music paper
YANGYANG
kerman7e_ch21earlymodernism-1.pptChapter 21
Early Modernism
First Phase of Modernism (1890–1914)
- Mostly in Paris and Vienna
- Leading figures: Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg
- Radical change and development
- Revolution in tonality
- Rethinking of melody and harmony
*
Paris and Vienna
as Musical Centers
*
Claude Debussy
(1862–1918)
- The leading impressionist composer
- Trained at Paris Conservatory
- Influences: kuchka, gamelan, Wagner
- Style crystallized in his early thirties
- Influence of impressionism and symbolism
- Innovations in orchestration, piano writing
- Wrote orchestral works, piano music, songs, chamber music, an opera
*
Debussy, Three Nocturnes
- Impressionistic symphonic poems
- Three character pieces for orchestra
- Clouds: pure nature piece
- Festivals: mysterious nighttime fairs
- Sirens: wordless women’s chorus evokes legendary (deadly) mermaids
*
Three Nocturnes, Clouds
- Very loose ternary form: A B A′
- A: Motives and melodic fragments only
- “Cloud theme” built on oscillating chords
- Octatonic English horn motive
- Focus on shifting textures, tone colors
*
Three Nocturnes, Clouds
- B: More melodic and complete
- Pentatonic tune repeats three times
- A′: even more fragmentary than A
- No literal return, only a vague recollection
*
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
- Mentored by Rimsky-Korsakov
- First success with Ballets Russes
- Leading Neoclassical composer after 1920
- New take on ideas of Bach, Handel, Mozart
- Moved to L.A. in the 1930s
- Turned to twelve-tone works late in life
*
Stravinsky,
The Rite of Spring
- Deliberately barbaric style
- Crude use of folk-tune fragments
- “Unemotional,” dissonant music
- Remarkable tone colors, huge orchestra
- Visceral, unpredictable rhythms
- First performance caused a riot
- Provocative, nonballetic choreography
- Violent, brutal, dissonant sounds
*
The Rite of Spring
Introduction
- “Fanfare” for bassoon
- In very high range (new tone colors)
- Many short melodic fragments
- Frequently repeated; never the same
- Piled up to dissonant climax
- Bassoon fanfare returns
*
The Rite of Spring
Dance of the Adolescents
- Dancers enter with accented chords
- 32 repetitions of dissonant chord
- Heavy, irregular accents
- Chords alternate with four-note ostinato
*
The Rite of Spring
Dance of the Adolescents
- Folk-song motives laid over rhythm
- An irregular ostinato
- Motives repeat, new ones pile up
*
The Rite of Spring
The Game of Abduction
- Brutal, violent rhythms
- Frequently changing meter
- Loud—heavy brass, sliding horns, frantic timpani
- Scurrying figures alternate with heavy, booming ones
*
The Rite of Spring
Round Dances of Spring
- Relentless buildup to overpowering climax
- Trombone glissandos with gong, cymbals, and bass drum
- Sudden fast coda with violent interjections
- Brief return of p bassoon fanfare
*
Expressionism
- A music of increasing emotionality
- Exploited extreme psychological states
- Hysteria, nightmare, insanity
- Reflected fascination with Freud’s work
*
Edvard Munch The Scream
Arnold Schoenberg
(1874–1951)
- The leading expressionist composer
- Largely self-taught in music
- Gifted expressionist painter
- Began writing atonal works in 1907
- Developed twelve-tone system in early 1920s
- Taught at UCLA at end of his life
*
Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire
- Highly influential song cycle
- Based on 21 poems by a symbolist poet
- Pierrot is the eternal sad clown
- Lunaire refers to the moon and lunacy
- Written in expressionist idiom
- Kaleidoscopic scoring: each song uses different combination of instruments
- Texts magnified and distorted by use of Sprechstimme
*
Sprechstimme
- Technique invented by Schoenberg
- “Speech-song,” in between song and speech
*
Pierrot lunaire, No 18:
“The Moonfleck”
- For voice, piano, piccolo, clarinet, violin, cello
- Piano introduction
- Dense, dissonant, alarmingly intense
- Depicts Pierrot’s obsession
- High-pitched, quicksilver motives
- Fugues and canons
- Fantastic web of atonal sounds
*
The Twelve-Tone System
- aka Serialism
- Composer creates a twelve-tone row (series)
- Puts notes of chromatic scale in a fixed order
- Notes must be used in the order prescribed by the row
- In any octave or rhythm
- All notes must be used before starting over
- No repetitions or backtracking
*
Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- More open to Romantic tradition; looking back
- Immediate success with Wozzeck
- Both Lulu and Wozzeck banned by the Nazis
- Died of an infected insect bite
*
Berg, Wozzeck
- 1923 opera based on 1837 play by Georg Büchner
- Influenced by earlier expressionism
- Borrows Sprechstimme technique
- Each scenes uses a different form
*
Wozzeck: The Story
- Wozzeck is a poor, downtrodden soldier
- Troubled by visions, tormented by his captain
- Human guinea pig in doctor’s experiments
- Beaten up by drum major who’s having an affair with his lover, Marie
- Finally pushed over the edge
- Murders Marie, goes mad, drowns himself
- Their young child orphaned
*
Wozzeck, Act III, scene iii
- Invention on a rhythm
- “Master rhythm” used throughout in many different tempos
- Two opening chord crescendos
- Immediately after the murder
- Timpani begins master rhythm just after the first chord
*
Wozzeck, Act III, scene iii
- Wozzeck enters tavern after killing Marie
- Ragtime piano intro and Margret’s song make use of master rhythm
*
Wozzeck, Act III, scene iii
- Margret sees blood on Wozzeck’s hand
- Crescendo of accusations chases him
*
Key Terms
- Impressionism
- Ballet
- Expressionism
- Sprechstimme
- Serialism
- Twelve-tone row (series)
ED: Though prevailing number style in the PowerPoints is to spell out one through nine and use figures for other numbers, make an exception for “twelve-tone” to match the book’s usage, OK? Spell out “twelve” throughout this chapter’s slides?
*
