20th Century Music

1. 20th Century Music 1900- Now

2. What major things have changed in the 20th Century?

3. Wars • World War I • World War II • Korean War • Vietnam War • Cold War • Iraq War (1 & 2) • War on Terrorism • 9-11-2001

4. Economy • The Great Depression • Stock Market Crash • Our current financial woes

5. Causes • Civil Rights Movement • Woodstock • Women’s Rights

6. Famous World Leaders • JFK • RFK • Martin Luther King • FDR • Saddam Hussein • Hitler • Stalin • Malcolm X • Regan • Richard Nixon • Margaret Thatcher • Ghandi • Mother Theresa • Gorbichav • Harry Truman • Winston Churchill

7. Inventions/Pop Culture • TV • Radio • Computer • Internet • Space Race • Atomic Bomb • Cars • Planes • Fast Food • Baseball • Football • Basketball • Hockey • AIDS • Movies • Nuclear Power • Star Wars • Telephones

8. Explosion of Musical Genres • Jazz • Rock • Punk • Alternative • Serialism • Atonal • Heavy Metal • Film Music • Musicals • Electronic • Chance • Blues • Swing • Ragtime

9. Modern vs. Traditional • Modernists: were anti-traditionalism… they liked to experiment and were considered radicals. • Modern Composers include: Claude Debussy Arnold Schoenberg Igor Stravinsky Richard Wagner

10. Wagner liked to distort familiar melodies. • Schoenberg wrote intense rhythms with intervals that did not fit together. • Debussy wrote motives that hinted at a melody but were never fully realized. • Stravinsky used Russian Folk Songs but extracted parts from them and they seemed fragmented because of this

11. New Scales • Composers began to use new scales to base their melodies on which created new sounds. • Pentatonic scale: a five note scale initially based on the black keys on the piano. This was borrowed from folks songs and Asian Music.

12. Whole Tone Scale: divides the normal scale into six equal parts. All intervals between notes are the same size. • Octatonic Scale: Eight notes that are determined by alternating between whole and half steps (Stravinsky) • Quarter-Tone Scale: Every note from the chromatic scale plus the ones that occur halfway in between those notes.

13. Bring on the dissonance! • In the 20th century music becomes more complex. • Harmony becomes more and more dissonant. • The change in the 20th century came when composers no longer felt that dissonant chords needed to have a resolution. • Music became so dissonant that Atonal music came to be. Atonal music is where no specific key could be determined either by reading or listening to the music.

14. Charles Ives (1874-1954) • Son of a Military Band Conductor and Music Teacher from Connecticut • His father used to play games where he would play a piece in two different keys at the same time. (left a huge impression on his son) • Studied music in college but became an Insurance Salesman keeping up his composing in his spare time.

15. The Traditionalist Response • Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss wrote opera in the early 20th century and were influenced by Verdi and Wagner. • Puccini’s famous works include Madame Butteryfly and La Boheme.

16. Maurice Ravel • Born in 1875 in Southern France • His music represented styles from Spain, Madagascar, Asia, ancient Greece, America, and Vienna. • Never married and had no close relationships • Famous works include: Bolero and an arrangement of Mussorgky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

17. Aaron Copland 1900-1990 • Was a leading American composer after that of Charles Ives • Most of his well known works were written between 1925 and 1950. • Lived in Brooklyn but studied some in Paris. • His music promoted American Music including traditional American Folk Music.