20th-Century Music: Styles and Composers
Classified in Music
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Impressionism
Characteristics: Conveys moods and emotions through tone color.
Origin: France
Composer: Claude Debussy
Musical Features: Slow tempo, lack of contrast or shape, focus on tone color.
Expressionism
Characteristics: Expresses emotion through music intended to create discomfort and unease.
Origin: Austria & Germany
Composer: Arnold Schoenberg
Musical Features: Harsh, tense, uneasy, and uncomfortable melodies and harmonies; dissonant and dark.
Serialism
Characteristics: A systematic approach to composition using a row of pitches derived from the chromatic scale (12-tone technique).
Origin: Austria & Germany
Composer: Arnold Schoenberg
Musical Features: Dissonant, atonal (lack of tonality), based on a pre-ordered series of pitches.
Audience Reception: Initially unpopular due to its departure from traditional tonality.
Schoenberg's Evolution: Transitioned from a Baroque-influenced style to serialism, exploring new sounds in music.
Primitivism
Characteristics: Emphasis on primordial elements such as rhythm, dynamics, and repetition.
Composer: Igor Stravinsky
Other Styles and Composers
Ragtime
Composer/Piece: Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag
Characteristics: Early American piano music with syncopated rhythms.
New Tango
Composer/Piece: Astor Piazzolla - Libertango
Characteristics: Dark, quick-moving strings with a Spanish influence.
Modernism
Composers: Charles Ives, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki
Chance Music
Composer: Terry Riley
Electronic Music
Composer: Milton Babbitt
Nationalism
Composer: Aaron Copland
Minimalism
Composer: Philip Glass
Post-minimalism
Composer: Steve Reich, John Adams
Postmodernism
Composer: Caroline Shaw
Musical Examples
- Claude Debussy - Nuages (Impressionism): Soft oboes, bassoons, and strings.
- Arnold Schoenberg - Nacht (Expressionism): Dark piano and creepy strings, followed by female vocals.
- Arnold Schoenberg - Minuet (Serialism): Disorganized piano with dynamic shifts.
- Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring (Primitivism): Heavy rhythm with strings, percussion, oboes, clarinets, and trumpets.
- Charles Ives - The Unanswered Question (Modernism): Soft woodwinds and piano, descending scales.
- Terry Riley - In C (Chance Music): Repetitive xylophone with other instruments joining.
- Milton Babbitt - Philomel (Electronic Music): Electronic sounds, beeps, and ringing.
- Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (Nationalism): Soft strings and elongated notes.
- Luciano Berio - Sequenza III (Modernism): Whispering and vocalizations.
- Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (Modernism): Screeching, horror-like sounds.
- Philip Glass - The Hours (Minimalism): Calm orchestral music with minimal variation.
- John Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine (Post-minimalism): Woodblocks, oboe, and trumpets.
- Caroline Shaw - Sarabande (Postmodernism): Vocalizations.
- Scott Joplin - Maple Leaf Rag (Ragtime): Piano music.
- Astor Piazzolla - Libertango (New Tango): Quick strings.