Claude Debussy, Three Nocturnes

I. "Clouds"

Impressionism

- use of pentatonic

- use of parallel chords

- representation of an impressionist painting

Igor Stravinsky, La sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)

Part I

Primitivism/Cubism

- crude derivation of russian folk song

- octatonic scale

- dissonant chords & odd accents

- ostinato

Arnold Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire (Moonstruck Pierrot)

- No. 8 "Night"

- No. 18 "Moonfleck"

Expressionism - more complex and emotional than romanticism

- serialism - chromatic (?)

- No. 8 - passacaglia - varying chords & basslines

- sprechstimme - ignorance of conventional pitch

Alben Berg, Wozzeck

Act III, scenes iii and iv

Expressionism

- Wagnerian - musical continuity

- ragtime reference

- iii - short, repeated rhythm @ changing tempo

- iv - sprechstimme - ignorance of conventional pitch

Charles Ives, Second Orchestral Set

II. "The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting"

Transcendentalism

- scherzo

- Ives - first important/influential American nationalist & modernist composer

Transcendentalism

- three "indepdendent levels" - smooth string choir, dissonant woodwinds, haunting solo trumpet

Maurice Ravel, Piano Concerto in G

I. Allegramente

Neoclassicism

- M. Ravel - elegant, crisp, precise

- parallel chords

- pizzacato, folk-like, reference to blues music

Bela Bartok, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

II. Allegro

Nationalism

- too folk to be abstract

- pizzacato

- sonata

Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring

excerpts

Nationalism

- ballet, cowboys in rural America

- Section 1 - use of counterpoint

- Section 2 - irregular rhythms (a la Stravinsky)

George Gershwin, Preludes for Piano

I. Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Nationalism

- blues scale

- jazzy

Sergei Profokiev, Alexander Nevsky Cantata

V. "The Battle on Ice"

Nationalism

- Russian film music refashioned as cantata for concert

Aleatory - incorporation of chance

Cluster-sound/tone clusters - expanding, dissonant, sound complexes/blocks

- composed w/graphic notation

Musique concrete - manipulated sampling

- presented w/flashing colored lights

Kaija Saariaho, From the Grammar of Dreams

- Song 1

- Song 3

- Song 4

New Expressionism - dark emotions

- based on a Sylvia Plath poem

- Song 3 - imitative polyphony

Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians

- Introduction

- Section I

Minimalism

- Intro. - continuous pulse (common aspect of minimalism)

- Sec. 1 - symmetrical musical form (i.e. ABCBA), based off a single harmony

John Adams, El Nino

- "Pues mi Dios ha nacido a penar"

- "When Heron Heard"

- "Woe unto Them That Call Evil Good"

Eclecticism

- postmodern oratorio

- "realism"

- in reaction to major/minor romanticism -> dissonance, atmospheric, short form

- e.x. Claude Debussy

- extreme emotion: nightmare, hysteria, perversion

- sprechstimme

- unusual ensembles

- e.x. Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg

- ethnomusicology

- incorporation of national folk music into classical

- patriotic texts, exotic scales, librettos

- e.x. Bela Bartok, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Sergei Profokiev

- natural sounds, live performers & electronic sounds

- manipulated sampling

- e.x. Edgard Varese

- "continous gradual change in the relationships of repeated short patterns"

- process evident when listening.. repeat, change, etc.

- e.x. Steve Reich

- dissonant, chromatic; simple, tonal

- polyrhythm, polymeter, successive meter; straightforward

- quote samples (literary)

e.x. Charles Ives