This document discusses alternatives to modernism in music in the early 20th century. It introduces post-impressionism as the alternative to modernism discussed previously. It asks readers to consider whether they would pay to see a performance of Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, indicating modernist music appealed more to small, specialized audiences. The document then discusses twentieth-century traditionalism, where some composers rejected the avant-garde and continued writing in romantic styles, hoping to achieve popular and financial success through more tonal music.

1. CHAPTER 21
Alternatives to
Modernism

2. ALTERNATIVES TO MODERNISM
 Look back in your notes, what was the alternative to
modernism in at the beginning of Unit V?
 Hint: Modernism and _____________
 Hint (last): Some of you created some propaganda for this…
 What do you expect it to sound like?

3. TRADITIONALIST OR MODERNIST?
 1 .)
 2.)
 3.)
 4.)

4. MODERNISM: A HIT?
 If someone was going to perform Schoenberg’s Pierrot
Lunaire at St. Wenceslas Friday night, would you (raise of
hands):




Go to see if for $100 a ticket?
$20 a ticket?
$5 a ticket?
Free?!
 “…much modernist music played to a small, esoteric audience
(Kerman, 349).”
 Esoteric-intended for or likely to be understood by only a small
number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
 Can you blame them?

5. TWENTIETH-CENTURY TRADITIONALISM
 Read Pg. 249 Paragraph 1
 “But other impressive composers, both here and abroad,
developed a more ambivalent attitude toward modernism...
Some famous twentieth-century names never joined the
Avant-Garde [remember what that means??!!] at all, and kept
on mining the reliable quarries of Romanticism for their own
private seams of (they hoped) musical gold (Kerman, 349).”
 Ambivalent-having mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about
something or someone.
 Read paragraph 2.
 Does that make sense?

6. TWENTIETH-CENTURY TRADITIONALISM
(CONT.)
 “…there is no question that some of the best -and most
popular-music of the early twentieth century was written by
composers who never called themselves modernists (Kerman,
349)…”
 Important idea: There is more to twentieth century music than
Shoenberg!