Transcript File

20th Century
HISTORICAL THEMES
• Phenomenal changes in technology
• The advent of instantaneous global
communication
• The growth and eventual decline of
totalitarian cultures
Phenomenal changes in
technology
• We live in a century that has moved from the
earliest automobiles to supersonic jets and
space travel. Science has progressed at a
rate unthinkable to earlier generations. We
have learned how to eradicate some of the
most dangerous of diseases, and to predict
and control the forces of nature. We possess
the technological ability to control nearly
every aspect of our lives. And we also have
developed the tools to end all life in an
instant.
The advent of instantaneous
global communication
• The advent of instantaneous global
communication
• We take for granted the fact that we can send
and receive messages instantly, at the click of
a button. All aspects of communication,
entertainment and learning have been
fundamentally reshaped by these advances.
In fact, what you are doing at this very minute
would have been unthinkable a generation
ago.
The growth and eventual
decline of totalitarian cultures
• The growth and eventual decline of
totalitarian cultures
• The Russian and Chinese revolutions and the rise
of Adolf Hitler in Germany ushered in governments
the likes of which had never been seen. The totality
of their control and their ability to crush not only
human life but also the human spirit is one of the
most troubling legacies of our day. At the same
time, their decline, along with movements for
freedom and democracy in places as different as
Poland and South Africa, is a testament to the
ultimate strength of the human spirit.
Ambivalent Attitudes toward
the Musical Past
• * Some composers have made the conscious
decision to distance themselves from the
styles and values of the past.
•
* Claude Debussy said: "The century of the
airplane ought to have its own music."
•
* Other composers have just as
consciously tried to return to some aspects of
the past, especially the elements of the
Classical style.
A Widening Gap between "Art"
and "Popular" Music
• * Popular music, especially jazz, country and
rock, became the central musical focus of the
majority of people in the Western world, and
its reach covers the globe.
•
* Composers in the "art" traditions have
come to be seen as less relevant in day-today life.
•
* Composers whose music has become
more and more complex have widened the
gap between art and popular music.
The Advent of Sound
Recording
• * The distribution of music made possible by
recording was instrumental in the growth of
popular styles.
•
* Recordings have changed the way we listen
to music. Works from all musical periods are
available at any time.
•
* The techniques of recording and audio
production have become important musical
elements in their own right.
The Birth of a World Music
Culture
• * Western music, popular as well as art traditions,
has become a world language.
•
* At the same time, Western musicians have
become more and more interested in the music of
other cultures. Western composers with nonWestern ancestry have likewise sought out the
music of their heritage.
•
* Non-Western ideas have enriched Western
styles and have been accepted enthusiastically.
•
* In the age of global communication, a new
"world music" style is starting to emerge. This style
freely mixes elements from multiple cultures and is
not dependent on the heritage of its creator.
MUSICAL STYLE
• All sounds are possible (even no sounds).
• New instruments and the sounds of popular music have
changed the soundscape of the twentieth century.
• Contrapuntal textures prevail in art traditions. Popular
traditions are centered on homophonic textures.
• Rhythmic language can be enormously complex.
• Melodies can be long and abstract or reduced to small
gestures.
• Any harmonic combination is possible. Composers have
made use of extreme dissonance as well as microtonal
intervals.
Form can be controlled to an almost infinite degree, or it
may be the result of improvisation and chance.
Composers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scott Joplin (1868-1917)*
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) (became US citizen)
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Lillian Hardin (1898-1971)*
Duke Ellington (1899-1974)*
Bold: American Composers
Star:African-American Composers
Composers
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Richard Rodgers (1902-1979)
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
György Ligeti (1923- )
Pierre Boulez (1925- )
George Crumb (1929- )
Steve Reich (1936- )
Chinary Ung (1942- )
Paul Lansky (1944- )
Libby Larsen (1950- )
Bold: American Composers
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• Igor Stravinsky is often considered something
of a revolutionary, in part based on the riotous
reception of his ballet The Rite of Spring.
Stravinsky's career, however, suggests more
evolution than revolution. Perhaps no other
composer in this century -- or any -- has
written in such a variety of styles. And it is the
unique genius of Stravinsky that his musical
personality is detectable in each of these
styles.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• Stravinsky came from a musical family,
although his training was limited, reflecting
his family's desire that he pursue studies in
law. As a student at the university in St.
Petersburg, he made the acquaintance of
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and studied with
the older composer. His music quickly caught
the attention of Serge Diaghilev, the director
of the Ballets Russes in Paris. Stravinsky was
commissioned to write a ballet for the theater,
his Firebird. This was quickly followed by
Petrushka and The Rite of Spring.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• Stravinsky continued his association with Paris, but
with the advent of World War I and the turmoil in
Russia that would lead to the October Revolution,
Stravinsky took refuge in Switzerland. After the war
he returned to Paris, writing more ballets for
Diaghilev, as well as a wide variety of other works,
many (such as his Piano Concerto) serving as
performance vehicles for the composer. In 1939, he
emigrated to the United States, where he
attempted unsuccessfully to write music for films.
He continued composing late into his life, and when
he was well into his eighties he embarked on a full
schedule of performances as conductor, both in
concert and on record. These recordings serve as
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• Along with his changing nationalities, Stravinsky's
music underwent remarkable change over the
course of his life. His early music (for example, the
Symphony in E flat) show the influences of his
Russian models. His ballets show a wider range of
influences, including that of Claude Debussy. By
The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky had broken new
ground entirely, writing in a complex rhythmic style
and a harmonic style that included the use of
polytonality. This increasing complexity came to an
abrupt end with his move to Switzerland, and he
produced a seminal group of pieces in a pareddown instrumental style (often without strings), the
most notable being the small dramatic work,
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• When he returned to Paris, he continued this
more austere style, and added to it an
interest in older forms and methods,
beginning his well-known neoclassical period.
The culmination of this can be seen in his
opera The Rake's Progress, a modern
adaptation of the classical style of Mozart's
late comedies. Late in his life, Stravinsky
once more changed styles, embracing the
methods of twelve-tone and serial
composition. What resulted is a remarkable
series of works including his ballet Agon and
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
• In all these works, certain qualities remain
constant. First and foremost is a clarity of
sound, an almost transparent texture
heightened by his masterful use of
orchestration. Along with this is an approach
to rhythm that articulates his melodies with a
certain dryness, adding to the clarity of
sound. Finally, there is a concise and
economical approach to form. This has its
roots in the simplified style of his music from
the 1920s, but was a hallmark of his style
throughout his career.
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
• Aaron Copland seems at first to be an odd person
to create a musical style that combined the myths
of the American West and the styles of Latin
American music into a populist music that spoke to
a large segment of American society. Copland was
the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, grew up in
New York, and found his musical voice in the
international, avant-garde atmosphere of Paris in
the 1920s. In New York he was part of a musical
elite, championing the cause of modern music. At
the same time, he had ties to the political and
social left with its reformist agenda. Yet it could be
argued that all of these elements were important
ingredients, not just in the fabric of America in the
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
• But at age twenty, Copland left New York to
study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, who was
to serve as a teacher and mentor to many of
the leading composers of the century. In
Paris, and in his travels through Europe, he
was exposed to a wide variety of new styles.
He returned to a New York that was in the
midst of an artistic and social revival, and he
immediately became a part of that renewal.
From 1928 to 1931 he coordinated a series of
concerts with the composer Roger Sessions
that presented important new works to the
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
• His early music mixes very modern musical ideas with
hints of jazz influence. Pieces such as his Piano
Variations stand out for their harmonic and rhythmic
experimentation, and jazz rhythms are an important part
of his Music for the Theater. Copland's concern with
modern techniques lessened during the Great
Depression. Reacting to a changing social
consciousness, he (along with a number of other
composers) began to shape his style to speak to a
larger segment of the population. This comes through
most clearly in ballets such as Billy the Kid and
Appalachian Spring and in his music for films. In these
works, simpler (but no less sophisticated) harmonies,
broad melodies, and hints of folk melodies created a
sound that came to be associated with our pictures of
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
• And works such as Fanfare for the Common Man and A
Lincoln Portrait (in which the narrator recites various writings
of Lincoln) added a populist and patriotic element. While
Copland never abandoned the more adventurous style
(including, later in his life, twelve-tone composition), he is
best remembered, and justly so, for creating a truly American
symphonic style. Over the course of his life he not only
served as a trendsetter, but also played an important role in
the development of younger composers at places such as
the Berkshire Music Center. He was, in fact, the musical
father to more than one generation of young composers.