20th Century Music
Minimalism
Repetitive rhythm/pattern.
Example: Steve Reich "Clapping Music."
Chance Music / Silence
Focus on silence and ambient sounds.
Example: John Cage "4'33" (piece of silence).
Technological & Social Context
Wider distribution of music.
Improved preservation methods.
The recording studio as a new instrument.
New performance settings:
Jazz clubs
Recording Studios
Outdoor festivals
Electronic Music
Developed in laboratories.
Experimental Composition Techniques
Atonality: Music that lacks a tonal center. Associated with Arnold Schoenberg.
Serialism: Method of composition using a series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, etc.
Chance Music: Music where elements are determined by chance/randomness. Emphasizes
freedom. Associated with John Cage.
Electronic/Computer Music: Music created using electronic instruments/computers.
Roles
Composers:
Experiment with technology.
Collaborate.
Sing their own work.
Performers:
Learn new techniques.
Improvise.
Incorporate theatrical elements.
Audience:
Challenged.
Must listen actively to new styles.
Evokes strong emotions.
World Music & Cultural Exchange
Cultural Exchange & Global Communication: Music as a form of global communication,
facilitating cultural exchange.
Direction: Western music influences traditional styles and vice versa.
Pop Music Genres
Rock and Roll: Bon Jovi, Patti Smith
Hip Hop: Stray Kids
Electronic Dance Music (EN-)
New Mediums
Film/TV: Music's role in visual storytelling (scores).
Music Videos: A new form of musical performance and visual storytelling. (Tumakanta)
Minimalism/Process Music
Repetition and gradual changes in musical elements.
Key Figures: Steve Reich, Philip Glass.
Theater/Stages, Performance Art/Multimedia
ADATE: Immersive, multi-sensory experiences.
NAD: Technotuat - Wider distribution and preservation.
Studios as Instruments: Computer/Electronic Music.
TV/Films: Music videos, Hip-hop, Rock and Roll, Electronic Music.
Summary of 20th Century Styles
Music scholars predict that the innovative and experimental developments of 20th century
classical music will continue to influence the music of the 21st century. Modern technology and
gadgets still have a great impact on all types of music.
The 20th century also gave rise to new musical styles: impressionism, expressionism, neo-
classicism, avant-garde music, and modern nationalism.
Impressionism:
Made use of the whole-tone scale.
Applied suggested, rather than depicted, reality.
Created a mood rather than a definite picture.
Translucent and hazy texture, lacking a dominant-tonic relationship.
Made use of overlapping chords, with 4th, 5th, octaves, and 9th intervals, resulting in a
nontraditional harmonic order and resolution.
Expressionism:
Revealed the composer's mind, instead of presenting an impression of the environment.
Used atonality and the twelve-tone scale, lacking stable and conventional harmonies.
Served as a medium for expressing strong emotions, such as anxiety, rage, and alienation.
Neo-classicism:
A partial return to a Classical form of writing music with carefully modulated dissonances.
Made use of a freer seven-note diatonic scale (seven natural pitches).
Avant-garde:
Associated with electronic music.
Dealt with the parameters or dimensions of sound in space.
Made use of variations of self-contained note groups to change musical continuity and
improvisation.
Absence of traditional rules on harmony, melody, and rhythm.
Modern nationalism:
A looser form of 20th-century music development that focused on nationalist composers
and musical innovators who sought to combine modern techniques with folk materials.
Composers
Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel: Primary exponents of impressionism.
Arnold Schoenberg: Primary exponent of expressionism, with the use of the twelve-tone scale
and atonality.
Igor Stravinsky: Expressionist and neo-classical composer. Incorporated nationalistic
elements, known for skillful handling of materials and rhythmic inventiveness.
Bela Bartok: Neo-classical, modern nationalist, and primitivist composer. Adopted Hungarian
folk themes to introduce rhythms with changing meters and heavy syncopation.
Sergei Prokofieff: Neo-classicist, nationalist, and avant-garde composer.
Francis Poulenc: Successful composer for piano, voice, and choral music. Compositions had
a coolly elegant modernity tempered by a classical sense of proportion (neoclassicism).
George Gershwin: Considered the "Father of American Jazz." His works range from classical
compositions to songs for stage and film.
Leonard Bernstein: Best known for his compositions for the stage and his music lectures for
young people.
Philip Glass: Commercially successful minimalist and avant-garde composer.