Download Aleatory It quickly became apparent that music still required some

Aleatory
It quickly became apparent that music still required some form of organisation or
structure. Traditional forms, like ternary or theme and variations were adapted.
Other composers created novel methods for performing sections of music. An
example was ‘Aleatory’, where the elements of music (e.g. pitch or lengths of notes)
or the various sections of a piece would have an undetermined order: throwing the
dice would define the order of the performance of the sections of music. John
Cage was a successful pioneer and composer of aleatoric music.
Minimalism
Through the influence of music from around the world, some composers were
fascinated in the potential for manipulating repetition. Steve Reich and Phillip
Glass were two such composers who pioneered a style called ‘minimalism’. Frequent
repetition of melodic or rhythmic patterns evolved in subtle ways so as to produce
new related patterns, occasionally with the performers seemingly getting out of
step (‘phase’) with each other. Composers manipulated their ideas in such a manner
that audiences would perceive/imagine new patterns as a result of various skilful
combinations of rhythms/melodies (‘resultant melodies’). These techniques could be
offset by the use of ostinato figures.
Jazz-influenced music
Once Blues music was well established, musicians developed the 12 bar blues form
and the manipulation of blues notes in an improvisatory manner within the genre of
music known as ‘jazz’ music. Jazz music is a general term applied to a style that
changes the rhythmic nature, possibly of a well-known piece of music, making the
rhythmic patterns more syncopated. Jazz is rarely written down and the skill of
improvisation is taken seriously. There are many forms of jazz music, ranging from
the music of the traditional jazz bands (based largely upon 12 bar blues) to ‘be-pop’
or ‘cool jazz’, a breakdown of conventional harmony and a more experimental
approach to improvising melodies, harmonies and rhythms. Jazz ensembles tend to
be small in nature, featuring wind instruments as the lead melodic parts, piano to
guitar/banjo to recreate harmonies and a bass instrument like bass guitar or
double bass to give solidity to the sounds. All these parts are generally supported
by a drum kit part. The influence of jazz music can be seen in both popular music,
traditional Western Classical Music, including 20th century styles and even world
music.