Download The Baroque Era 1600

~ Early 20th Century ~
Serialism,
The Twelve-Tone Method
and composers
Serialism
• Serialism – a compositional technique that uses sets to
describe musical elements (ex. dynamics, pitches, duration)
and allows for the manipulation of those sets.
• Began with the 12-tone technique which treats the 12 notes
of the chromatic scale equally. The music avoids being in a
specific key.
• The basis of the 12-tone technique is the tone row, an
ordered arrangement of the twelve notes of the chromatic.
The tone row chosen for the basis of the piece is called the
PRIME ORDER/SERIES.
• Total serialism is VERY controlled.
• Reactions to this TOTAL control was movements toward
minimalism and indeterminancy.
To write a 12-tone row:
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Using all the notes in a chromatic scale, pick an
“order” to play them. Ex. A, C#, E, G#, F, A#, C, D,
F#, D#, B, G. This is your prime series
To complete your composition you’ll need to create
the other rows –
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Retrograde – the prime series in reverse.
Inversion – the intervals of the prime series inverted. (ex. If
there is an ascending minor third, it becomes a descending
major third.)
retrograde inversion – the inversion in reverse order.
Arnold Schöenberg
1874 - 1951
• Viennese
composer (Austrian-born)
composer who took the styles of late
Romanticism toward total abandonment of
the tonal and harmonic conventions,
opening up an important new dimension.
•Schöenberg, a violinist, conductor,
theorist and teacher, is best known as an
innovator of the twelve-tone technique
• His technique moved composers away
from Romanticism.
• Life long fasicination with numerology
and a deeply rooted fear of the number 13
Pierrot Lunaire,
Op. 21 – No. 8 (Nacht) &
No. 13 (Enthauptung)
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Enthauptung is German for
Decapitation
Nacht is German for night
A setting of 21 poems by the French
poet Albert Girard, in German
translations for Sprechstimme and
five instrumentalists.
Sprechstimme – speaking voice –
is a type of delivery somewhere
between speech and song. It is an
eerie sound that reflects the world
of madness depicted in Girard’s
poety.
Alban Berg
1885 - 1935
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Austrian Composer
Studied composition with
Schöenberg with very little
previous formal music
education
Wrote music in Schöenberg’s
style, however, he applied a
freer, more lyrical and
expressive approach.
Used twelve-tone technique to
create expressionist operas
Wozzeck (based on Büchner’s Play)
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Wozzeck is a labourer who earns
extra money for his family by
allowing himself to be used for
experimental testing.
He makes sacrifices for his
family, then finds out that his
fiancée is sleeping with a military
officer. He loses it…
The music does not establish a
key, yet Berg is able to utilize
many musical techniques to
create unity overall – leitmotifs for
example.
Anton Webern
1883 - 1945
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Austrian composer, musicologist and
conductor
Studied composition with Schöenberg
Applied serial technique to rhythmic as
well as melodic material creating highlyorganized music.
Utilized the 12-tone technique and used
it to the extreme.
Even though he made use of the serial
techniques, Webern kept close ties with
tradition methods composing German
Lieder and arranging many other
classical pieces.
Symphonie, Op. 21 (1928)
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Webern used strict polyphonic methods and
the 12-tone system to create this piece.
The piece has 2 movements that use a specific
tone row:
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Ruhig, schreitend - The first movement has three
very clear sections played as a canon.
Variationen - The second uses a variation technique