Music History 3 final

New Simplicity in France

New Simplicity in France

-moving towards modern music- jazz, dance halls, music for the modern man

-Post WWII

Erik Satie and Les Six

-looked for clarity and simplicity, everyday music for the everyday man

-produced film scores and popular music

Darius Milhaud

-eclectic music tastes, influenced by those around him

-interested in latin and jazz

-was commissioned to write a ballet about African folklore: “The Creation of the World”

La Creation du Monde

Darius Milhaud

-first serious piece of music to utilize jazz

-ballet

New Objectivity in Germany

-reaction to romanticism

-again, aimed to reach a wider audience

-cabaret, jazz, and folk tunes

Gebrauchsmusic

-practical music for amateurs and film music for the amateur man

-music education and music for children: Orff and Kodaly

Kurt Weill

believed jazz was the musical style of his generation

used dance in composition- tango and fox trot

liberal

Die Dreigroschenoper

Kurt Weill

“Three penny opera”

used jazz instruments

Paul Hindemith

big into the new simplicity

best known for his sonatas

believed modern day instruments needed up to date solo repertoire

“what is the duty of an artist during political turmoil?”

Symphony Mathis der Maler

Hindemith

written from excerpts from his unfinished opera about 16C painter

Socialist Realism

-everything has to be socialist now

-music should be accessible to the people

-government will provide access to music (as long as it loves russia)

-denounced 20C experimentalism (BOO THE WEST)

Union of Soviet Composers

The official guide for socialist music

1. art must be understandable by the masses

2. 2. must be worthy of the great classical and russian traditions

3. musical expression must be optimistic (no more minor melodies ☹ )

Dimitri Shostakovich

-wrote music for the masses (i love russia major)

-kept music he wrote for himself locked in his desk (i hate russia minor)

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

Shostokavich

criticized for being “formalist” - aka too western

Henry Cowell

-experimented with composition and performance techniques popularzed by other composers

-wrote tone clusters

-introduced elements of chance

The Banshee

Henry Cowell

played inside the piano on the strings

Prepared Piano

Placing items on the strings of the piano or playing the strings themselves

popularized by Henry Cowell

Edgard Varese

STEM dude moved to music (you can guess how that turned out)

Hyperprism

Edgard Varese

sounds like it was composed by an engineer

George Gershwin

started out as a piano/music tester in stores

wrote music for AMERICANS

became famous for broadway and revues

wrote sophisticated popular music

jazz and blues lover

Raphsody in Blue

Gershwin

ternary form (A BA + A)

commissioned for a concert called “experiment in music”

was met with silence

Aaron Copland

studied in paris to learn all the isms

wrote American music, then atonal music, then went back to American music

Appalachian Spring

Copland

variations on simple gifts (boo and boring)

William Grant Still

Wrote art music

blues, swing, gospel

Afro-American Symphony

William Grant Still

first symphony by a black composer performed by a major orchestra

Olivier Messiaen

CATHOLIC

organist

loved medieval chant

played with musical time

Quartet for the End of Time

Messiaen

first performed by prisoners

8 mvmnts

violin, cello, clarinet, piano

Benjamin Britten

choral guy

composed operas in english

Peter Grimes

Benjamin Britten

english opera

story about an outcast

tonal

Samuel Barber

committed to tonality

Adagio for Strings

Samuel Barber

Associated with mourning- JFK

Neotonal

Chance Music

composers also gave complete control over to performers for all musical decisions

John Cage

wrote sonatas and interludes for prepared piano

“music is what is happening naturally- there is no purpose it just exists”

Music of Changes

John Cage

wrote by tossing coins and yi jing sticks and he wrote down what they landed on

music by chance

Serialism

post WWII

inspired from 2nd viennese school

tonality is dead

12 tone methods now applied to other musical ideas- timbre, dynamics, rhythm

WEBERN

Pierre Boulez

engineer → musician

studied with messiaen (big surprise)
“music should be written completely logically and mathematically”

Structures, Book I

Boulez

integrates serialism in to all musical elements

le marteau sans maître

Boulez

different sounds!!

New Virtuosity

using voice as text

how can we get new sounds for the voice, instruments, objects

Sequzenzas

Luciano Berio

composed vocal stimming

Electronic Music

wasn’t a thing until the tape recorder

came from real sounds and was cut and spliced by hand in studios

Edgard Varese

most vocal lad in electronic music

Poeme Electronique

Varese

Philomel

Milton Babbitt

love electronic performance

Texture/Process Music

loss of detail but a general shape of sound

Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima

Penderecki

spatial notation- uses bands of sound

Lux Aeterna

Ligeti

for mixed choir

Wind Ensemble

shifted from military/brass band to community, schools, and experimentation

Music for Prague 1968

Husa

cumulative form

variations of a czech choral

Minimalism

became a standard tool over a style

establishes musical motives played in repetition

small changes feel monumental

rhythm and phase - windshield wipers

In C

Terry Riley

Akhnaten

Philip Glass

Minimalist opera

moves incredibly slow

Phyrigian Gates

John Adams

differences in texture are very noticeable and important

Trace the history of the symphony from Beethoven to Corigliano

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, "Eroica"- Beethoven to Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor Mahler to Symphony of Psalms- Stravinsky to Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp Minor- Prokofiev to Symphony No. 1 "Of Rage and Remembrance" - John Corigliano

Trace the history of opera from Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini to Richard Strauss

“Barber of Seville” - Rossini to “Lucia di Lammermoor” - Donizeti to “Norma” - Bellini to “Tristan und Isolde” - Wagner to “La Boheme” - Puccini to “Salome” - Strauss

In your opinion, what title would you give to 20th-21st century music and why?

The current term that is most often used is “post-modern”. This definition means that composers are borrowing from many different ideas, cultures, or styles to create something new which we can see across the board starting in the early 20th century to now as many composers do not stick to one style, they use styles as tools.