MUSIC 10 1ST QTR

Melody of Twentieth-Century Music

Melody of Twentieth-Century Music

More angular contour due to the alternating upward and downward directions of the melody

Contour

Direction of the melody

Disjunct progressions

Refer to the wide leaps or intervals from one note to the next

Microtones

Less than a semitone

Meter and Rhythm of Twentieth-Century Music

They made use of unusual meters, multimeter, unconventional meters, and polyrhythm.

Unusual Meters

Made use of unusual time signatures such as 5/8 and 7/8.

Multimeter

Frequent changes in meter or time signature.

Unconventional Meters

Asymmetrical groupings of beats or notes within a measure.

Polyrhythm

When two or more meters are used at the same time.

Harmony in Twentieth-Century Music

The structure was unpredictable. Made use of chord structures (quartal harmony, polychords, etc), chord progression, and dissonance and consonance.

Quartal Harmony

Chords in interval of fourths

Polychords/mixed chords

Two or more chords combined by placing one traditional chord against another.

Tone clusters

Chords made of tones with intervals of seconds

Chord progression

Progressions that involve chords having no relation to the key

Dissonant

Unstable chord

Consonant

Stable chord

Tonality of the Twentieth-Century Music

This characteristic showed signs of weakening during the twentieth-century

Modulations

Changes in key

Microtonality

Use of microtones

Atonality

Absence of any key center

Polytonality

Simultaneous use of two or more keys

Texture of Twentieth-Century Music

Homophonic, however there is a predominance of contrapuntal textures or counterpoint

Homophonic

Texture of music that has one main melody line with a chord structure underneath.

Counterpoint

Two or more independent melodic lines

Characteristics of Impressionistic Music

Generally programmatic. Describes emotions based on what the composer sees. Specifically it has: Neomodality, open chords, whole-tone modes, parallelism, free rhythm, wide intervals

Neomodality

A characteristic of impressionistic music that means going back to the use of church modes

Open chords

A characteristic of impressionistic music that means having fifths and octaves but without thirds

Whole-tone mode

A characteristic of impressionistic music that means using a scale having six whole steps to the octave

Parallelism

A characteristic of impressionistic music that means two or more melodies moving simultaneously in the same direction and by the same interval

Free rhythms

A characteristic of impressionistic music that means the music does not divide into a regular pattern of strong and weak beats, known as meter

Wide intervals

A characteristic of impressionistic music that means leaping melodic contour

Claude Debussy

A leading figure in musical Impressionism; however he rejected this label or term when used to describe his music

Characteristics of Expressionistic Music

Emotionally oriented, harshly dissonant, and often without a stable sense of tonal center or key signature. It was also an attempt to break traditions. Specifically, it made use of: Atonality, Twelve-tone system, and Multiple Serialization.

Twelve-tone system

Also known as dodecaphonic; refers to music based on serial manipulation of the twelve chromatic pitches

Multiple serialization

The twelve-tone system is just one form of serialism.

Serialism

Only the pitches of the tone row are manipulated in a series

Arnold Schoenberg

One of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. He created Expressionistic music through atonality, twelve-tone series, and multiple serialization. He profoundly changed music history by establishing a substitute for the traditional tonal system.

Characteristics of Electronic Music

• directly manipulates various sounds

• composers create new ways of notating their work

• foresaken the elements of beat and meter, and have considered the time instead

Concrete Music

Misque concrete; different sounds recorded from a magnetic tape recorder. This is where electronic music started from.

3 Stages of Electronic Music

Tape Music Stage, Analog-Synthesizer Stage, Digital-Synthesizer Stage

Tape Music Stage

• magnetic audio tapes

• live or concrete sounds recorded

• altered sounds

• muisique concrete

• human performer is diminished or eliminated

• rhythm is more important than melody and harmony

Analog Synthesizer Stage

• complex electronic instruments that have oscillators

• producing and altering sounds

• controlling properties of sounds

Digital Synthesizer Stage

• -digital computers

• analog converted to digital info

• sound is edited or manipulated

• quality is higher than tape or synthesized music

• editing or manipulation is easier

Edgard Varese

Father of Electronic Music

Chance Music

Also known as aleatory music.

Indeterminancy

A concept that is based on a chance selection of musical materials by the composer, performer, or both.

Five Categories of Musical Indeterminancy

Randomly chosen event, randomly ordered event, use of indeterminate notations, music notated traditionally but performed indeterminately, pure performer indeterminancy

John Cage

The most important figure in the development of aleatory music.