900-1950
- Son of a Cantor
- had an apartment in the synagog
- Collaborations with Bertolt Brecht
- Modernism for the public, politics
- developed new theory of modernism
- modernism should be used for political purposes
- bring modernism to the people
52
Die Dreigroschenoper
- most famous work of Weill and Brecht
- Based on The Beggar's Opera
- Three penny opera
- "This evening you will see an opera for beggars. Because this opera was conceived to be so magnificent that only a beggar could dream of it, and because it must be precede so that a beggar could afford it, it is called The Threepenny Opera."
53
"Third Threepenny Finale"
-Poem online
54
Moritat von Mackie Messer
the ballad of Mack the Knife
55
Socialist Realism
todays topic 11/14
56
The Russian Revolution
- 1917: Bolshevik Revolution, USSR (Soviet Union) forms under Vladimir Lenin
- Good for modern music
- 1924: Lenin dies, Joseph Stalin eventually takes power
- Not good for modern music
- Stalin is opposite than Lenin in modern art. Stalin believes modern art should be for the people.
57
Socialist Realism vs. Formalism
- Socialist Realism (here's a prize!)
- art for the peoples sake
- simple, accessible
- folk-music based
- Formalism (to the gulag with you!)
- Art for art's sake
- "bourgeois," "decadent"
- complex, atonal
- ex. Stravinsky
58
Dmitri Schostakovich
- 1906-1974/5
- 1936
- Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
- Fourth Symphony
- not idealist, formalist. Sex/drugs/violence
- opened to good reviews until (most likely Stalin written/dictated) article was written.
- Fifth Symphony
- "A Soviet's Reply to Just criticism"
- Sincere?
- claims that it was all sarcasm
- ending, "our business is rejoicing," is similar to someone beating you.
- Stalin loves it
-Most famous composer in Russia and most famous Russian composer outside of Russia.
59
Symphony no. 5
- Influence of Mahler
- Back in with Stalin
- Very difficult to pin point what Schostakovich was trying to convey with this symphony
- Skerzo movement
60
Prokofiev's Relationship to the USSR
- Died 1952, same day as Stalin
- Had been major Parisian composer
- 1936: officially moves back to the USSR
- Opportunity
- promises of privileges later taken away
- same year Schostakovich was having troubles, written off, Prokofiev might have seen this as a business opportunity
- Not modernist enough for Paris but too modernist for America
- Rachmaninoff was the modernist composer for America
61
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
- Film
- Prokofiev work
- Second film with director Sergei Eisenstein
- 13th century saint
- Propaganda
- film banned when Stalin signs non aggression pact with Germany
- 1939 Hitler breaks the pact and it is back in theaters in full force
62
"Arise Ye Russian People"
- from Alexander Nevsky
- Simple, folk-like melodies
- More complicated Orchestra
- "Kuchkist" style
- mass songs style
- get up and fight the Nazi's!!
63
Art Imitates Life
- Quotes online.
| - Comparison of quotes by Stalin and Nevsky.
64
Life Imitates Art
- Nevsky became so famous that things in the real world began to imitate art
- Russian government issued a Nevsky medal
65
Latin America
Today's Topic
66
Brazil
- Portuguese Colony until 1822
- Salons, virtuosos (ex. Liszt and Chopin)
- Rio was a major stop for touring opera companies
- Touring Virtuosos and Italian Operas
- Mid 19th century
- Any opera in the new world is likely to be Italian
- 1847: some native composers emerge
- influence of Wagner, Debussy
- Some start to write in a more nationalist style. Folk/native Brazil sounds
67
Heitor Villa-Lobos
- The most famous of the native Brazilian composers
- 1887-1959
- Traveled around
- Parents were musicians, father taught him to play cello
- Made money when young working as local musician
- means exposure to all sorts of popular music
- traveled around Brazil, similar to Bartok, taking in different styles and influences
- "Week of Modern Art"
- 1922, turning point in Lobos career
- He was representative for Brazil
- Put his music and Brazil on the national stage when a search for new sounds was very important.
- Goes to Paris then comes back to Brazil in 1930
- Efforts at musical education during his return
- tried to establish a systematic format for music education. Had to work with fascist Brazilian government. Music influenced by this.
68
Bachianas Brasilerias
-"Brazilian Bach"
-No Romanticism!
-Folk Music
-Homage to Bach
-Lobos was against Romanticism
-However, his music sounds very expressive
-He is more against Wagner and his texture is not romantic
-This is a very political statement, one that Bach is folkloric and universal.
-Piece listened to in class is part of a Baroque suite. Songs have two names
-Whats like Bach?
-Pensacatos are short/sharp baroque sounding
-basso-continuo
-descending line of 4, descending tetrechord. Meaning the emotion mourning
-Song form, A B A
-What is more Brazilian?
-less chromaticism and less dance
-
-Song has female soloist that beautifully moans on "ah"
69
Mexico
- Spanish Colony until 1821
- Music as religious outreach
- tried to convert locals to Catholicism, tried through music
- Get music that is a strange music of Gregorian chant and mexican folk music
- Italian opera
- 1910: MExican Civil War
- "Aztec Renaissance"
70
Silvestre Revueltas
- 1899-1940
| - Supported Republicans during the Spanish Civil War
71
Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca
-Republican poet, martyr
-Elements of Mexican folk music
-a lot of rising interval patterns
rhythmic patterns. Triplets
-Mariachi sound
72
Two Strands of American Modernism: Ultramodernism
topic
73
Ultra-Modernism
- Radical experimentation (science, religion)
- Search for new sounds
- New ensembles (Edgard Varese, Ionisation 1929-31)
- New uses of instruments
- New restrictions, extreme restrictions (influence of Schoenberg)
- ionization, you can ionize the air with music
- Loss of old counterpoint rules
- push the boundaries between music and noise
- playing instruments in ways they weren't meant to be played
74
Henry Cowell (1865-1897)
- Family bread-winner
- worked as janitor in school he went to until he was 18
- Bullied to the extreme in school
- Withdrew from school
- Studies with Charles Seeger
- who was developing dissonant counterpoint
- famous ethnomusicologist
- Psychologist discovers he has an extremely high IQ
- Arrest and prison time (caught romantically with a man)
- composed in prison
- taught music in prison
- Friends with Charles Ives and Cowell helped spread his music
75
Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953)
- 1930: First woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship
- Used it to go to Berlin and hopefully study with Schoenberg
- the didn't happen. Spent most of her time in Berlin figuring out new styles of music.
- very interested in process
- 1932: married ultra-modernist Charles Seeger
- Style: very systematic
- NOT a serial composer
- However, she was the first person to serialize dynamics.
- Her most famous piece is probably the string quartet
76
String Quartet
- Ruth Seeger
- Strict compositional procedures in all movements
- first composer to serialize dynamics
- Movement IV
- Palindrome (at some point the piece goes backwards)
- Pitch rotation (every instrument except for violin)
- First violin gains a note in its melody and the rest lose a note. pattern repeats until its reversed in mm. 60
77
Pitch Rotation
- Four rotations
- original
- up a whole step
- original
- backwards, up a 1/2 step (measure 60)
- second beat of measure 4 is the start of the second rotation
78
Great Depression
- Loss of faith in Capitalism
- "Back-to-the-beggining" impulse
- search for a new American culture
- No money for ultra-modernmism
79
Folksongs
- The Seegers team up with John and Alan Lomax
- Arranging folksongs
- "Frog Went A-Courtin"
80
Two Strands of American Modernism: The New Simplicity
Topic
81
Review: The Great Depression
- Turn away from ultra-modernism
- no money, not relevant
- "Back-to-the-beginning" ethos
- Music wasn't meant for people to pay and come see because they couldn't afford it
- Music was from a lot of professors
- Music was no longer culturally relevant
- People in the middle of the country (farmers) couldn't make enough money
- Unrestrained capitalism didn't work
82
Aaron Copland
- 1900-1990
- First generation American
- Started playing piano, going to performances at 12
- Studied in Paris, 1921-1924 (big reason he was in Paris was because he was gay)
83
Nadia Boulanger
- Important 20th theorist. composer and teacher
- Friends with Stravinsky
- Philosophy: emphasized clarity, elegance, national style
- Her aesthetics were very much in line with what Stravinsky wanted to do.
- Most famous for teaching a group of American composers
84
The "Boulangerie"
- Group Nadia Boulanger taught
- List is online
- Elegance, clarity, simplicity, nationalist
85
Appalachian Spring
- Aaron Copland
- Written in collaboration with modern dancer Martha Graham.
- Post stock market crash he invents a new simplistic style.
- Based on a Shaker tune "Simple Gifts"
- Ballet style is very angular. Not pointed feet and has bent arms
- Incorporates folk dance moves mimicking Copland's use of folk influence.
- Not an homage to Stravinsky
86
Influence of Boulanger and Stravinsky
- Opening
- shifting meter!
- off-beat accents
- Vertical layers
87
Modernism: Hiding the Dissonance
- m. 88, harp
| - spreading out the dissonances (vertically)
88
The Harlem Renaissance
- 1919-1945
- Flowering of African American intellectual culture
- music
- poetry
- intellectuals
- for a long period of time most African Americans lived in the south. Moved north into the New York neighborhood, Harlem.
89
William Grant Still
- 1895-1978
- Wanted to be an art music composer
- Worked for W.C. Handy, other popular artists
- Trained by ultramodernists
- Known as the dean of African American music
90
Afro-American Symphony, mvt. I "Longings"
- Bridge Form
- Book- Sonata form. teacher thinks this is incorrect
- More on slide online
91
The Blues
- 12 Bar Blues (good example - batman theme)
- Blue Notes
- Call and Response
- Instrumentations
92
Spirituals
- Early African American religious music
- Slow tempo
- Pentatonic melodies
93
Postwar Modernism: Two Trends
Todays topic 12/1
94
1945: Zero Hour
- The term for what happened in Germany after the war
- German culture "resets"
- denazification
- rid Germany of the Nazi disease
- reset the music culture
- The trauma of World War II for art
- East Germany goes to Russia (communist music)
- We will discuss West Germany
- Never again should music be used for such awful purposes
- music was too powerful
- Result: the "Darmstadt" school
- Bring back modernism
- they never make this idea that expressive music is explicit.
- They say our music is not political
95
Total Serialism
- different than Schoenberg
- he only serialized pitches
- Total Serialism serialized everything as well as pitches
- Inspired by Webern
- Mathematical possibilities of serialism
- This represented complete control over music
96
Pierre Boulez (1925-)
- Dissillusioned with the current practices
- 1951: Once of the first to lay out the principles of total serialism
- very precise with music
97
Pierre Boulez, "Schoenberg is Dead," 1952
online
98
Le Marteau sans Maitre
- Setting of surrealist poet Rne Char
- Three cycles, interwoven
- Different ensemble for each movement
- Row is more than pitches
99
John Cage (1912-1992)
- Studied with Cowell and Schoenberg
- Interested Ultramodern philosophies
- prepared piano
- -Interested in Eastern philosophy
100
Aleatoric Music
- Relinquishing control
- indeterminacy
- chance music
101
Musique Concrete
- Pierre Schaeffer, 1948
- "Found Sounds"
- Manipulating magnetic tape
- go out into the world. record something. construct a type of manipulation out of this new material on cassette tapes
102
New Generated Sounds
- Bell Telephone Labs, Columbia, Princeton
- 1960s: Synthesizers (Moog)
- These sounds are not already existing recorded sounds
- Computer generated
103
Milton Babbitt
- 1916-2011
- Theorist and composer
- Taught math and music
- one of the first Americans to write 12-tone music
- he was a professor at Princeton
104
Philomel
- Written for soprano Bethany Beardslee and electronic tape. So it does have a live aspect.
- Combines found sounds and newly generated sounds
- Based on a Greek myth from Ovid
- constructed with Total Serialism
- First row he uses is E
105
Minimalism
12/5 Topic
106
Reactions to the Darmstadt Style
- 1960s: total serialism is wearing thin
- 1963: Terry Riley's "In C," first minimalist piece
- He was trying to get an academic job but was finding himself too popular
- Terry Riley was part of Darmstadt style
- "In C" considered to be the first minimalist piece
- Minimalist thrived in downtown NY and San Francisco
107
Minimalism
- Seeks accessibility (popular in film music)
- Reduce music to its basic building blocks
- it can be quite complex
- Not "representative," resists traditional interpretation
108
Steve Reich
- 1936-
- Split childhood between NY and San Francisco
- Studied philosophy, college in San Francisco
- Interested in rhythmic completes and harmonic stasis
- spent time studying non western music
109
"Phase Shifting" or "Phase Music"
- Two or more instruments playing identical lines at slightly different speeds or different times
- Electronic and acoustic
110
Tehillim
- Setting of Hebrew Psalm texts
- rhythm reflects the language
- Ensemble evokes "primitive" instruments
- african drumming
- Minimalist procedures
- Part I: canon (phase shifting)
- Part II: increasingly melismatic text
- Part IV: dialogue
111
Tehillim Part IV
- Elements of previous movements
- m. 31 canon
- m. 170: melismas
- m 253: dialogue
- Loss of semantic meaning
112
Postmodernism
topic 12/8
- distrust of history that comes along with being a postmodern composer
- copland was a very nationalist modernism composer
- postmodernism a reaction to modernism
113
Modernism Characteristics
Modernism:
- Abstraction
- Innovation
- Search for new sounds
- History progresses toward utopia
- The past is prologue
- Centrality of the European canon
- truth is absolute
114
Postmodernism Characteristics
(post Vietnam era)
- Collage
- reimagining the familiar
- Search for ways to combine sounds
- Historical progress is a myth (better world wasn't created post WWII)
- Break with the past
- Mixing east and west
- Truth is relative
115
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)
- Postmodernism composer
- Came of Age during the "Soviet Thaw" (mid-1950's-1960's)
- Lots of film music
- complicated relationship with the USSR
- Polystylism - many styles mixed together
- similarities to Neoclassicism - his version is much more "chunked out"
- section of Baroque, section of romanticism, section of etc.
- looks at music as a collage. Past is no longer a prologue
116
Concerto Grosso no. 1, mvt. II "Toccata
- p. 361 in anthology
- Concerto - Tutti, Solo, Tutti, Solo, Tutti, Solo
- Baroque suite (Schoenberg)
- Alternating soloists with ensemble (Vivaldi)
- Different styles for each section
- m. 1: Baroque
- m. 31: Galant
- m. 52: Baroque
- m. 60: Hymn
- m. 78: 12-tone, blocks
- m. 109: Jumble
- Canons (Reich) at Ritornello Section
117
Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-)
- Can we put this "style" in a specific box (genre)?
- Soviet Union
- Spirituality
- Artistic movement?
- piece gives idea of transcendence
- dissonance, extended technique, aleatoricism
- not of the earth sound
- open sounding, no full sound
- all instruments keep going up and up and up
- not pulling anything tonally
- ties styles together instead of Schnittke has chunks
118
Test Review 12/9
- no scores on the test
| - test covers everything from Strauss and Maller forward
119
Set Theory
- a way of analyzing free atonal music that isn't twelve tone or isn't serial
- find patterns of intervals appearing over and over again in music
120
Differences between Stravinskys Two Periods
```
Russian Period:
Right of Spring
Folk Songs
Folk like melodies
Quotes of folk songs
dance
Nationalism
Grabs you
primitivism
Music to entertain you and make you feel something
```
Neoclassical period:
pan style
pan nationalism
anti romantic
pre romantic sounds
little Beethoven
Beginning of Symphony of psalms similar to Heroica
Baroque sounds
Still have sense of chunking and intervals
Discussed Symphony of Psalms for this period
121
Pan-nationalist
- Nationalism was seen as one of the problems starting WWI
- this style draws on German counterpoint, and areas of other countries.
- Nationalism of all countries combined. Very European as a whole music.
- Distinction to a collage is that in a collage all the elements are very distinct. Not so in pan-nationalism
122
Review Questions
12/9
123
How is listening to minimalist music different than Romantic
- minimalism is about recognizing the subtle changes. It is all about the minor details. It lacks the sense of narrative that Romanic music has.
- Food analogy - sushi has a lot of subtle tastes apposed to an american hamburger
124
Who are the three composers in the Second Viennese School (school of thought)
Teacher: Schoenbert (all three very expressionist)
- Berg -
- Webern - Was the "favorite."
125
How did Jazz come to Europe
- Composers going on tour
- US Army member bringing over records to Europe
- African American culture moving to Europe
- Musicians as Ambassadors
- Composers: Kurt Vial - Mack the Knife, Mio
- Germany had extreme inflation during this time
126
Imigrating Composers
- Rochmoninov
- Scheonberg
- Stravinsky
- Bartok
- Mio
127
How does Bartok incorporate folk music idioms for music for strings, etc.
- Alternate scales
- overly melismatic melodies
- 5/4 meter
128
Why might Strauss's music be characterized as post Wagnarian?
- Went from dissonance to dissonance
- Distinguishable from Schoenberg because it is still listenable
- tone poems
- narrative instrumental music
129
Why can't you trust composers of the early 20th century
- because they were aware of the legacy they were leaving and changed their public opinions of their music.
- Prokofiev
- Shostokovich
130
Schoenberg and Stravinsky
They are kind of the Beethoven of this period of music
| -the leaders of 20th century musical thought
131
How did Cage react to the Darmstadt Style
- Chance music
| - randomness - the Darmstadt school was all about control where this music is about chance.
132
Question
Infusion of African American Culture
- music and art
- african american High Culture not popular culture
133
William ?
-uses african american styles and works them into high art forms like symphony.
134
What is cumulative form?
- a short theme that grows throughout the song
- Example: The Twelve Days of Christmas
-Charles Ives Hymn
135
Give away for Webern
- pointillistic
| - it sounds spare. little is going on at once
136
Scream Ives
- Quote of Dixie
- English singing
- polytonality
