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Graduate Music History Review - Modern

Terms in this set (62)

Atonality
In modern music, the absence (intentional avoidance) of a tonal center.
Avant Garde
(French for "at the forefront") Modern music that is on the cutting edge of innovation.
Expressionism
A style in modern painting and music that projects the inner fear or turmoil of the artist, using abrasive colors/sounds and distortions (begun in music by Schoenberg, Webern and Berg).
Impressionism
A term borrowed from 19th-century French art (Claude Monet) to loosely describe early 20th- century French music that focuses on blurred atmosphere and suggestion. Debussy "Nuages" from Trois Nocturnes (1899)
Indeterminacy/Chance Music
A generic term applied to any situation where the performer is given freedom from a composer's notational prescription (when some aspect of the piece is left to chance or the choices of the performer).
Metric Modulation
A technique used by Elliott Carter and others to precisely change tempo by using a note value in the original tempo as a metrical time-pivot into the new tempo. Carter String Quartet No. 5 (1995)
Minimalism
An avant garde compositional approach that reiterates and slowly transforms small musical motives to create expansive and mesmerizing works. Glass Glassworks (1982); other minimalist composers are Steve Reich and John Adams.
Neo-Classicism
Modern music that uses Classic gestures or forms (such as Theme and Variation Form, Rondo Form, Sonata Form, etc.) but still has modern harmonies and instrumentation. Copland "Variations on a Shaker Hymn" from Appalachian Spring (1944)
Neo-Romanticism
Modern music that avoids harsh avant garde experimentation to sound more lyrical and Romantic in style, but still uses more modern sounding harmonies and tone colors. Barber Adagio for Strings (1944)
Orchestral Soundmass
A musical texture that obscures the boundaries between sound and noise, focusing more on dynamics, texture and tone color than on individual pitches. Xenakis Metastaseis (1954)
Pointillism
A musical texture promoted by Webern in which the pitches of a melody are presented just a few at a time (isolated "points" of sound) rather than in a traditional continuous melodic line in the same instrument. This technique is closely associated with Klangfarbenmelodie (which is the multi-colored melody that is produced when the pitches played by the instruments are taken as a single melodic whole).
Polytonality
The simultaneous use of more than one harmonic center.
Post-Modernism
The borrowing of forms, procedures, and/or values of the past that can be found in the works of many 20th-century composers. Post-modernism comes after modern (and react to it), and it is not a style or historical period--it is an attitude that has a disdain for structural unity, can simultaneously blend elements of the past and present, and embrace contradictions.
Prepared Piano
The process of installing every-day objects at strategic places between the strings of a piano in order to allow it to create a myriad of new sounds.
Primitivism
A movement in modern Western art and music that evokes images of prehistoric peoples. Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (1913)
Second Viennese School
The term associated with the early 20th-century "school of thought" centered in Vienna of Schoenberg and his most prominent students--Berg and Webern. (The "First Viennese School" was Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in the Classic era.)
Serialism
The ordering of pitch so that all 12 chromatic tones (and their octave equivalents) are given equal emphasis. A 12-tone row and 12 x 12 pitch matrix are constructed and used to control the melodic and harmonic sonority of the work. All four forms of the 12-tone row can be used and transposed to any chromatic pitch as a starting point
Prime
Forward order
Retrograde
Backwards order
Inversion
Forward order, but the intervals of the Prime row are inverted
Retrograde Inversion
Backward order with the intervals inverted
Sprechstimme
A vocal style somewhere between agitated speaking and expressive singing, which uses wide leaps and glissandos. (Half-sung, half-spoken melodramatic vocal delivery, indicated in the musical score by "x" note-heads).
Stochastic Music
A slowly-evolving mass of sound that gradually makes "a symptotic (based on probability theory) evolution towards a stable state." (In Probability Theory, a "Stochastic System" is one whose state is non- deterministic). Xenakis Metastaseis (1954)
Third Stream
In 1961, Gunther Schuller defined the third stream as "a new genre of music located about halfway between jazz and classical music." It incorporates jazz instruments, jazz phrasing, jazz rhythms, and improvisation, into orchestral and chamber music. Sketch for Double String Quartet (1959) with Schuller conducting the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Beaux Arts String Quartet
Tone Cluster
The use of groups of pitches in an unbroken continuum of microtonal gradation in voices or string instruments, or striking a large continuous section of black and white keys as a block (cluster of tones) on a piano. Cowell The Banshee (1925)
Total Serialism and Multi-Serialism
Using the relative digits within a 12-tone row and 12 x 12 pitch matrix to control many ("multi-serialism") or all ("total serialism") structural aspects of a work (melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, articulation, choice of instruments, etc.). Webern experimented with multi-serialism in some of his later works (such as Cantata No. 1 Op. 29), and then total serialism was promoted by mathematician/composers such as Babbitt (Philomel, 1964).
Cantata
Traditionally this is a short, unstaged multi-movement Lutheran liturgical sacred work for solo singers, chorus and small orchestra, but in the Modern Era, Schoenberg also used this genre (with chorus, orchestra, and a narrator/soloist reciting in Sprechstimme) as the inspiration for a different type of religious commentary about the genocide of Polish Jews during the Holocaust of World War II (A Survivor from Warsaw, 1946).
Character Piece
A one-movement programmatic work for solo piano.
Electro-Acoustic Music
Modern music that blends electronic or computer-generated sounds with traditional voices/instruments.
Musique concrète
Recording sounds from the natural world and manipulating them electronically to create
entirely new sounds. Varese Poème électronique (1958)
Nocturne
A programmatic piano genre suggesting quietness of night. In the Modern Era, Debussy expanded the term to describe orchestral works that evoked similar imagery. Debussy "Nuages" from Trois Nocturnes (1899)
Arch Form
A design that creates a symmetrical arch with its structure
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
This ground-breaking leader of the French "impressionist" movement is known for his colorfully-evocative piano works, symphonic poems, and songs. "Nuages" from Trois Nocturnes [impressionist nocturne] (1899)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
An important composer of French impressionism and a greatest orchestrator Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestration of Musorgsky's piano suite) [orchestral suite] 1922
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
This Austrian composer promoted the revolutionary early 20th-century concepts of atonality, serialism, expressionism, and Sprechstimme. Pierrot lunaire [song cycle] 1912; A Survivor from Warsaw [cantata] 1946
Anton von Webern (1883-1945)
He was among Schoenberg's most famous pupils and is known for the brevity of his works, as well as his creative use of serialism and pointillism. Symphonie, Op. 21 [pointillist symphony] 1928
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
He was also among Schoenberg's most famous pupils and is known for his lyrical approach to atonality and serialism. Wozzeck [expressionist opera] 1925
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
The first US composer to design an innovative, nationalistic approach to art music. He used polytonality and experimental textures, harmonies, and rhythms while incorporating American themes.
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
This Russian-born composer participated in and gave impetus to most of the significant musical developments of the first half of the 20th century. The Rite of Spring [primitivist ballet] 1913
Henry Cowell (1897-1965)
This American composer was one of the earliest experimental composers of the 20th century. Primarily known for The Banshee [character piece] 1925, played directly on the strings inside the piano.
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
He was a daring pioneer in the scientific study of folk music in Hungary and other eastern European countries. String Quartet No. 5 [string quartet] 1934
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
A leading Russian composer of the first half of the 20th century, known for his intense symphonies, piano works, and his narrated symphonic poem for children--Peter and the Wolf (1936).
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
He was the leading German composer of the first half of the 20th century, and an important music theorist.
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
This mid-20th century composer was the chief representative of musical nationalism in Brazil. Bachianas Brasilieras No. 7 [orchestral suite] 1942
Edgard Varèse (1883-1965)
This French-born, American-raised composer was an early avant garde visionary. Poème électronique [musique concrète] 1958
Samuel Barber (1910-81)
This American composer promoted neo-Romanticism (the new Romanticism). Adagio for Strings [symphonic poem] 1936
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
The first truly internationally-renowned American composer, known for his nationalistic ballets, songs, choral music, and orchestral works. Appalachian [ballet] 1944
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75)
A leading Russian composer in the mid-20th century, known for his intense symphonies, chamber music, and piano works.
Benjamin Britten (1913-76)
He was the leading British composer of the 20th century, known for his operas, choral, orchestral and chamber music.
Olivier Messiaen (1908-92)
A French 20th-century composer, known for his complex rhythmic and harmonic orchestral, chamber and organ works.
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)
The leading German composer of the late 20th-century avant garde. Known for his electronic music, electro-acoustic music, serial compositions, chamber and orchestral works.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-90)
A multi-faceted and highly influential American composer, conductor, author and teacher. West Side Story [jazz-influenced musical theatre] 1957
John Cage (1912-92)
Perhaps the most important philosopher-composer of modern times, he challenged everything about musical sound and construction. He is mostly remembered for "prepared piano" works such as Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1948), and those based on indeterminacy ("chance music") such as 4'33" (1952)--but he did much more than just that, constantly searching for "the music I haven't heard yet."
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011
This Princeton University professor of mathematics and music composition was associated with the compositional principles of total serialism. Philomel [electro-acoustic music] 1964
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
This Greek-born, French-naturalized composer, theorist and architect-engineer was one of the most important post-World War II avant garde thinkers. He is most known for his post-modernist stochastic music and orchestral soundmass compositions based on probability theory. Metastaseis (1954)
Elliott Carter (1908-2012)
A Pulitzer-Prize winning American composer, who wrote an enormous amount of music in almost every traditional classical genre. Known for his use of metric modulation. String Quartet No. 5 (1995)
Pierre Boulez (born 1925)
This composer/conductor is the leading French avant garde composer, known for his complex total-serialized works.
Gunther Schuller (born 1925)
This contemporary American composer coined the phrase "third stream" music (blending art music and jazz into a third category), and has incorporated jazz elements into many of his works. Sketch for Double String Quartet (1959) with Schuller conducting the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Beaux Arts String Quartet [third stream work]
George Crumb (born 1929)
This professor emeritus at Princeton is one of the leading figures of the American avant garde movement. Black Angels [electric string quartet] 1970
Steve Reich (born 1936)
One of the leading composers of the American avant garde minimalist movement. Violin Phase [minimalist composition] 1967
Philip Glass (born 1937)
One of the leading composers of the American avant garde minimalist movement. Glassworks [minimalist composition] 1970
John Adams (born 1947)
One of the leading composers of the American minimalist and avant garde movements.
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