1. 20th century musical trends
Rhythmic complexity
Unbalanced difficult melodies
Richer Harmony - polychords &
polyharmony
More Chamber groups
Tightly organized forms

2. 20th century
European styles
Post Romanticism
Impressionism
Expressionism
Neo Classical

3. Post Romanticism
Associated with Germany, Italy, and Austria
Continued to write in Classical/Romantic genres
Lyrical melodies, deeply passionate
More exoticism and interest in fresh ideas
COMPOSERS: Strauss, Puccini, Mahler

4. Impressionism
Began in Paris, France (late 19th c.)
Artists: Monet, Renoir
Symbolist Poets: Maillarmé, Verlaine
MUSIC: Opposition to “German”
Romanticism
Abstract Qualities
COMPOSERS: Debussy
Ravel

5. Impressionism
Response to cultural awakening of the Paris World
Exhibition of 1889
Inventive orchestration with new timbres
“Transparent” melodies
Embraced dissonance in harmony
Avoided tonal centers
Rhythm and meter are obscurred
Short “lyric” forms
Evocative titles

6. Video
Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a
Faun”

7. Expressionism
German Response to French Impressionism
Deeply emotional
Expanded harmony, melody, and instrumental
registers
Heavily reliant on form
Associated with 2nd Viennese School
COMPOSERS: Schoenberg, Berg, Webern

8. Video
Schoenberg’s 12 tone method

9. Arnold Schoenberg
(1874-1951)
1910 - wrote Theory of Harmony
early composer to atonal music - music that lacks a tonal center, or key
Leader of the Second Viennese School (with pupils and fellow
composers Berg and Webern)
totally chromatic expressionism
serial twelve-tone music
His Pierrot Lunaire - features:
a melodic technique he called Klangfarbenmelodie (tone-color
melody) where each note of melody is played by a different instrument.
A vocal melody called Sprechstimme (spoken voice) where the text
sounds spoken with approximate shifts in pitch rather than exact
pitches and rhythms.

10. Neo Classical
ART (18th-19th c.)
MUSICAL (late 19th-20th c.)
renewed interest in the music of Bach, Handel,
and Vivaldi (BAROQUE)
Absolute music preferred
Focus on craftsmanship and balance
COMPOSERS:
Eric Satie (French) Paul Hindemith (German) Sergei Prokofiev (Russian)

11. Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
born in Russia, later was naturalized in both France (1934) and
America (1945).
First achieved fame with 3 ballets commissioned by Serge
Diagilev and performed by his Ballets Russes (Russian Ballets)
The Firebird (1910)
Petrushka (1911)
The Rite of Spring (1913)
Musical style evolved:
Nationalism (Firebird)
Primitivism (Rite of Spring)
Exoticism
Neoclassic works in 1920s
Serialism in 1950s

12. Stravinsky’s innovations
Use of polyrhythms, polytonality
Experiments with atonality and serial procedures
Unique and innovative use of dissonance
Complex rhythmic structures
odd time signatures, meters that change frequently
Imaginative orchestration - sometimes expanded
orchestra to be larger
Use of extremes in instrumental register