Enjoyment of Music, Ess. Listening Ed. 4th Ed.

1. PRELUDE 6
Making Music Modern
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The Twentieth Century--Overview
Pace of everything, including stylistic changes in music,
increased dramatically in this century.
Audiences had greater access to varied styles of music.
Composers created new and novel approaches to musical
sounds, forms, and other elements.
Inclusion of musical elements from the past merged with new
ways of combining them.
Influence of African American and Latin music was seen in all
realms of music.
Audiences didn’t always know how to respond to these
changes--a pattern of shock and then acceptance became
common.

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The Twentieth Century--Overview
Audio technology exploded.
Listeners could hear music when and where they chose.
• Cylinder disk--1877
• 78 RPM records (vinyl)--1897
• Radio stations--1920’s
• Audiotape--1940’s (reel-to-reel)
• Later--film, television, 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, CD’s, internet,
MP3 players
Technology changed the way music was produced and distributed.
Sounds could be manipulated in the studio without live musicians.
Electronic sounds and recording techniques gave complete quality
control to composers/performers.

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The Twentieth Century--Overview
Diversity in cultures, music, and other aspects of life became
appreciated and celebrated.
Segregation yielded to integration in multiple aspects of life in
the United States.
Idea of social melting pot gave way --> society is a mosaic of
different cultures and traditions, each contributing something
important to a bigger whole.
The world became smaller; globalization became the norm.
Transportation made the world more accessible.
Music became a global phenomenon.

5. Pablo Picasso’s Violin and Grapes
• An example of “cubism”
in Modern Art
• Perspective is very
distorted.
• Viewer can see aspects
of violins and of grapes
throughout the
painting.

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Early Modernism

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Music & the Musician in Society
More 20th century music presented by orchestras in 1950s
Modern compositions commissioned by ballet & opera
companies
More women active in composing-Amy Beach, Nadia
Boulanger
Many foreign composers came to America due to political
unrest in Europe
American colleges, universities train & employ leading
musicians, today’s patrons

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Prelude 6: Music as Modern and Postmodern
•Impressionism
•Symbolism
•Dadaism
•Cubism
•Surrealism
•Expressionism
•neo-Classicism

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Expressionism
• Expressionism
– German response to Impressionism
– Subconscious, hallucinations, dreams
– Artists: Kandinsky, Klee, Kokoschka,
Munch
Expressionist composers
• Arnold Schoenberg
• Alban Berg
• Anton Webern
Musical characteristic
• Expressive harmony
• Extreme range
• Disjunct melodies

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The Americas and the Avant-Garde
Reaction against the past
Avant-garde: French term
breaking social and artistic conventions
distinguished from “high culture” and mass-market taste
Cultural diversity: endless experimentation

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The New Rhythmic Complexity
• Revitalization of rhythm
– polyrhythm
– polymeter
– changing meters
– irregular meters
The New Melody
• Symmetrical structure abandoned
• Instrumental character
• Wide leaps and dissonant intervals
• Larger chords
• Polyharmony
• New conceptions of tonality
• Twelve-tone method
• Emancipation of dissonance

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Orchestration
Smaller orchestra; leaner, brighter sound
Strings no longer heart of orchestra, attention on woodwinds
Emphasis on rhythm, percussion
Piano joined the
orchestra

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Modernisms, Part 1
I. Modernisms
A. Self-conscious attempt to make art “modern”
1. creative vision, progressive directions
2. departures from tradition, “making art new”
3. multiple musical “modernisms”
4. rejections of nineteenth-century models
5. suspicion of mass culture
6. modernists grappled with vernacular traditions

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Modernisms, Part 2
B. Early Modernist art (1890–1940)
1. profound upheaval in the arts
a. futurism, 1909 manifesto: alienation with
established institutions, focus on dynamism
b. Dadaism, Switzerland 1916: works of absolute
absurdity, simplicity of child’s worldview
c. surrealism: explored world of dreams
d. Cubism, Paris-based: geometric patterns

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Modernisms, Part 4

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Modernisms, Part 5

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Modernisms, Part 6

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Modernisms, Part 7
C. Expressionism
1. German movement, initiated in painting
a. explored darker depths of human psyche
b. painting: Edvard Munch
c. literature: Franz Kafka

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Modernisms, Part 8

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Modernisms, Part 9
2. musical language
a. hyperexpressive harmonies
b. extraordinarily wide leaps in melody
c. instruments in extreme registers
d. new harmonic systems: atonal, serialism (twelve-
tone)
3. composers: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern

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Modernisms, Part 11
D. Neo-Classicism
1. Baroque musicians emulated: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi
2. Classical virtues: craftsmanship, balance, objectivity,
control
3. absolute forms: symphony, sonata, concerto
4. older forms revived: toccata, fugue, concerto grosso,
suite
5. form valued above expression; purity of line and
proportion

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Modernisms, Part 12
E. The Americas and the avant-garde
1. avant-garde: French term
a. breaking social and artistic conventions
b. distinguished from “high culture” and mass-market
taste
2. cultural diversity: endless experimentation

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Features of Early Musical Modernism, Part 1
II. Features of Early Musical Modernism
A. The new rhythmic complexity
1. nonsymmetrical patterns
2. changing meter: shift constantly within a piece
3. polyrhythm: complex rhythmic patterns used
simultaneously
4. achieved complexity of Asian and African rhythm
5. material from popular styles: ragtime, jazz

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Features of Early Musical Modernism, Part 2
B. The new melody and harmony
1. melody: not conceived vocally
a. wide leaps, dissonant intervals
b. rejected balanced phrase repetitions
2. harmony: highly dissonant
a. polyharmony: multiple streams of harmony
b. extension or replacement of major-minor system
C. C.The emancipation of dissonance
1. dissonance/tension became the norm
2. dissonance in final cadences

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Features of Early Musical Modernism, Part 3

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Features of Early Musical Modernism, Part 4

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Features of Early Musical Modernism, Part 6

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Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for “The Enjoyment of Music, 4th Edition, Prelude 6: Making Music
Modern”
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