20th Century Musical Styles Prepared by: J. Taborada

1. MUSIC 10 - QUARTER 1
MUSIC OF THE
20TH CENTURY

2. 20TH-CENTURY MUSICAL STYLES
Impresionism
Expressionism
Neo - Classicism
Avant - Garde
Electronic Music
Chance Music
Modern Nationalism

3. THE DISTINCT MUSICAL STYLES OF THE 20TH
CENTURY WOULD NOT HAVE DEVELOPED IF NOT FOR
THE MUSICAL GENIUS OF INDIVIDUAL COMPOSERS.
ACTIVITY:
GUESS THE NAME OF
THE COMPOSERS

5. Arnold Schoenberg
Igor Stravinsky

7. Maurice Ravel
Claude Debussy

9. Karlheinz Stockhausen
John Cage

11. Francis Poulenc
Philip Glass

13. Leonard Bernstein
Nikolai Rimsky

15. Bela Bartok
George Gershwin

16. CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
20th-century music
use atonalism and
experimentation
Atonal - lack of
tonal system
- composed in the 20th or 21st
century

17. HISTORICAL AND
CULTURAL
BACKGROUND
Impressionism was originally
applied to a painting done by
Claude Monet entitled
Impressionism: Sunrise. It was
scorned by critics of the old school
and the name stuck since then
eventually applied to all other parts
in that era including music.

18. CHARACTERISTICS OF
IMPRESSIONISM MUSIC

19. RHYTHM - vague and free,
irregular phrases, unclearly
defined cadence

20. TEXTURE - group of notes
sounded simultaneously

21. MELODY - use of whole-
tone scale and pentatonic
scale

22. HARMONY -avoidance of
traditional harmonic
progressions.

23. FORM -preferred use of
short forms such as
nocturne, arabesque, song
and prelude

24. DYNAMICS

25. It is called Impressionism
because artists and
composers created and
impression of a subject
IMPRESSIONISM
Impressionism in music
and art both creates a
mood and impression.
They hint rather than state.

27. CLAUD DEBUSSY
He was the primary exponent of the
impressionist movement and the focal
point for other impressionist
composers.
He changes the course of musical
development by dissolving traditional
rules and conventions into a new
language of possibilities in harmony,
rhythm, form, texture and color.
He won the prize at the Prix de Rome
competition with his composition
L'Enfant Prodigue (The Prodigal Son).
(1862-1918)

28. He is a French composer.
Born on August 22, 1862
He entered the Paris conservatory at
11
He was commended by his professors as
a music genius of his period.
CLAUD DEBUSSY

29. HIS WORKS:
SUITE BERGAMASQUE
CLAIR DE LUNE
PELLEAS ET MELISANDE
JEUX
LA MER
THE PRODIGAL SON
PRELUDE TO THE AFTERNOON OF A
FAUN

30. He was a French composer, pianist, and
conductor. He is often associated with
impressionism along with his elder
contemporary Claude Debussy, although both
composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and
1930s, Ravel was internationally regarded as
France's greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended
France's premier music college, The Paris
Conservatoire. He was not well regarded by its
conservative establishment whose biased
treatment of him caused scandal.
JOSEPH MAURICE RAVEL
(1875 - 1937)

31. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his
own way as a composer, developing a style of
great clarity and incorporating elements of
modernism, baroque, neoclassicism, and in his
later works, jazz.
He like to experiment with musical forms
He made some orchestral arrangements of
other composers' music.
JOSEPH MAURICE RAVEL
(1875 - 1937)

32. He is a French composer.
Born on August 22, 1862
He entered the Paris conservatory at
11
He was commended by his professors as
a music genius of his period.
MAURICE RAVEL

33. RAVEL'S WORKS
Jeux d’Eau or Water Fountains
(1901)
Bolero
String Quartet (1903)
La Valse (1920)
Daphnis et Chloe (1912)
Rhapsodie Espagnole

34. Their musical works sound quite similar in terms
of their harmonic and textural characteristics, the
two differed greatly in their personalities and
approach to music. Whereas Debussy was more
spontaneous and liberal in form, Ravel was very
attentive to the classical norms of musical
structure and the compositional craftsmanship.
Whereas Debussy was more casual in his
portrayal of visual imagery, Ravel was more
formal and exacting in the development of his
motive ideas.
Comparative Styles of
Debussy and Ravel

35. revealed the composer’s mind,
instead of presenting an impression
of the environment. It used
atonality and the twelve-tone scale,
lacking stable and conventional
harmonies. It served as a medium
for expressing strong emotions,
such as anxiety, rage, and alienation
EXPRESSIONISM

36. Arnold Schoenberg was born in a
working-class suburb of Vienna,
Austria on September 13, 1874. He
taught himself music theory, but took
lessons in counterpoint. German
composer Richard Wagner influenced
his work as evidenced by his
symphonic poem Pelleas et Melisande,
Op 5 (1903), a counterpoint of
Debussy’s opera of the same title.
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874–1951)

37. Schoenberg’s style was constantly undergoing
development. From the early influences of Wagner,
his tonal preference gradually turned to the
dissonant and atonal, as he explored the use of
chromatic harmonies.
Although full of melodic and lyrical interest, his
music is also extremely complex, creating heavy
demands on the listener. His works were met with
extreme reactions, either strong hostility from
the general public or enthusiastic acclaim from
his supporters.

38. Schoenberg is credited with the establishment of
the twelve-tone system. His works include the
following: 
Verklarte Nacht,
Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11
Pierrot Lunaire,
Gurreleider
Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night, 1899), one
of his earliest successful pieces, blends the
lyricism, instrumentation, and melodic beauty
of Brahms with the chromaticism and
construction of Wagner

39. IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)
Igor Stravinsky stands alongside fellow-composer
Schoenberg, painter Pablo Picasso, and literary figure
James Joyce as one of the great trendsetters of the 20th
century.
He was born in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia on
June 17, 1882. Stravinsky’s early music reflected the
influence of his teacher, the Russian composer Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov. But in his first successful masterpiece,
The Firebird Suite (1910), composed for Diaghilev’s Russian
Ballet, his skillful handling of material and rhythmic
inventiveness went beyond anything composed by his
Russian predecessors. He added a new ingredient to his
nationalistic musical style. The Rite of Spring (1913) was
another outstanding work.
IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)

40. A new level of dissonance was reached and the sense
of tonality was practically abandoned. Asymmetrical
rhythms successfully portrayed the character of a
solemn pagan rite. When he left the country for the
United States in 1939, Stravinsky slowly turned his
back on Russian nationalism and cultivated his neo-
classical style.
Stravinsky’s musical output approximates 127 works,
including concerti, orchestral music, instrumental
music, operas, ballets, solo vocal, and choral music.
He died in New York City on April 6, 1971.

41. His Works:
Petrouchka (1911)
The Rake’s Progress
(1951)

42. PRIMITIVISM
Primitivism has link to Exoticism through the use of materials from other culture,
To Nationalism through the use of materials indigenous to specific countries, and
to ethnicism through the use materials from European ethnic group. Two well-
known proponents of this style were Igor Stravinsky and Bela Bartok. It eventually
evolved into Neo-Classicism

43. BELA BARTOK (1881–1945)
Bela Bartok was born in Nagyszentmiklos,
Hungary (now Romania) on March 25, 1881, to
musical parents. He started piano lessons
with his mother and later entered Budapest
RoyalAcademy of Music in 1899. He was
inspired by the performance of Richard
Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra to write
his first nationalistic poem, Kossuth in 1903.
He was a concert pianist as he travelled
exploring the music of Hungarian peasants.

44. Six String Quartets (1908–1938)
The Concerto for Orchestra
Allegro Barbaro
Duet for Pipes
His Works:

45. NEO-CLASSICISM NEO-CLASSICISM Was a moderating factor
between the emotional excesses of the
Romantic period and the violent impulses of
the soul in expressionism. It was, in essence.
A partial return to an earlier style of writing,
particularly the tightly-knit form of the
Classical period, while combining tonal
harmonies with slight dissonances. It also
adopted a modern, freer use of the seven-
note diatonic scale. An example of Neo-
Classicism is Bela Bartok’s Song of the
bagpipe and piano sonata. In this latter piece.

46. SERGEI PROKOFIEFF (1891–1953)
Sergei Prokofieff is regarded today as a
combination of neo-classicist, nationalist, and
avant-garde composer. His style is uniquely
recognizable for its progressive technique,
pulsating rhythms, melodic directness, and a
resolving dissonance.
Born in the Ukraine in 1891, Prokofieff set out for the
St. Petersburg Conservatory equipped with his
great talent as a composer and pianist. His early
compositions were branded as avant garde and
were not approved of by his elders, he continued
to follow his stylistic path as he fled to other
places for hopefully better acceptance of his
creativity.

47. His Works:
Concerto in C Major
Opera 26 No. 3
Symphony NO. 1

48. FRANCIS POULENC (1899–1963)
One of the relatively few composers born
into wealth and a privileged social position,
the neo-classicist Francis Jean Marcel
Poulenc was a member of the group of
young French composers known as “Les
Six.” He rejected the heavy romanticism of
Wagner and the so-called imprecision of
Debussy and Ravel. His compositions had a
coolly elegant modernity, tempered by a
classical sense of proportion. Poulenc was
also fond of the witty approach of Satie, as
well as the early neo - classical works of
Stravinsky.

49. Concert Champetre (1928)
The Concerto for Two Pianos
(1932)
Concerto for Solo Piano (1949)
Les Mamelles de Tiresias(1944)
Perputual Motion No. 1
His Works:

50. IGOR STRAVINSKY
Igor Stravinsky was born on June 17, 1882, in
Oranienbaum, Russia. He rose to fame in the
early 1900s for his compositions for the
Ballets Russes, including the controversial
The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky brought his
family to Switzerland and then France,
continuing his output with such works as
Renard and Persephone. After moving to the
United States in 1939, he completed his
famed Symphony in C and became an
American citizen. Stravinsky died in New
York City on April 6, 1971, with more than 100
works to his name.

51. The Firebird (1910)
Petrushka (1911)
The Rite of Spring (1913)
His Works:

52. Closely associated with electronic music, the avant-
garde movement dealt with the parameters or the
dimensions of sound in space. The avant-garde style
exhibited a new attitude toward musical mobility,
whereby the order of note groups could be varied so
that musical continuity could be altered. Improvisation
was a necessity in this style, for the musical scores
were not necessarily followed as written. For example,
one could expect a piece to be read by a performer
from left to right or vice versa. Or the performer might
turn the score over, and go on dabbling indefinitely in
whatever order before returning to the starting point.
AVANT-GARDE MUSIC

53. George Gershwin was born in New York to
Russian Jewish immigrants. His older brother
Ira was his artistic collaborator who wrote the
lyrics of his songs. His first song was written in
1916.
He is a true “crossover artist,” in the sense that
his serious compositions remain highly
popular in the classical repertoire, as his stage
and film songs continue to be jazz and vocal
standards. Considered the “Father of
American Jazz,” his “mixture of the primitive
and the sophisticated” gave his music an
appeal that has lasted long after his death.
GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898–
1937)

54. His Works:
Summertime
Rhapsody in Blue
An American in Paris
Opera - Porgy and Bess

55. Born in Massachusetts, USA, Leonard
Bernstein endeared himself to his many
followers as a charismatic conductor,
pianist, composer, and lecturer. His big
break came when he was asked to
substitute for the ailing Bruno Walter in
conducting the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra in a concert on November 14,
1943. The overnight success of this event
started his reputation as a great
interpreter of the classics as well as of the
more complex works of Gustav Mahler.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
(1918–1990)

56. His Works:
West Side Story(American version
of Romeo and Juliet)
Candide (1956)
Mass (1971)

57. One of the most commercially successful
minimalist composers is Philip Glass who is
also an avant-garde composer. He explored
the territories of ballet, opera, theater, film,
and even television jingles. His distinctive
style involves cell-like phrases emanating
from bright electronic sounds from the
keyboard that progressed very slowly from
one pattern to the next in a very repetitious
fashion. Aided by soothing vocal effects
and horn sounds, his music is often
criticized as uneventful and shallow, yet
startlingly effective for its hypnotic charm
PHILIP GLASS

58. Born in New York, USA of Jewish parentage, Glass
became an accomplished violinist and flutist at
the age of 15. In Paris, he became inspired by
the music of the renowned Indian sitarist Ravi
Shankar. He assisted Shankar in the soundtrack
recording for Conrad Rooks’ film Chappaqua.

59. His Works:
He formed the Philip Glass Ensemble
and produced works such as:
Music in Similar Motion (1969)
Music in Changing Parts (1970),
which combined rock-type grooves
with perpetual patterns played at
extreme volumes.
Music in Fifths

60. A looser form of 20th century music
development focused on nationalist
composers and musical innovators
who sought to combine modern
techniques with folk materials.
However, this common ground
stopped there, for the different breeds
of nationalists formed their own styles
of writing.
Modern Nationalism

61. MUSIC 10 - QUARTER 1
20TH CENTURY MUSICAL
STYLES: ELECTRONIC
and CHANCE MUSIC

62. The musical styles that evolved in the
modern era were varied. Some of
these were short-lived, being
experimental and too radical in nature,
while others found an active blend
between the old and the new.

63. New inventions and discoveries of science
and technology lead to continuing
developments in the field of music.
Technology has produced electronic
music devices such as cassette tape
recorders, compact discs and their
variants, the video compact disc (VCD)
and the digital video disc (DVD), MP3, MP4,
ipod, iPhone, karaoke players, mobile
phones, and synthesizers. These devices
are used for creating and recording music
to add to or to replace acoustical sounds.
Synthesizer

64. NEW MUSICAL STYLES: ELECTRONIC MUSIC
The capacity of electronic machines such as synthesizers, amplifiers,
tape recorders, and loudspeakers to create different sounds was given
importance by 20th-century composers like Edgar Varese, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, and Mario Davidovsky.
Music that uses the tape recorder is called musique concrete, or
concrete music. The composer records different sounds that are heard
in the environment such as the bustle of traffic, the sound of the
wind, the barking of dogs, the strumming of a guitar, or the cry of an
infant. These sounds are arranged by the composer in different ways
like by playing the tape recorder in its fastest mode or in reverse.
In musique concrete, the composer is able to experiment with different
sounds that cannot be prodeuced by regular musical instruments such as
the piano or the violin.

65. Edgard (also spelled Edgar) Varèse was
born on December 22, 1883. He was
considered an “innovative French-born
composer.” However, he spent the greater
part of his life and career in the United
States, where he pioneered and created
new sounds that bordered between music
and noise.
He was the “Father of Electronic Music” and
he was described as the “Stratospheric
Colossus of Sound.”
EDGARD VARESE (1883–1965)

66. His Works:
Hyperprism
POÈME ÉLECTRONIQUE

67. Karlheinz Stockhausen is a central figure in
the realm of electronic music. Born in
Cologne, Germany, he had the opportunity
to meet Messiaen, Schoenberg, and
Webern, the principal innovators at the
time. Together with Pierre Boulez,
Stockhausen drew inspiration from these
composers as he developed his style of
total serialism. Stockhausen’s music was
initially met with resistance due to its
heavily atonal content with practically no
clear melodic or rhythmic sense.
KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN

68. His Works:
Gruppen (1957)
Kontakte (1960)
Hymnen (1965)
Junglinge

69. NEW MUSICAL STYLES: CHANCE MUSIC
Chance music refers to a style wherein the piece
always sounds different at every performance because
of the random techniques of production, including the
use of ring modulators or natural elements that
become a part of the music. Most of the sounds
emanating from the surroundings, both natural and
man-made, such as honking cars, rustling leaves,
blowing wind, dripping water, or a ringing phone. As
such, the combination of external sounds cannot be
duplicated as each happens by chance.

70. John Cage was known as one of the 20th-
century composers with the widest array of
sounds in his works. He was born in Los
Angeles, California, USA on September 5,
1912, and became one of the most original
composers in the history of western music.
He challenged the very idea of music by
manipulating musical instruments in order
to achieve new sounds. He experimented
with what came to be known as “chance
music.”
JOHN CAGE (1912–1992)

71. His Works:
CONCERT FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA, 1958
Five Songs of Contralto

72. THE END!
THANK YOU!