Transcript listen! - Moodle

Chapter 22:
The Late Twentieth
Century
The Postwar
Avant-Garde
Key Terms
Postwar avant-garde
Sound complexes
Musique concrète
Architecture
Chance music
Noise
The Postwar Avant-Garde (1)
After World War II, modernist composers
emerged from all corners of the globe
• Stockhausen (Germany), Messiaen & Boulez
(France), Berio (Italy), Xenakis (Greece), Ligeti
(Hungary), Lutoslawski & Penderecki (Poland),
Takemitsu (Japan), and Babbitt, Cage, & Carter
(United States)
Many are still actively composing!
The Postwar Avant-Garde (2)
Some works from modernism’s 1st phase
are now “classics”
• Berg’s Wozzeck, Bartók’s string quartets,
Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
Postwar modernists have not yet gained a
firm place in the repertory
• Or in the hearts of most listeners
• …in the United States, at least
György Ligeti
(b. 1923)
Trained at Budapest Academy of Music
• Appointed professor there as a young man
Unable to pursue his unique sound vision
• Due to Communist restrictions in Hungary
• Ligeti left for the West in 1956
Was past 30 before his music became
known
• 1960s saw growing recognition in the U.S. &
Europe
• Use of his music in 2001: A Space Odyssey
brought international fame
Sound Complexes
His music is based on “sound complexes”
• Blocks of sounds – no clear pitches, chords,
tonality, melodies, or even rhythm
• Ligeti is more like a sculptor than a painter
• A music of surging & receding textures &
colors
Ligeti, Lux aeterna
For a chorus of 16 solo singers a cappella
Words from the old Latin Requiem Mass
• Polyphony & canon – Renaissance features!
Voices create sound complexes that
expand & contract in various ways
• Astonishing rich sonorities in the ebb & flow
Form made of four lengthy sound surges
• Nos. 1 & 4 balance & parallel each other with a
very high note added halfway through
Used in 2001: A Space Odyssey
John Cage
(1912-1992)
The father of chance music
• Studied with Schoenberg in California
• Early works for percussion, prepared piano
• Wrote his 1st chance work in 1951
Cage challenged the assumptions of
traditional music
• Should music differ from everyday sounds?
• Why use “musical” sounds instead of noises?
• Is a “purposeful order” really more interesting
than leaving it to chance?
Cage, 4’ 33”
Cage’s most controversial work
• For any number of players
• Performer(s) sits silently for 4’33”
• Ambient sounds become the composition
Is silence even possible?
• There is always something to listen to
• Do we really listen, or do we dismiss it if it is
not “musical” or “interesting”?
• Cage wants us to open our ears – to listen
afresh to all of life’s unpredictable, surprising
sounds!