Music of the 20th Century
ImpressionismExpressionismJazzMinimalismAleatory (Chance)Neo-Classicism
Impressionism Focused on mood and atmosphere rather
than strong emotion or storyline Musical impressionism occurred as a
reaction to the excesses of the Romantic era
Impressionist art
Impressionist Composers Debussy, Ravel, Satie, Albeniz, Saint-
Saens, Bill Evans (jazz pianist)
Expressionism The tendency of an artist to distort reality
for an emotional effect Its goals were not to create passive
impressions and moods, but to strongly express (hence the name) intense feelings and emotions
The primary expressionist musical movement was atonality
Expressionist Art
Atonality Describes music that does not use a tonal
centre or key Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton
Webern
Minimalism Minimalist music is stripped down to its
most fundamental features and core self expression
Reiteration of musical phrases or smaller units such as figures, motifs, and cells, with subtle, gradual, and/or infrequent variation (no musical development) over long periods of time, possibly limited to simple repetition
Stasis, often in the form of drones, pulses, and/or long tones
Minimalist Art
Minimalist Composers Philip Glass, Steve Reich
Aleatoric Music Music in which some element of the
composition is left to chance or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer
Neo-Classicism This movement started in the early 1920s
and continued to be a leading musical movement throughout the century. This trend is still popular today. Neo-Classicism is a movement which incorporated the music of the Classical era, in terms of clarity of texture and objectivity
Stravinsky