The 20th Century in Music

Flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture on 20th century music, including styles, composers, and techniques.

20th century music

Music composed in the 1900s characterized by a variety of styles, notably including Impressionism.

Impressionism

A musical style that blends flowing melodies, chords, and rhythms to create musical impressions of a scene or idea.

Claude Debussy

French composer associated with Impressionism, known for works like Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.

Neo-classicism

A style of music that combines new music with Classical techniques, notably represented by Igor Stravinsky.

Igor Stravinsky

A significant Neo-classic composer known for works like The Firebird and The Rite of Spring.

Expressionism

A movement in music that expresses the deep personal feelings of the artist, often associated with darker themes.

Serialism

A compositional technique that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements, developed by Arnold Schoenberg.

Aleatoric music

A form of music that incorporates chance elements, allowing performers to make decisions during the performance, associated with John Cage.

Béla Bartók

A composer who combined 20th century techniques with folk traditions to create a unique nationalistic style.

Chance music

Music that relies on the element of chance, leaving certain decisions to performers, famously used by John Cage.

Mikrokosmos

A collection of 153 piano pieces by Béla Bartók intended as piano studies for his son.

4'33"

A notorious work by John Cage where the performer does not play for four minutes and 33 seconds, emphasizing environmental sounds.