Music History FINAL

Renaissance

1300-1600 AD

“Rebirth”

Baroque

1610-1750

“Age of Absolutism/Reason”

Classical era

1750-1815

-meant to please, not impress/instruct

-pleasing variety

Romantic era

1815-1900

• concerned with individual expression

• innovation (freedom from artistic barriers)

• concern for urban life

• *MYSTERY (natrual vs supernatural, ghosts, death, unrequited love, dreams, uncontrollable passions

Modernist Era

1910-1960

Expressionism, Primitivism, Futurism, Objectivism (EPFO)**

• focuses on the NEW

• goal oriented

• binary relationships

• SINGULARITY OF MEANING

• radical experimentation in technology and the arts

• self-identifying with “Avant-garde”

• complex, fragmented, abstract melodies

Post-modernism

1960-present

• favors multiplicity of meaning

• self-referential, not developmental (no concern for being cutting edge, moving forward)

• concerned with decentered networks (ONLINE), not linear

• **STYLISTICALLY DIVERSE

Symphonic form

A large-scale work for orchestra in 4 movements

Movement Plan of symphonic form

Movement I- Sonata Form (moderate to fast)

Movement II- variety of forms- slow

Movement III- minuet with trio- moderate

Movement IV- Generally Sonata or Rondo- fast

Sonata form

3 main sections

1. Exposition

2. Development

3. Recapitulation

Rondo form

similar to Ritornello derived from ABA BUT main theme is always in same key

• ABACA

• ABACABA

Movement Plan of Sonata (genre)

I. moderate to fast- sonata form

II. slow, various forms

III. fast, sonata or rondo

Concerto

3 movements:

I. bright, fast, Ritornello

II. slower, quieter, emotional, CONTRASTING* key

III. similar to I, faster, home key

Ritornello Form

ABACADAEA

• based on contrast of musical ideas

  • orchestral material (ritornello)

  • solo material episodes

• returns to stable element many times

  • in whole or in part

  • in various keys (builds tension)

  • usually in full and in tonic key to end piece

Ludwig van Beethoven

TRANSITIONAL figure (Classical to Romantic)

*never gets to Romanticism

Beethoven musical innovations

Classical principles (structure) and Romantic expression

• sense of excitement, urgency, striving

• wide range of emotional qualities

• expansion of all musical elements

• higher and lower extremes

• sharper syncopations/disruptions

• classical forms stretched to limits

• harsher dissonances

• Program Music

Program Music

Instrumental music associated with poems, stories, etc; intimately tied with non-musical ideas

NEVER HAS TEXT

e.g. Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 in F Major (Pastoral)

Franz Schubert

Romantic era (d.1828)

“Erlkonig” (King of the Fairies)

Erlkonig

story song based on a ballad poem- 8 stanza poem with many characters

• themes of death and supernatural- father tries to save deathly ill son

• through-composed setting- music keeps CHANGING

• narrator, father, son, Erlkonig, horse (piano)

Billie Holiday

“Strange Fruit”

• written in response to lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana in 1930; accused of harassing a white woman, sent to jail, broken out, and lynched

• text reminded Holiday of father who died from not receiving cancer treatment due to racism

• NO applause after performances, sang the song even when requested not to

  • sang with “detached anger”- enunciates last word

  • hard to ignore brutality of subject

  • sparse accompaniment- TEXT is most important

  • juxtaposition: sweet smell, burning flesh

Nina Simone

sang “Strange Fruit” 30 years later, but with a sadness instead of an anger

Hector Berlioz

Romantic era

• “Fantasic Symphony”

  • PROGRAM SYMPHONY in 5 movements'

  • inspired by unrequited love —> “Idee Fixed”

  • tarantella, depressed musician poisons himself

idee fixed

recurring theme that reappears in all 5 movements; symbolizes each appearance of the beloved

• no direction —> AMBIGUITY

Johannes Brahms

Romantic era

• found new life in classical forms but still romantic in expressive effect

• looked up to Beethoven

Violin Concerto in D

• shows off virtuosity

Gustave Mahler

**TRANSITIONAL FIGURE TO MODERNISM

• wrote 10 long symphonies and 6 song cycles

• dealing with weighty themes (Good vs Evil, finding God in music)

• embraced Romanticism’s excesses, but could not fully enter Romantic fantasy world (tragic life)

song cycle

collection of songs that deal with one theme

3rd Movement on 1st Symphony

Mahler

• funeral march in MINOR mode

• sounds like Jewish folk song

• stripping innocence from OG children’s song Frere Jaques

Claude Debussy

TRANSITIONAL FIGURE between Romanticism and Modernism

-revolutionary spirit

-breaks with tradition

-draws inspiration from outside of Western traditions (Asia, jazz)

-AMBIGUITY

Pagodes from Estampes

Debussy

• influenced by gamelan music (traditional music from Indonesian islands of Java and Bali)

• big gong signals new cycle

• based on Pentatonic scale (black keys, no same directionality)

• different layers of TIME from Gamelan tradition

• no direction

• extensive use of pedal and repeated tones (to create overtones and static harmony)

  • **doesnt depend on traditional structure harmony

Debussy Preludes for Piano

• preferred to not have titles printed in the program because he did not believe he should affect how the audience interprets the piece

• SHOULD NOT have the agency

Maple Leaf Rag

Scott Joplin

• similar to Rondo form, syncopated melody

• stride bass

Ragtime in Debussy’s preludes

General Lavine, Eccentric

• lively, choppy

Expressionism

(Modernism)

• exploited extremes

• inner turmoil- hysteria, madness, nightmares, etc.

• distorted, exaggerated melody and harmony

• tends toward abstraction

Romantics vs Expressionists

Romantics: outward expression

Expressionists: looking inwards, nightmares, psychology

Arnold Schoenberg

Expressionist (began carer as a romantic)

• left Europe to escape persecution by Nazis

• concerned with FORM and UNITY

• wants to “emancipate the dissonance”

• writes ATONAL works

• developed 12 tone system

Twelve Tone System

Schoenberg

• organizes all 12 notes of the chromatic scale into a specific sequence, or tone row, ensuring no note is repeated until all 12 are used, thus creating atonal music by avoiding traditional keys and emphasizing pitch equality

Pierrot Lunaire

SONG CYCLE based on poem about a clown

• kaleidoscopic scoring- each song uses different combo of instruments

• sprechstimme- speech and singing combination —> more animated

Igor Stravinsky

Primitivism (Modernism)

• draws inspiration from and reinterprets the distant past

• abstract use of folk tunes

“The Firebird”

“The Rite of Spring”

• uses and combines BLOCKS of sounds- working with patterns

The Rite of Spring

• deliberately barbaric style

• crude use of folk-tune fragments

• “unemotional” dissonant music

• visceral, unpredictable rythyms, mixed meters

• first performance caused a riot

• *1provocative, 2nonballetic choreography, 3set design!!

• violent, brutal, dissonant sounds

• subject matter found offensive (young girl sacrificed in spring ritual)

The Futurist Project

• Futuristic distaste for the past (Futurist Manifesto Marinetti)

  • BUT you cannot forget the past

• sought to literally destroy the past (libraries, monuments, etc.)

• wanted futurism to be the official state art of Fascism

• like CHANGE- speed, dynamism, technological progress

Futurism in Music

• views traditional music as artificial (incapable of making urban-like sounds)

• “Art of Noises” - Luigi Russolo

• new need to develop new instruments to reflect modern, urban life

Luigi Russolo pieces

• “The Art of Noises”

• “Awakening of a City”

  • bound by traditional notation (cannot fully escape past —> Primitivism)

  • sounds are material, form should be free

  • sound as an ABSTRACT

2 Aesthetic Streams in U.S.

MODERNISM (1900-1945)

1. Mavericks

2. Populists

**different aesthetic conerns but BOTH want music that is distinctly AMERICAN

Mavericks

• fiercely independent

• brash, rugged individuals

• do their own thing

Populists

• seek broad appeal

• music is more acceptable than Mavericks

Charles Ives

Modernism, Maverick

• collage technique (layered textures that are disruptive)

• quarter tones, tone clusters, and aleatoric techniques

• SPECIFIC IMAGERY, atmospheric, contemplative

Central Park in the Dark

Ives

• Programatic piece (“picture in sounds”)

• CP on hot summer night, getting lost, no straight lines

• individual’s quiet contemplation is interrupted by increasing cacaphony

• ragtime tunes

• taxi horse jumps the wall- climax

Aaron Copland

Modernist, populist

• promoted AMERICAN music that should serve ALL PEOPLE

  • “innately” and recognizably American

• adopted a nationalist agenda

• used American music of all kinds, regions, and ages

• wide range

Appalachian Spring

Copeland

• ballet score, concert suite

• pioneer celebration around farmhouse in PA hills

• uses quotation of Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts”

• expansive sounds

• VERNACULAR music

vernacular music

specific to ethnicity or region

Post WW2 Serialism (High Modernism)

• Europe in shambles

• 12 tone system (Schoenberg) taken to an extreme

• controlling every aspect of the music, leaving nothing up to interpretation

• music as a science

  • music’s relationship to math, stats, structural linguistics is explored

• John Cage = unofficial aesthetic mediator

High Modernism

• style has reached its apex, cannot go anywhere else

• centered around Darmstadt Summer Festival (whats on cutting edge of music)

• takes Schoenberg’s ideas about form and structure to an extreme

• complexity of STRUCTURE

High Modernism composers

Pierre Boulez

Luciano Berio

Pierre Boulez

High Modernist

• complexity of structure

• “Structures” piece for 2 pianos

  • removing subjectivity

  • structure, repeatable, etc

  • HOW STRUCTURE UNFOLDS

• seeking ORDER in aftermath of WW2, want control

John Cage

END OF MODERNISM (transition to post-modernism)

• studied under Schoenberg

• developed techniques and ideas with limits as solutions for practical problems

• “The Prepared Piano”- corks/screws/nails/papers/erasers/tape

• wanted music to imitate nature in its manner of operation

• created graphic scores that could be rearranged by the performer

  • rules based but different outcomes

• all sounds valid as music material

• wanted to remove the expressiveness/subjectivity from the piece

Fontana Mix

Cage

• dots and lines intersect

• Cage makes the rules but performer performs

• all that matters is making sounds

Luciano Berio

Post Modernism

• Sinfonia, 3rd Movement

• comments on events of 1968, second movement dedicated to MLK

Gerard Grisey

Post-modernism

• “Partiels from Les Espaces Acoustiques”

• no clear sense of time, sound is changing, rethinking how time works

• new elements introduced as time goes on

  • points are EXTENDED

• example of SPECTRALISM

• sound created from sound itself

• undermines idea of grand narratives with a logical end

spectralism

not a school of thought, but a STATE OF MIND, and ATTITUDE

• no set of rules

Steve Reich

post-modernism

• doesnt like 12-tone system

• fascinated with tape loops

• “Pendulum Music”

• example of MINIMALISM, but prefers “PROCESS MUSIC”

Minimalism

simple, repetitive patterns (like drones, steady pulses) focusing on gradual change

Glenn Branca

post-modernism

• uses NONMUSICAL sounds

• reacts against the overly academic sensibility of High Modernism

• Symphony No. 5

Julius Eastman

post modernism

• composer, performer, dancer, choreographer

• theatrical sense to him

• active in Downtown and Uptown, but never felt comfortable in either

• minimalist, post-minimalist, and experimentalist

• “organic music”- each section connected by a common element

• **repetition, improvisation, gradual transformation of musical material

• open instrumentation and open forms

  • disrupts hierarchy; sees structural issues with how music is presented

• provocative titles

• behavior/personality becomes more erratic- schizophrenia or BPD?

• scores were tossed, but now being assembled by Mary Jane Leach

Downtown NYC

concerts in old industrial buildings, loading docks, piers, lofts, etc

• doesnt conform for academic

• experimental

• John Cage

Uptown NYC

academic institutions!! Columbia, Julliard, NYU

Stay on It

Eastman

• upbeat, catchy tune that is repeated/transformed in various ways

• dissonant long tones

• rythmic disruption

• free imporvisation

• chaos, unpredictable

• **metaphor for feeling comfortable, that being violently disrupted, and then going back to comfort

• **ORGANIC MUSIC

organic music

you feel connected to what came before

Fluxus Collective

blending art with everyday life through playful, experimental, anti-art performances

• should be groundbreaking

• interventions- do things in spaces that are not meant to be there

  • e.g. disrupting an art gallery

Program Music

extramusical content, story

Absolute music

only about music