Cage and contemporaries . . .

Indeterminacy Aleatoric (comes from alea, Latin for dice) Chance music

The New Virtuosity of the Modern Age

Postwar Era

Techniques . . .

Pianists Col pugno (with the fist) Pluck strings of the inside of a piano

Violinists Tap, stroke or slap the instrument

Vocalists Whisper, shout, hiss, etc.

Instrumentalist Creative techniques to produce different sounds

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)“mystic and visionary”

Studied in Paris Feels that art is the ideal expression of religious

faith Love of nature (hear bird calls in his music) Was drawn to older music (Gregorian) Wrote organ, piano, vocal, orchestral music

Prisoner years

Wrote Quartet for the End of Time p. 632-633

Pierre Boulez (France) b. 1925“I think that music should be magic and collective hysteria”

Most important modern French composer Studied under Messiaen Fell under the spell of Debussy, then

Stravinsky . . . then Webern Serial composer “gentle lyricism” to “furious Expressionism”

Boulez The Hammer Without a Master

A suite of 9 movements based on poems (by Rene Char)

Scored for alto voice and 6 instrumentsAlto flute, guitar and viola (prominent)Also percussion instruments

Doesn’t try to make the words clear Nos. 1, 3, 7 (p. 637-638)

George Crumb (b. 1929)

Received the 1968 Pulitzer Prize in Music Musical America “Composer of the Year” 2004 6 honorary degrees Grammy for Best Contemporary Composition

2001 Emotional music within contemporary framework

Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children

1970 Song cycle (5 songs and 2 instrumental

interludes) Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca Set for soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin,

harp, electric piano and percussion Description of techniques, top of p. 641

4’33”

p. 645