1. Music
Monica Yuk
Saul Park
Viv Le
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2. Before Music
 Move away from Late Romantic Music (1860-1920)
 Late romantic music focused on emotion and drama that emphasized natural
inspiration such as feelings.
 Movement dispersed into series of different music movements (“isms”)
 Impressionism
 Captures feelings or experience vaguely and mysteriously without attempt of
achieving an accurate depiction.
 Expressionism
 Atonal and dissonant in style. Focused on portraying emotions and drama.
 Neo-classism
 Incorporated the return Classical Era with clear and structured forms and
textures.
 Nationalism, Jazz, Electronic, Chance music, etc.
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3. 20th Century Classical Music
 The search for new and different modes of expression
 Extremely varied in style, technique, genres, and even
movements.
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4. Characteristics
 No generalized set of characteristics that can describe 20th
century classical music
 Atonal in which notes are not related to each other or the mode
or key
 Incorporation of long pauses
 Different instrument use
 Experimentation with different types of sounds
 Incorporated many forms such as jazz, ragtime, neoprimitivism,
etc.
 More, more, more!!
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5. Charles Ives (1874-1954)
 “My God! What does sound
have to do with music?” –
Charles Ives
 “Don’t pay too much
attention to the sounds – for
if you do, you may miss the
music.” – George Ives
(Father)
 Founding father of American
Music and a pioneer of
modernism
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6. Charles Ives: Background
 Learned from his unorthodox
father, the town’s band
master
 Educated at Yale
 Childhood influences: chapel
hymns, traditional American
tunes, town band banalities,
etc.
 Known as modernist,
nationalist, amateur,
primitive, neurotic, and
paradoxical.

7. The Fourth Symphony
 Prelude: Maestoso
 Majestic, triumphic
 Comedy: Allegretto
 Fast
 Fugue: Andante moderato con
moto
 Slightly fast with motion
 Finale: Largo maestoso
 Broadly slow and majestic
 http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE40FBF1F469EF6B&feature=plc
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8. The Fourth Symphony
 “…One of the greatest
symphonies ever penned. It is
the great American symphony
that our critics and conductors
have cried out for, and yet the
symphony has remained
unperformed...” – Composer
Bernard Hermann
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9. The Fourth Symphony - influence
 Unprecedented spatial
effects: space has become
part of the music’s
meaning and drama
 Surrounding the main
orchestra was distant choirs
of instrumental groups and
voices
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10. Universe Symphony
 Part 1, Past: Formation
of the waters and
mountains
 Part 2, Present: Earth,
evolution in nature and
humanity
 Part 3, Future: Heaven,
the rise of all to the
Spiritual
 Was never finished
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GegWx6L0AfI
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11. Universe Symphony
 Unique structure of a
rhythmic grid defined
purely by percussion
 Different use of
instruments
 Layering effects
 Polyrythmic
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12. The Unanswered Question
 Layering effects
 Instrument use (windpipes
and trumpets)
 Use of dissonance
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbArUJBRRJ0
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13. Claude Debussy: Background
 Student at the Paris
Conservatoire
 Won the Prix de Rome
 Had a complicated love life
 Wife attempted suicide
 Mistresses involved
 Fetes Galantes
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14. Influences
 Impressionist
 Inspired by the art of painting
but disliked the term
impressionist
 His nocturnes were based off
Whistler’s paintings
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyZJ3rNb4xM
 Literary Influence
 Mallarme, Baudelaire,
Verlaine, and Maeterlinck
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15. Jeux
 Written for Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LviYYTK6Apw
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16. His Influence
 Unresolved dissonance
 Unrelated chords
 Old church modes
 Unprecedented linguistic plurality of styles and expression

17. Arnold Schoenberg: Background
 -Born Austrian, moved to
United States in 1932
 -Changed name to
Schoenberg from German
spelling to conform with
“American culture”
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18. Arnold Schoenberg: Background
 -Was born and raised
Jewish
 -Rise of Nazi's in Austria
(puppet of Germany)
 -Described as “degenerate
art”
 -Forced Schoenberg to
move to United States

19. Early Works
 -Early works were Orchestral/Operettas
 -Operettas- “light in both music and material”
 -Self taught Composer

20. Verklärte Nacht (1899)
 -Translated as “Transfigured Night”
 -String Sextet (6)
 -1899
 -Romantic style, very smooth
 -Other composers recognized his early works, for example,
Strauss
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEhzSLTrceI 3:05

21. Strauss and Mahler
 -Both influenced
Schoenberg
 -”Spoke of Mahler as a
saint”
 -Both these artists
dismissed Schoenberg
 -Basically unrecognized
Schoenberg :(

22. The Wife
 -Married Mathilde Zemlinsky
 -Sister of composer Alexander Zemlinsky, who Schoenberg liked
 -Summer of 1908, she left Schoenberg for another guy :(
 -In this Schoenberg reformed his style
 -Arnold Schoenberg, Das Buch der Hängende Gärten, Op. 15 (1908)
 -First piece without any “key”
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rGUov3Adlk 14:40
 -String Quartet No. 2 (1908)- end on tonic chords, but not fully tonal
piece

23. Twelve-Tone
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pdJRPuoT8g

24. Twelve-Tone
 -Rule: Create! (Using all 12 notes)
 -Rule 2: A note cannot be repeated in a “set”
 -Prime, Inversion, Retrograde, Retrograde Inversion

25. John Cage: Background
 -American, Born in Los
Angeles
 -Internship, went off to
Europe
 -Student of Schoenberg
 -Influences show in Cage's
works

26. Early Works
 -First pieces are lost, rumored to be very short Piano
pieces
 -”Complicated math, no sexual appeal”
 -Created a tone row with 25-note rows
 -Evidence of Schoenberg's influences

27. 4:33 (1952)
 -4:33 of “dead silence”
 -Piece shows importance of environment
 -”Dead silence” is music because the audience's reaction and
noise was music itself
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C5qfMfhjZk

28. Igor Stravinsky
 Born: June 17, 1882
 Lomonosov, Russia
 Death: April 6, 1971
“… Never influence the course of
music. Stravinsky did. He was
always at the end of the rope,
pulling everybody along with
him” – Harold Schoenberg
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29. “Timeline”
Ballet
 Firebird (1910)
 Petrushka (1911)
 The Rite of Spring (1913)
Opera
 The Rake’s Progress (1951)
Vocal
 Oedipus Rex (1927)
 Oedipus Complex Vs. Electra Complex
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30. 30 Petrushka (1910–11)

31. A Rake’s Progress (1732-1734) William Hogarth
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33. Influenced
 Composer of Modern Classical Music
 Multiple compositional styles
 “Revolutionized orchestration”
 “Reinvented” ballet form:
 Incorporated cultures
 Languages
 Literatures.
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34. Youtube Time
The Rite Of Spring Firebird
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA4PpmmnlZQ
 http://www.youtube.com/w
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35. Karlheinz Stockhausen
 Born: August 22, 1928
 Mödrath, Germany
 Death: December 5, 2007
“Any sound can become music
if it is related to other
sounds…every sound is
precious and can become
beautiful if I put it at the
right place, at the right
moment”
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36. “Timeline”
 Momente (1961)
 Gruppen (1955-1957)
 Piano Piece XI (1956)
 Zodiac (1974-75)
 Helicopter Stretch Quartet (1993)
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37. Influenced -
 Influential to the Post WWII Period –
 works – adv. musical tendencies of his time
 Innovator and originator of new music
 New ideas & advances w/ electric sounds
 Influenced electromusic artists
 Eg. Kraftwerk “A Day in the Life”
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38. Youtube Time
Helicopter Stretch
Zodiac
Quartet
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeIipJ1RSd8&feature=r
 http://www.youtube.com/w
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39. OVERALL INFLUENCE- 20th century music
is hard to define in terms of musical
style.
 Freedom & experimentation w/ styles & forms
 The invention of electronic instruments
 Accelerated the development of new forms of music.
Positive Influences?
 Amplification
 Inexpensive reproduction/transmission/broadcast of
music
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