MUSIC OF THE 20

CENTURY

TH

IMPRESSIONISM made use of

the whole-tone scale. It also
applied suggested, rather than
depicted, reality. It created a
mood rather than a definite
picture. It had a translucent and
hazy texture; lacking a dominanttonic relationship. It made use of
overlapping chords, with 4th, 5th,
octaves, and 9th intervals,
resulting in a non-traditional

CLAUDE
DEBUSSY

-Father of the
Modern School of
Composition
-The primary
exponent of the
impressionist

Famous Works:
-Claire the Lune
(Moonlight)
-Prelude to the Afternoon
of a Faun

MAURICE
RAVEL

-A person who
excels in musical
technique or
execution.
-A perfectionist and
every bit a musical

Famous Works:
-Bolero
-Miroirs (Mirrors)
-Mother Goose
Suite

EXPRESSIONISM revealed
the composers mind, instead
of presenting an impression
of the environment. It used
atonality and the twelve-tone
scale, lacking stable and
conventional harmonies. It
served as a medium for
expressing strong emotions,
such as anxiety, rage, and

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG

-He explored the use

of chromatic
harmonies.
-His music is
extremely complex,
creating heavy
demands on the

Famous Works:
-Pierrot Lunaire
-Three Piano Pieces

SPRECHSTIMME
- Speech song;

IGOR
STRAVINS
KY

-Adapted the
th
forms of the 18
century with his
contemporary
style of writing

Famous Works:
-Firebird
-The Rite of Spring
-Petrouchka

PRIMITIVISTIC MUSIC is tonal

through the asserting of one note as
more important than the others.
New sounds are synthesized from
old ones by juxtaposing two simple
events to create a more complex
new event.
PRIMITIVISM has links to Exoticism
through the use of materials from
other cultures, Nationalism through
the use of materials indigenous to
specific countries, and Ethnicism

BELA
BARTOK

- used
Hungarian
folk themes
and rhythms

Famous Works:
-Mikrokosmos
-Allegro Barbaro
-Hungarian folk
songs

NEO-CLASSICISM was
a partial return to a
classical form of writing
music with carefully
modulated dissonances.
It made use of a freer
seven-note diatonic
scale.

SERGEI
PROKOFIE
V

-Combination of
neo-classicist,
nationalist and
avant-garde
composer.

Famous Works:
-Romeo and Juliet
-War and Peace
-Peter and the Wolf

FRANCIS
POULENC

-Rejected heavy
Romanticism
-Sacred music
-Fond of witty
approach

Famous Works:
-Stabat Mater
-Dialogues des
Carmelites
-Concert
Champetre

THE AVANT GARDE style was

associated with electronic music
and dealt with the parameters
or dimensions of sound in
space. It made use of variations
of self-contained note groups
to change musical continuity,
and improvisation, with an
absence of traditional rules on
harmony, melody, and rhythm.

GEORGE
GERSHWIN

-Fater of
American Jazz
-A fixture on
Broadway

Famous Works:
-Rhapsody on Blue
-Swanee
-Porgy and Bess
(Broadway Musical)
-An American in

LEONARD
BERNSTEI

-Charismatic
conductor,
pianist, lecturer.
-TV Series:
Young Peoples

Famous Works:
-West Side Story
-Candide
-On The Waterfront

PHILIP
GLASS

-Ballet, opera,
theater, film, TV
jingles
-Bright electronic
sounds
-Sound effects

Famous Works:
-Music in Similar
Motion
-Music in Changing
Parts
-Einstein on the

MODERN NATIONALISM
is a looser form of 20th
century music
development focused on
nationalist composers and
musical innovators who
sought to combine modern
techniques
with folk materials.

RUSSIAN FIVE:
1.Modest Musorgsky
2.Mili Balakirev
3.Alexander Borodin
4.Cesar Cui
5.Nikolai Rimsky
Korsakov

ELECTRONI
C MUSIC

Music that uses the tape

recorder is called
MUSIQUE CONCRETE, OR
CONCRETE MUSIC. The
composer records
different sounds that are
heard in the
environment.

EDGARD
VARESE

-Innovative
French born
composer
-Invented the
term organize
sound

Famous Works:
- Poeme
Electronique

KARLHEINZ

-Central figure in
the realm of
electronic music
-Continued to
experiment with
musique concete

Famous Works:
-Gruppen
-Kontakte
-Hymnen
-Helicopter String
Quartet

CHANCE MUSIC
refers to a style
wherein the piece
always sounds
different at every
performance because
of the random

JOHN
CAGE

-Experimented:
Chance music

Famous Works:
-433
-Music of Changes
-Sonatas and
Interludes