Download Twentieth Century Declarative Knowledge

Twentieth Century Declarative Knowledge
Debussy and Impressionism
1. The Impressionist Painters
o Impressionism was a French movement developed by painters
 Claude Monet, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir
o "First impression" of a subject captured by use of light and color
o Abandoned grandiose subjects of Romanticism
2. The Symbolist Poets
o Literary response to tradition
 Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud
 All influenced by American poet Edgar Allan Poe
 Concern with the sound of a word as well as its meaning
 Achieved an abstract quality in the text
3. Impressionism in Music
o Sentiment that the possibilities of the major/minor system had been exhausted
 Attraction to ancient scales (church modes of the Middle Ages), exotic scales
(chromatic, whole tone)
o Interest in non-Western music flourished
 Moorish music of Spain, Javanese, and Chinese orchestras (as heard at the 1889
World Exposition in Paris)
o A departure from Classical harmony is witnessed in Impressionism
 Unresolved dissonances, parallel chords, ninth chords
 Use of the chromatic scale and whole-tone scale parallel chords, ninth chords
o Orchestral color was exploited in new ways
o The pulse in Impressionist music tended to be obscured
o The large forms of the past were abandoned in favor of short lyric forms
4. Claude Debussy (1862–1918): His Life and Music
o French composer, trained at the Paris Conservatory
 Rebelled against compositional traditions at Paris Conservatory
 At age 22, won the Prix de Rome with cantata The Prodigal Son
o Fame came after the premiere of his opera Pelléas and Mélisande (1902)
o WWI robbed him of his interest in music
 Died in 1918 during German bombardment of Paris
o Composed slowly, relatively small output
 Most recognized works
 Orchestral: La mer, three nocturnes, Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"
 Piano: Clair de lune, Evening in Granada, Reflections in the Water, The
Sunken Cathedral
o He also composed chamber music and French songs
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French song: independent of the German Lied
 Chamber music: String Quartet in G minor, sonatas for cello and piano; violin and
piano; flute, viola, and harp
5. Debussy: Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun" (Listening Guide 65)
o Symphonic poem, based on a Mallarmé pastoral poem
 Mythological faun
o Free ternary form
o Chromatic melody
o Rich orchestration creates evocative mood expressing poem's sensuality
Ravel and Post-Impressionism
1. Ravel's need for order and organization caused him to return to basic forms
o His music falls between the ideals of Impressionism and Neoclassicism
2. Maurice Ravel (1875–1937): His Life
o French composer, trained at the Paris Conservatory
o Group of friends nicknamed the apaches (French for "ruffians"): avant-garde poets,
painters, musicians
o Music reflects "exotic" interests
o After WWI, Ravel was in high demand as composer and conductor
o Visited the U.S. in 1928
o Influenced by American jazz
o Died after surgery meant to repair a rare brain disease
3. Ravel's Music
o National artist, drawn to French Impressionist images
o Exploited "exotic" and ancient musical styles
 Music of Spain and medieval scales
o Often compared to Debussy in terms of style
o Drawn to Classical forms
o Master of the French art song
o Orchestral works won him international admiration
 Spanish Rhapsody, Mother Goose, Boléro
4. Ravel: Don Quixote to Dulcinea, two songs (Listening Guide 66)
o This song cycle is Ravel's last work
 Originally began as a film score
 Text, by Paul Morand, is drawn from Cervantes
 Evokes the mystique of Spain
o Each song is based on a Spanish dance rhythm
 1) guijira rhythm alternates between metric feel of 3 and 2
 Text portrays a chivalrous knight-errant
 2) Prayer to St. Michael and St. George
 Slow-paced meter based on Basque dance zortziko
 3) Boisterous drinking song
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Rhythms evoke Spanish jota (vigorous triple-meter dance)
Melismatic singing suggests flamenco singing
Main Currents in Early Twentieth Century Music
1. The Reaction against Romanticism
o Early-20th-century music was the product of a reaction against Romanticism
 Sought to escape refinement, adopt primitive, uninhibited, spontaneous style
o Turned towards non-Western sources (Africa, Asia, eastern Europe) for primal,
powerful rhythms, and fresh concepts
2. New Trends in the Arts
o Futurism, Dadaism, Cubism
 Movement had an effect on artists (Erik Satie and Les Six in France)
3. Expressionism
o Expressionism was German response to Impressionism
 Explores the worlds of the subconscious, hallucinations, and dreams
o Artists: Kandinsky, Klee, Kokoschka, Munch
o Composers: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern
o Musical characteristics:
 Expressive harmony
 Extreme ranges
 Disjunct melodies
4. Neoclassicism
o Revival of balance and objectivity in the arts
o A return to formal structures of the past
o Began in the early 1920s
o Composers preferred absolute to program music
New Elements of Musical Style
1. The New Rhythmic Complexity
o Revitalization of rhythm
o Polyrhythm, polymeter, changing meter, irregular meters
2. The New Melody
o Becomes instrumental, not vocal, in character
 Abounds in wide leaps and dissonant intervals
3. The New Harmony
o Beyond traditional systems of tonality
o Polychords, polyharmony
o New Conceptions of Tonality
 The major-minor system was no longer dominant
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It was expanded, combined, and avoided
 Perceived drive toward the tonic is weakened
 Polytonality: presentation of two or more simultaneous keys
 Atonality: abandonment of tonality, all 12 tones are equal in importance
The Twelve-Tone Method
 Also known as serialism or dodecaphonic composition
 Atonal method devised by Schoenberg
 Strict system based on and unified by tone row
 Tone row: arrangement of all 12 chromatic tones
 Forms of the row: transposed, inverted, retrograde, retrograde inversion
The Emancipation of Dissonance
 Extreme dissonances become a normal part of the sound
 No obligation to resolve to consonance
 Texture: Dissonant counterpoint
 Sparse linear texture (counterpoint)
Orchestration
 Leaner, smaller orchestra
 String section no longer the "heart" of the orchestra
 Composers favored the darker instruments (viola, bassoon, trombone)
 Emphasis on rhythm brings percussion to the foreground
 Piano becomes an orchestral instrument
New Conceptions of Form
 Composers revisit Classical ideals of tight organization and succinctness
 Revival of older forms (toccata, fugue, concerto grosso, suite, etc.)
 Formalists valued form over expressiveness
Stravinsky and the Revitalization of Rhythm
1. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): His Life
o Stravinsky embodied the most significant impulses of his time
o Russian composer, studied at the University of St. Petersberg
 Left law studies for career in music
 Studied with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov
o Serge Diaghilev (impresario of Ballets Russes) commissioned 3 ballets from Stravinsky
 Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (1913)
 The Rite of Spring incited a near riot on opening night
o 1920: Stravinsky settled in France
o 1939: visited the U.S. (Harvard University)
o At the outbreak of WWII, decided to stay in U.S.
 Settled in Southern California, outside of Los Angeles
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1945 became an American citizen
o Died in 1971 at the age of 89
2. Stravinsky's Music
o His music reflects changing trends (post-Impressionism, classicism, serialism, etc.)
o Leader in the revitalization of rhythm
o Considered one of the great orchestrators
o Early works
 His music reflects nationalism
 Reacted against the restless chromaticism of Romanticism
 Three ballets for the Ballets Russes, The Soldier's Tale
o Neoclassical period
 Oedipus Rex: opera-oratorio
 Symphony of Psalms: for chorus and orchestra
 The Rake's Progress: opera based on a series of engravings by Hogarth
o 12-tone music
 Threni: Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah
3. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Listening Guide 67)
o Subtitled Scenes of Pagan Russia
 Primitive-like theme, matched by primitive rhythms
o Expanded ensemble
 8 French horns, 5 trumpets, 5 of each woodwind, a battery of percussion
o Melodies modeled after Russian folk songs
o Music is liberated from constraints of metric regularity
o Part I: Adoration of the Earth
 Begins with bassoon melody in the uppermost range
 The Dance of the Youths and Maidens
 Strings play dissonant chords, elemental pounding heightened by the use of
polytonal harmonies
 Game of Abduction
 Uses Russian folk theme against ostinato
 Section closes with Dance of the Earth
o Part II: The Sacrifice
 Bitingly dissonant harmonies
 Closes with frenzied climax, Sacrificial Dance
4. Stravinsky: The Royal March from The Soldier's Tale (Listening Guide 68)
o Small-scale theater work
o Written near the end of WWI, while Stravinsky was in exile in Switzerland
o Folk tale by Alexander Afanaseyev adapted by C. F. Ramuz
 Commentary on the composer's exile from his homeland
o Scored for 7 instruments, 3 actors, and a female dancer
o Neoclassical elements abound: tonality, traditional forms, etc.
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The Royal March
 Ternary form
 Inspired by a memory of a bullfight band
 Rhythmic intricacies and polyrhythm provide humorous backdrop
 Spanish-dance melody (paso doble) is heard in the A section
Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School
1. The German Expressionist movement was manifested in the music of Arnold
Schoenberg and his followers
o The Second Viennese School is comprised of Schoenberg and his students
2. Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951): His Life
o Austrian composer, conductor, teacher, artist
o Largely self-taught composer
o Proponent of atonality and serial composition
o Teacher of Alban Berg, Anton Webern
o Emigrated to the U.S.
 On faculty of USC and UCLA in Los Angeles
3. Schoenberg's Music
o Three style periods
 Early works reflect post-Wagnerian Romanticism
 Transfigured Night
 Second period reflects Atonal-Expressionism
 Pierrot lunaire
 Third period reflects the creation of the 12-tone method and his time in America
 A Survivor from Warsaw
4. Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire (Listening Guide 69)
o Song cycle from 1912
 Texts by Albert Giraud (in German translation)
o Tale of a sad clown obsessed with the moon
 All in rondeau form
o For voice and varied chamber ensemble
o Atonal work: no home key
 No distinction between consonance and dissonance
o Use of Sprechstimme (spoken voice)
 Klangfarbenmelodie (tone-color-melody)
o No. 18, The Moonfleck
 For voice and 5 instruments
 Highly contrapuntal and dissonant
 Pierrot's frustration is heard in the atonality
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No. 21, O Scent of Fabled Yesteryear
 Voice and 8 instruments
 Melancholic and serene
 Pierrot is at peace
 More consonance is used to reflect the innocent past
Berg and Early-Twentieth-Century Opera
1. Alban Berg (1885–1935): His Life
o Austrian composer and teacher
o Student of Schoenberg
o Humanized the abstract methods of atonality and serialism and infused them with
feeling
o Served in the military during WWI
o Ardent supporter of techniques of Second Viennese School
o Hitler banned the works of 12–tone composers
o Died an unfortunate death at 50 of blood poisoning resulting from an insect bite
2. Berg's Music
o Style rooted in German Romanticism
o Leaned towards formal patterns of the past
o Adopted atonality and serialism of Schoenberg
o Best-known works include the Lyric Suite and 2 operas
 Wozzeck, Lulu (unfinished)
3. Berg: Wozzeck (Listening Guide 70)
o Based on Expressionist play by Georg Büchner
 Play is based on real-life events
o Berg wrote the libretto himself
 Plot: Wozzeck's unhappy love affair and resulting tragic events
o Atonal harmony
o Use of leitmotifs
o Incorporates Sprechstimme
o Act III, Scene 4
 Wozzeck returns to the scene of the crime, hallucinates, and commits suicide
o Interlude between Scene 4 and 5
 Symphonic interlude in D minor
 A passionate lament
 Evokes the Romanticism of Mahler
o Act III, Scene 5
 Marie's child is told of his mother's death
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Webern and Serial Technique
1. Anton Webern (1883–1945): His Life
o Webern's works are brief, subtle, and fleeting
o Austrian composer and musicologist
o Followed Schoenbergian ideals
o Career suffered under the Third Reich
o During WWII sought refuge with family near Salzburg
 Broke curfew to smoke a cigar and was shot to death, at age 62, by American
soldier
2. Webern's Music
o Removed himself almost completely from the tonal past
o Favored short forms, like others of the Second Viennese School
o His music is marked by unusual orchestration and extreme ranges
 Sparse textures in very brief works
 Strict use of 12-tone technique
o Extended 12-tone concept to include rhythms, timbres, dynamics
o New application called total serialism
3. Webern: Symphony, Opus 21 (Listening Guide 71)
o Scored for a chamber orchestra
o Entire symphony lasts less than 10 minutes
o Expanded use of Klangfarbenmelodie
o Texture is pointillistic
o Complex contrapuntal procedures (double canon, etc.)
o I: sonata-allegro form, based on a tone row
o II: theme and variations, based on row from first movement
Bela Bartok and the European Tradition
1. Twentieth-century nationalism differed from 19th-century trends
o Composers approached traditional music with a scientific spirit
 New students of folklore took recording equipment into the field for authenticity
2. National Schools
o French: Les Six (Satie, Milhaud, Honegger, Tailleferre, Poulenc, Auric)
o Russian: Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian
o English: Elgar, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Britten
o German: Hindemith, Orff, Weill
o Hungarian: Bartók, Kodály
o Czech: Janáček
o Nordic: Sibelius
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3. Béla Bartók (1881–1945): His Life and Music
o Hungarian composer
o Sought to end domination of German musical culture
o Separated true Hungarian music from music of Roma (Gypsies)
o Studied folklore
o Emigrated to the U.S. in 1940
o Suffered from leukemia, received help from ASCAP
o Died in New York City at 64
o Musical characteristics
 Adhered to the logic and beauty of Classical from
 Musical language based on Eastern European traditional music
 New scales, polytonal harmonic language
 Fought the "tyrannical rule of the major and minor keys"
 Rhythmic innovator, changing meters, syncopations
4. Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra (Listening Guide 72)
o Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra
o Five movements
 I: Introduction, sonata-allegro, use of folklike pentatonic scale
 II: Game of Pairs, featuring different pairs of winds
 III: Elegia, contemplative and rhapsodic nocturne
 IV: Interrupted Intermezzo, one theme borrowed from Shostakovich's Symphony
No. 7
 V: Sonata-allegro form
American Traditions: The Music of Charles Ives and William Grant Still
1. Many 20th-century nationalists based their works on traditional and popular music
o Ives and Still in particular incorporated influences of "home grown" popular music
traditions
2. Popular Music in Late-Nineteenth-Century America
o Strong tradition of devotional music (spirituals and gospel hymns)
o Music publications were largely devotional, "white spirituals"
 Shape-note system designed for easy reading of music
 Tunes were set in simple 4-part harmonizations
o Parlor and minstrel songs of Stephen Foster were popular and remain popular
 Oh, Susannah! Camptown Races, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
o By the Civil War era, the military marched to the sounds of brass groups
 After the war, members of military bands formed concert and dance groups
o Bandmaster John Phillip Sousa promoted and fostered the American wind band
 Conducted the U.S. Marine Band and formed the group "Sousa's Band"
 Wrote over 130 marches for band, dance music, and operettas
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Sousa created a national music for the U.S.
3. Charles Ives (1874–1954): His Life and Music
o American composer and businessman
 Studied at Yale with Horatio Parker
o Successful career in the insurance business
 Composed after-hours and on weekends
 His contributions were recognized late in life
o Drew on music of New England (hymns, patriotic songs, brass band, and dance music)
o Incorporated polytonality and polyrhythm, quarter tones (half the size of a half step)
o Central works were his 4 symphonies
4. Ives: The Things Our Fathers Loved (Listening Guide 73)
o Ives wrote the text
o Quotations from patriotic, religious, and popular tunes
o Dissonant harmony
5. William Grant Still: His Life and Music
o A major part of the "Harlem" Renaissance, an early-20th-century movement
o His Afro-American Symphony was the first work by an African-American composer to
be performed by a major symphony orchestra
o Born and raised in the south (Mississippi, Arkansas)
o Attended Wilberforce University in Ohio for a while
o Hired to work for W. C. Handy's bands in Memphis
o Served in WWI, then studied for a while at Oberlin
o Hired again by Handy to work in New York
 Quickly gained a reputation as an arranger for radio and musical theater
o Studied with French expatriate Edgard Varèse
o Sought his voice in the music of his black cultural heritage
o Afro-American symphony premiered in 1931
 Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Howard Hanson conducting
o 1934 won a Guggenheim Fellowship
 Left New York for Los Angeles; composed for film and television
o New York City Opera performed his opera Troubled Island in 1949 (another first)
o Musical characteristics
 Finely wrought, fairly conservative, often inspired by African-American themes
6. Still: Afro-American Symphony, II (Sorrow) (Listening Guide 74)
o Sought to elevate popular blues to realm of art music
o Each movement is in modified sonata-allegro form
o Blues harmonic pattern and influence of spirituals is evident
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Nationalism in the Americas: Aaron Copland and Silvestre Revueltas
1. Aaron Copland (1900–1990): His Life and Works
o American composer, born in Brooklyn
o Studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger
o Incorporated jazz idioms in his works
o Experimented in Neoclassicism and 12-tone composition
o Composed piano pieces, orchestral works, ballets, film scores
2. Copland: Billy the Kid, Scene 1, Street in a Frontier Town (Listening Guide 75)
o Ballet on the story of William Bonney
o Later arranged the ballet as a concert suite
o Music includes tunes of the Wild West and Mexican dance (jarabe)
3. Silvestre Revueltas and Art Music Traditions in Mexico
o Mexican culture is a mixture of Amerindian, African, and Hispanic cultures
o Catholic Church has maintained a high profile since 1519
o The Mexican Revolution of 1910 served to stir up a strong sense of patriotism
 Manuel Ponce and Carlos Chávez were leaders in the new nationalist movement
 Chávez also directed the Orquesta Sinfónica de Mexico and the National
Conservatory, promoting the music of Mexican composers
4. Silvestre Revueltas (1899–1940): His Life and Music
o Mexican composer, born in Durango
o Child prodigy (violin), studied at the National Conservatory and in San Antonio, Texas
o Returned to Mexico as the assistant conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Mexico
o Traveled to Spain to support the Loyalist government during the Spanish Civil War
 Inspired to compose the Homenaje a Federico García Lorca
o Returned to U.S. in 1937, periods of depression, alcoholism, and self-destruction
o Died at age 40 of alcohol-induced pneumonia
o His music is colorful and folkloric, without actually borrowing from known traditional
songs
o Mexican mestizo music is evoked through lyrical, direct melodies
 Mariachi sound is gained by pairing melodic lines in thirds
o Political themes abound in his music
 Homenaje is an overt anti-Fascist statement
 Orchestral work Sensemayá inspired by verses of the anti-Fascist Afro-Cuban
poet Nicolás Guillén
5. Revueltas: Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (Listening Guide 76)
o I: Baile (Dance), a quick-paced duple-meter dance
 Bears both indigenous and mestizo musical influences
o II: Duelo (Sorrow), based on soulful emotional melody
o III: Son (traditional dance), evocative of mariachi ensemble
 Rondo-like form, celebrates Lorca's life in dance
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Evokes flavor of rural dance and sound of mariachi
6. Music from the Mariachi Tradition
o Origins of mariachi are found in west Mexican state of Jalisco
 Music is mestizo, a mixture of European and indigenous characteristics
o Early mariachi were small groups
 Violins, guitars (including the guittarón and vihuela), sometimes harp
o After 1930, mariachi added trumpets and more violins
 Exposure in film popularized mariachi across Mexico and in U.S.
 Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán is the most famous from film and radio
o After 1950s, mariachis wear a traje de charro, the costume of a stylized rancher
 Instrumentation consists of violins, trumpets, vihuela, guitars, guitarrón and
sometimes diatonic harp
o Mariachi repertory consists mostly of dance music
 Rhythm alternates between a triple and duple feel, called sesquialtera
 One of the most famous dance pieces is the Jarabe tapatío (known as the
Mexican Hat dance)
o Mexican son is mixture of indigenous, Spanish, and African traditions
 Many regions have distinct son style and regional folkloric dance as well
o The son from Jalisco, the birthplace of mariachi, is the son jalisciense
 Dance style for the son jalisciense is the zapateado
o Modern mariachi play all types of music
 Mambo, salsa, cumbia, and other popular styles
o Mariachi festivals are popular in Mexico and in the southwestern U.S.
 Many U.S. universities sponsor mariachi ensembles in their music programs
7. Son jalisciense: El Cihualteco (The Man from Cihuatlán) (Listening Guide 77)
o A popular son jalisciense
o Standard verse/chorus structure
 Four-line verses (coplas) alternate with chorus (Ay sí sí, ay no no)
 Verses are witty and flirtatious
o Melodic lines played in parallel thirds
o Sesquialtera provides restless unpredictability in the beat
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Ragtime, Blues, and Early Jazz
1. Jazz is a 20th-century American musical style
o Drew from African traditions and traditions from the West, began in New Orleans
o Roots of jazz are in West African music (call-and-response), and 19th-century AfricanAmerican ceremonial and work songs
o Ragtime, a precursor to jazz, developed from African-American piano style
characterized by syncopated rhythms and sectional forms
2. Scott Joplin (1868–1917) and Ragtime
o American Composer
o "The king of ragtime"
o Joplin and ragtime gained notice during a performance at the 1893 World Exposition
(Chicago)
o Left St. Louis for Chicago, then went to New York
o Active in New York as teacher, composer, performer
o Sought to elevate ragtime to a serious art form
o After poorly received opera premiere (Treemonisha), fell into period of depression
o Died in New York in 1917
o Revival of Treemonisha in 1972 earned Joplin a posthumous Pulitzer Prize
o Some of his piano rags are preserved on recordings made by Joplin on Steinway player
piano rolls
3. Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag (Listening Guide 78)
o Regular sectional form
o Four strains, each repeated
o Syncopated rhythms
4. Blues and New Orleans Jazz
o Blues: an American form of folk music based on a simple, repetitive, poetic-musical
structure
o The term refers to a mood as well as harmonic progression
 Harmonic progression is usually 12 (or 16) bars in length
 Characteristic is the blue note (slight drop in pitch)
 Blues texts typically consist of a 3-line stanza, the first 2 lines are the same
o Vocal style derived from work songs
o The art of improvisation is critical in blues
5. Louis Armstrong (1901–1971) and Early Jazz
o American musician (cornet and trumpet)
 Nickname "Satchmo"
o Success in Chicago with the New Orleans–style ensemble King Oliver Creole Jazz Band
 Great improviser
 Used variety of mutes to expand capacities of trumpet in range and tone color
o Recording of Heebie Jeebies introduced scat singing (syllables without literal meaning)
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Jazz chorus is a single statement of a melodic-harmonic pattern
 Armstrong introduced solo rather than ensemble choruses
o Style influenced generations of musicians
6. The Jazz Singer Billie Holiday (1915–1959)
o American blues and jazz singer
 Nickname "Lady Day"
 Tragic childhood
o Discovered by talent scout, sent to record with Benny Goodman
 Sang with the top jazz musicians of her day
o Life deteriorated into drug and alcohol abuse
o Died at 44 from cirrhosis of the liver
o Recognizable singing style
7. Holiday: Billie's Blues (Listening Guide 79)
o Recorded with Artie Shaw on clarinet and Bunny Berigan on trumpet
o 12-bar blues
 Short introduction and six choruses
o Begins with 3-line strophe, but becomes freer
o Demonstrates her masterful rhythmic flexibility
The Swing Era and Beyond
1. Early jazz gave way to the swing, or big band, era of the 1930s and 1940s
o Jazz provided new opportunities for black musicians
2. Duke Ellington (1899–1974) and the Big Band Era
o American composer, pianist, orchestrator, and big-band leader
 Advent of big band brought a need for arranged (written-down) music
o Ellington was a brilliant orchestrator
 His orchestral palette included a larger ensemble
o One of the Ellington Orchestra's most popular tunes was Take the A Train
3. Strayhorn: Take the A Train (Listening Guide 80)
o Written by composer/arranger Billy Strayhorn
o "A Train" is the subway line that runs to Harlem
o Form: A-A-B-A (Introduction and three choruses)
o Introduction features Ellington at the piano
4. Bebop and Later Jazz Styles
o Rebellion against big band results in bebop and cool jazz
o Bebop (also known as bop) mimics the trademark 2-note phrase of the style
 Leaders of the style included: Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Charlie Parker
(saxophone), Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk (both piano)
o Bebop includes the subtypes
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Cool jazz: Miles Davis
 West Coast jazz: Dave Brubeck Quartet, Gerry Mulligan Quartet
 hard bop, soul jazz
o Latin American bandleaders brought Latin dance music into the mainstream (rumba,
mambo, chachacha)
5. Gillespie/Parker: A Night in Tunisia (Listening Guide 81)
o Charlie Parker ("Bird") on saxophone, Miles Davis on trumpet
 Improvisation is key to this work
 Introduction is marked by an ostinato in the bass
o Tune is presented in Chorus 1 (A-A-B-A) form
 Three improvised choruses follow
o Coda (same ostinato as Intro) closes the work
6. George Gershwin and the Merger of Classical and Jazz Styles
o European and American composers were drawn to ragtime, blues, and jazz
 Debussy, Stravinsky, Ravel, Copland
o George Gershwin (1898–1937) mastered the fusion of jazz and classical styles
 Accomplished pianist and songwriter
 Tin Pan Alley pianist
 Musical theater productions: Girl Crazy, Porgy and Bess
 Great success in vocal works, often collaborated with brother, Ira
 Instrumental works were also popular
 Rhapsody in Blue, Concerto in F, An American in Paris
7. Gershwin: Piano Prelude No. 1 (Listening Guide 82)
o Loose ternary form
o Syncopations, use of blue note
o Highly rhythmic and jazzy style
Musical Theatre
1. The development of American musical theater
o Roots in European operetta (Gilbert and Sullivan)
o Romantic plots, comic moments, appealing melodies, large ensemble, and dance
numbers
o Early plots were often contrived and silly
o Composers soon turned to sophisticated literary sources for plots
o Composer/lyricist teams emerged
 Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe
o Rock musicals emerged in the late 1960s
o 1970s: Stephen Sondheim's musicals increased in sophistication
o European composers took over the American genre
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Andrew Lloyd Webber, Claude-Michel Schonberg
o Disney has a strong tradition of animated musicals and Broadway shows (Beauty and
the Beast, The Lion King)
o Dance musicals are also popular (Riverdance, Contact, Stomp)
o "Jukebox" musicals feature songs by a popular artist or group (Mamma Mia)
2. Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990)
o American composer and conductor
o Appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic at age 25
o At 40, became first American-born and youngest conductor of NY Philharmonic
o His music combines the worlds of serious and popular music
 Composed symphonic and choral music, film music, and musical theater works
o In West Side Story, Bernstein attempted a union of jazz with musical theater
3. Bernstein: West Side Story, excerpts (Listening Guide 83)
o Based on the story of Romeo and Juliet
o Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
o Set among street gangs of New York City
 Jets vs. Puerto Rican rivals, the Sharks
o Influence of Latin dance music and jazz
o Favorite tunes: Mambo (Afro-Cuban dance)
o Tonight love duet in A-A-B-A form found in jazz
Rock and the Global Scene
1. Rock and roll emerged in the 1950s
o Origins in rhythm and blues, country-western, pop music, and gospel
o Crossed racial lines: white singers drew from black music; African-Americans got the
attention of white audiences
o In the 1960s a bevy of teen idols emerged
 At the same time, black America turned to soul and Motown
o The Beatles took America by storm in the early 1960s
 Later Beatles music reflected non-Western musical influence (India)
 The Beatles' success inspired the British Invasion (the Rolling Stones)
o California groups raised the standard for studio production (the Beach Boys)
 Folk rock also emerged in California, groups influenced by Bob Dylan and Joan
Baez
o Eclectic musical styles emerged: acid rock (the Doors, Jimi Hendrix)
o Culminating event for rock music in the 1960s was Woodstock Festival in 1969
o Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd spawned a new generation of improvisational bands and
trance music
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2. The Eclecticism of the 1970s
o Art rock (progressive rock) served to unite classical instruments and form with rock
o Moody Blues; the Who; Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; Frank Zappa
o Latin rock was the fusion of Latin jazz with rock and roll
 Santana's distinctive sounds comes from Latin and African percussion
o Other offshoots of rock and roll: heavy metal, glitter rock (glam rock), punk rock, disco,
reggae, new wave
3. The 1980s and Beyond
o The 1980s saw the development of the music video
 MTV was important in the dissemination of rock
o Technological developments added synthesizers and stereo turntables to the music
 Rap and hip hop became one of the most popular forms of music
o Soul and rhythm and blues divas were successful
 Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey
o Grunge rock, alternative rock, and global pop are more recent developments
o "Alternative" rock of the late 1990s defies specific definition
 Eclecticism represented by artists like Beck and Björk
o Women artists find success in all genres
 Artists-singer-songwriters, folk music, pop-punk, country, rap, etc.
o Significant revivals have occurred and early rock bands enjoy continued success
 Eagles, Rolling Stones, Elton John
o Older styles (blues, country, soul, ska, punk, etc.) are being updated by new artists
 White Stripes, Alicia Keys, No Doubt, Green Day
o Popularity in rock is fleeting
4. Country-Western Music
o Country-western music evolved out of Appalachian folk songs
 Early recordings have this type of music labeled "hillbilly" music
o Hollywood began to make movies featuring singing cowboys in the 1930s
o The Grand Ol' Opry was the place where many new acts were introduced
 Bluegrass, Nashville sound
o Honky-tonk was electrified folk-derived music
o In the 1970s, classic country music and mainstream country emerged
 Country rock or "southern-fried rock" was a successful crossover style
5. Global Pop
o Universalistic movement, not a single style
 Promotes popular music of the third world, ethnic and traditional music from all
over the globe, and collaborations between Western and non-Western musicians
6. BeauSoleil and the Revival of Cajun Music
o Two distinct cultural groups in Southwestern Louisiana
 Creoles: mixed French, Spanish, and African or Afro-Caribbean descent
 Cajuns: French colonists of Canada, exiled by the British, settled in Louisiana
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The two groups shared French as a common language
 Cajun music was mostly vocal, influenced by all southern music
o Zydeco music arose in midcentury as a blend of African-American, Caribbean, and
Cajun styles
 Incorporates voice, fiddle, accordion, electric guitar, washboard
7. Think of Me (Jongle à moi), by BeauSoleil (Listening Guide 84)
o Traditional dance song
o Cajun fiddle techniques
 Drones, double-stops, slides, trills
o Text is in Cajun French
8. Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Music of South Africa
o Paul Simon's collaborative album Graceland (1986) furthered the cause of the black
population in South Africa
 Features mbube: choral singing style of South Africa
 Mbube linked to protest against apartheid
 A cappella choral responses, call-and-response patterns, irregular phrasing,
syncopated rhythms
o Group Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a voice for peace and freedom
 Represents urbanization of traditional choral music
9. Homeless, by Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Listening Guide 85)
o A combination of English and Zulu lyrics
o Call-and-response singing style
o Verse/chorus structure
o Solo interjections, trills, vocal glides, and clicks (word painting)
o Speaks of the devastation left after a major hurricane
New Directions
1. Innovations of the latter half of the century have surpassed the "new music" of any era
2. The Arts since the Mid-Twentieth Century
o Post WWII social turmoil was reflected in the arts
o Musical trends mirrored movements in the arts
 Abstract expressionism, pop art, postmodernism
o Feminist as well as ethnic art and literature flourished
o Literature and poetry have been the subject of widespread experimentation
 Authors continued to create and have won awards (National Book Award,
Pulitzer, Nobel)
 Recent new genre spawned by Zadie Smith = hysterical realism
 Many authors have stirred controversy
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
Jonathan Franzen questioned the value of his book's listing on the Oprah
Winfrey's Book Club list (The Corrections, 2002)
 Salmon Rushdie's novel (The Satanic Verses 1988) has been condemned by
the Muslim world
 J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is controversial among conservative
Christians
o Modern theater and music have merged in performance art
 A multimedia genre explored by John Cage and Laurie Anderson
o National schools of filmmaking have developed in recent years
 Especially in Germany, China, Poland and the U. S.
3. Toward Greater Organization in Music
o Later generations applied Schoenberg's 12-tone method to elements other than pitch
o The resultant total serialism is an extremely complex, ultrarational music
4. Toward Greater Freedom in Music
o Counter to total serialism was the desire for freedom from predetermination
 Composers let chance determine great portions of the musical "happening"
 Resultant indeterminate music is called aleatoric music
 The flexible structure is known as open form
o Collage: a technique in which fragments of compositions (old and new) are layered
o Musicians sought to free themselves from the restrictions of the chromatic scale
 Evolution of electronic instruments makes microtonal scales more practical
 Intervals smaller than semitones in a microtonal scale
 Originally a part of a variety of world musics
5. The Postwar Internationalism
o Leaders in compositional experimentation hailed from all over the world
 U.S.: Milton Babbitt, John Cage, Earle Brown, Morton Feldman
 Italy: Luciano Berio
 Greece: Iannis Xenakis
 Poland: Krzysztof Penderecki
 Germany: Karlheinz Stockhausen
 France: Pierre Boulez
 Russia: Sofiya Gubaidulina
o Postwar Era voices in the United States
 Elliott Carter pioneered a technique he called "metric modulation"
 George Perle reconciled serial procedures with tonality
 Henry Brant, Canadian composer, experimented with spatial relationships
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The New Virtuosity of the Modern Age
1. Contemporary music calls for new and highly virtuosic technique
o Some performers specialize in avant-garde music
 Cathy Berberian, Jan DeGaetani
2. Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992): and the Postwar era
o French composer, organist, and educator
o Messiaen's music is an expression of his religious faith
 Draws on medieval church modes, chant, and Eastern sounds (India, Java)
o His love of nature, especially bird song, is reflected in his music
3. Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time (Listening Guide 86)
o Written while a POW in Germany, 1940
 Imprisoned with a violinist, cellist, and clarinetist
 Composed while interred and gave a concert to other prisoners
o The work is based on a passage from the Revelation of St. John
 Scored for piano, violin, cello, clarinet
 8 movements that incorporate the sounds of birds, of Gregorian chant, the
expressive quality of the cello, and Messiaen's mysticism
4. Pierre Boulez (b. 1925) and the French Avant-Garde
o French composer
o Influenced by Messiaen, Debussy, Stravinsky, Webern
o Embraced total serialism
o Emotional content of Boulez's music is broad
o Fond of the sound of the gamelan
o Recent works combine media (orchestra and electronic equipment)
 An example of this is his concerto for MIDI flute
 Flute communicates with a computer in performance
o Conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
o Co-founder of IRCAM, the French center for computer music research
5. Boulez: Notations IV (Listening Guide 87)
o One of his chief early works
o Composed in 1945 (piano), orchestrated in 1978
 Revision calls for a huge orchestra
o Constructed from three hexachords (6-note sequences)
o Unified by an ostinato, which is manipulated through a complex process Boulez calls
frequency multiplication
o Boulez describes the work as "organized delirium"
6. George Crumb (b. 1929) and Avant-Garde Virtuosity
o American Composer, numerous awards and honors
 Pulitzer, Grammy Award
o Emotional, dramatic, expressive music
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Professor of composition at the University of Pennsylvania until 1999
o Affinity for the poetry of Federico García Lorca
7. Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children (Listening Guide 88)
o Cycle of songs for soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin, harp, electric piano,
percussion
o Voice is used like an instrument
o Opens with a vocalise (wordless melody)
o Includes singing into an amplified piano, singing microtones
o Percussion includes instruments from around the world
o Mysterious music reflects dark intimations of poetry
Contemporary Composers Look to World Music
1. The West has always felt the influence of other cultures
o A number of composers responded to the philosophy of the Far East
 In particular, Californians Henry Cowell, Harry Partch, and John Cage
2. Important Experimenters
o Henry Cowell (1897–1965) drawn to a variety of non-Western musics
 Student of the music of Japan, India, Iran, rural Ireland and America
 Experimented with foreign scales
 Innovations include tone clusters
 Adjacent tones are struck with the fist, palm, etc.
o Harry Partch (1901–1974)
 Serious proponent of microtonal music (he devised a scale of 43 pitches)
 Unique now instruments (cloud-chamber bowls, diamond marimba, etc.)
3. The Music of John Cage (1912–1992)
o American Composer
o Student of Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg
o Invented the prepared piano to simulate the sound of the Javanese gamelan
 Consisted of items (nails, bolts, etc.) inserted in the piano strings
o Preoccupied with East Asian philosophy
o Quest for tranquility pervades his life and work
o Composed music based on chance (indeterminacy)
o Explored the role of silence: 4'33" (a piece of silence)
4. Cage: Sonata V, from Sonatas and Interludes (Listening Guide 89)
o A group of 16 pieces for the prepared piano
 Bits of materials inserted in between strings
 Approximates the sounds of the Javanese gamelan
o Captures the meditative character of Oriental thought
o Set in binary form (A-A-B-B)
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5. The Javanese Gamelan
o Indonesia comprises many diverse cultures and musical traditions
o The gamelan is central to the musical traditions
 Composed of melodic percussion instruments
o Music is played from memory, passed as an oral tradition
o Played for ritual ceremonies (court, shadow-puppet theater)
o Two tunings: sléndro (5-note), pélog (7-note)
6. Javanese Gamelan Music: Patalon (Listening Guide 90)
o Patalon serves as an overture to the shadow puppet play
o In shadow puppet theater (wayang), a master puppeteer
 Operates the puppets
 Narrates and sings the songs
 Leads the gamelan
o The performance begins in the early evening and continues until dawn
o Rhythmic structure is cyclic (colotomic structure)
o Melodic framework (balungan) interacts with rhythmic structure
o Instruments played are metallophones (metallic percussion)
7. Multicultural Influences in Contemporary Society
o The impulse toward a world music sound continues with contemporary composers
o Today's artists are more exposed to multicultural influences than ever before
8. György Ligeti's (1923-2006) and his Etudes for Piano
o Hungarian composer
o Active in electronic music, serial music, incorporation of world music
o Innovator of "micropolyphony": interweaving complex polyphonic fabric
o Shape is derived from barely perceptible shifts in timbre, dynamics, texture
o Resultant effect is a murmuring continuum
o Most popular works: Atmosphéres, Lux aeterna (included in Kubrick's film 2001: A
Space Odyssey)
9. Ligeti: Disorder (Désordre), from Etudes for Piano, Book I (Listening Guide 91)
o Explores rhythmic manipulation
o Method derivative of sub-Saharan African and Indonesian rhythm
 Ligeti was particularly interested in the region of Uganda
o Book I, Disorder: additive meters (5 + 3, 3 + 5) over triple patterns
o Virtuosic ability needed to play complex rhythms
10. Music from East Africa
o Uganda is in eastern Africa (bordering Kenya and Lake Victoria)
o Many outside forces have significantly influenced the culture
o Musical instruments of the region: chordophones, aerophones, idiophones, and
membranophones
o Pentatonic music is favored in this region
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11. Eastern African Music: Ensiriba ya munange Katego (Listening Guide 92)
o Tale of a sub-chief who loses his good luck charm
o Played by an entenga (prestigious court drumming ensemble)
 Melodic drums play using a pentatonic scale
o The work has a dense polyrhythmic texture
o Music is transmitted orally through the master/apprentice system
12. Bright Sheng (b. 1955) and the Meeting of Musical Cultures
o An innovative composer, he blends Western and Asian cultures
o His Chinese name is Sheng Song-Liang (Liang means "bright lights")
 His Anglicized name is a combination of English and Chinese
o Born and raised in Shanghai
o In 1966, the Red Guards took away his piano because it was considered "bourgeois"
o Sent to Tibet during the Revolution
 Learned to play other instruments and gathered folk songs
o In 1976, the Revolution ended and he entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music
o Studied in the U.S.
 Queens College, Columbia University
o Successful musical career in the U.S.
o Works to preserve Eastern traditional musical cultures
 Collaborates in this project with Yo-Yo Ma
o Merger of Eastern and Western ideas enriches the listener's understanding of both
cultures
13. Sheng: China Dreams: Prelude (Listening Guide 93)
o A symphonic suite composed between 1992 and 1995
o Four movements for large orchestra
o Nostalgic in tone
o Combines Western and Eastern musical ideas
o The opening Prelude evokes Chinese folk music
 In particular the northwest region
 Pentatonic melodies, sliding glissando figures
 Three-part structure
o Fanfare is more agitated and percussive
 Reflects unpleasant memories of China
o The Stream Flows draws on a well-known folk song
 From southern China Yunnan province
o The Last Three Gorges of the Long River
 Inspired by a dream, refers to the Yangtze River
14. An Introduction to Chinese Traditional Music
o To understand Bright Sheng's music, exploring Abing's (1883–1950) music is helpful
o Chinese composer, born Hua Yanjun
o Orphaned and later adopted by Daoist monk
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Began studying music as an apprentice Daoist
 Expelled for playing sacred music in secular settings
o Before dying in 1950, recorded 6 of his works
o His music is highly revered and part of the standard repertory at modern
conservatories
15. Abing: The Moon Reflected on the Second Springs (Er quan ying yue) excerpt (Listening
Guide 94)
o Originally conceived for solo erhu
 Bowed two-string fiddle, played upright, with a snakeskin-covered sound box
o Modern version adds the yangqin
 Hammered dulcimer with trapezoidal sound box strung with metal strings and
struck with bamboo strips
o Based on a pentatonic scale (D-E-G-A-B)
o The melody is repeated 4 times, each with more ornamentation
Music for Films
1. Music has helped to create some of the most memorable moments in film history
2. The Role of Music in Film
o The most important function of music in film is to set a mood
o Supplying music that contradicts what is seen creates irony
 Technique known as running counter to the action
o There are two principal types of music in a film
 Underscoring: comes from an unseen source, often an invisible orchestra
 Source music: functions as a part of the drama, from a logical source
o Leitmotifs create musical unity within the context of the drama
3. Music in the Silent Film Era
o Silent films were generally accompanied by solo piano or organ
 Special organs were capable of producing effects (gunshots, animal noises, etc.)
 Music was one of three types:
 Classical music, arranged well-known tunes, and new music
4. The Sound Era
o The late 1930s is considered the Golden Age of films and film music
o Major composers of early Hollywood: Max Steiner, Eric Korngold (both Austrian)
 Germany, France, and the Soviet Union also pursued filmmaking
 Shostakovich was known as composer for Stalin's propaganda films
 Prokofiev wrote 8 Soviet films (including Alexander Nevsky)
5. Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953): His Life and Music
o Russian composer, started his musical training in the conservatory at 13
 Early success as a pianist and composer
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Emigrated to Paris after the Revolution of 1917
 Frequently traveled across Europe and into the U.S.
o Returned to Russia
 Accused by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of "bourgeois
formalism" (influenced by European modernism)
 Was censored, and his music was removed from the repertory
 His works found their way back into the concert hall nonetheless
o Died on March 5, 1953, one day after Stalin
6. Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, Seventh Movement (Listening Guide 95)
o Sergei Eisenstein production, 1938
o Based on the life of a folk hero who defeated the Germans
o Prokofiev wrote the film score, later arranged it into a cantata
o The cantata has 7 movements
 Scored for chorus, mezzo-soprano, and orchestra
 Alexander's Entry into Pskov, movement 7
 Triumphal return of conquering hero
7. The Postwar Years
o Financial constraints curtailed the lush symphonic score of the Golden Age
o Composers used popular genres as well as 20th-century art music
o Major composers of the postwar years: Bernard Herrmann, Miklós Rózsa
 Rózsa used the Theremin was used to create eerie effects
o Later composers included Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein
o After the late 1940s, film music was newly composed or borrowed from Classical or
popular repertory: rock, country-western, and jazz
o In the 1950s, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith emerged as film composers
8. Beyond Star Wars
o Star Wars (1977) revolutionized the industry in terms of visual and aural effects
o The score by John Williams was immensely popular
 Incorporated full symphony orchestra, use of leitmotifs
o John Williams (b. 1932)
 Wrote for television in the 1950s and 1960s
 Began to compose for films in the 1960s
 1970s successes
 Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman
 1980s, 1990s, and the present:
 Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter films, Munich
o James Horner (b. 1953)
 Studied in Los Angeles (University of Southern California, UCLA)
 Successes include Star Trek II & III, Apollo 13, Titanic, etc.
o Synthesizers were a major part of the sound of 1980s film scores
 Synthesizers are largely the domain of popular musicians
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Danny Elfman (b. 1953)
 Founder of the rock group Oingo Boingo
 Worked with director Tim Burton
 Successful scores for many films
 Beetlejuice, Batman, Men in Black, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
o Hans Zimmer (b. 1957)
 Comes from a popular music background
 Successes include: Rain Man, The Lion King, Gladiator, Pearl Harbor,
Madagascar, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
o Rachel Portman (b. 1960)
 First woman to win an Academy Award for Best Music (Emma, 1996)
 Successes include: The Joy Luck Club, The Cider House Rules, The Manchurian
Candidate
o During the 1990s and into the 21st century, American composers of art music turned
to film
 John Corigliano, The Red Violin; Tan Dun, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Elliot
Goldenthal, Frida
o Minimalism made its way into film in the 1990s
 The Matrix and The Hours with scores by Philip Glass
9. Williams: Raiders March, from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Listening Guide 96)
o Heard in its entirety during the closing credits of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
 Fashioned from two leitmotifs in the film (Indiana Jones and Marion)
o Three-part form (Indiana Jones theme, Marion's theme, Indiana Jones theme)
o Instrumentation and beat of a traditional march
Technology and Music
1. The Technological Revolution
o Two trends emerged simultaneously in the late 1940s and early 1950s
o Musique concrète: Paris-based movement headed by Pierre Schaeffer
 Relied on recordings of natural sounds that were manipulated through external
devices
 The American offshoot of tape music incorporated artificially generated sounds
o Electronische Musik: Cologne-based movement headed by Herbert Eimert
 Major proponent was Karlheinz Stockhausen
 The heart of the system was the oscillator (electronic waveform generator)
 Waveforms were subjected to many types of manipulation
o Eventually the many components were combined into a synthesizer
o Synthesizers
 RCA first delivered the synthesizer in 1955
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
A second version was delivered to Columbia-Princeton's Electronic Music Center
in 1959
o Robert Moog and Donald Buchla created a more compact and affordable synthesizer
in the 1960s
o First electronic piece commissioned by a record company: Morton Subotnik's Silver
Apples of the Moon (1967)
o Widespread popularity of the synthesizer came after the 1968 recording Switched-On
Bach by Walter (later Wendy) Carlos
o Digital frequency modulation synthesis replaced analog systems (developed by John
Chowning at Stanford)
 Chowning sells rights to Yamaha—developed Yamaha DX7 (1983)
o Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) adopted in 1983
o Technology became affordable in the mid-1980s
o Digital samplers re-created realistic sounds of any noise
o Composers combined computer savvy with musical inspiration
o Hiller and Issacson's software MUSIC generated musical compositions (1956)
2. Important Figures in Electronic Music
o Edgard Varèse (1883–1965), French expatriate in the U.S.
 Turned to electronic medium late in life
 Poème electronique (1956–58)
 Commissioned for a sound-and-light show at Philips Pavilion at the 1958
Brussels World's Fair
 Consisted of electronic and concrète sounds recorded on a multi-channel
tape
 Pavilion was designed by Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis (who later
became a composer)
 Music accompanied the lighting effects and projected images
 The piece was played on more than 400 speakers in the pavilion
 2 million people experienced the composition by the end of the World's
Fair
o Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934)
 Argentine-born American composer
 Combines electronic sounds with live music
 Director of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York
 Currently teaching at Harvard University
 Best-known works: Synchronisms (1963–88)
o Milton Babbitt (b. 1916)
 American composer
 Composed at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
 Combined electronic music with live performers
 Representative works: Philomel (1964), Phonemena (1974; soprano & tape)
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Pauline Oliveros (b. 1932)
 American Composer
 Helped found the San Francisco Tape Center; became director in 1966
 Explores mixed media, multichannel tape and live performers
 Known for experiments with live electronic music and "deep listening"
perception process
3. Tod Machover (b. 1952) and Musical Interactivity
o A leader in the contemporary music scene
o Embraced technology as creative tool
o Spent five years as Director of Musical Research in Paris at IRCAM
o Explores American music styles (art and popular, including rock)
o Goal in music is to "make people pay attention and listen carefully"
o Professor of music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
 Creates "smart" computers that follow gestures and intentions of performers
 Dextrous Hand Master
4. Machover: Hyperstring Trilogy: Begin Again Again . . . , excerpts (Listening Guide 97)
o Piece for solo cello, inspired by J. S. Bach's Cello Suite No. 2
 Cellist is in control of an array of live computer electronics
o Written for Yo-Yo Ma, premiered at the Tanglewood Festival in 1991, recently revised
o Conceived as the first in a trilogy based on Dante's Divine Comedy
 Explores the possibility of renewal after suffering
o Form is in two large parts, each with a theme and four variations
Some Current Trends
1. Highly intellectual music caused reactionary trends that seek immediate audience
appeal
o Minimalism and New Romanticism are primary movements
2. Minimalism and Post-Minimalism
o Minimal art first found expression in painting and sculpture
o Composers of this style stripped their compositions down to the barest essentials
 Features: repetition of melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns with very little
variation
o The listener's attention is focused on a few basic details
o Turns away from the highly intellectual style of the serialists
o Minimalists often incorporate non-Western ideas
o Widely known composers of minimalism: Steve Reich (b. 1936), Philip Glass (b. 1937)
o Spiritual minimalism: offshoot of minimalism
 Mainly a European trend, deeply meditative
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
Nonpulsed music inspired by religious beliefs
 Expressed in chains of lush modal or tonal progressions
 Primary composers: Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki, John Taverner
3. Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) and Spiritual Minimalism
o Estonian composer
o Concert, film, and stage composer
o Explored 20th-century techniques (Neoclassicism, serialism)
o Religious convictions made life in the Soviet Union difficult
o Left for West Berlin
o Composes Latin and Orthodox Church choral music
o Created a new style called tintinnabulation (from the Latin word for ringing of bells)
4. Pärt: Cantate Domino canticum novum (Listening Guide 98)
o Inspired by medieval chant
o Latin text, based on Psalm 95
o Uses notation system similar to Gregorian chant, not traditional notation
o Scored for SATB chorus and organ
o Tintinnabular (bell) style
o Incorporates word painting
o Varied texture, use of counterpoint
5. John Adams (b. 1947) and Post-Minimalism
o American composer
o Educated at Harvard, steeped in serialism
o Influenced by rock music
o Moved to San Francisco
 Advocate for contemporary music in the Bay Area
 Taught at the San Francisco Conservatory
o Incorporates late Romantic expressive harmonies in minimalist music
o Often collaborates with director Peter Sellars
6. Adams: Tromba Lontana (Distant Trumpet) (Listening Guide 99)
o Short orchestral fanfare
 One of two fanfares written in 1986
 Short Ride in a Fast Machine = exuberant and propulsive
 Tromba lontana = quiet and introspective
o Commissioned by the Houston Symphony
 Includes 2 solo trumpets placed at opposite sides of the stage
o Evokes Eastern music with sues of crotales and string harmonics
o Mesmerizing, repetitive accompaniment in the orchestra
7. The New Romanticism
o New Romanticism is a reaction to the intellectual and alienating 12-tone movement
o New Romanticism favors a harmonic language from the late Romantic era
o Precursors to the movement include Samuel Barber, Ned Rorem
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o
John Corigliano (b. 1938) follows in this tradition
 Composes in a wide variety of genres including film music (The Red Violin, 1999)
8. Libby Larsen (b. 1950) and the Musical Voice of Women
o One of very few composers making a living with music alone (not an academic
position)
o Born in Delaware and raised in Minneapolis
 Co-founded the Minnesota Composers' Forum
 Now the American Composers' Forum
 Key group in a time of limited support for the arts in the U. S.
o Has held some very diverse composer-in-residence positions
o Inspired largely by nature and writings of women
9. Larsen: Sonnets from the Portuguese, Nos. 5 and 6 (Listening Guide 100)
o Worked closely with singer Arleen Auger in composing this 6-song cycle
 Auger premiered the work and the recording won a Grammy in 1994
o Set to poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning
 Love poems secretly written during the courtship with Robert Browning
o Larsen describes the songs as "metaphor[s] of resolved and unresolved harmonies"
o No. 5 "Oh, yes!" features:
 Disjunct lines
 Quick exchanges between solo voice and woodwinds
 Alternation of speechlike quality with lyrical lines
 Dissonance and chromaticism with reference to Musselmans and Giaours
o No. 6 "How do I love thee?" features:
 Free-flowing, arched lines according to the text
 Expressive use of instruments
 Subtle text-painting
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The Twentieth Century (1900-2000)
o The Era
 Technological explosion, scientific advances, two World Wars, the nuclear
bomb, mass availability (inevitability) of music in everyday life.
o Major Composers:
 John Philip Sousa (American,1854-1932)
 Claude Debussy (French, 1862-1918)
 Ralph Vaughan Williams (English 1872-1958)
 Maurice Ravel (French, 1875-1937)
 Charles Ives (American, 1874-1954)
 Sergei Rachmaninoff (Russian, 1873-1943)
 Arnold Schoenberg (Austrian, 1874-1951)
 Bela Bartok (Hungarian, 1881-1945)
 Igor Stravinsky (Russian, 1882-1971)
 Edgar Varese (French 1883-1965)
 Anton Webern (Austrian, 1883-1945)
 Alban Berg (Austrian)1885-1935)
 Sergei Prokofiev (Russian,1891-1953)
 Aaron Copland (American, 1900-1990)
 Dmitri Shostakovich (Russian, 1906-1975)
 Elliott Carter (American 1908-)
 Oliver Messiaen (French, 1908-1992)
 John Cage (American, 1912-1992
 Benjamin Britten (English, 1931-1976)
 Leonard Bernstein (American, 1918-1990)
 Karlheinz Stockhausen (German, 1928-)
 George Crumb (American, 1929-)
 Krzysztof Penderecki (Polish, 1933-)
 Steve Reich (American, 1936-)
 Philip Glass (American, 1937-)
o Style:
 Form Continued use of most older principles of form.
 Melody Extreme range, wide leaps, disjunct motion, asymmetry.
 Tone Color Exploitation of extremes in texture and timbre, exploration of
electronic and synthesized sounds.
 Harmony Emancipation of dissonance. Unresolved, or new resolutions of
dissonance, atonality, polytonality, pantonality, clusters, stacked chords,
quartal harmony.
 Rhythm Extremes of tempo, changing meter, cross-rhythms, polyrhythms,
irregular accents
o Genres
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Impressionism - term borrowed from painting. “Objective.” Whole tone
scales, parallel chord movement, unresolved dissonance, especially seventh
and ninth chords. “Shimmering, floating quality.”
 Expressionism - extremely subjective approach of Schoenberg, Berg and
Webern. “Art should express the inner consciousness of its creator rather
than external reality,” thus, extremes, distortion, exaggeration.
 Primitivism - the deliberate evocation of primitive power through insistent
rhythms and percussive sounds, as in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
 Neoclassicism - emotional restraint, balance and clarity, a return to forms
and stylistic features of the 18th century.
 Nationalism - late Romantic trend, deliberate use of folk music and themes
to give music a distinct national flavor.
 Avant-garde - on the leading edge of a change in style.
o Vocabulary
 aleatory - chance music; element of composition left to the performer
 atonality - absence of key or tonal center
 bitonality - two clearly established tonalities occuring simultaneously
 glissando
 serial music
 microtone
 minimalism
 Moog synthesizer
 musique concrete (Fr.)
 ostinato
 pentatonic
 polychord
 polyrhythm
 polytonality
 retrograde
 quartal harmony
 Sprechstimme (Ger.)
 tone cluster
 whole tone scale
Time Band I REPRESENTATIVE WORKS (in-depth study):
o African Sanctus
o The Rake's Progress
o Petroushka
o The Rite of Spring
o The Firebird
o Wozzack
o A Survivor from Warsaw
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Different Trains
Music for 18 Musicians
Concerto for Orchestra
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Ancient Voices of Children
Pierrot lunaire
Poeme Electronique
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