Early 20th century art music was some of the first music which explored the Idea of dissonance; the Idea that music does not require any specific harmony among notes. Throughout the history of classical music, up until then, dissonance was avoided. The strong influence of African tribal music caused much of early 20th century art music to make the listener dance and move. Igor Stravinsky (17th July 1882 – 6th April 1971) was a ground breaking Russian composer.
Most famous for his “Rite of Spring”, Stravinsky music can be strongly linked to cubism and can relate to neo classical style. When the “Rite of Spring was first played in 1913 in Paris it was met with a very hostile view. Known as the famous classical music riot, the audience was outraged by what had been played to them and reported fist fights had broken out in the crowd. The situation got so Intense that police had to be called to the theatre during the second half of the act. Despite the undoubtedly negative response In 1913, the “Rite of
Spring” was hailed as a masterpiece only a few years later, after WWW after the views of the European people were changed by the harrowing effect of the war. People could now relate to the punchy and strong elements of the piece. Another key part of early 20th century arts music was the idea of surrealism and the twelve-tone technique. Surrealism was born from the twelve-tone technique used by Arnold Schoenberg. The twelve tone technique means that every single note in an octave is played, and the pitch cannot change until all the notes have been played.
By reversing and inversion the notes of the octave, the desired sound is acquired. The idea of “musical anarchy” followed the idea of surrealism, with Schoenberg being the father of that revolution, and two closely linked composers, Anton Webber and Alan Berg. Webber followed Schoenberg atonal style along with his surrealism. The evolution of blues music was also a key part of 20th century art music from the west. Blue originated from the black slaves who were brought over from the Caribbean and from Africa to work In the united States.
The message behind blues was the suffering and pain that the slaves endured in the fields In which they worked. The “call-and- respond” technique was heavily used in blues music. Prominent artists such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainy and Muddy Water were key figures in the blues movement, although many artists were not recognized until later on in the 20th century when covers of their music were made. Nationalist music created from the ideas of original Russian folk music was “reinvented” and used by the composer Catastrophic (25th September 1906 – 9th August 1975). Catastrophic gained his popularity and fame under the rule of the USSR.
Catholicism’s work was first described as “coarse, primitive and vulgar”. As time went by Catholicism’s work was later hailed for his “emotional restraint” and “riveting rhythmic drive”. Jazz was brought up by the African Americans In the beginning of the 20th century. Improvisation Is undoubtedly one of the key elements of jazz. The rural traditions of African music are very noticeable and play a large part in the sound of jazz, retaining the call-and-response repetition of alcohol in the USA brought many people to go to establishments which could provide alcohol illegally.
The lively nature of these venues proved to be the perfect venue for a night of Jazz. In the sass’s, more “big bands” were coming together and performing swing (a loosened version of ragtime music) the up-tempo music with blues chord progressions proved to be very popular in the sass’s. The sass’s brought the “genius of Longtime”. Duke Longtime was said to have changed Jazz into a fusion of art music and Jazz combined to make “American Music”.