20th-Century Music: Review Notes

20th Century Music Overview

• Eclectic: wide variety of styles and techniques.
• Melody: frequent \text{disjunct progressions} (wide leaps).
• Meter/Rhythm:
  • Unusual or changing meters (multimeter).
  • Asymmetrical grouping; \text{polyrhythm} = multiple meters at once.
• Harmony:
  • Quartal harmony (built on 4^{th}s).
  • Polychords (two+ traditional chords stacked).
  • High use of dissonance; unstable, unresolved sound.
• Tonality:
  • Atonality (no key) and polytonality (two+ keys simultaneously).
• Texture: often homophonic (one dominant line with chordal support).

Impressionism (Debussy)

• Inspired by Monet’s painting “Impression: Sunrise” (1874).
• Characteristics:
  • Neo-modality: revival of church modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian).
  • Whole-tone scales (six whole steps/octave).
  • Parallelism: lines move together in identical intervals.
  • Wide melodic intervals; free, flexible rhythms.
  • Open chords (fifths & octaves, no triad).
• Claude Debussy (1862-1918):
  • Paris Conservatory; won \text{Prix de Rome}.
  • "Father of the Modern School of Composition" (rejects the term “Impressionist”).
  • Key works: Suite Bergamasque ("Clair de lune"), ballet "Jeux", opera "Pelléas et Mélisande".

Expressionism (Schoenberg)

• German reaction to French Impressionism; focuses on intense, subjective emotion.
• Musical Traits:
  • Extreme dissonance, distorted melodies, abrupt dynamics & textures.
  • Atonality; absence of tonal center/time-signature regularity.
  • Twelve-tone (dodecaphonic) technique: ordered use of all 12 chromatic pitches.
  • Multiple serialization: polyrhythm, polymeter, polyharmony, polytonality.
• Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951):
  • Viennese, largely self-taught; early work "Verklärte Nacht".
  • Created twelve-tone system; dubbed "Leader of Contemporary Musical Thought".

Electronic Music (Varese)

• Origin: 1947 experiments in \text{musique concrète} (Pierre Schaeffer) – tape manipulation of everyday sounds.
• Stages of development:
  1. Tape Music (1940s-50s): live sounds recorded & edited; performer’s role reduced.
  • Key figure list: Stockhausen, Schaeffer, Henry, Varese, Cage, etc.
  • Instrument highlight: Theremin (played without touch).
  1. Analog Synthesizer (1970s): oscillators & filters under one system; composers Babbitt, Wuorinen, Carlos…
  2. Digital Synthesizer (1980s): computer-generated sound.
• Edgard Varèse (1883-1965): “Father of Electronic Music”; emphasized rhythm & timbre; transformed noise into music.

Chance (Aleatory) Music (Cage)

• Also called \text{Indeterminacy}; piece changes with each performance using random procedures.
• Five categories: composer-set random events/order, indeterminate notation, traditional score with indeterminate performance, pure performer choice.
• John Cage (1912-1992):
  • Began chance music 1951; seminal work 4'33'' (1952) – complete silence except environmental sounds.
  • Concept of "tacet" (“be silent”).

Rapid Review Questions

• Main 20th-century trait? Eclecticism.
• Disjunct progression = wide melodic leaps.
• Unconventional meter = asymmetrical beat grouping.
• Polyrhythm = simultaneous meters.
• Quartal harmony = chords in 4^{th}s.
• Polychord = two+ chords stacked.
• Atonality = absence of key; polytonality = multiple keys at once.
• Homophonic texture = chords supporting one primary line.
• Impressionism source? Monet’s painting.
• Expressionism hallmark? Intense emotion & atonality.
• Twelve-tone creator? Schoenberg.
• Father of Electronic Music? Varèse.
• Instrument played without touch? Theremin.
• Chance music key figure? John Cage; signature piece 4'33''.