Let’s Talk MORE About

MusicJoanne Huang

Eras of Music• What’s considered an era (aka “style period”) in

music?-When a majority of composers are writing music in similar ways

• Middle Ages/Medieval Period (c.800-1400)-Catholic Church notation system

• Renaissance Period (1400-1600)-Humanism no one wants to listen to Church

• Baroque Era (1600-1750) Bach dies in 1750

• Classical Period (1750-1830)

• Romantic Era (1850-1900)

Modernism?• There was a new era of music in the early

1900’s• Modernism is “obsolete” so we don’t know what

to call this kind of music yet• People stuck to Romanticism for a while—want

to hear Beethoven & Mozart • This is developing a canon: a body of works

that have achieved popularity—e.g. “the classics”, but not limited to pieces from the Classical period

Post-Romanticism• Composers had to compete with the past: Gustav

Mahler, Richard Strauss, Ralph Vaughan Williams, & Sergei Rachmaninoff

• Post-Romanticism: used many aspects of Romantic music -harmony w/ extended chords-emphasis on expressiveness-long-ranging melodic flow-tone colors: rich array of timbres

• These aspects combined w/ Modern era’s aspects or w/ techniques from older periods

Effects of CANON• New opera companies• Communities began to sponsor professional

orchestras• USA usually hired European-born conductors

-Leopold Stokowski: conductor of Philadelphia Orchestra, emphasized European works in his repertoryshaped USA tastes + orchestras

• Demand for good training programsPeabody: BaltimoreNew England Conservatory: BostonJuilliard School: New York

Technology• 19th Century: better instruments were being

built and also new instruments• 20th Century: achievements from 19th century

continued + mechanical means of music• Some people actually did not like the classics

—wanted NEW music• Space is no longer an issue; wider audience

can be reached easier to switch to a diff style of music

Wireless Technology• Development of wireless transmission of

sound-Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi—wireless technology-initially trying to send Morse code signals-Dec. 23rd, 1900: speech was wirelessly transmitted for the first time-Jan. 12th & 13th, 1910: first public radio broadcasts b/c of Lee De Forest—NY’s Metropolitan Opera’s performance w/ singer Enrico Caruso

Radio Act of 1912• 1912 Titanic

-Nearest ship SS Californian had one radio operator, no SOS signal reached

• USA Radio Act:1). All seagoing vessels need to hire enough radio operators2). All US radio stations need to be licensed by the government3). President can close radio stations during wartime-EX: Department of Commerce shut down radio stations on April 7, 1917

Recording• Audio:

-1977: Thomas Edison recorded “Mary Had a Little Lamb” phonograph—wax cylinders-Columbia—”graphophone”—wax cylinders-Post 1890: can easily purchase recordings of musicians-”gramophone”—flat-discs (common for rich)-1913: first album: Berlin Philharmonic recorded the complete Fifth Symphony by Beethoven on 8 discs

Connections to WWI?• Many soldiers took portable

gramophones to the front• A company called Decca marketed one

of its design as a “trench model”, ad on pg. 42

• Contributed to morale

Demand for Recording Machines

• Not all devices were used commercially• Scholars noticed musical traditions were being lost• Researchers (interested in ethnomusicology) used

the recording machines to preserve folk and ethnic music w/ field recordings (natural environment)ex: USA Frances Densmore recorded more than 2,000 Native American melodies

• Not “authentic” b/c of short recording time back then

Recording• FILM

-1891: Edison “Kinetoscope” allowed one person to view silent images-Edison “Kinetophone” allowed sound to be played via headphones

• Early film projectors allowed groups to watch-early 20th century film w/ audio: “sound on disc”“sound-on-film” live musicians

Film continued…• CONS:

-sound was not amplified-1920s was when Lee De Forest produced a vacuum tube that allowed amplified sound-1927: first feature film “talkie”—The Jazz Singer

20th Century New Music

• Not really stylistic unity; composers competed for originality

• Avant-garde: new & unusual experimental ideas in the arts ex: Erik Satie mocks the past eras “Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear”

• Labels in music are often borrowed from the visual arts

• Interest in experimentation—Impressionism, Expressionism, and Primitivism-composer Henry Cowell’s The Tides of Manaunaum used tone clusters: a highly dissonant chord that contains several ½ or whole step intervalsCowell used fist or forearm on piano

Impressionism (France)

• 1872: Claude Monet Impression: solei levant (Sunrise) focused on color + light, vague

• French musicians tried approaches that resembled the visual arts movement-forms of pieces were vague and inexact-common-practice tonality with more “added” pitches and blurred functions of many chords-unconventional scales—whole tone scale: no half steps w/ no pull to the tonic-not really a rhythmic pulse-new tone colors-unusual instruments

Voiles• Impressionists were inspired by Symbolists (French poetry

movement) that emphasized imagery over narrative, “breaks” in the flow

• Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun is based on Mallarme’s Symbolist poem

• Debussy’s Preludes are character pieces (miniatures): popular in the Romantic Period that are short pieces and express the imagery suggested by their titles

• Voiles can mean the veil or the sail—vague

• Vague form-glissando: a rapid gesture that resembles the sweeping motion of a harp

Expressionism (Austria)

• Characteristics:-depict emotional responses, esp. strong and distorted emotions-uneasiness, not relaxing-”a violent storm of emotion beating up from the unconscious mind” and shows “truth”

• Music: -unsettling, not really any familiar musical elements-no clear cadence nor balanced phrases-indistinguishable form-erratic rhythm-dissonance dominates-atonality (not written in a key)

Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21

• Second Viennese School: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern

• “Moonstruck Pierrot” has lunacy (moon-lunar)-Pierrot is from a commedia dell’arte: 16th century Italian entertainment with stock characters (lunar clown)-Nacht is night

• Song cycle: a set of songs unified by some shared characteristic in the music and/or poetry-Schoenberg used 21 of Albert Giraud’s poems about Pierrot b/c hired by Albertine Zehme

Continued….• Singer uses Sprechstinmme: notes are half-sung and

half-spoken, sing-song effect & doesn’t have a clear relationship to instruments

• Subtitle: Passacaglia: new melodies appear over a repeating bass line-ostinato: a short pattern that repeats many, many times-rising minor third followed by a descending major third usually using the pitches E-G-Eflat

• fermata: tells performers to sustain a note or slience longer than its written value-piano, cello, and bass

• On the bridge: player draws bow directly over the instrument’s bridge-cello does this so strings cannot vibrate freely and timbre is chilly

Other techniques• Word painting: setting the music to

illustrate the literal meaning of a particular wordex: upward leap at “Duft” (fragrance) Steight ein duftsubset of text expression: general association that does not reflect literal meaning, but suits the general moodex: funeral in minor mode

Primitivism• Shares characteristics with Expressionism, but do not

give a sense of impending doom or disturbing effects• Exotic juxtaposition with humans and nature, inspired

by traditional arts of Africa or the Pacific Islands• MUSIC:

primal, uncultural effects shunned polished techniquesno conventional concert musicemphasis on percussive rhythms ostinato patternssimplified common-practice harmony or abandoned it

The Rite of Spring• 1910 Russian Igor Stravinsky lived in Paris at the

same time as Sergei Diaghilev, an impresario for the ballet ($$$ + decision maker)

• Diaghilev wanted to showcase Russian culture• Stravinsky was commissioned and thought of a

pagan ritual where a young girl would dance herself to death to placate the God of SpringTalked to Nikolai Roerich, a painter & expert on Ancient Slavs’ cultureWorked out the scenario: storyline or plot of ballet

The Rite of Spring Intro & Omens of

Spring• Solo bassoon played at a high register so it has a

distorted timbre and is lost w/ no steady meter• Old Lithuanian wedding tune’s melody is used• Complicated texture = awakening of nature• Omens of Spring has polychord: two distinct harmonies

played simultaneously dissonance• Pounding rhythm + ostinato patterns = ritual drumming• Syncopated accents = no steady meter• 3 ostinato patterns occur simultaneously = polymetric

passage

Nationalism• Composers sought to elevate one’s love of their

country• Reject the music conventions of the enemy (ex: France

post-Franco Prussian War, Les Six)• Rediscovering lost music of the nation (ex: England

rediscovered Renaissance music) • Showcased geographic features of the country (ex:

England) • Quoting hymns and patriotic songs that

commemorated landscape, history, and artists (Charles Ives of USA)

Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly

• 2 Hungarians who were ethnomusicologists and composers

• They retrieved field recordings from Hungary and other places such as Turkey using a gramophone

• Used the folk and ethnic music as inspiration for their own pieces

• Suchoff’s classification of folk-music adaptation (five levels, pg. 61)

Romanian Christmas Carols

• Bartok created Romanian Christmas Carols with 20 melodies from the Transylvania sector of Romania (1909)

• Listed the source colinde, or carols in his score• Stories from ancient pagan times • Nationalistic elements: modal: scales that predate the

common-practice system (from Medieval + Renaissance) major and minor were modalflexible meter b/c folk music rhythm follows poetic syllablesdrone: mimics the Hungarian bagpipe (open pipes called drones) with a sustained, unchanging note

Atonality• Tonal = music w/ a tonic (the “resting tone”)• Atonal= no resting tone and may reflect Cubism, with

no fixed viewpoint and diff perspectives• Schoenberg liked the term “pantonal” b/c it always has

relationships with pitches• Emancipation of the Dissonance: there was no real

distinction between extremely chromatic consonance and dissonance No need to make a complex chord simpler to resolve it

• Atonality led to 12 tone serialism in 1920s

Atonality• Abandons traditional scales and chords• Still could be conventional b/c of

straightforward meter and rhythm• Lack of a tonic makes people pay attention

to the notes in the piece• Can accompany other styles of music or be

its own style (ex: Webern, part of 2nd Viennese School, Six Bagatelles for String Quartet)

Six Bagatelles • Bagatelles=character piece=“trifle”,

something of little value• Employs all 12 notes of the chromatic

scale within the first seven measures = pantonality, all notes matter

• Atonality refers to chromatic scale as aggregate: a set that contains the 12 diff pitches in Western music (semitones)

Yay for More Terms• Uses a concert string quartet w/ new techniques

-on the bridge-pizzacato-mute: a small device that limits the string’s ability to vibrate to mute it

• Tempo is extremely slow In the beginning pointillism: notes are sounded with no accompaniment so each pitch sounds isolated

• Klangfarbenmelodie: tone color melody where emphasis is on a series of timbres instead of a singable melody

• Canon: imitative polyphonyex: the tone colors overlap to make a canon