The Renaissance 1450 1600 AD The Baroque Period
The Renaissance 1450 -1600 AD The Baroque Period 1600 -1750 AD The Classical Period 1750 -1825 AD The Romantic Era 1825 -1900 AD The Age of Modernism 1900 -the Present
Musical Arts Movements in Modernism 1870’s to the Present
German Expressionism in Music Expressionism 1. 2. 3. Expressionism was German response to Impressionism. Explores the worlds of the subconscious, hallucinations, and dreams Composers: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern Musical characteristics: a. Expressive harmony b. Extreme ranges German Expressionist painter, c. Disjunct melodies Max Beckmann, 1919 Listen to the excerpt of Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=QJJ 8 Jfv. AEKY
20 th Century Neo-classicism in Music • Neoclassicism – Revival of balance and objectivity in the arts – A revival of formal structures of the past such as the symphony, concerto, sonata, chamber music, toccata, passacaglia, chaconne, etc. – Began in the early 1920 s – Composers preferred this “absolute music” to Romantic program music – they were (once again!) exploring the classical virtues of order, discipline, balance, and proportion. • The New Rhythmic Complexity – Revitalization of rhythm – Polyrhythm, polymeter, changing meter, irregular meters • The New Melody – Becomes instrumental, not vocal, in character • Abounds in wide leaps and dissonant intervals
New Tonalities & Harmonies • The New Harmony – Beyond traditional systems of tonality – Polychords, polyharmony – New Conceptions of Tonality • The major-minor system was no longer dominant – 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 Listen to the 5 th movement of Bela Bartok’s Neoclassical Concerto for Orchestra: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=d. IYUNOBPXL 4
Listen to Arnold Schonberg’s twelve-tone Suite for Piano, Opus 25. https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=19 Vx. HGpz. JBo New Tonalities & Harmonies • The New Harmony (cont’d) – 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 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)
The Musical Arts Post-Romanticism Post Romanticism or Late Romanticism is Romanticism on steroids. Works are lengthier, more complex (especially the symphonies), and more pretentious. Music explored subjects of even greater mysticism, religious fervor, morbidity, and the grotesque. Nationalism was a high value for Post Romantics. They were extremely interested in incorporating in their compositions music of their own cultural backgrounds as well as indigenous music of other people groups. Composers Max Reger Gustav Mahler Anton Bruckner Ferruccio Busoni “Symphony #4 in Eb Major, 3 rd (Scherzo) movement ” by Anton Bruckner https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=NG 87 KEr. D 0 e 8
Impressionism The Musical Arts As in painting, Impressionism in music was pioneered and championed by French artists. They were especially reacting against the dominance of German Romanticism with its chromaticism and bigger-than-life musical forms and melodramatic operas and tone poems. Impressionist composers explored the variety of musical “color” possible in the orchestra, striving for a “shimmering” interplay between instruments. They also eschewed the traditional means of musical momentum via harmonic chord progressions. Instead, they employed parallelism – chord progressions built on successive scale tones rather than on traditional common practice – often built on whole tone scales which further obscured a strong feeling of key. Composers Claude Debussy Maurice Ravel “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” by Claude Debussy A very creative performance of this work by the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra. https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=782 Gp. Sv 9 p. TM
Serialism (atonal) The Musical Arts Serialism refers generally to the serial ordering of any musical elements – pitch, rhythm, dynamics, etc. – as a means of providing compositional unity and structure. Serialism most often, though, is understood as music composed around the 12 -tones of the chromatic scale in which no note is repeated until all the notes have sounded. There must also not be any hint of key tonality so intervals that might suggest traditional triadic harmony are avoided. Composers Arnold Schónberg Anton Webern Alban Berg Karlheinz Stockhausen Pierre Boulez Luigi Non Milton Babbitt Charles Wuorinen Jean Barraqué “Pierrot Lunaire” by Arnold Schonberg
Neo-Classicism The Musical Arts Neo-classical composers looked back to principles (not the style per se) of the Classical Period. Order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint were the organizing principles of the Neo-Classicists. It was a reaction to the sentimentalism of the Romantic Period an alternative to the somewhat chaotic avant garde experimentation of the first quarter of the 20 th century. Neo-Classical compositions were for smaller orchestras or small ensembles such as string quartets. Music was not to function as metaphor or as representing specific meanings, emotions, etc. as in Romantic program music and Romanticism in general. Composers Ernest Bloch Sergei Prokofieff Maurice Ravel Michael Tippett Arthur Berger Paul Hindemith Francis Poulenc Arthur Honegger Darius Milhaud “Suite française” (1935) by Francis Poulenc https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v= FCK 9 H 3 zjk 8 k
The Musical Arts Minimalism Timbre and rhythm figure more prominently in music than does form and development. The music is simple, unadorned, accessible. Much Minimalist music seems hypnotic, using short melodic phrases that are repeated over and over with very small changes occurring in time that gradually provide variety and momentum. Composers Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki John Tavener Philip Glass Steve Reich “Cantate Domino canticum novum” (O sing to the Lord a new song) by Arvo Pärt https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v= FCK 9 H 3 zjk 8 k
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