Download HERE

Music Appreciation 202
20th Century Music - Study Aid
20th Century Music (1900-2000)
1. MODERNISM - "assumptions" of music are challenged and/or
taken to extremes; can involve complex rhythms.
melodies and harmonies; "the wierder, the better"
BALLET (for a dance)
IGOR STRAVINSKY Part 1 from Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1913)
CD#4/16-23
• Primitivism - recalling prehistoric power of rhythm and form
• From ballet based on story of ancient ritual sacrifice of a maiden
• Lots of rhythmic complexity - including SYNCOPATION and complex tone
colors (unusual combinations of instruments)
SONG CYCLE
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Mondestrunken (Moondrunk) from Pierrot Lunaire
(Moonstruck Pierrot) (1912)
CD#4/24
• Super-complex harmonies with lots of dissonance called atonality
• Example of weird instrumental effects and scary-sounding half-sung/halfspoken vocal sound called sprechstimme (song-speech)
• Example of Expressionism - movement in arts seeking to express innermost
extreme feelings
2. NEO-CLASSICISM (includes neo-romanticism, neobaroquism, neo-renaissancism, and neomedievalism) - a reaction against the wierdness of
Modernism; a return to the past in thematic material
and formal structures
CONCERTO
BELA BARTOK Second Movement: Game of Pairs from Concerto for Orchestra
(1943)
CD#4/29-35
• A B A' form - used Classical forms such as sonata and rondo in an established
form such as Concerto
• Used traditional melodic shapes
*ELLEN TAFFE ZWILICH First Movement from Concerto Grosso 1985 (1985)
CD#4/53-54
• Uses instruments from the past - (harpsichord)
• Modelled after concerto grosso of Handel and Bach
• Example of Neo-Classicism (although it goes back to Baroque music)
(like a) CONCERTO(for orchestra)
BENJAMIN BRITTEN Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34(1946)
CD#1/13-37
• Theme and Variations Form
• Theme is borrowed from the 17th-century Baroque composer Henry Purcell
3. MINIMALISM - a movement in music also reacting against the
complexities of Modernism; composers use simple
melodic and harmonic ideas and repeat them over and
over with very gradual changes
OPERA
PHILIP GLASS Knee Play 1, from Einstein on the Beach (1976)
CD#4/51-52
4. Popular Music-inspired, Folk-music-inspired, Jazz-inspired
Musics - composers look to popular, folk, and jazz
music for inspiration and musical material
BALLET (from a dance)
AARON COPLAND Section 7 from Appalachian Spring : Theme and Variations on
Simple Gifts (1943-44)
CD#4/41-46
• Theme is based on early American Shaker folk hymn called Simple Gifts
SYMPHONY
WILLIAM GRANT STILL Third Movement from Afro-American Symphony (1931)
CD#4/29-35
• Inspired by African-American spirituals and Jazz music
* New piece which haven't been covered yet in course
Important Terms and Concepts
Modernism
Primitivism
Expressionism
Neo-Classicism
Minimalism