HUM 310 Modernism Terms

Assemblage: A genre (or artwork) featuring the combination of three-dimensional objects; the sculptural counterpart of collage.

Atonal/Atonality: In music, the absence of a tonal center or definitive key.

Avant-garde: (French, “vanguard”) Those who create or produce styles and ideas ahead of their time; and unconventional movement or style.

Biomorphic: Having organic or protoplasmic form.

Cantilever: A beam or horizontal bracket that projects beyond its support.

Collage: (French, coller, “to paste”) A composition created by pasting materials such as newspaper, wallpaper, photographs, or cloth on a flat surface or canvas.

Ferroconcrete: A cement building material reinforced by embedding wire or iron rods; “reinforced concrete”.

Mobile: A sculpture constructed so that its parts move by natural or mechanical means.

Montage: In art, music, or literature, a composite made by freely juxtaposing usually heterogeneous images; in cinema, the production of a rapid succession of images to present a stream of interconnected ideas.

Photomontage: The combination of freely juxtaposed and usually heterogeneous photographic images.

Scat singing: A jazz performance style in which nonsense syllables replace the lyrics of a song.

Serial technique: In music, a technique that involves the use of a particular series of notes, rhythms, and other elements that are repeated over and over throughout the piece.

Totalitarian: (Italian, totalitario) A political regime that imposes the will of the state upon the life and conduct of the individual.

Twelve-tone system: Type of serial music introduced by Arnold Schoenberg where all twelve tones are used equally.