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Unit 10: Music with Logic, No Emotion (Chapter 62: Mid-20th Century…
Unit 10: Music with Logic, No Emotion
Chapter 52
Evolution of Musical Expressionism
Next step in music evolution- not revolutionary
Expressionism
Break from tradition
Dissonance does not have to resolve to consonance
Reject to tonality = atonality (against the norm of tonality)
"Redefine" the new
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
rejects the system of major and minor
could be left unresolved, dangling
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Composer, conductor, teacher in Vienna
students: Berg and Webern
"method of composing with twelve tones"
went to USC- Southern California (1933) because WW2 broke out; moved to UCLA later on
became a US citizen in 1940
3 compositional periods
1: Post Romantic
2: Atonal-Expressionist
3: Twelve-tone
wanted to make the public OK with this new revolution of music
Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (LG 43)
1912
Based on a series of 21 poems by Giraud (used German Translation)
poems about Pierrot a poet/rascal/clown (not a very good character)
Bizarre and macabe
mood changes: guilt, depression, atonement, playfulness
Dark
Set for female vocalist and chamber ensemble
21 poems broken down 3 groups of 7; each is randeau (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
18: third part
Moonfleck
soprano vocalists along with instruments
repetition of melodies that start at different times
vocal part does not go along with instrumental part at all (very dissonant)
Chapter 62: Mid-20th Century American Experimentalists
Innovative
try new/different scales and harmonies
not just major and minor
OK with dissonance
Various Cultures
Use of various sound sources
Highly virtuosic instrumental or vocal effects
singers hav to understand how to read the music, musicians have to be become more independent and virtuosic
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
Putting things inside the piano (nails, wood, rubber bands)
Tiger
The Banshee- musician touches, stratches, plucks, and strums the inside string of the piano
Harry Partch (1901-1974)
Proponent of microtones
Developed a scale with 43 microtones to the octave
Builds his own instruments that are only used for his music
really focuses on timbre and melody but not really for harmony
Adapted Indian and African instruments to fit tuning
Cloud chamber bowls- made glass
Cone gongs (made metal)
Gourd trees
John Cage (1912-1992)
Born in LA
Early interest in non-Western scales
Cowell mentor
in 1938, invented the prepared piano
Like Gamelan Music
Indeterminacy, aleatoric, and chance music
silence can be just as important as musical compositions of sound; music can be not sound, it can be silent
explored the role of silence 4'33"
raised profound questions about the nature of music
Cages's
Sonatas and Interludes
(LG 55)
1946-48 (performed in 49)
16 sonatas in 4 groups- separated by interludes
for prepared piano
Materials like nails, bolts, rubber, wood, and leather inserted between the piano strings
Varied timbers
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
End sustained dissonance
eternally questioning artist
more well-known in the 20th century music world
even wrote songs based entirely on rolling dice
George Crumb (B. 1929)
American
taught Colorado, NY, U of PA
Avant-garde composer
Art/music tradition
folk themes and combined with art and nonwestern sound
not traditional formatting - very hard to learn
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 and metallic percussion instruments, flute or piccolo
3-part from (A-B-A1)
no sense of meter
very disjunct vocal line
effects:
fluttering tonguing - flute or piccolo
glissandos
whispering
vocalist has to sound like a horse neigh
Chapter 64: Less is More: Minimalistic Music
the scientific nature of serialism is appealing because there is still stability and tonality but only using a small amount of music to do so
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 again often elaborating
developed through technology into phase music:
music recorded on a loop (unsettling effect)
several copied played simultaneously
speed of music is slowed down
phase music later is played by live musicians
Steve Reich (B. 1936)
Born in NYC, studied modernist composition at Juilliard
wanted to write tonal music,pioneered minimalist music
incorporates lots of cultural ideas within a sense of tonality within a minimalist
studied West African drumming and Balinese gamelan
Judaic heritage central to many words
Grammy-
Different Trains
uses his own personal life as inspiration for his music
Reich's Electric Counterpoint, III (LG 58)
1987
last of a series of works he called "counterpoint"
chamber music for guitar and tape
twelve guitars with pre-recorded tracks layered within
very different approach to harmony and complexity from goal-directed tonality
through-composed
polyphonic
the "hook" (short repeated musical idea) is less the initial musical idea, but how that idea is gradually combined with itself