20th Century Music - Campbellsville Independent Schools
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Transcript 20th Century Music - Campbellsville Independent Schools
Diatonic Harmony gave way to Atonal
Music.
Electronic Music developed with the
technology.
Composers experimented with different
ideas about how to create music.
Composers were influenced by music
from other styles and cultures.
Atonal music has no key and therefore
no hierarchy of pitches.
This means that many of the key aspects
of western music no longer function (e.g.
cadences, chords, etc.)
Atonal music frequently sounds very
dissonant.
Serialism is a type of atonal music
developed by a composer called
Schoenberg.
Schoenberg tried to reintroduce an element
of structure into his atonal music.
• In Serialism you write a tone row containing
each of the 12 chromatic pitches just once.
• You then manipulate the tone row using
specified techniques: inversion, transposition
and retrograde.
• Some composers went on to develop
Serialism by adapting these techniques to
note values, instrumentation, etc.
• Electronic music uses sounds generated
electronically rather than by acoustic instruments.
• Composers who wrote electronic music often used
the technology to create new sounds unlike anything
that could be played on an acoustic instrument.
• Electronic music often sounds crude compared to
the
sophisticated electronic sounds we are used to with
modern music.
• Some composers used electronics to manipulate
acoustic sounds rather than generate electronic
sounds.
• Aleatoric Music – music created using
chance.
• Graphic Score – music written down as a
picture without using conventional notation.
The performer has to interpret the picture.
• Microtonal – music that uses intervals smaller
than a semitone.
• Extended Techniques – music that requires
the instrument to be adapted or played in an
unconventional manner
• A reaction against the unpleasant
sounding modern music.
• Composers revisited older techniques
and harmonies but still keeps some of
the characteristics of modern music.
• Dissonance (in parts) and unusual
rhythms are characteristic of
Neoclassical music.
• Minimalist music consists of looped
layers.
• Each layer is gradually altered during
the course of the piece.
• It is very repetitive and often very long.
• Many composers were influenced by
other styles of music. In particular:
– World Music
– Jazz
– Popular Music
• Other composers are noted for mixing
their music with other art forms such as:
– Film
– Graphic Art
– Video
• Just about any combination of
instruments is
written for using any of the musical
techniques described before.
• The orchestra stays mostly the same but
with
the addition of some unusual percussion
instruments for particular pieces.
• Chamber ensembles become more
popular
after being almost
• Vocal ensembles are still the same as they
have been since the Classical Era, soloists
and choruses with an occasional chamber
ensemble.
• Voices and instruments are used together
on
a more regular basis.
• Vocal music (both sacred and secular) is
written using any of the techniques
described
before.
20th century expressionist composer who
developed a systematic method of
organizing atonal music called the 12
tone system
American composer who incorporated
American folk songs, cowboy songs,
revival hymns and jazz in his orchestral
compositions
Works include Billy the Kid,Rodeo and
Appalachian Spring
Russian expressionist composer
Famous for three ballets: The Firebird,
Petrushka, and the Rite of Spring
French pianist/composer who linked the
Romantic era to the 20th century
Greatest hits: Prelude to the Afternoon of
a Faun
• Dissonance and unusual rhythms make
music unpleasant to listen to.
• Electronic sounds, unusual instruments,
extended techniques all expand the
sounds available to the composer.
• Repetition and gradual change –
minimalist music.