16

1
1654

• A Tour of the Music of the Twentieth-Century

2
impressionism

• Claude Debussy
• Images, Reflections on the Water
• tonal sonorities
• non-functional harmony
• colorful texture

1905
3
expressionism

• Arnold Schoenberg
• Book of the Hanging Garden, Angst und Hoffen
• the dissolution of tonality
• full of emotional expression
• jagged melodic lines
• romanticisms last gasps

1908
4
expressionism

• Anton Webern
• (a student of Schoenberg)
• Five Movements for String Quartet, Op. 5, No. 4
• free atonality
• spare gestures
• new instrumental timbres

1909
5
an early American great

• Charles Ives
• Second Violin Sonata, Mvt. 3, Revival
• quotation
• polymeter, changing meters
• polytonality
• quintal and whole-tone chords

1910
6
another atonal miniature

• Schoenberg
• Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19
• Number 4

1911
7
this ones a riot (or caused one)

• Igor Stravinsky
• The Rite of Spring
• anti-romantic
• abrupt contrasts
• narrow melodies
• evocation of the primitive

1912
8
an expressionist opera

• Alban Berg
• another student of Schoenberg
• Wozzeck
• Maries Lullaby (Act 1, Scene 3)

1922
9
a new approach to composition

• Arnold Schoenberg
• Suite, Op. 25, Trio (of a minuet)
• based on a twelve-tone row
• return to earlier forms (dance)

E F G Db Gb Eb Ab D B C A Bb
1923
10
meanwhile

• Edgard Varèse
• Hyperprism
• experiments in musical timbre
• winds brass and
• a whole lot o percussion

1923
11
meanwhile

• Henry Cowell
• The Banshee
• experiments in musical timbre
• can you guess the sound source?

1925
12
a return to the past

• Igor Stravinsky
• Symphony of Psalms
• 1930s neo-classicism
• psalm text
• ostinatos...
• pitch-centered, non-functional

1930
13
a more tonal twelve-tone

• Alban Berg
• Violin Concerto
• What sonorities did the violin solo first outline?

1935
14
a gen-u-ine sonata

• Paul Hindemith
• Piano Sonata No. 2, I
• more neo-classicism
• can you hear the sections of an exposition?

1936
15
back to the baroque?

• Anton Webern
• Cantata No. 1, Op. 29, I
• text painting (thunder!)
• tone rows chosen to limit chord vocabulary

1939
16
wartime

• Olivier Messiaen
• quartet for the end of time
• dance of fury, by the seven trumpets
• irregular, additive rhythms
• whats the texture?

1941
17
an American ballet

• Aaron Copland
• Appalachian Spring
• unabashed diatonicism
• but non-functional

1945
18
on pins and needlesa trip to the hardware store

• John Cage
• Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared piano
• exploring new sounds
• aleatoric composition process

1948
19
hyperserialism

• Pierre Boulez
• Structures 1a
• tone rows and
• rhythm rows

1952
20
hyperserialism

• Milton Babbitt
• Semi-simple variations
• theme and Var. 1
• exceedingly careful control of the presentation
  of 12 pitches

1956
21
take another chance

• John Cage
• Fontana Mix
• For electronic tape
• Composed through indeterminate processes
• Aria
• Written in colored graphic notation
• Singer chooses style for each colored gesture
• May be performed separately.
• Or together.
• Whatever.

1958
22
clusters last stand?

• Krzysztof Penderecki
• Threnody (For the victims of Hiroshima)
• new sound resources
• sound masses
• unusual string timbres
• constrained improvisation

1961
23
Miniminiminiminiminim-alism

• Terry Riley
• In C
• 53 measures, each repeated ad lib.
• any combo, number of instruments
• this performance 42 minutes
• This is excerpt 1
• Heres a second excerpt

1964
24
phaseshiftinghaseshiftingp

• Steve Reich
• Piano Phase
• two performers begin in unison
• one gradually pulls ahead
• this gradual process continues until they
  rejoin
• new counterpoint results
• second excerpt

1967
25
an homage to an homage of the past

• Luciano Berio
• Sinfonia, III, In ruhig fliessender Bewegung
• a masterwork of quotation
• what music underlies the excerpt?
• what texts do you hear?

1969
26
theatrical music

• George Crumb
• Apparitions

1980
27
less minimilism

• John Adams
• Short Ride on a Fast Machine
• includes some of minimalisms repetitive elements
• adds
• greater local melodic interest
• faster harmonic rhythm

1981