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Unit 10: Music with Logic (EMANCIPATION OF DISSONANCE = ATONALITY: (ARNOLD…
Unit 10: Music with Logic
EVOLUTION OF MUSICAL EXPRESSIONISM:
”Redefine” the new
Next step in music evolution- not revolutionary
Expressionism
Break from tradition
Dissonance does not have to resolve to consonance
Reject tonality (atonality)
EMANCIPATION OF DISSONANCE = ATONALITY:
Rejection of tonality, key
Dissonance is STANDARD
Dissonance can be the end of the piece
MAXIMUM tension
NO need for CONSONANCE
Method developed- 12 tone method
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
(1874–1951)
Composer, conductor, teacher in Vienna
Students Berg and Webern
Rejection of tonality
“method of composing with twelve tones”
USC- Southern California (1933) due to WW II
then to UCLA
1940 US Citizen
Three compositional periods
1- Post-Romantic
2- Atonal-Expressionist
3- Twelve-tone
SCHOENBERG’S PIERROT LUNAIRE (LG 43)
1912
Song cycle on 21 poems by Giraud (used German translation)
Poems about Pierrot a poet/rascal/clown
Bizarre and macabre
Mood changes: guilt, depression, atonement, playfulness
Set for female vocalist and chamber ensemble
21 poems broken down 3 groups of 7; each is a rondeau (dance)
Sprechstimme: a new vocal style in which the vocal melody is spoken rather than sung
Klangfarbenmelodie: each note of a melody is played by a different instrument
MID-20TH CENTURY- BLENDING OF IDEAS:
Innovative:
New scales & harmonies
Various Cultures
Use of various sound sources
Highly virtuosic instrumental or vocal effects
EARLY EXPERIMENTATION:
Henry Cowell (1897–1965)
Combined Asian instruments with Western ensembles
Music from Iran, India, Japan
Foreign scales with western chords
Pre-cursor to ”prepared piano”
Tone clusters for piano
Group notes played with fist, forearm, and palm
Plucking piano strings directly
EARLY EXPERIMENTATION:
Harry Partch (1901–1974)
Proponent of microtones
Developed a scale with 43 microtones to the
octave
Built/adapted instruments to play it
Focus melody & timbre- not harmony
Adapted Indian and African instruments to
fit tuning
Cloud chamber bowls- made glass
Cone gongs (made metal)
Gourd trees
EARLY EXPERIMENTATION:
JOHN CAGE (1912-1992)
Early interest in non-Western scales
Born in LA
Cowell mentor
In 1938, invented the prepared piano
Like gamelan music
Indeterminacy, aleatoric, and chance music
Explored the role of silence in 4'33"
Raised profound questions about the nature of music
Eternally questioning artist
CAGE’S SONATAS & INTERLUDES (LG 55)- SONATA V:
1946-48 (Performed in 49)
16 sonatas in 4 groups- separated by interludes
For prepared piano
Materials inserted between the piano strings
Nails, bolts, rubber, wood, & leather
Varied timbres
Non-pitched
Piano is percussion instrument
Ethereal sounds
Binary Form (A-A-B-B)
A- rhythm; upper and lower line
B- faster; more disjunct and accented
GEORGE CRUMB (B. 1929)
American
Taught Colorado, NY, U of PA
Avant-garde composer
Art/music tradition
Folk themes
Non-western sounds
Won Pulitzer Prize (1968) Echoes of Time and River
CABALLITO NEGRO (LITTLE BLACK HORSE) LG 56
Song, from Madrigals, Book 2
Text- Garcia Lorca poem
Images of death
Soprano & metallic percussion instruments, flute or piccolo
3 part form (A-B-A1)
No sense of met
Disjunct vocal line
Effects:
Flutter tonguing- flute or piccolo
Glissandos
Whispering
Horse Neigh
LESS IS MORE: MINIMALISTIC MUSIC:
MUSICAL MINIMALISM:
The scientific nature of serialism appealed to some
Rejection of 12 tone music
A new, also scientific way to approach stable harmonies was found in process music
which became minimalism
Process Music- a few notes repeating over and over and often elaborating
Developed through technology into phase music
Music recorded on loop
Several copies played simultaneously
Music Speed slowed
STEVE REICH (B. 1936):
Born in NYC, studied modernist composition
at Juilliard
Wanted to write tonal music, pioneered
minimalist music
Studied West African drumming and
Balinese gamelan
• Judaic heritage central to many works
REICH’S ELECTRIC COUNTERPOINT, III (LG 58)
1987
Last of a series of works he called “counterpoint”
Chamber work for guitar and tape
Twelve guitars w/ pre-recorded tracks layered within
Very different approach to harmony and complexity from goal-directed tonality
Through-composed
Polyphoni
The “hook” (short repeated musical idea) is less the initial musical idea, but how that
idea is gradually combined with itself
