How did Sousa feel about recordings of music?
He didn’t like them, recognized that they would permanently alter views of live performances
Central Park in the Dark
Ives 1906
Discuss Central Park in the Dark
tone poem, similar to Unanswered Question. Experimental techniques, narrative. Using allusion.
Country Band March
Ives c. 1903
In 19th century, ______ was used to experiment. In 20th century, ______ was used to experiment.
Harmony and narrative; sound and rhythm (sometimes text)
What were some of the things composers did for experimentation in 20th century?
Using: polytonality, non-diatonic borrowed melodies, odd meters, less standardization, etc.
‘Bagpipers’ from Sonatina on themes from Transylvania
Bartok 1915
Duke Ellington
American composer and big band leader, “genius music in less than ideal conditions”
Goals and strategies of nationalism
To create a music for a cultural/ethnic group; borrowing, quotation, allusion, imitation
King Cotton
Sousa 1895
Maple Leaf Rag
Joplin 1899
Distinctive responses to the Common Practice period in 20th century music
form, harmony, voice leading, rhythm, timbre
T/F: The influence of non-traditional and non-Western music on European music was small.
False; they used these influences for “new” sounds. Ex: Sousa conducting his band in Paris
Impact of agricultural mechanization upon urban concert life
Led to urbanization and exodus of African Americans from South to the North (esp. by train)
Was there a relationship between composers and performers?
Yes, esp. with singers. This leads to more experimental techniques.
Symbolist poets and what they did
Baudelaire, Mallarme, Rimbaud. They experimented with non-narrative and non-linear organization
The Albatross
poem by Baudelaire, metaphor for poet
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn
Debussy 1894
The visual arts did/did not influence Impressionist music.
Did
Name influences and common themes in 20th century music
Subconscious, unconscious, the instinctive, night, sleep, the moon, the non-Western, hallunicatory, delusional, blood, violence, dreams/nightmares, the female, asymmetry
Where did futurism hold on the longest?
U.S.
Futurism
utopian, new sounds to reflect new technology. Vogue in pre-WWI Italy and France
Ionisation
Varese 1929-1931
Petruskha
Stravinsky 1910-1911
Important choreographer who collaborated with composers, esp. Stravinsky
Vaslov Nijinski
Clown characters
Pierrot Lunaire, Petrushka, Pagliacci
Expressionism
Portrays extreme states of being, unconscious, subconscious, nightmareish
Pierrot Lunaire
Schoenberg 1912-1914
Discuss Pierrot Lunaire
Work for 5 inst and soprano, depicts lunatic. Uses extended technique such as sprechstimme. NOT tonal. Uses full ensemble on nos. 7, 14, 21.
Who wrote poems Pierrot Lunaire?
Albert Giraud
In absence of tonality, what can organize a piece?
text, repetition of sound, dance (as in ballets)
Who is associated with the ’emancipation of the dissonance’?
Schoenberg
Voiles
Debussy 1909
Symphony 4 in E minor
Brahms 1885
Symphony #1
Mahler 1888
Modernism
“make it new”
Primitivism
Things distant in time, often more crude and simple. Ex: iconography of Hawaiian Madonna, Rite of Spring
Exoticism
things different in geography. Ex: Le cafe Tchaikovsky
What is the return to writing music with tonality, conventional genres and forms, and ideals of absolute music in the 20th century called?
Neoclassicism
In the 20th century, making music for oneself and/or friends became more/less common.
Less; recorded music started to replace performance
What did the availability of recorded music do?
Altered listener expectations, listeners became less tolerant of imperfections, live performances integrated recorded sounds, music became more passive experience, the recording studio was invented
Uses of music in 20th century society
Use with the state (political reasons, nationalism, esp. around WWII in Europe)
use with race (“black” music like ragtime, jazz, r, rock and roll, the desegregation of race in these musics)
music in protest (protest songs against war and for civil rights)
music therapy was acknowledged
ambient music (background music)
impressionism
comes from visual arts, supposed to represent a sensation (or an impression) as opposed to an actual object. assoc. with Debussy. blurring of harmonies, rhythms, timbres, and forms.
What is very important in impressionist music?
color (timbre)
Expressionism
from visual arts. focuses on the unconscious, intense emotional states.
Central things making sitar music “classical”
-has a body of central repertoire
-presence of lineages of master musicians
-improvisation is central, virtuosic, and central to the music
-philosophical and spiritual connotations of music
Instruments played for us in class (indian)
sitar, mrdingam, shenhai