Transcript PowerPoint Chapter 12 rev. 1x

Old Genres, New Sounds:
Contemporary Music and Experimental Voices
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Women have long been
involved in chamber
music, but experimental
music has rested in the
male domain
Audiences often resist
experimental music,
regardless of the
composer’s sex
Still, male experimental
composers have
historically received the
most documentation
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
Experimental Music
•A twentieth century term
associated with music that
explores new and unusual sounds
and/or compositional techniques
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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Serialism is an atonal compositional method
that systematically orders musical elements
according to a fixed series
Common forms of alteration:
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Transposition
Retrograde motion
Inverse motion
Retrograde inversion
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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“an aesthetic that reflects fragmentation,
rejects boundaries between high and low art,
and is not opposed to embracing the past;
modernism rejects the old in favor of the
new”
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“artistic movement that used small elements
of repeated material that evolved slowly over
time; emerged in the 1960s”
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Lutyens is highly regarded today, but was a
lone voice in Britain as a serial composer
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Born in London
Not from musical family
Initially composed in secret
1922 - Studied in Paris
1926 – returned to England to study
Discovered serial composition
Most radical British composer of her era
Founded the Macnaghten-Lemare concert series
Also wrote music accessible to general public
(film, radio, cabaret-style songs)
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Compositional works expanded
◦ Musical stage
◦ More abstract style – featured use of few
materials and sense of timelessness
(rhythmic freedom and silence)
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 200+ film and radio scores
 Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors
 The Skull
 60 operas
 19 orchestral works
 25 compositions (voice and instruments)
 13 choral works
 Almost 50 chamber music works
 30+ solo songs
 Works for piano and organ
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
1969 – Commander of the order of the
British Empire
 Today remembered as:
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◦ Creative artist
◦ Inspiring teacher
◦ Great contributor to Britain’s musical life
◦ A musician “for whom compromise was
impossible”
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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Tower is a widely recognized composer of the
20th century and is also a leader among
proponents of “new music.”
◦ Abandons old forms, styles, or genres in favor of
emerging styles
◦ Founded the internationally-acclaimed Da Capo
Chamber Players, a group known for promoting
contemporary works
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Born in New York
Spent childhood in South America
Educated in the US – received MM and DMA
from Columbia University
Highly regarded for her work in orchestration
Important for using natural images as
subjects for her works
Known for her musical tributes
Grammy Award winning composer
Began career with serial techniques
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Composed at least 70 compositions
Champion of new music
Founded internationally renowned Da Capo
Chamber Players (1969)
Inducted into American Academy of Arts and
Letters (1998)
Inducted into Harvard University Academy of
Arts and Sciences (2004)
Taught at Bard College since 1972
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Petroushskates
(1980 – chamber ensemble)
Sequoia
(1981 – orchestra)
Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman
(1986 – brass, percussion)
Silver Ladders
(1986 – orchestra)
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Night Fields
(1994 – string quartet)
Made in America
(2004 – orchestra)
Purple Rhapsody
(2006 – viola, orchestra)
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Tower’s series of “Fanfares for the
Uncommon Woman” are considered by some
to be a feminist response to Aaron Copland’s
“Fanfare for the Common Man”
◦ Tower’s popular fanfares had already been
performed over 500 times by 2010
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1969 – founded chamber music ensemble:
Da Capo Players
1985-88 - Composer-in-Residence with the
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
1990 – Awarded the Grawemeyer Award for
Silver Ladders
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2005 – First composer to be commissioned
for the Ford Made in America Project –
involving 65 orchestras throughout the US
2008 – Nashville Symphony’s recording of
Made in America received three Grammy
Awards, including “Best Classical
Contemporary Composition”
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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Monk’s experimentation centers on the
human voice
◦ She often avoids text, believing that language gets
in the way of music’s capacity to “touch the heart”
◦ Along with her hallmark vocal experimentation,
Monk is known for addressing topics ranging from
community-based living to nuclear destruction
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Born in Lima, Peru – 1942
Raise in musical family
Could read music by age 3
Attended Sarah Lawrence College
Studied Composition, voice, Dalcroze
eurhythmics, and theatre
Inspired by works of John Cage, Stravinsky,
Bartók, Henry Cowell, and Janis Joplin
Singer, actress, dancer, choreographer, and
storyteller
Composer, but not in the traditional sense
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Known for her ‘textless vocals’
Known for “addressing social consciousness,
and has tackled topics ranging from
community-based living to nuclear
destruction.”
1971 – founded The House Foundation – a
company to perform her theatrical works
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“. . . is a composer, singer, director/
choreographer and creator of new opera,
musical theater works, films, and
installations. A pioneer in what is now called
‘extended vocal technique’ and
‘interdisciplinary performance,’ Monk creates
works that thrive at the intersection of music
and movement, image and object, light and
sound in an effort to discover and weave
together new modes of perception. Her
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an
instrument, as an eloquent language in and of
itself, expands the boundaries of musical
composition, creating landscapes of sound that
unearth feelings, energies, and memories for
which we have no words. She has alternately
been proclaimed as a ‘magician of the voice’ and
‘one of America’s coolest composers.’ During a
career that spans more than 45 years she has
been acclaimed by audiences and critics as a
major creative force in the performing arts.”
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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“With an improvisational yet structured
creative process, she often records her ideas
on tape, and keeps notes in notebooks prior
to committing actual music notation to paper
until she has lived with ideas for an extended
period of time. For Monk, the voice is an
instrument that flexes like a dancer. She
usually avoids text, believing that language
gets in the way of music’s capacity to directly
touch the heart.”
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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Solo voice, opera, chamber groups, video
She has a 3-octave range
“primitive and futuristic”
Vocal techniques: glottal breaks, ululation,
and special effects
Beauty of sound – her main objective
Dolmen Music – 6 voices, cello percussion
Book of Days – her first feature-length film
The Games – theatre piece: viewed
reconstruction after a nuclear holocaust
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Primarily textless: an experimental act
Premiered in 1991by Houston Grand Opera
Monk performed lead role
Chamber work: 18 singers and small pit
orchestra
Tells story of an explorer and spiritualist
Alexandra David-Neel
Uses nonverbal syllables, siren sounds,
melismas, and ensemble sounds (harsh and
beautiful)
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“Performed in three parts, Atlas explores the
chronological and spiritual life of character
Alexandra Daniels. The journey begins when
thirteen-year-old Alexandra dreams of
traveling the globe, and her parents respond
with agonizing wails and deep vocal
utterances. The young girl nonetheless
chooses two travel companions and takes on
other guides for her spiritual quest. In part
two, ‘Night Travel,’ the three companions
travel the earth to seek enlightenment and, in
the course of the journey, stop at an
agricultural community, a desert, and a
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
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militarized scene where they face the
possibility of destruction. In section three,
‘Invisible Light,’ those who escape
destruction ascend beyond earth to
enlightenment as a chorus sings in
otherworldly tones. As the opera closes,
Alexandra returns to earth as an older woman
and reflects on her journey. In Atlas, Monk
explores a woman’s entire life, from girlhood
to older age, as she travels both outwardly
and inside herself.”
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.
At the beginning of the
20th century, women were
primarily involved in
chamber music
By the end of the century,
women had produced an
unprecedented amount of
both large-scale and
experimental works
Who among these women
will be known by future
generations?
© 2011 Taylor & Francis.