Transcript document

Arts History
1900 – present
20th
Century Classical
Music
Jazz
Modern Day Music
20th Century Classical Music
20th Century Classical Music:
Terms
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Impressionism- French style of
atmospheric music of the late
nineteenth century
Expressionism- musical style that
subjectively explored deep inner feelings
Tone row- a series of notes comprising the 12 pitches of
the chromatic scale; invented by Arnold Schoenberg
Aleatory music- music in which composers deliberately
leave parts of the composition and performance
undetermined and at the discretion of performers
Synthesizer- an electronic device, usually with a
keyboard, capable of producing sounds in almost any
range, tone quality, and volume
20th Century Classical Music:
Composers
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Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
– He was born in a suburb of Paris, France
and it was his aunt who first noticed how
musical he was. She got him started taking piano lessons.
– When he was only ten, Debussy started studying at the very strict
Paris Conservatory.
– As a child, Debussy was fascinated by visual art, and as he grew
up, he loved the new style called "Impressionism." Instead of
painting realistic, lifelike paintings with hard outlines,
Impressionists used thousands of dots, or many different shades
of color to create the "impression" of what they wanted to depict.
Debussy took that idea and applied it to music, creating
Impressionism in music.
Clair de Lune
by Debussy
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Meaning “Moonlight”, Clair
de Lune is Debussy’s most
well-known piano work.
20th Century Classical Music:
Composers
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Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
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Born in St. Petersburg, which was the capital of Russia
at the time. His father was a famous opera singer, so
as a kid, Igor got to hang out at the opera house,
where he met all the famous musicians of the day.
Igor began taking piano lessons at age 9. When he grew up, he started studying
law. One of his fellow law students was the son of composer Nikolai RimskyKorsakov, who agreed to give Stravinsky composition lessons. Law fell by the
wayside completely after Stravinsky had a big success with The Firebird.
Stravinsky went on to write more ballets. One of those was The Rite of Spring,
about a pagan ritual in ancient Russia. The opening night audience found the
music and choreography so shocking that there was actually a riot in the theater!
Stravinsky moved around a lot. In Europe, he lived in France and Switzerland;
during World War II, he came to the United States, where he lived in both
California and New York. Stravinsky’s music moved around, too -- he never really
picked one style. He wrote Russian-sounding music, music that looked back to
previous centuries, modern music, opera, and religious music -- including a
symphony with psalms in it.
The Firebird
by Stravinsky
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With life, death and rebirth as its theme, it
represents nature as a Sprite who is summoned
by a lone Elk. When the beauty of springtime is
destroyed by the fury of the Firebird, who lives
within an active volcano, it is up to the Elk and
Sprite to once again reawaken what lies beneath
the ashes of the ravaged forest.
20th Century Classical Music:
Composers
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George Gershwin (1898-1937)
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Born in Brooklyn, New York. He taught himself to play the piano
at a friend's house by following how the keys moved on a player
piano. When the Gershwins finally got their own piano, George
surprised everyone by sitting down and playing the songs he had
learned by himself.
George liked to compose both classical and popular music, and
found a unique way to combine the two. He composed his most
famous work, Rhapsody in Blue, in 1924, where he proved that
jazz held a legitimate place in the concert hall.
Gershwin also wrote the opera Porgy and Bess. He is considered
one of the greatest American composers.
Rhapsody in Blue
by Gershwin
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Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue in only three
weeks. It is still one of the most popular of all 20thcentury musical compositions, and proved that jazz
had a legitimate place in the concert hall alongside
traditional classical music.
20th Century Classical Music:
Composers
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John Cage (1912-1992)
– Among the most famous of 20th century
composers. While his earliest compositions
were written in a traditional style, he quickly
moved on to create unique kinds of works. One of his first inventions was
the “prepared piano," which is an instrument modified so that it can
produce new, percussive sounds.
20th Century Classical Music:
Composers
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John Cage (1912-1992)
– He wanted music to escape from any sort of control and, in some cases, to express
the idea of zero thought. He therefore created purposeless music based on the
throw of some dice, a star chart, or some other such random device so that his
personal preferences were not part of the compositional process. He called this
method indeterminacy. One such work, Imaginary Landscape No. 4, includes 12
radio sets, each of which is tuned to a different station. Every performance is
therefore unique.
– 4’33”, one of Cage’s most famous pieces, is “performed” by a pianist who sits
unmoving in front of a keyboard for four minutes and 33 seconds. The members of
the audience are expected during this time to listen to the sounds that occur around
them.
– Cage wanted to break down the barriers between art and living, to make audiences
aware that they are surrounded by sounds and that everything they do is actually
music.
Aleatory Project
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Aleatory means "pertaining to
luck", and derives from the
Latin word alea, the rolling of
dice. Aleatoric,
indeterminate, or chance art
is that which exploits the
principle of randomness.
20th Century Classical Music:
Composers
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Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
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He was one of the most famous American composers of all
time. Copland was born in Brooklyn, New York.
With a thorough background of academic musical training
behind him, Copland began composing in quite technically
advanced styles, influenced by such European contemporaries
as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. He then turned to
his own land for inspirations: to pioneering life in the
Appalachian Mountains and the Wild West, to jazz, and the
music of African-Americans. He successfully combined these influential sources with his own
highly professional skills to produce music that was beautifully polished but that clearly
resonated with an American voice. Copland’s music is as vast and magnificent as the land
that inspired it.
Copland wrote music with a very “American" sound. Some of his most famous pieces are his
ballets - Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring. Billy the Kid and Rodeo are about the
Wild West. Copland also wrote music for movies - Of Mice and Men and Our Town, among
others.
One of Copland's best known compositions is Fanfare for the Common Man. Copland wrote it
after the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked several composers to write fanfares during
World War II. Copland’s music has become a great part of American history.
Agnes De Mille
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The grande dame of American dance, Agnes de Mille (1905-1993) was born in New
York City. Her father was a playwright who went to work in Hollywood, and it was
there that she took her first ballet lessons from Theodore Koslov. She attended
UCLA, received a degree in English, then resumed her dance studies in New York,
where she made her solo debut in 1928.
Rodeo, the Americana classic she choreographed in 1942, was one of de Mille’s most
successful works.
“The truest expression of people is in its dances and
its music. Bodies never lie.”
- Agnes de Mille
Rodeo
by Aaron Copland; choreographed by Agnes de Mille
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Copland wrote Rodeo for Agnes de Mille.
The ballet is about a cowgirl who is neglected and lonely, and who usually dresses in
cowboy pants and shirt. She is attending a Saturday night dance and is watching the
couple s dancing, but nobody wants to dance with her. Her friend, the Champion
Roper, takes pity on her and shows her a few steps. Then she sees the Head
Wrangler, who she is infatuated with, dancing with the Head Rancher’s daughter. The
cowgirl then runs away sobbing while everybody else continues to dance. When the
cowgirl returns, the dancers all stop and look at her in surprise. They see her wearing
a dress for the first time, and she also has a bow in her hair. Suddenly, everybody
believes her to be some kind of Cinderella of the West. The Head Wrangler notices
her beauty and becomes very interested; however, so does the Champion Roper.
Both men try to win her fancy. In the end she settles on the Roper – the only one who
has ever shown her any attention.
Pantomime Gestures
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Pantomime is silent communication by means of gestures and facial expressions.
Can you guess which gesture is being acted out?
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You want what?
That’s really exciting!
Quiet! They’ll hear us!
Come over here right now!
I have no idea what you’re talking about!
What in the world is that?
Stop! You’re making me sick!
I have no interest in your side of the story.
When I say now, I mean now!
Billy the Kid
by Aaron Copland; choreographed by Eugene Loring
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In legend, Billy the Kid has been described as a vicious
and ruthless killer, an outlaw who died at the age of
twenty-one, not before raising havoc in the New
Mexico Territory. It was said he took the lives of twenty-one men,
one for each year of his life, the first one when he was just twelve
years old. He was a rebel without a cause who killed without
reason, other than to see his victims kick. These and many more
accusations of callous acts are examples of the myth of Bill the Kid.
In real form, the Kid was not the cold-blooded killer he has been
portrayed as, but a young man who lived in a violent dog-eat-dog
world, where knowing how to use a gun was a difference between
life and death.
The ballet is most famous for its incorporation of many cowboy
tunes and American folk songs.
Billy the Kid
by Aaron Copland; choreographed by Eugene Loring
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The opening movement is titled "The Open Prairie". Copland utilizes harmonies based on fifths to
give a sense of emptiness and loneliness with the main theme raising and falling above. This leads
into the second movement, "Street in a Frontier Town," where Copland manages to visualize in music
a town with cowboys sauntering around, some on horseback, some with lassos. The opening theme
is played on the piccolo (tin whistle if a stage performance) and is based on the cowboy tune "Great
Granddad." A Mexican theme enters which indicates a Mexican woman dancing a Jarabo. Copland
achieved this Mexican feel with the use of rhythm, using the song "Come Wrangle yer Bronco"
against a time signature of 5/8.
A fight between two drunks that is hinted at in the trombones by the tune "Git along Little Doggies"
interrupts all of this. In the ensuing chaos two shots ring out killing the twelve-year-old Billy’s mother.
Billy, enraged, grabs a cowhand’s knife and kills his mother’s murderer. Thus, the young outlaw's life
begins.
As "Street in a Frontier Town" comes to an end, Copland uses the tune of "Goodbye Old Paint" that
has already been hinted at earlier in the movement.
After dying away to nothing, the "Celebration Dance" shows how Copland could also show humor in
his work by having the jaunty and quite spiky dance melody in the upper instrumentation written in C
while the accompanying bass line supports this a semi-tone higher in C#.
Rich descending chords in the strings depict Billy’s death, with occasional accompaniment by upper
winds. The suite then ends where it began, on the "Open Prairie," but this time, to help with the
feeling of finality, Copland uses the whole orchestra with the brass playing big chords of leaping
fifths. This is all strong motivation to lead us to the conclusion that Copland wanted the audiences'
loyalties to lie with the now dead outlaw.
American Folk Songs
What are folk songs?
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Songs handed down from generation to generation.
Can you name any American folk songs?
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Home on the Range
Yankee Doodle
I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
Do Your Ears Hang Low?
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
My Bonnie
Polly Wolly Doodle
Martha Graham
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Martha Graham
(1894-1991) was an
American dancer and
choreographer
regarded as one of
the foremost pioneers
of modern dance, whose influence on dance can be
compared to the influence Stravinsky had on music,
Picasso had on the visual arts and Frank Lloyd Wright
had on architecture.
Graham invented a new language of movement, and
used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy
common to human experience. She danced and
choreographed for over seventy years.
Isamu Noguchi
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Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) was a
prominent Japanese American
artist and landscape architect
whose artistic career spanned six
decades, from the 1920s onward.
Known for his sculpture and public
works, Noguchi also designed
stage sets for various Martha
Graham productions, and several
mass-produced lamps and
furniture pieces, some of which are
still manufactured and sold.
Appalachian Spring
by Aaron Copland; choreographed by Martha Graham
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The story told is a spring
celebration of the American
pioneers of the 1800s after
building a new Pennsylvania
farmhouse. Among the central
characters are a newlywed
couple, a neighbor, a revivalist
preacher and his followers.
Jazz
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Jazz originated
around New
Orleans back into
the second half of the nineteenth century or
earlier.
Spirituals and the blues strongly influenced
the early development of jazz. Bands used
classical instruments, but in unique ways.
Jazz
Jazz:
Terms
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Jazz- a musical form distinguished by its reliance on
improvisation and its rhythmic urgency
Polyrhythmic- juxtaposing two or more different rhythms
Scat singing- a form of vocal improvisation on nonsense
syllables (such as doo-wah, doo-wee)
Swing- the special rhythmic character that jazz
musicians add to the music
Bebop- a complex and sophisticated type of improvised
jazz
Fusion- combination of jazz and rock
Blues- a genre of African American music that often
expresses frustration, sadness, or longing
Jazz:
Composers/Artists
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Louis Armstrong- jazz
trumpet player; vocally, he
complemented his
instrumental improvisations
with scat singing
Jazz:
Louis Armstrong
Jazz:
Composers/Artists
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Benny Goodman- clarinetist
who played the classics as well
as jazz; nicknamed the “King of
Swing”
Duke Ellington (1899-1974) –
one of America’s most prominent
big band innovators; most
original and prolific American
composers
Jazz:
Music
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What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
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Sing, Swing, Sing by Benny Goodman
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Blues
Swing
It Don’t Mean a Thing by Duke Ellington
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Scat Singing
Modern Day Music
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We start to see the emergence of many new artists as the
20th century progresses. Musicians combine music styles
to create a new sound.
Modern technology helps the music world take
off, exploring every possibility imaginable.
Music has become a major part of television.
The launch of MTV in 1981 aimed towards
adolescents and young adults. Since then,
we have VH1, BET, MTV2, CMT, and others.
Music has become so much more than an art form or
cultural experience. It is an industry that has grown to be
based off modern day trends, looks and fame other than
talent.
Modern Day Music:
Styles/Genres
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R&B – aka rhythm and blues; popular music genre
combining jazz, gospel, and blues influences –
first performed by African American artists; term
first coined in the 1940s; contemporary R&B
(1980s) combines elements of soul, funk, pop, and
hip-hop.
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R&B: Sam Cooke, James Brown, Rolling Stones
Contemporary R&B: Luther Vandross, Whitney
Houston, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, R. Kelly
Hip-Hop – also known as rap music; a style of
music which came into existence in the United
States during the mid-1970s; consists of two main
components: rapping and DJing.
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Eminem, 2 Pac, Jay Z
Modern Day Music:
Styles/Genres
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Pop - the term indicates specific stylistic traits such as an emotional
singing style, lyrics about love or sex, danceable beat, clear melodies,
simple harmonies and repetitive structure so that people can catch on
and join in; pop music often includes elements of rock, hip hop,
reggae, dance, R&B, soul, and sometimes country, making it a
flexible category; started in the 1950s.
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1950s: Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley
1960s: Beatles, The Beach Boys, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles
1970s: ABBA, BeeGees, Elton John, Earth Wind and Fire, Queen
1980s: Madonna, Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, The Police
1990s: Mariah Carey, Celine Deon, Backstreet Boys, Brittany Spears
2000s: Usher, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado
Modern Day Music:
Styles/Genres
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Country - a blend of popular musical forms originally
found in the Southern United States. It has roots in
traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music,
hokum, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the
1920s.The term country music began to be used in the
1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was deemed
to be degrading, and the term was widely embraced in
the 1970s, while country and western has declined in use
since that time.
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Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Hank Williams, Sara
Evans, Brad Paisley, Faith Hill
Modern Day Music:
Styles/Genres
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Rock - a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody
accompanied by guitar and drums. Rock music usually has a strong
back beat. Rock music has its roots in 1950s-era rock and roll. In the
late 1960s, rock music was blended with folk music to create folk
rock, and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s, rock
incorporated influences from soul, funk, and Latin music. In the
1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock,
blues rock, heavy metal-style rock, progressive rock, punk rock.
Rock subgenres from the 1980s included hard rock and alternative
rock. In the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge-style rock,
Britpop, and Indie rock.
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Elvis Presley, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, Metallica, The Killers, Taking
Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy
Modern Day Music:
Favorite Artist
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Write a paragraph describing YOUR
favorite modern day artist/group. Include
the following:
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Name of artist
Genre/Style of music
A song/piece they sing/play that made them
popular
Interesting fact about them
Modern Day Music:
Past, Present, Future
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There are thousands of modern day artists out there
today. Music has come so far from the Middle Ages to
now. Starting with a thousand years of the same type
music, to 150 years of the same music, to the 1900’s
where every decade brought a new sound, to now where
almost every year music is changing. Where do you
think music will go in the next 100 years?
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Paragraph 1:
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Paragraph 2:
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Paragraph 3:
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Paragraph 4:
What you think the importance of music today
is and why it sounds the way it does.
What you think music will sound like 100 years
from now.
What role you think music will play in people’s
lives 100 years from now.
Will music change for better or for worse?
Explain your answer.