Music History: 20th Century

Amy Beach

American pianist and composer, wrote the first symphony by an American woman, wrote songs to literary works

John Phillip Sousa

Conductor and composer of military marches, was in and then conducted the Marine Band, changed their rep to be more symphonic based

Scott Joplin

American composer and pianist, known as the king of ragtime, wrote an opera and ballet that incorporated rag time ideas, but most known for his piano compositions

Gustav Mahler

Austrian Jewish composer and conductor, his inspiration came from military and popular styles and natures sounds, programmatic content, put orchestra together with orchestra, composed in summer between conducting seasons

Richard Strauss

wrote symphonic poems as a bridge into opera, developed his tools of characterization and depiction, admired Wagner’s works, had to deal with writing under Nazi rule

Claude Debussy

French composer, wrote works based off literature, Wagnerian style, impressionism, used non-traditional scales and harmonies

Maurice Ravel

French composer, incorporated added notes, unresolved appogiaturas, and exended chords, famous for Bolero

Arnold Schoenberg

Limited formal musical training; first period was post romantic and similar to strauss, second period was expressionist and atonal, third period was serial and used 12 tone scale, taught Berg and Webern

Alban Berg

Austrian composer, wrote atonal and 12-tone compositions combined with Romanticism lyricism

Anton Webern

Studied with Schoenberg, interest in early music led to interest in palindromic forms, incorporated a lot of personal experience into his works

Igor Stravinsky

early music focused on ballets with musical ideas drawn from folk music influences, had to write in a Russian idiom or risk retaliation from the gov, later periods were neoclassical where there was a revival of styles, forms, and genres of pre-Romantic music, avoided emotionalism of Romanticism, 3rd period was modern and socialist

Sergei Diaghilev

Russian art promoter who revitalized ballet by integrating other art forms with dance, produced Stravinsky’s ballets

Bela Bartok

pioneer of ethnomusicology, went in search of folk songs and recorded them on wax cylinders/phonographs, highly varied scales, used drones, embraced dissonance, less focus on a steady pulse but still structured

Bessy Smith

performed with her brother as street performers, toured with Ma Rainey, empress of the blues

Duke Ellington

pianist, arranged his music to highlight musicians he played with, early career at Cotton Club in Harlem

Paul Hindemith

German composer, wanted to revitalize tonality, pioneered the writing of compositions for everyday occasions, was censored by the Nazis

Sergei Prokofiev

Russian composer, active opera composer, had to work under the Soviet regime without being censored, modernistic style but still melodic

Dmitiri Shostakovich

Russian composer, attacked by the Soviet Union, used Baroque structures, challenged the Soviets with his compositions by expressing his views through his pieces

Charlie Parker

Saxaphonist from KC, helped invent bebop, performed with Dizzy Gillespie

Dizzy Gillespie

trumpet, master improviser, helped create bebop with Carlie Parker

Miles Davis

jazz trumpeter, bandleader, popularized modal jazz

John Coltrane

saxophonist, played with Dizzy, Parker, and Davis, developed his own style, very fast, develops motives, increased dissonance, more dense sound

Leonard Bernstein

Composer and conductor of NY Phil, composed for films, used diverse themes

Benjamin Britten

wrote music for use in film with BBC, solo vocal work and operatic roles for his partner, pacifist, leftist, homosexual

Olivier Messiaen

served in WWII and was a POW, religious quality, drew from natures, especially bird song, his synesthesia drove color into his compositions, conceptualized rhythm as a matter of duration

Ragtime

straight rhythm with syncopation, prevalence of 7th and 9th chords, written tradition, piano

March

regular rhythm associated with military or processional music

Modernist

period of experimentation, moving away from traditional tonality and harmonic structures

Symphonic Song

a piece that illustrates the content of a poem

Impressionism

evokes a feeling or atmosphere from timbres, harmonies and melodies, Debussy and Ravel, modal scales, started by visual arts in France

Modal scales

scales that deviate from traditional musical scales and harmonic structures, whole tone, octatonic

Second Viennese School

Schoenberg, Berg, Webern

First Viennese School

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert

Atonality

absence of a key

Emancipation of the Dissonance

dissonance didn’t have to go to a consonance, atonality, freedom to compose short, intense pieces, lack of convention, music genres, techniques, and forms evoked madness

Serialism

organizes pitches, rhythms, and dynamics into a pattern that is repeated and manipulated throughout a piece, Messiaen and Webern

12 tone method

using all 12 notes in a pattern and transforming it throughout the piece

Expressionism

visual art is all about inside, visceral feelings, focus on madness and death, lots of dissonance, Schoenberg and Berg

Sprechstimme

speech-voice, singer reciting pitches with rhythmic accuracy but without sustained tones of singing

Ballet Russes

Commissioned works by Stravisnsky, Debussy, and Ravel, Sergei Diaghilev’s company

Primitivism

emphasized raw rhythms, percussive, timbres, dissonant harmonies, challenged western musical traditions, Stravinsky and Bartok

Neoclassicism

reaction against the emotional excess of romanticism, sought to move away from emotion, clarity of form, structure, and melody

New Orleans Style Jazz

improvisation harmonic structures are agreed on, swung, scales based on major, bass, drums, piano, guitar, corent, trumpet, sax, clarinet, trombone

Big Band Swing

brass, reed, and rhythm section, dance band, more music was arranged and notated, hard driving rhythm that was swung, Duke Ellington

Blues

narrator has been mistreated in some way, female singers used musical freedom as a vehicle for self-expression, 12 bar form, Bessie Smith

New Objectivity

movement to reject the emotionalism and idealism of Expressionism and Romanticism

Gebrauchsmusik

music for use, coined by Hindemith, each piece served a specific purpose and was not just for art’s sake

Socialist realism

movement in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, rejected modernism, emphasized simplicity and folk materials

Bebop

fast tempo with complicated rhythms, complex chord progressions, use of scales, small instrument combo, melody improvised by soloists

Cool Jazz

soft timbres, relaxed pace, subtle rhythms

Modal Jazz

slowly unfolding melodies over modal harmony

Maple Leaf Rag

Joplin, 1899, stride bass in left hand, consistent 16ths and syncopation

Kindertotenlieder

Mahler, 1904, orchestral song cycle, based on poem by Friedrich Ruckert, chromaticism, long, lyrical phrases

Salome

Strauss, 1905, massive orchestra, separation tonally between the orchestra and singer, about John the Baptist’s death

Nocturnes No. 1 Nuages

Debussy, 1897, avoids tonal musical devices, means clouds, uniform orchestral timbre

Wozzeck, Act III Scene 2

Berg, 1922, about a descent into madness, constant drone on B that comes up in important moments

Rite of Spring

Stravinsky, 1913, focused on indigenous dance and melody, strong rhythmic motives, bitonality, metric shifts, expanded orchestra

Back Water Blues

Bessie Smith, 1927, repetition and variation, piano changes based on lyrics

Symphony No. 5 Mvmt 2

Shostakovich, 1937, satisfied the regime, simple melodies, folk idioms

Giant Steps

Coltrane, 1960, major third tonal transpositions

West Side Story Act 1, No. 8 Cool

Bernstein, 1957, Romeo and Juliet but set in NY 1950s, modern styles of jazz alternates with cool jazz and bebop

Peter Grimes

Britten, 1945, opera based on a poem by George Crabbe, struggle of individual against the masses, depicts isolation, bitonality in orchestra and voices

Quartet for the End of Time

Messiaen, 1941, written while in a German prison camp, scored for violin, clarinet, and cello, uses whole tone and octatonic scales, medieval techniques of isorhythm