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Chapter 24—The Changing World of Music Since 1945
Heirs to the Classical Tradition
Tonal Traditionalism
Serial and Non-Serial Complexity
New Sounds and Textures
Music of Texture and Process
The Avant-Garde
Minimalism and Post-Minimalism
Interactions with Non-Western Music
The New Accessibility and Other Trends
Quotation, Collage, and Polystylism
Neo-Romanticism
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Heirs to the Classical Tradition
1. Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
a. French composer, organist and ornithologist
b. Devote Roman Catholic, which informs his music
c. Study of birdsong also influenced his music
d. Attended the Paris Conservatoire
e. Studied with Paul Dukas and Marcel Dupre
f. Taught Pierre Boulez
g. Prisoner of War of the Nazis during WWII
h. Important works
i. Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) (1940)
a. Written while incarcerated and scored for piano, violin,
cello and clarinet, the instruments played by his fellow
prisoners
b. Not about the Apocalypse or his incarceration, but derived
from the Book of Revelations, Chapter 10
c. Eight movements
1. Liturgy of Crystal
2. Vocalise for Angel who announces the end of time
3. Abyss of the birds (clarinet solo)
4. Interlude (Scherzo)
5. Praise to the Eternity of Jesus
6. Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets
7. A mingling of rainbows for the Angel who
announces the end of time
8. Praise to the Immortality of Jesus
ii. L’Ascension Symphony (1932-33)
iii. Turangalîla-Symphonie (1948)
a. scored for piano solo, ondes Martenot and orchestra of
triple winds, 4 horns, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, large
percussion section and strings
b. ten movements
c. commissioned by Serge Koussevitsky, premiere conducted
by Bernstein
2. Futurama character Taranga Lila derived from Sanskrit, derived from this
symphony’s title
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3. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
a. One of the most important 20th century British composers
b. Life-time partnership with tenor Peter Pears, for whom Britten wrote
many musical works and operatic roles
c. Important works
i. War Requiem—based on Requiem Mass plus the anti-war poetry
of Wilfred Owen, and English soldier who was killed in France
during World War I. The work reflects Britten’s pacifism.
ii. The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (a didactic work
written for the BBC)
iii. Albert Herring (opera)
iv. Peter Grimes (opera)—the work tells the story of an individual
who is persecuted by the “mob”, and can be understood as an
allegory for the condition of homosexuals in a hostile society. The
finale of Act III is an extraordinary application of bitonality
v. The Turn of the Screw (opera—based on a novel by Henry James)
vi. Billy Budd (opera)
Tonal Traditionalism
1. Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
a. Although Barber did employ some modernist techniques, he was fully
committed to tonality
b. Most famous work is his Adagio for Strings, which is actually the slow
movement of his string quartet. Arturo Toscanini heard it and asked
Barber to score it for full string orchestra
c. Barber suffered from depression. The failure of his opera Antony and
Cleopatra cause him to become withdrawn.
d. Other major works include three Essays for Orchestra, a Violin Concerto,
Piano Concerto and Cello Concerto, Hermit Songs, etc.
2. Alberto Ginastera (see chapter 23)
3. Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
a. Tippett was open to both Western and Non-Western styles, incorporating
(for example) Javanese gamelan musical influences in his Piano Concerto
and Triple Concerto
b. Tippett’s opera The Midsummer Marriage is based directly on Mozart’s
opera The Magic Flute, but in also contains Jungian influences.
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Serial and Non-Serial Complexity
1. Politics and institutional support
a. Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music
i. Darmstadt was the first German city to force Jews to close their
shops, as early as 1933. Because Darmstadt was central to the Nazi
regime, it was heavily bombed, resulting in an extraordinary
building campaign after the war
ii. Darmstadt is important as a technology center. It also has a large
jazz archive.
iii. The International Summer Course was a Post-WWII music festival
in Germany. It was funded by the new German Government with
secret assistance of US occupying forces. Almost every major
modernist discussed in this chapter (Boulez, Babbitt, Xenakis,
Ligeti, Messiaen, Stockhausen) and others have taught there.
b. University composers in the United States
i. Universities became havens for modernist, serial, electronic and
other experimental musical styles in the mid-century.
2. The listener—new difficulties in perceiving themes. Rhythmical pulse,
progression, logical structure, etc.
3. The performer—new virtuosity required
4. Pierre Boulez (1925- )
a. Studied mathematics at Lyon
b. Pursued music at the Paris Conservatory where he studied with Olivier
Messiaen and Rene Leibowitz
c. Admired and then attempted to depose Schoenberg, Webern, and
Messiaen
d. First pursued teaching, then pursued a dual career as a composer and
conductor
i. First conducting post in Baden-Baden, beginning in 1958
ii. Music Director of the New York Philharmonic (1971-75)
iii. Principal Guest Conductor Chicago Symphony (1971-77)
iv. Has conducted at Bayreuth
e. Taught at Darmstadt, Basel University, Harvard and College de France
f. Developed integral Serialism
g. Important works:
i. Structures I
ii. Le marteau sans maître
h. Founded IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique
Musique) and the Ensemble InterComtemporain
5. Luciano Berio (1925-2003)
a. Studied at Milan
b. Married to Kathy Berberian (there were two subsequent marriages)
c. Studied with Luigi Dallapiccola, later studied at Darmstadt where he met
Boulez, Stockhausen and Ligeti
d. Founded and electronic studio in Milan with Bruno Maderna
e. Taught at Tanglewood and Juilliard, resident composer at Harvard
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f. He was the teacher of Steve Reich and a director of IRCAM
g. Important works:
i. Sinfonia (for orchestra and amplified voices; the finale quotes
Mahler’s Symphony No.2, La Mer, La valse, and brief snatches of
quotations from Schoenberg and Webern)
ii. Made a new completion of Puccini’s Turandot
iii. Sequenza, in a series numbered I-XIV
iv. Un re in ascolta—opera
New Sounds and Textures
1. New Instruments, Sounds and Scales
a. Harry Partch (1901-1974)
i. Repudiated tempered scale
ii. Invented a 43-tone scale based on just intonation
iii. Music was inspired by a variety of sources, including Jewish,
Native American, Christian, African, rural American music.
iv. He built new instruments that were capable of reproducing these
scales
v. Important works include: Oedipus—A Music-Dance Drama, The
Bacchae.
b. George Crumb (1929- )
i. Studied at the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan
ii. Influenced by Webern
iii. Uses electronically amplified instruments and other unusual
techniques, e.g., speaking and blowing into a flute simultaneously,
or glass marble poured onto a timpani head.
iv. Uses idiosyncratic notation schemes
v. Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for “Echoes of Time and the River_
vi. Other important works
a. Ancient Voices of Children—settings of four texts by
Federico Garcia Lorca, with two interludes. Scored for toy
piano, musical saw, harmonica, mandolin, Tibetan prayer
stones, and electric piano
b. Black Angels—(1970) for electric string quartet using
unconventional playing techniques, e.g., striking strings
near peg box with bow, bowing between fingers and peg
box, etc. The work quotes the Dies irae and Death and the
Maiden by Schubert.
2. Non-Western Styles and Instruments
a. Colin McPhee (1900-1964)
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3. Electronic Music
a. Musique concrète
i. Editing together of natural and electronically produced sounds
ii. Pierre Schaeffer (French radio broadcaster) created early pieces
iii. Later developed by Edgar Varese
iv. Technique taken up by Beatles (Revolution 9), Pink Floyd (Bike)
and Frank Zappa (Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny)
b. Theremin
i. Invented in 1919 by Russian inventor Leon Theremin
ii. Imitated the human voice
iii. Requires no physical contact with instrument
iv. Uses circuits and antennas
v. Can be heard on Star Trek and even the Simsons and Futurama (on
which the character Taranga Lila appears)
c. Ondes Martenot (French for “waves”)
i. Invented 1928. It can be played in two ways, described in notation
as au clavier and ruban. #1—played on a keyboard, a five-octave
span similar to that of a piano, with the additional ability of broad
vibratos and quarter-tones. #2—the player wears a metal ring on
the right forefinger, controlling a ribbon across a condenser to
produce the desired pitch, using the keyboard as a visual guide to
achieve portamento and glissando effects.
ii. In classical music, used by Messiaen, Honneger (Jeanne d’Arc)
and Koechlin, Varèse
iii. In film, used in Ghostbusters, Lawrence of Arabia, and Amélie
iv. Popular groups—Radiohead
d. Electronic music studios
e. Karlheinz Stockhausen
f. Edgard Varèse (1883-1965)
i. Considered the Father of Electronic Music
ii. Studied with d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum and later at the Paris
Conservatory
iii. Moved to Berlin where he met Strauss and Busoni
iv. Emigrated to New York City in 1915
v. Important works:
v. Amériques (1921)
vi. Hyperprism, Octandre (1923)
vii. Integrales (1925)
viii. Ionisation (1931)—written during Varèse’s long return to Paris
ix. Density 21.5 (1936)—followed by a hiatus of nearly 20 years
x. Dèserts (1954)—for wind, percussion and tape
xi. Poéme electronique (1957-8)
g. Synthesizers
i. Mark II Electronic Music Synthesizer
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ii. Robert Moog and Donald Buchla. Morton Sobotnik composed
Silver Apples for the Moon in 1967 for the Buchla synthesizer.
h. Milton Babbitt (1916- )
i. Pioneer in serial and electronic music
ii. Studied violin, clarinet and saxophone
iii. Father was a mathematician
iv. Studied with Roger Sessions
v. Teacher of Charles Wuorinen
vi. Famous article in High Fidelity “Who Cares if You Listen?” made
him notorious—title changed without his consent
vii. Developed the all-combinatorial row
viii. Important works include Composition for Twelve Instruments
Music of Texture and Process
1. Iannis Xenakis
2. György Ligeti (1923- )
i. Jewish-Hungarian composer
ii. Put into forced labor by the Nazis, his parents were sent to
Auschwitz
iii. After the war, studied with Zoltan Kodaly (the associate of Bartok)
iv. Ligeti’s life and work was affected by the Communist Regime of
Hungary; he left Hungary to work in Colonne with Stockhausen
v. Atmosphéres and Lux Aeterna were used by Stanley Kubrick in
2001:A Space Odyssey
vi. He coined the term “micropolyphony” to describe his music. The
term describes the gradual flow of harmonic and melodic materials
so that chords changes gradually and new chords emerge slowly
out of a blurred sound image.
vii. After about 1970, Ligeti changed to a more melodic and rhythmic
style
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Style Trends
1. Modernist—composers who seek to place their music along side the great
masterworks
2. Experimentalist—composers who try new methods for their own sake
3. Avant-garde—iconoclasts
The Avant-Garde
1. John Cage (1912-1992)
a. American experimental composer who applied Buddhist philosophy to
music. Schoenberg, with whom Cage studied, described Cage as being
“not a composer, but an inventor- of genius.”
b. Pioneered:
i. Prepared piano and other non-standard uses of instruments
ii. Indeterminacy
iii. Aleatoric music
c. Quote: “The strings, the winds, the brass know more about music than
they do about sound. To study noise they must go to the school of
percussion. There they will discover silence, a way to change one's mind;
and aspects of time that have not yet been put into practice. European
musical history began the study (of the iso-rhythmic motet) but it was put
aside by the theory of harmony… The spirit of percussion opens
everything, even what was, so to speak, completely closed.”
d. Important works:
i. Music of Changes
ii. Imaginary Landscape (series of works under this title)
iii. Variations III
2. Earle Brown
3. Digital Technologies
a. Sampling
b. Computer music
4. Minimalism and Post-Minimalism—From Avant-Garde to Widespread Appeal
a. General—in the visual arts and music, minimalism is a movement which
stripped down art to its most fundamental features. Aesthetically, it is
rooted in modernism (1890-1910) and can be seen as a reaction to
Expressionism
i. Repetition or short musical phrases, figures, motifs and cells, with
small variations over time
ii. Drones
iii. Stasis (lack of dynamic direction in the music)
iv. Consonant harmony, but not necessarily functional tonality. In
fact, Minimalist music often eschews the functionality of chords in
favor of their color
v. Steady pulse
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vi. Just as Debussy rejected “Impressionism” as a term which could
appropriately describe his music, Philip Glass has rejected the label
“Minimalist” to describe his music (“That term should be stamped
out” according to Glass)
vii. Minimalism has an affinity to electronic music and Pop music
b. Steven Reich
i. born 1936 in New York City
ii. Studied philosophy at Cornell, later music at Juilliard
iii. Later studied with William Bergsma, Vincent Persichetti, and
Luciano Berio
iv. On being a Minimalist, Reich said, if you dug up Debussy and
asked him: “'Excusez-moi Monsieur…are you an impressionist?'
he'd probably say 'Merde!' and go back to sleep. That is a
legitimate concern of musicologists, music historians, and
journalists, and it's a convenient way of referring to
me…Basically, those kind of words are taken from painting and
sculpture, and applied to musicians who composed at the same
period as that painting and sculpture was made.”
v. Phase shifting—A technique developed by Reich, in which one
instrumentalist maintains a steady tempo, while the other gradually
moves ahead of the first until it becomes “out of phase”, and then
gradually returns “into phase.” Reich began doing this with
recordings of both parts, but in Piano Phase and Violin Phase
(1967), the instrumentalist records the piece, and then plays against
him/herself.
vi. Other compositions:
a. Tehillim—composed in 1981, the title Tehillim comes from
the Hebrew word for “psalms”. It is the first work by
Reich which reflects his Jewish heritage. It is scored for 4
women’s voices, piccolo, flute, oboe, English horn, 2
clarinets, 6 percussionists, 2 electric organs, 2 violins,
viola, cello and bass. The winds and strings are amplified.
While there is steady pulse in the piece, there is no metre.
The composition follows the rhythm of the Hebrew text
and has a clear tonal center.
b. Different Trains—Grammy award winning work for tape
and string quartet. The work uses recorded speech of
people talking about different kinds of trains, including
Holocaust survivors who talk about the use of trains during
WWII. The recorded speeches were transferred to a digital
sampling board and used as the source of the melodies.
c. Desert Music—a large scale work for voices and orchestra
based on texts by William Carlos Williams (an American
poet often associated with modernism)
c. Philip Glass (1937- )
i. born in Maryland of Lithuanian Jewish parents
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ii. Studied at Peabody Conservatory, University of Chicago, and
Juilliard. His teachers include Vincent Persichetti and William
Bergsma (the same as Reich). Later, he studied with Darius
Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger. Glass became a Buddhist in 1972.
iii. Considered the composer, after Leonard Bernstein, to have brought
serious art music to the general public.
iv. His collaborators include David Bowie, Robert Wilson (director
and lighting designer), Ravi Shankar (Indian sitar player), and
Allen Ginsberg (“beat” poet)
v. Important works:
a. An opera trilogy:
1. Einstein on the Beach—the opera has a plotless
libretto which consists of solfege syllables,
numbers, poetry on the theory of relativity, nuclear
weapons, and science.
2. Sathyagraha—loosely based on the life of
Mohandas K. Gandhi. The libretto, in Sanskrit,
usually performed with super-titles, talks about nonviolent resistance to injustice. Each act refers to a
major related cultural figure: Leo Tolstoy,
Rabindranath Tagore and Martin Luther King, Jr.
3. Akhenaton—the opera is about the tragedy of
Akhenaton, who’s life and religious convictions led
to his downfall. Akhenaton conceived an early
form of monotheism. Texts for the opera come
from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and Biblical
Hebrew. Glass conceived of Einstein, Gandhi and
Akhenaten as being driven by an inner vision
(science, politics and religion respectively).
b. A second opera trilogy of three operas were inspired by
films of Jean Cocteau includes Orphée, La Belle et la Bête
and Les Enfants Terrible
c. Important film scores
1. Kundun—about the Dalai Lama, directed by Martin
Scorsese, 1997
2. The Truman Show—directed by Peter Weir and
starring Jim Carrey, 1998
3. The Hours—directed by Stephen Daldry and
starring Nicole Kidman, 2002
4. The Fog of War—documentary about Robert
McNamara and the Vietnam War, 2003
5. The Secret Window—directed by David Koepp,
written by Stephen King and starring Johnny Depp,
2004
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d. John (Coolidge) Adams (1947- )
i. Studied at Harvard University
ii. Taught and conducted at San Francisco Conservatory
iii. Became Music Advisor to the San Francisco Symphony
iv. Important works:
1. Nixon in China—opera, 1987
a. Directed by Peter Sellars
b. Choreography by Mark Morris
c. Excerpt “The Chairman Dances” has become a
popular concert piece
2. The Death of Klinghoffer—based on the murder of Leon
Klinghoffer by Palestinian terrorists on board a
Mediterranean cruise ship the Achille Lauro. The work
stirred controversy in much the same way as did Stephen
Spielberg’s film Munich, in that it seemed to provoke
sympathy for some of the terrorists. In fact, the work
condemns terrorism. The work is indebted to as diverse
pieces as Pierrot Lunaire and Bach’s sacred oratorios.
3. Grand Pianola Music (1982)
4. Shaker Loops (1983)
5. Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986)
6. Century Rolls (1996)
7. Lollapalooza (1995)
1. According to Adams: “Lollapalooza mean
something outlandish and not duly refined. H.L.
Mencken suggests it may have originally mean a
knockout punch. I was attracted to it because of its
internal rhythm: da-da-da-DAAH-da. Hence, in my
piece, the word is spelled out in the trombones and
tubas, C-C-C-Eb-C…as a kind of idée fixe.
8. Slonimsky’s Earbox (1996)—modeled after Stravinsky’s Le
Chant du Rosignol. Slonimsky wrote The Thesaurus of
Scales and Melodic Patterns. The piece memorializes
Slonimsky’s wit and energy as well as his
accomplishments.
9. Dr. Atomic—opera based on a libretto by Peter Sellars
Interactions with Non-Western Music
1. Bright Sheng
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The New Accessibility and Other Trends
1. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
a. Born 1939
b. Post-modernist, neo-romantic composer
c. First woman composer to win the Pulitzer Prize
d. Several Grammy nominations
e. Teaches at Florida State University
f. Her works have been performed by most of the major orchestras in the
USA, and many orchestras internationally
g. Important works
i. Symphony No. 1 (1982),
a. won the Pulitzer Prize
b. in three movements
ii. Bassoon Concerto (1993)
a. Cast in two movements
b. Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony
iii. Celebration Overture (1984)
iv. Other concertos for: Clarinet, Bass trombone, Flute, Horn, Oboe,
Piano, Trombone, Violin, Violin and Cello
v. Peanuts Gallery--written because of frequent references to her
music by Lucy in the comic strip
2. Arvo Pärt
Quotation, Collage, and Polystylism
1. Alfred Schnittke
2. John Corigliano (1938- )
a. Studied with Paul Creston and Vittorio Giannini (two composers who
were coincidentally featured on this year’s all-state band concert)
b. Won the Grawemeyer Award in 1991.
c. Important works:
i. Symphony No. 1—Corigliano’s “Aids”Symphony
a. Movement 1—Apologue: Of Rage and Remembrance
b. Tarantella
c. Chaconne
d. Epilogue
e. Borrows Albéniz’s Tango and own works
f. Uses spatial music—brass surrounds orchestra in finale
ii. The Ghost of Versailles (opera)
a. Based on “La Mère Coupable” by Beaumarchais
b. Main characters are Marie Antionette and Beaumarchais
iii. The Red Violin
a. Film score written in 1998
b. Received the Academy Award
c. Later developed into several concert works
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iv. Altered States
a. Film starred William Hurt and Drew Barrymore
b. For work, Corigliano developed “event” notation system
3. Peter Schickele and “P.D.Q. Bach (1935- )
i. Serious works include 5 string quartets
ii. As P. D. Q. Bach written numerous humorous works, for example:
a. “Howdy” Symphony (parodying Haydn)
b. Oratorio The Seasonings
c. Cantata Iphigenia in Brooklyn
d. Opera The Abduction of Figaro
4. Henryk Górecki (1933- )
a.
Studied with Szymanowski
b.
Most popular work is 3rd Symphony (1976)
a. For soprano and orchestra
b. texts from 15th century lament, words written by a teenaged
girl on her cell wall when she was a Gestapo prisoner, and a
folk song
5. Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)
a. Considered the most important Polish composer after Chopin
b. Important works
1. four symphonies
2. Concerto for Orchestra (comparable to Bartok’s work b the
same title)
3. Little Suite
c. Winner of 1st Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition
1. The Grawemeyer is the largest cash award for serious
composers. The award is now for $200,000.
2. It was endowed in 1985. While it is awarded for a single
work, it is considered a lifetime achievement award
3. Other winner of the Grawemeyer have been:
a. Ligeti (1986, Etudes for piano)
b. Joan Tower (1990, Silver Ladders)
c. John Corigliano (Symphony No.1)
d. John Adams (1995, Violin Concerto)
e. Tan Dun (1998, Marco Polo)
f. Pierre Boulez (2001, Sur incises)
Neo-Romanticism
1. Kristof Penderecki (1933- )
a. Influenced by Webern, Boulez, and Stravinsky
b. Important works:
i. Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima
ii. St. Luke Passion
iii. The Devils of Loudun (opera)
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iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
Paradise Lost (opera)
Eight symphonies
Two violin concerti
Polymorphia and De Natura Sonoris (both used in Stanley
Kubrick’s The Shining)
2. George Rochberg
a. Used romantic and modernist styles to great expressive effect
b. String Quartet (1978)
c. Imago Mundi (orchestral work)
3. David Del Tredici
a. Initially used atonal and serial methods
b. Later became a Neo-Romantic
c. Cycle of “Alice” works including Final Alice
i. Scored for amplified soprano and orchestra
ii. Uses standard orchestra, plus banjo, mandolin, accordion. Soprano
saxophones
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