CHAPTER 1

CONTEMPORARY MUSIC:
THE MUSIC OF OUR
TIMES
Factors that exposed us to different
musical styles
Media
Advertisements
Music
Industry
Popular Music
Accessible to the general public and disseminated by mass media
Different from classical music which was the music of the elite and
upper strata of the society
Pop Music
Associated by a particular social group
Is Popular Music a Business
Enterprise?
Pop Music is the product of modern business enterprise for
the purpose of earning a profit
It was created for the entertainment of ordinary people
Different from classical music that is originally for Church
purposes
Music Industry
- business and organization that record, produce, publish,
distribute and market recorded music. It includes
Musicians like singers
Composers and songwriters
Musicians unions
Record industries
Band managers
Bookers, promoters and roadies
Music Industrys Purpose
Aesthetic pleasure and entertainment
Religious purposes
Ceremonial purposes
The Amateur Musicians
They compose and perform music for
their own pleasure
They do not derive income from music
They take lessons from professional
musicians
Advanced amateur musicians perform
with professional musicians in
ensembles, orchestras and concerts
The Professional Musicians
Employed by a range of institutions
and organizations (armed forces,
churches, symphony orchestras,
broadcasting and film production
companies and music schools)
Manner Of Performance
For the benefit of a live audience
For the purpose of being recorded
and distributed through the music
retail & broadcasting system
Live music performance that is
recorded and distributed
What does recorded music include?
Music Publisher
Recording Industry
Record production companies
Why do modern communities need music?
Enhances the quality of life in the surrounding community
Makes the day more alive and interesting
Enriches life and is a way to understand our cultural heritage as well as our past and
present cultures
Performing, consuming and composing music are satisfying and rewarding activities
Music programs encourage teamwork and cohesiveness
Fosters creativity and individuality
Music education fosters discipline and commitment
A major source of joy and commitment
Therapeutic outlet
One source of income
Promote relaxation ad sleep

In short, music has the potential to be able to transform a community in subtle yet
effective ways. Local activists need to partner with communities to revitalize the music culture
in their communities.

What is Music in Advertising?
The use of songs and incidental music in
advertising campaigns particularly television
commercials and radio commercials
Music can often reflect current trends, using
artists and songs that are popular at the time

What is Television Advertisement?
Often called an Advert in the United Kingdom
Form of advertising in which goods, services, organizations, ideas, etc.
are promoted via television
Most commercials are produced by an outside advertising agency and
airtime is purchased from a media agency or direct from the TV network
How are Television Ads Described?
The vast majority of television advertisements today consist of brief
advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes (as
well as program-length infomercials).
Advertisements have been used to sell every product imaginable over the
years, from household products to goods, services, and political campaigns.
The effect of television advertisements upon the viewing public has been so
successful and pervasive that it is considered impossible for a politician to
wage a successful election campaign in most countries without the use of
television advertising.
Many television advertisements feature catchy jingles or phrases that
generate sustained appeal which may remain in the minds of television
viewers long after the span of the advertising campaign.
What is jingle?
A memorable slogan, set to an engaging melody, mainly
broadcast on radio and sometimes on television
commercials
An effective jingle is constructed to stay in ones memory
(colloquially ringing a bell). The best jingles could stick
with a consumer for her/his entire life.
Common form of a jingle is a radio stations on air
musical or spoken station identity
Short catchy tune which incorporates a product name or
slogan


What are the Historical Developments Related to Television Ads?
1980s music in television advertisements was generally
limited to jingles and incidental music. On some occasions, lyrics
of a popular song would be changed to create a theme song or a
jingle for a particular product.
1971 the converse occurred when a song written for a Coca-
Cola advertisements was re-recorded as the pop single Id Like
to Teach the World to Sing, by the Neew Seekers and became a
hit.
What are the popular music styles of our modern time?
Some of this styles are as follows:
Country Music rooted from traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, lgospel music, hokum, and old-time music
- has produced one top-selling solo artist of all time, Elvis Presley
- other country music singers include John Denver and Elton John
Hip-hop known as rap music, style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s and
became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s
- consists of two main components:
Rapping (MCing)
DJing (production of scratching)
- consists of rhythmic lyrics making use of techniques like assonance, alliteration, and rhyme
- rapper is accompanied by an instrumental track, usually referred to as a beat performed by a DJ, created by
a producer and instrumentalists
Rock form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody accompanied by electric guitar, drums, and base guitar
- many styles of rock music also use keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, or synthesizer
- usually has a strong back bear and usually revolves around the electric guitar
- has it roots in the 1950s era rock n roll and rock ability and in the late 1960s, rock music was blended with folk
music to create folk rock and jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion
- 1970s rock developed a number of subgenres such as soft rock, blues rock, heavy metal-style rock, progressive
rock, art rock, techno rock, and punk rock
- 1980s hard rock, Indie rock, alternative rock
- 1990s grunge style rock, Britpop, and Indie rock
Rock and Roll came from rhythm and blues country, and in the process of borrowings, its influences
have continued to develop rock music
Folk Rock the folk scene was made up of folk music lovers who liked acoustic instruments, traditional
songs, and blues music with a socially progressive message. The folk genre was pioneered by Woody
Guthrie.
Progressive Rock this went beyond the established rock music formulas by experimenting with
different instruments, song types, and musical forms
- some bands such as Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, and Golden Earring experimented
with new instruments including wind sections, string sections, and full orchestra
- many progressive rock bands moved beyond the formulaic three minute rock songs into
longer, increasingly sophisticated songs and chord structures
Jazz originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States around the start of the 20
th
century
- uses blue notes syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythm, and improvisation as a key
element
- blends African American musical styles with western music technique and theory
- has roots in the combination of West African and Western music traditions including spirituals,
blues and ragtime, stemming from West Africa, Western Sabel, and New Englands religious hymns, hillbilly,
and European military band music
- instruments used in marching bands and dance band music at the turn of the century became the
basic instruments of jazz brass, reed, and drums using the Western 12-tone scale
Other Filipino Music Music Accessible to Filipinos
Western Music originated in the Western World (Europe and its
former colonies) include Western classical music, American jazz,
country and western pop music, and rock and roll

Musical genres in the Western tradition include:
Medieval music
Renaissance music
Baroque music
Classical music era
Romantic music
20
th
century classical music
Contemporary music
What is modernism in music?
Also known as Avant-garde movement
Includes the emergence of jazz age and Hollywood
Characterized by desire for or belief in progress and science,
surrealism, anti-romanticism, political advocacy, general
intellectualism, or a breaking away with tradition or common
practice
Refers to the name given to a series of movements arising out of the
idea that the 20
th
century music, including neo-classicism, serialism,
experimentalism, and conceptualism can be traced to this idea
What are the modernists new developments?
The following are the modernist developments in music:
Expansion of tonality Debussy, Straws, Mahler, and Schoenberg
- Polytonality Drams Milhard, Paul-Hendesmith, and Charles Ives
- The twelve-tone technique Arnold Schoenberg
- Serialism Milton Babbit and Pierre Boulez
- High dissonance Carl Ruggles and Ruth Crawford Seeger
- Dissonant counterpoint Charles Seeger
- Tone clusters Henry Cowell
Spread of chance music
Minimalist sounds
Development of electronic music
Greater exploitation of noise-like sounds, known as liberation of sounds
Extended techniques and sound percussion orchestra cage prepared piano pieces
Speech and singing
Ethnomusicology and political advocacy
New chord sounds
What are the characteristics of modernist new sounds?
The expansion and destruction of tonality
The twelve-tone technique devised and called the Twelve-tone Row by Arnold
Schoenberg.
Gradual abandonment of tonality after World War II.
Western music prior to the 20
th
century is a music called tonal.
Tonal organized around a single tone or pitch in major or minor scale systems
Atonal music in which tonality is absent
Arnold Schoenberg one of the first to compose atonal music. Known as the twelve-tone
technique, Schoenbergs method organized all twelve tones of the chromatic scale in a tone row
which then becomes the musical idea of a composition
Atonal music - derived from the twelve-tone chromatic scale in which each tone is considered to be
of equal importance.
- In this system, there is no tonic.
- Every note is the tonic.
- There is no central tone nor a feeling of gravitation to one key or one tone.
1950s the twelve-tone system was adopted by many composers including the leading composer of
tonal music, Stravinsky.
The shift from tonality to Schoenbergs Twelve-tone Row was probably due to the composers
discovery that the twelve-tone system was a compositional technique rather than a special musical
style.
Twelve tones gave way to diversity and individuality of musical expression

Wallingford Riegger used a tone row as basis
for his symphony No.3
- after a brief introduction,
he introduces the tone row by the oboes
Another way of expanding tonality is the use of
Oriental sounds. Composers wishing to suggest
the sound and color of the Orient often use
pentatonic scale.
Maurice Ravel French composer, used
pentatonic scale as the basis of the opening
melody of Laideronnette, Empress of the
Pagodas.
Polytonality has also been evident in 20
th

century music.
Serialism
Method of composing music that used an ordered group of musical
elements to organize rhythm, dynamics, pitch, and tone color.
Developed in the mid-20
th
century
Begins with the twelve-tone technique which uses a set of the 12
notes of the chromatic scale to form a row (non-repeating
arrangement of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale) as the unifying
basis for a compositions melody, harmony, structural progressions,
and variations
Vocabulary is rooted in set theory and uses a quasi-mathematical
language to describe how the basic sets are manipulated to
produce the final result

Industrial Music Sounds
Include different styles like electronic and experimental music
Term industrial was first used in the mid-19 70s to describe the unique sound of industrial
record artists
Luigi Russolos 1913 work The Art of Noises is often cited as the first example of the
industrial philosophy in Modern music
Edgard Vareses major pioneer in electronic music
Typical instruments are synthesizer, drum machine tape loops, drums and guitar
Electronic Sounds
Created using electronic devices
Electronic devices lower power systems that use components such as transistors and
integrated circuits
1990s electronic music fractured into many genres, styles and sub styles, electronic art
music, musique concrete, synth pop, styles of the 1980s; styles intended for dance such as
italo disco, techno, house, trance, electro, breakbeat, jungle, drum, and bass
Iannis Xenakis modern composer who used computers and electronic instruments,
including one he invented for some of his compositions. Xenakis, electronic works are
gentle ambient pieces and some are savage sonic violence.
Some composers created and performed live electronic music, often designing sounds
using tape.


Chance music (Aleatory or Aleatoric Music)
Comes from the Latin word alea which means game of dice
Opposite of serialism
Composers choose pitches, tone colors, and rhythms by random methods, such as flipping the coin or
dice.
Pierre Boulez popularized this term and used this term alea to describe works that give the
performer certain liberties or freedom sequencing and repetition of parts

Minimalist sounds
Artistic movement of the mid-1960s
Partly in reaction against the complexity of serialism and randomness of chance music
Riley father of minimalist music
The minimalist wave of prominent composers wanted music to be accessible to ordinary listeners.
Features of Minimalist sounds:
Repetition
Stasis (often in the form of drones and long tones)
Emphasis on consonant harmony
A steady pulse; hypnotic effect
Sound similar to different forms of electronic music, as well as the texture-based compositions
of composers such as Gyorgy Ligeti
New chord Sounds
Search in the 20
th
century resulted in chords that often replace the traditional triad built on intervals of
thirds
Chords built with intervals of fourths and fifths are widely used in the contemporary music.
Tone cluster neighboring tones sounding together, used today in certain kinds of music.
Sometimes unusual sounding chords are built by combining tones from a tone row.

Greater Exploitation of Noise-Like sounds
The Liberation of Sounds
Composers today used a variety of sounds than ever before including these once considered as
undesirable noises.
Edgard Varese calls this the Liberation of sound or the right to make music using various sounds
Electronic music may include:
Environmental sounds thunder, and electronically-generated hisses and voices
Singers may be asked to whisper,scream, laugh, groan, sneeze, etc. or to sing phonetic sounds
rather than words.
Babies and other peoples sounds may be included in the music
Unconventional ways of producing sounds
The greater expansion and experimentation with the use of percussion instruments
Futurists Ferruccio Busoni and Luigi Russolo used noises such as factory and mechanical
sounds
Other extended techniques and sounds
Harrison wrote for and built gamelans
Cage popularized extended techniques on the piano in his prepared
piano piece
Harry Partsch built his own ensemble of instruments, mostly
percussion and string instruments for the performance of his
microtonal music

Speech and Singing
Leos Janacek, Schoenberg, Allan Berg, and Harry Partsch suggested
greater attention to use speech in music
Janacek based his melodies and motifs upon rhythms and inflections
of Hungarian speech
Luciano Berio explored all manner of vocal sounds in his piece
Sequeza II for solo female voice; it was written for and performed
by his wife, Cathy
Ezra Pound wrote a monophonically-chanted opera
What is Contemporary Classical Music?
Any music being written in the present day
Can be understood as belonging to a period that started in the mid-1970s

What is Post-modernist Music?
Seen as a response to modernism which asserts that the products of human
activity, particularly those that are manufactured or created by artifice is the
central subject for art itself.
Purpose of art to focus peoples attention on objects for contemplation.
This idea is from composer-critic Steve Hicken.

Who is regarded as a prominent post-modernist musician?
John Cage prominent figure in 20
th
century music and regarded as the founder of
post-modernist music
- questioned the very definition of music in his pieces and stressed a
philosophy that all sounds are essentially music.
- in the silent 433 presents the listener with his idea that the
unintentional sounds are just as musically valid as the sounds originating from
an instrument
- notably use aleatoric and found sounds to create an interesting and
different type of music
- Cages music reflects his arguments that there is no music or noise.
There is only sound and combinations of sounds found in musical events.
- believes in the importance of focusing of attention and framing as an
essential requirement of art. Music is a form of art
- his music was unappealing for others who find his music to be to avant-
garde
Who are Prominent Contemporary Composers?
Stravinsky Schoenberg
Bela Bartok
Sergei
Rachmaninoff
How is Experimentalism Applied in Music?
Experimentalism
Any music that challenges commonly accepted notions of
what music is. This overlaps with avant-garde music.
John Cage pioneer in experimental music
Michael Nyman uses the term experimental to describe
the work of American modernist composers as opposed to
the European avant-garde at the time
Some experimental music is an extension of traditional
music, adding unconventional instruments, modifications to
instruments, noises, and other novelties to orchestral
compositions.
What are Some of the Techniques used in Experimentalism?
Some of the more common techniques include:
Extended techiques any number of methods performing in a musical instrument that are
unique, innovative and sometimes regarded as improper
Prepared instruments ordinary instruments modified in their tuning or sound
producing characteristics
Unconventional playing techniques (1) strings on a piano can be manipulated directly
instead of being played the orthodox keyboard based way; (2) a dozen or more piano keys
may be depressed simultaneously within the forearm to produce a tone-cluster; (3) the
tuning pegs on a guitar can be rotated with a note sounds (called a tuner glissando)
Incorporation of music tunings, rythms, or scales from non-Western musical traditions
Use of sound sources other than conventional music instruments trash cans, telephone
ringers, door slamming, spoons and forks, typewriters, or saw
Playing with deliberate disregard for the ordinary musical controls (pitch, duration,
volume)
Microtones pitch interval that is smaller than a semitone
What is a Collage?
From the French: which means coller, to stick
Regarded as work of visual art made from an assemblage of different
forms that create a new whole
Art form of ground-breaking novelty
Include newspapers, clippings, ribbon strips, of colored or hand-made
papers, portions of other artwork, photographs, and are glued to solid
support or canvas

How does the concept of collage in art affect music?
Has crossed the boundaries of visual arts
Avant-garde artists have started experimenting with cutting and pasting
of magnetic tapes


What is sound collage?
Production of songs, musical compositions, or recordings using portions,
or samples, of previously-made recordings

How did sound collage come about?
First became a possibility with the widespread use of magnetic tape in
the early 1960s
Recording engineers soon discovered that tape could be cut with a
razorblade and spliced back together in different orders and sources

Who are the Prominent Sound Collage Composers?
Iannis Xenakis first well-known composer to have worked with sound
collage.