20th Century Music: Impressionism, Nationalism, and Digital Era

A Century of Change

The twentieth century broke with Romanticism, introducing different music. World War II found romantic music evolving with more modern forms of composition. In the nineteenth century, musical movements emerged with a new air of France and nationalism.

Impressionism and the Group of Six

The Impressionists sought to create atmospheres and suggestive impressions using new combinations of timbres and harmonies. Principal composer Claude Debussy, with works like The Sea, Clouds, Sirens, and Night. Maurice Ravel, another Impressionist, was a very skilled orchestrator, achieving a winning combination of magical sounds and instruments never before used. He composed the Bolero for orchestra.

In Paris, the Group of Six, admirers of Erik Satie, was formed by six composers, the most important of whom were Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Arthur Honegger.

Nationalism

Bela Bartok, Zoltán Kodály, and Manuel de Falla dedicated their efforts to implementing folk music in their respective countries in the composition of music intended for concert halls, similar to that of the Romantic era. Manuel de Falla, born in Cadiz, primarily used Andalusian folklore, also incorporating elements from other sites on the peninsula, as seen in his Seven Popular Spanish Songs.

The Twelve-Tone Technique and Atonality

In Vienna, Arnold Schoenberg composed music increasingly different from the rules of tonality and triad chords. For each work, he used a new approach to reach atonality, a form of composition based on free choice of notes and chords. The next step was a new technique called dodecaphonism, which consisted of utilizing a twelve-tone chromatic scale freely, without repeating any tone.

The Twentieth Century Since 1950

Composers and performers had a significant task: to create new musical works that contributed to reconstruction and culture. Emerging styles and trends evolved through the works of great authors such as Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luigi Nono.

Chance and Indeterminacy

This approach was based on five basic rules:

• Allows musicians to play freely.
• Suggest ideas through drawings.
• Compose silent pieces.
• Use radio-burning appliances.
• Write music fragments of letters and cards.

Wind Instruments

Their origin goes back to ancient times in Egypt, where clarinets and oboes were used. As old as these are the first flutes, similar to those of today, then made of animal bones. Canes, hollow logs, shells, animal horns, and metal pipes were used for thousands of years as wind instruments by our ancestors.

The Harmonica

• Diatonic: This is refined according to a certain scale.
• Chromatic: The chromatic harmonica is essentially a double harmonica, with holes for natural notes and some for altered notes, used for any shade.

The Digital Era

Digital sound, based on the conversion of sound waves into binary codes, had its first attempts in the 1960s. The beginning of the digital age was in the 1980s with the launch of digital CDs. The CD offered better durability, longer recording time, and required less space for storage. The CD prompted the reissue of many discs that might not have otherwise been released.

Synthesizers, Drum Machines, and Sequencers

With the advent of digital technology, it became easier to obtain different timbres. Rhythmic patterns can be programmed with sounds of drums and percussion. Sequencers are devices that can sequence fragments of music.

Computers and Music

Computers have ensured that tapes are more flexible and have fewer bugs.

Internet

The Internet is a broadcast medium where music can be found squeezed into the network in digital format (MP3), and information on everything can be found.

MP3

MP3 compresses digital sound to an acceptable quality.