Transcript Area of Study 2 Changing directions in Western Classical

Area of Study 2
Changing directions in Western Classical
music from 1900
Experimental Music
Basics
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Around the same time as minimalism (1960’s – 1970’s)
Experimental music started.
Composers set out to make music that rewrote or totally ignored
the old rules about what is music and what is not music.
Aleatoric music is created using chance.
A composer will decide on some initial ideas with approximate
pitch, and maybe rhythm, a chord and duration but the decisions
about how the piece should be played are left up to the
performer. They could decide on the pitch, dynamics, pitch,
tempo, phrasing etc.
Some pieces ask the performer to throw a dice to decide on
repeats or flip a coin to decide in what order to play the
different sections in.
No ‘aleatoric’ music will ever sound the same and there are
unpredictable results.
Graphic Scores
* Aleatoric music can be written out on a
graphic score. A graphic score uses symbols,
shapes and pictures to suggest what to play.
* Pitch is along the vertical axis and time along
the horizontal axis.
* The composer gives a key explaining what the
performers should play for each picture,
shape or symbol but they’re just a rough
guide.
And more weird…
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Voices and instruments were used to make new
sounds…
Voices can hum, whisper, cough, scream, whistle, rap,
sing in different languages.
Pianos can have the wood hit, the strings inside be
plucked, string players using the other side of their
box, wind instruments using their mouthpieces only.
Household objects and anything else can be used in
this type of music.
* Think of ways your musical instrument can be used in
an unusual or experimental way.
Performing
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Experimental music was also performed
in different ways using ideas from the
theatre and dance.
Some performances had performers
move, act, mime, wear costumes, and
interact with the audience.
Composers
Stockhausen
 John Cage
 Cornelius Cardew
 Gavin Bryars
 Luciano Berio
 Mike Westbrook
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ELECTRONIC MUSIC
AOS 2
 Using
electricity to make
sounds offered composers a
number of new possibilities.
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The invention of the tape recorder in the
late 1940’s opened up great opportunities.
They could play the music at different
speeds or play it backwards.
Musique concrete used everyday sounds
but edited and transformed them into new
timbres. Stokhausen’s Kontakte used tape,
piano and percussion.
Varese’s Poeme Electronique (1958) used
a three track tape including sounds for
bells, drums, organ and electric voices.
SYNTHESIZERS
 allowed
composers to create new
sounds from a keyboard.
SYNTHESIZERS
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Analogue synths from the 70’s and 80’s had
knobs and sliders to effect the sounds.
Digital synths from the 80’s were much more
powerful, had more possibilities and stored and
altered sound digitally.
Software synths from the 90’s worked as a
computer programme with everything being on
screen.
SEQUENCERS
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are a method of recording, editing,
storing and replaying music stored
digitally as MIDI (Musical Instrument
Digital Interface)
SEQUENCES
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Many tracks can be played back simultaneously
but each tracks has its own set of instructions so
can be changed at will.
Sequencers display music as notation or in
boxes.
Modern sequencers can record audio (voices and
acoustic instruments) as well as digitally using
keyboards etc.
MULTITRACKING
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allows a separate recording of each part.
This allows for mixing of the parts and
rerecording as needed.
SAMPLING.
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A sampler uses prerecorded or ambient (natural)
sounds, saves them in digital form and then alters the
sounds using effects like attack, decay and release.
Samplers often take existing music and reuse it in a
new form.
They work in 2 phases firstly a transient period when
the initial sound attack happens and then a sine wave
when the characteristics of the unique sound are
produced. A sample can be looped on a keyboard by
simply holding down the key.
Homework
Write about two experimental
performances and describe in detail in
what ways they are ‘experimental’.
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