Uneasy period from 1918-1939 between WWs- after this…

• Economic depression

• Pearl Harbour

• Other uncertainties

The Postwar Avant-Garde

• Experiment and innovation

• “Highly intellectual constrictive tendencies”

  • Serialized rhythms, dynamics, and timbre

  • Applied mathematical theories

New Sound Materials

New sonorities, using both old instruments and electronics

Clarinets used multiphonics, odd chords

Electronic Music

• Electronic sound can generate noise, and recording equipment can reproduce sounds

• Magnetic tape (WWII development) revolutionized made tape manipulation easier

• Post WWII “Musique concrète” incorporated life sounds into compositions (similar to modern sampling)

• Synthesizers appeared in the 1960s, revolutionizing creation of new sound w/ patch cords

• Computer/electronic music has increased in popularity over time

On the Boundaries of Time

Time and rhythms had breakthroughs in this time period

Webern, Five Orchestral Pieces (1913), IV

• Six measure long piece

• “Atomized” orchestration

• Concentrated music

• Intense

Chance Music

Chance music describes a variety of unconventional music, which can be very extreme (dice thrown to determine instruments) or more tame (improvisation parts)

The New Generation

• Lots of new composers worldwide post-WWII

  • French, German, Italian, Pole, Hungarian, Greek, American, and Japanese composers listed

Edgard Varèse (1883–1965)

• Older than some other composers of the time

• Very radical music

• Fire destroyed Paris and Berlin (early) works

• “Found his voice” after moving to America

Poème électronique (1958)

• “Extraordinary multimedia experience”

• Written for 1958 Brussels World’s Fair

  • Sponsored by Philips Radio Corporation

• Musique concrète snare drum

György Ligeti (1923–2006)

• Ligeti went to the Budapest Academy of Music as a student and a young teacher

• Moved West from Hungary in 1956 due to Communist restrictions

• New sonorities

• Sometimes no clear pitches/chords

• No discernible meter/distinct rhythm

Lux aeterna (1966)

• 16 solo singers and chorus

• Some chords with the entire chromatic scale

• Hard to illustrate with pitch-time graphs

• Four slow “sound surges”

John Cage (1912-1992)

• “Father of chance music”

• From California

• Studied with Schoenberg

• Had questions about music foundations

4’33” (1952)

• More of a statement

  • Common with Cage

• Any amount of players

• Everybody sits in silence for 4 minutes and 33 seconds

Music at the Turn of the Millennium

• Traditional features questioned “in more basic ways”

• Less “difficulty and elitism” in avant-garde music

• New styles

Steve Reich (b. 1936) and Minimalism

• Minimalism: famous mid-60s style with simple and very repetitive melodies, motives, and harmonies

  • Big in opera

• Keyboardist Steve Reich is an “acknowledged master”

  • Early music “explores issues of rhythm and timing”

  • Later is more broad?

Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76)

• Early minimalist classic

• Cellist, violinist, 2 clarinetists, 4 singers, 4 pianos, 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones, vibraphone

  • Percussion majority

• “Rigorously, almost schematically, organized”

  • Intro, 12 connected sections, and conclusion

New Expressionism and Connecting to the Past

• More accessible and approachable than previous music

• Some had “more straightforward expression”

• Some composers “recalled” late Romantic music

  • George Rochberg, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

  • Postmodern defines “new music that refers to styles older than modernism”

• General “eclecticism” and “stylistic variety”

Tania León (b. 1943)

• Cuban refugee to America

  • Global heritage

    • Influences compositions, she uses many cultural themes

• Studied at the National Conservatory of Havana

• Once worked w/ ballets! (Dance Theatre of Harlem)

• Now teaches at Brooklyn College

• Uses more dissonant/atonal harmonies

• “Enormously dynamic rhythm”

Ind­ígena (1991)

• Refers to “indigenous”

• Chamber orchestra work- 13 players, largely strings and woodwinds

• Has comparsas- repeated string chords

• Polyrhythms- complex, overlapping rhythms

• Noticeable trumpet

John Adams (b. 1947)

• A “true American original”

• Raised in New England, went to Harvard

• First influenced by Steve Reich’s minimalism

• Has written several operas

  • Topics “plucked from headlines”

  • Common American themes

Doctor Atomic (2005)

• Opera about the testing of atomic bombs (“Manhattan Project”)

• Uses a sonnet from early 17th century poet John Donne

  • Lyric poem of 14 lines

• Aria opening with orchestral ritornello

Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)

• Won the 2013 music Pulitzer Prize

  • Youngest to win it (30)

  • Entered “on a whim”

Partita for 8 Voices (2013)

• A “partita” was an early 1600s section in a set of variations (usually for keyboard). In the 1700s, it was a dance suite for 1 instrument

  • Bach made six for harpsichord, and three for violin

• Shaw used both partita elements, and wrote four movements w/ Baroque names

• Very complex

  • “Broken’ voice of [yodeler]”

  • Hummed glissandos

  • Lots of speaking instead of singing

• Three variations