MUSIC OF THE

20TH CENTURY
 One of the earlier forms
clearly declaring the entry
of 20th century music was
known as impressionism.
This was based on an art
movement started by 19th
century Paris-based visual
artists, specifically Claude
Impressionism Monet through his
painting Impression
Sunrise.
Impressionism was an attempt to
suggest reality not to depict it. In
impressionism, the sounds of different
chords overlapped lightly with each
other to produce new subtle musical
colors.
 Claude Debussy

One of the most important and influential

of the 20th century composers was Claude
Debussy. He was the primary exponent of
the impressionist movement and the focal
point for other impressionist composers. His
early musical talents were channeled into
piano lessons. He entered Paris
Conservatory in 1873.
Debussy’s mature creative perioD was
represented by the following works:

*Ariettes Oubliees

*Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

*String Quartet

*Pelleas et Melisande (1895)

*La Mer (1905)

*Images, Suite Bermasque, and Estampes

 “
From the East, he was fascinated by the Javanese Gamelan that he
heard at the 1889 Paris Exposition. The gamelan is an ensemble with
bells, gongs, xylophone, and occasional vocal parts which he later used
in his works to achieve a new sound. As the “Father of the Modern
School of Composition,” he made his mark on the styles of later 20th
century composers like Igor Stravinsky, Edgar Varese, and Oliver
Messiaen.
 MAURICE RAVEL

Joseph Maurice Ravel was born in

Ciboure, France to a Basque mother
and a Swiss father. He entered the
Paris Conservatory at the age of 14
where he studied with the eminent
French composer Gabriel Faure. The

6 compositional style of Ravel is mainly

characterized by its uniquely
innovative but not atonal style of
harmonic treatment. His refined
delicacy and color, contrasts and
effects add to the difficulty in the
proper execution of the musical
passages.
RAVEL’S
*Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899)
*Jeux d’Eau or Water Fountains (1901)
WORKS: *String Quartet (1903)
*Sonatine for Piano (c. 1904)
*Gaspard de la Nuit (1908)
*Valses Nobles de Couperin (c. 1917)
*Rhapsodie Espagnole (1907-1908)
*Bolero (1875-1937)
 ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
(1874-1951)

Arnold Schoenberg His works:

was born in a
*Veklare Nacht,
working-class
Three Pieces for
suburb of Vienna,
Piano, op. 11

8 Austria on
September 13, 1874.
He taught himself
*Pierrot Lunaire
*Gurreleider
music theory, but
*Verklarte Nacht
took lessons in
(Transfigured
counterpoint.
Night, 1899)
Schoenberg’s style
was constantly
undergoing
development.
 IGOR STRAVINSKY
(1882-1971)
Stands alongside fellow composer
Schoenberg, painter Pablo Picasso, and
literary figure James Joyce as one the
great trendsetters of the 20th century.
Stravinsky’s early music reflected the
influence of his teacher, the Russian

9 composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

When Stravinsky left Russia for the United
States in 1939, he slowly turned his back
on Russian nationalism and cultivated his
neo- classical style.
Works:
*Petrouchka (1911)
*The Rite of Spring (1013)
*The Rake’s Progress (1951)
 PRIMITIVISM

Primitivistic Music is tonal through the stressing of one note as more

important than the other. Primitivism has links to Exoticism through the
use of materials from other cultures, to Nationalism through the
indigenous to specific country, and to ethnicism through the use of
material form European ethnic groups.
 BELA BARTOK
(1881-1945)
Bela Bartok started Piano
lessons with his mother and later
entered Budapest Royal
Academy of Music in 1899, In
1906, with his composer Zoltan
Kodaly, Bartok performed his

11 first collection of 20 Hungarian

folk songs

His Works:
*Six String Quartets (1908-1938)
*The Concerto for Orchestra
(1943)
*Allegro Barbaro (1911)
*Mikrokosmos (1926-1939)
Sergei Sergei Prokofieff is regarded today as a
Prokofieff combination of a now-classical, nationalist, and
avant-garde composer. His early compositions
were branded as avant-garde and were not
approved by his elders. Much of Prokofieff’s
opera was left unfinished, due in part to
resistance by the performers themselves to the
seemingly offensive musical content. Prokofieff
was highly successful in his piano music, as
evidenced by the wide acceptance of his piano
concerti, and sonatas.
His works: *Romeo and Juliet
*War and Peace
*Peter and the Wolf
FRANCIS POULENC
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was one of the
relatively few composers born into wealth and
privileged social position. Poulenc was a
successful composer for piano, voice, and choral
music. Poulenc’s vocal works reveal his strength
as a lyrical melodist. was a member of the group
of young French composers knows as “Les Six.”
Poulenc’s choral works tended to be more
somber and solemn, as portrayed by litanies a la
vierge noire (Litanies of the Black Madonna, 1936)
Other members of “Les Six”
Georges Auric (1899-1983)
Louis Durey (1888-1979)
Arthur Honegger (1882-1955)
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983)
 Avant-garde music

Closely associated with electronic music, the avant-garde movement dealt

with the parameters of the dimensions of sound in space. Improvisation was a
necessarily in this style, for the musical scores were not necessarily followed
as written.
 GEORGE GERSHWIN
(1898-1973)
George Gershwin was born in New
York to Russian Jewish Immigrants.
From that time on. Gershwin’s name
became a fixture on Broadway. In
spite of his commercial success,
Gershwi was more fascinated with

16 classical music. He was incluenced by

Ravel, Stravinsky, Berg, and
Schoenberg, as well as the group of
cntemporary French composers
known as “Lex Six” He was also
considered as the “Father of American
Jazz.” He is a a true “crossover
artist,”
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
(1918-1990)
Leonard Bernstein endeared himself to his
many followers as a charismatic conductor,
pianist, composer, and lecturer. His big break
came when he was asked to substitute for the
ailing Bruno Walter in conducting the New York Place your screenshot here
Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert on
November 14, 1943. Bernstein’s philosophy
was that the universal language of music is
basically rooted in tonality.
PHILIP GLASS
One of the most commercially successful
minimalist composers is Philip Glass who is
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also an avant-garde composer. Glass became
an accomplished violinist and flutist at the age
of 15. Here, he repetitive and overlapping style
with theatrical grandeur on stage.
 MODERN NATIONALISM
A looser form of 20th century music development focused
on nationalist composers and musical innovators who
sought to combine modern techniques with folk materials.
However, this common ground stopped there, for the
different breeds of nationalists formed their own styles of
writing.
 21st Century Music Trends

Impressionism made use of the whole tone scale. It had transclucent and
hazy texture, lacking a dominant-tonic relationship.
Expressionism revealed the composer’s mind, instead of presenting and
impression of the environment.
Neo-classicism was a partial return to a classical form of writing music with
carefully modulated dissonances.
Avant-garde style was associated with electronic music and dealt with the
parameters or dimensions of sound in space.
 NEW MUSICAL STLES

The capacity of electronic machines

such as synthesizers, tape recorders,
and loudspeakers to create different
ELECTRONIC AND sounds was put to creative use by
CHANCE MUSIC 20th century composers like Edgar
Varsese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and
Mario Davidovsky.
EDGARD VARESE
(1883-1965)

Edgar was considered an

“innovative French-born
composer.” The musical
compositions of Varese are
characterized by an emphasis on
timbre and rhythm. Although his
complete surviving works are
scarce, he has been recognized to
have influenced several major
composers of the late 20th century.
 KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN
(1928)

Karlheinz is a central figure in the realm of

electronic music. His music was initially met
with resistance due to its heavily atonal with
practically no clear melodic or rhythmic sense.
 CHANCE MUSIC
Chance Music refers to a style in which
the piece sounds different at every
performance because of the random
techniques of production.