20th Century Music

Key composers

Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Prokofiev, Shostakovich

Cluster chords

7ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths

Dissonance

Lack of harmony

Impressionism Characteristics (14)

Key Impressionist Composers: Debussy, Ravel \n Light atmosphere/texture \n Dissonance and discord to BLUR harmonies \n Extreme dynamic changes \n Constantly changing texture \n Abrupt modulations \n Distorted harmonies/melodies \n Angular melodies with wide leaps \n Pentatonic/whole-tone scale \n Chromaticism \n Cluster chords/diminished and augmented chords \n Use of chains of parallel chords \n Programmatic music \n Fluid, shifting, vague, hypnotic

Pentatonic scale

5 note scale

Whole tone scale

Scale where all notes are a whole tone apart

Minimalism

Key Minimalist Composers: Reich, Glass, Riley \n Made up of constantly repeated loops \n Loops are short and simple \n Harmonies made by layering loops \n Gradually changes to incorporate more layers \n No clear-cut melody \n Instruments come in at staggered intervals \n Hypnotic

Additive melody

Technique for changing loops in minimalist music where one extra note is added on each repetition

Metamorphosis

Technique for changing loops in minimalist music

where tiny changes are made to one note (eg. C, E, G, C, E, G ---> C, E, G#, C, E, G# ---> C, E, A, C, E, A)

Phase shifting

Technique for changing loops in minimalist music where a note or rest is added or taken away. Changes the length of the pattern and moves it in and out of sync

Layering

Technique for changing loops in minimalist music where loops of different lengths are played simultaneously

Ostinato

A repeated rhythmic figure

Neoclassicism

Use of ostinato \n Irregular rhythms/polyrhythmic \n Syncopation \n Use of chromatic harmony \n Polyphonic texture \n Clashing dissonance \n Emphasis of wind and percussion (not strings) \n Abrupt modulations \n Use of atonality/polytonality

Atonal

Absence of key (avoids using key or mode by using all 12 notes of chromatic scale)

Polytonal

Use of more than one key at once

Key characteristics of 20th Century (in general)

Broken chords and arpeggios \n Chromaticism \n Dissonant harmony \n Whole-tone and pentatonic scale \n Syncopated rhythms \n Polyphonic textures

Jazz

Syncopated rhythms \n Jazz/blues scales \n Improvisation \n Swing rhythm and triplets \n Prominence of brass instruments \n Pitch-bending \n Chromaticism \n Complex harmonies \n Cluster chords \n \n Instruments: Saxophone, piano, drums, guitar, trumpet, bass, clarinet, percussion, trombone \n \n Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday

Key Impressionist Composers

Debussy, Ravel

\n What scales were used in impressionist music? (2)

Whole Tone

Pentatonic

\n Dynamics in impressionism?

EXTREME!!!!!!

Key minimalist Composers

Reich, Glass, Riley

What is minimalist music made up of? (3 options)

Cells

Recurring Motifs

Ostinati

Neoclassical rhythms (2 options)

Polyrhythms

Irregular rhythms

Neoclassical Texture

Polyphonic

Neoclassical Tonality

Atonality and polytonality

Jazz Composers (6)

Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday

Jazz Scales (2 options)

Jazz Scale

Blues Scale

Modernism

A spirit that took hold in all the arts, in the early twentieth century, representing a quest for novelty that far exceeded any such drive in the past

Neoclassicism

A style of composition in the years after World war I that, although distinctly modern, drew on older (particularly 18th century) uses of melody, harmony, rhythm, and form

Postmodernism

A style in music and the other arts, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, in which modern and traditional elements are combined.

impressionism

An artistic movement focused more on sensations, perceptions, and the light than on the direct representation of objects. In the music, the term was used by critics of the early twentieth century to describe harmonies, melodies, and forms they considered indistinct

expressionism

A broad artistic movement the flourished in music, painting, and literature in the early decades of the twentieth century, in which psychological truth took precedence over beauty, and inner emotion took precedence over any sense of external reality

gamelan

An Indonesian musical ensemble consisting primarily of a variety of pitched gongs and xylophones. The conductor or leader of the ensemble often plays a double-headed drum.

Tonality

A style of writing that establishes a central note (the tonic) as a harmonic and melodic center of gravity, which in turn creates the potential for a strong sense of resolution and closure.

atonality

A style of writing the establishes no harmonic or melodic center of gravity; without a tonic, all notes are of equal weight and significance

polytonality

the juxtaposition of two conventional harmonies in a way that creates a new dissonance

12-tone

A type of serial composition in which 20th century composers manipulated a series (row) consisting of all 12 notes of the chromatic scale, not repeating any one of these notes until all other 11 had been sounded, thereby effectively avoiding any sense of tonality

surrealism

a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

sprechstimme

In German "speech-voice"

a style of singing halfway between speech and lyrical song, in which the singer hits precise pitches and then allows them to tail off, rather than sustaining them, as in lyrical singing

ballet

A story told through music and dance; essentially an opera without words.

pentatonic scale

A scale consisting of five tones

through-composed form

A form in which each section has its own music, with very little or no repetition between sections

strophic form

A type of form in which every verse (strophe) of text is sung to exactly the same music

modified strophic form

A form in which each strophe is modified musically to fit the text in a particular way.

ragtime

A style of music from the early twentieth century that emphasizes rhythmic syncopation while continuing many of the characteristics of marches, cakewalks, two-steps, and popular songs from the late 19th century

syncopation

(accents off the downbeat, a common characteristic of ragtime)

a type of rhythm in which the notes run against the regular pulse of the musical meter, with accents on beats other than the ones usually accented

Swing/Big Band

a rhythmic pattern of long and short notes at a 1 to 2 ratio but varies from piece to piece and performer and performer

bebop

New jazz style of the late 1940s/early 1950s that developed in response to the popularity of big band music. Bebop is characterized by fast tempos, short bursts of melodic phrases, heavy and unexpected rhythmic accents, and virtuosic

improvisation

The technique of embellishing or elaborating on a melody on the spot, spontaneous and unrehearsed

stride bass

This physical movement of the hand up and down the keyboard led to the term "stride bass." The stride bass was extremely common in ragtime piano compositions.

walking bass

A bass line that moves at a steady pace and in largely conjunct notion

blue note

A pitch performed flatter (lower) than the atandard major scale would indicate; usually blue notes occur as substitutes for the third and seventh ( and occasionally the fifth) notes of the standard major scale

"head"

In Jazz, the main melody of the song

musical

A spoken drama with a substantial amount of singing

additive form

A compositional technique in which nothing disappear, but new layers are constantly added

prepared piano

A piano whose sound is altered by placing objects such as bolts, screws, rubber bands, or pieces of felt between the strings of some of the keys.

minnimalism

In music, a style in which a brief musical idea or group of ideas is repeated and varied incrementally over a long span of time, with a relatively slow rate of change.

diegetic music

music in a film that originates from the scene in the film itself, as in the character listening to the radio or playing the violin

non-diegetic music

Film music that is added to the scene from the outside for purposes of heightening the mood or feeling of a scene

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Impressionistic Composer

Studied at the Paris Conservatory

Voiles

Charles Ives (1874-1954)

Combined multiple idioms into his compositions \n "Day job" was in insurance; composition was a hobby

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

Developed the 12-tone/Serialist system that abolished tonality

German-born; moved to the US to teach and compose

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Known for his ballets, but composed in other genres Russian born, lived in Paris before immigrating to the US

Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

Known for his piano rags

Wished to be known for his Classical compositions

Duke Ellington (1899-1974)

Wrote hundreds of swing tunes, but also wrote Classical compositions

Charlie Parker (1920-1956)

Bebop composer \n Known for his complex harmonies, lighting-fast technique and dissonance \n Nicknamed "Yardbird"

William Grant Still (1895-1978)

First African American composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, conduct an American orchestra and have an opera produced an opera company

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

Hungarian born composer; immigrated to US

Known for his studies in ethnomusicology and folk music

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

Lived four lives in one as a: conductor, pianist, educator and composer \n Included jazz idioms into his Classical compositions

John Cage (1912-1992)

Heavily influenced by East Asian music and philosophy

Challenged the distinction between "noise" and "music"

Philip Glass (b. 1937)

One of the first minimalist composers

Created the Philip Glass Ensemble \n Prolific composer spanning many genres

John Williams (b. 1932)

Movie music composer known for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Home Alone, E.T., etc.

Wrote concert pieces as well

Has a long standing relationship with Steven Spielberg

What question did Ives say the solo trumpet in The Unanswered Question posed?

The perennial question of existence

What is Charlie Parker most known for?

saxophone, jazz, drugs

What was the purpose behind bebop?

self expression?

Who wrote the poem/text to Still's "A Black Pierrot" and what movement is he/she associated with?

Langston hughes

What conductor and orchestra first premiered Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra?

boston symphony orchestra with serge koussevitsky

How do historians know how Joplin performed his rags?

piano player

What is inserted into a piano when it is "prepared"?

screws felt rubberbands