20th Century Music

(1900-2000)

Movements in 20th-Century Music Modernism Neo-Classicism Minimalism Popular Music-inspired, Folk-music

inspired, Jazz Music-inspired Pieces

Modernism

“Assumptions” of music are challenged and/or taken to extremes

Can involve complex rhythms, melodies, and harmonies

“The wierder, the better” Composers:

– Arnold Schoenberg – Igor Stravinsky

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Mondestrunken (Moondrunk) from Pierrot Lunaire (Moonstruck Pierrot) (1912) Genre: Song Cycle Super-complex harmonies with lots of

dissonance called atonality Example of weird instrumental effects and

scary-sounding half-sung/half-spoken vocal sound called sprechstimme (song-speech)

Example of Expressionism - movement in arts seeking to express innermost extreme feelings (Freud)

Moonstruck

The wine that with eyes is drunk, at night the moon pours down in waves, and a spring-flook overflows the slient horizon.

Desires shuddering and sweet swim countless through the floods!

The poet, whom devotion inspires made drunk by the sacred drink, toward heaven he turns his entranced head and ,reeling, sucks and slurps the wine that with eyes is drunk.

IGOR STRAVINSKYPart 1 from Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1913) Genre: Ballet Example of Primitivism - recalling the prehistoric

power of rhythm and form (Darwin) From ballet based on story of ancient ritual

sacrifice of a maiden Lots of rhythmic complexity - including

– SYNCOPATION– Complex tone colors (unusual combinations of

instruments)

NEO-CLASSICISM (includes neo-romanticism, neo-baroquism, neo-renaissancism, and neo-medievalism)

A reaction against the wierdness of Modernism

A return to the past in thematic material and formal structures

Composers:– Bela Bartok– Benjamin Britten– Ellen Taffe Zwilich

BELA BARTOK Second Movement: Game of Pairs from Concerto for Orchestra (1943)

Genre: Concerto A B A’ form - used Classical forms such

as sonata and rondo in an established form such as Concerto

Use traditional melodic shapes

BENJAMIN BRITTEN Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1946) Genre: (like a ) Concerto (for orchestra) Theme and Variations Form Theme is borrowed from a 17th-century

Baroque composer Henry Purcell

MINIMALISM

A movement in music also against the complexities of Modernism

Composers use simple melodic and harmonic ideas and repeat them over and over with very gradual changes

Composer:– Philip Glass

PHILIP GLASS Knee Play 1 from Einstein on the Beach (1976)

Genre: Opera Simple melodic, harmonic and rhythmic

patterns These patterns are repeated over and

over again with subtle changes

POPULAR MUSIC-INSPIRED, FOLK-MUSIC INSPIRED, JAZZ MUSIC-INSPIRED PIECES

Composers look to popular, folk, and jazz music for inspiration and musical material

Composers:– William Grant Still– Aaron Copland

WILLIAM GRANT STILL Third Movement from Afro-American Symphony (1931)

Genre: Symphony Inspired by African-American spirituals

and Jazz music Featured lots of syncopation

AARON COPLAND Section 7 from Appalachian Spring: Theme and Variations on Simple Gifts (1943-44)

Genre: Ballet Theme is based on early American

Shaker folk hymn called Simple Gifts Theme and Variaitons form

ELLEN TAFFE ZWILICH First Movement from Concerto Grosso 1985 (1985) Genre: Concerto Uses instruments from the past -

(harpsichord) Modelled after concerto grosso of

Handel and Bach Example of Neo-Classicism (although it

goes back to Baroque music models)