🎼History of Music Unit 7 – 20th Century Music: Atonality to Electronics

Key Concepts and Definitions

• Atonality refers to music that lacks a tonal center or key, departing from traditional tonality
• Chromaticism involves using notes outside the prevailing scale, leading to increased dissonance and tonal ambiguity
• Dissonance is the tension or clash resulting from the combination of notes that are not harmonically related (tritones, minor seconds)
• Serialism is a compositional technique that uses a fixed series of pitches, rhythms, or other musical elements as the basis for a piece
• Twelve-tone technique, developed by Arnold Schoenberg, uses a specific ordering of all 12 chromatic notes in a series called a tone row
  • The tone row can be manipulated through inversion, retrograde, and retrograde-inversion
• Musique concrète is an early form of electronic music that uses recorded sounds as the primary source material (everyday noises, natural sounds)
• Elektronische Musik, pioneered by Karlheinz Stockhausen, involves generating and manipulating electronic sounds using synthesizers and other devices
• Avant-garde refers to experimental, innovative, and boundary-pushing artistic movements that challenge traditional norms and conventions

Historical Context and Influences

• The early 20th century saw a breakdown of traditional tonality, with composers seeking new forms of expression and musical language
• World War I and II had a profound impact on the arts, with a sense of disillusionment and a desire to break from the past
• Advances in technology, such as the invention of the phonograph and tape recorder, opened up new possibilities for music creation and manipulation
• The rise of modernism in the arts emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and a rejection of traditional forms and structures
• The Second Viennese School, led by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern, played a crucial role in the development of atonal and serial music
• The Darmstadt School, a summer course for new music in Germany, became a center for avant-garde composition and experimentation in the 1950s and 60s
• The post-war period saw a proliferation of new musical styles and movements, such as minimalism, aleatoric music, and fluxus

Major Composers and Their Works

• Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) was a pioneering composer who developed the twelve-tone technique and wrote influential works such as Pierrot Lunaire and Moses und Aron
• Alban Berg (1885-1935), a student of Schoenberg, composed atonal and serial works, including the operas Wozzeck and Lulu
• Anton Webern (1883-1945), another member of the Second Viennese School, wrote highly compressed and abstract works, such as the Six Bagatelles for String Quartet
• Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) experimented with atonality and serialism in works like Threni and Agon, alongside his neo-classical compositions
• Béla Bartók (1881-1945) incorporated folk music influences and developed his own approach to atonality in works like the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
• Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) was a leading figure in the post-war avant-garde, known for his complex serial works and conducting
  • Notable works include Le Marteau sans maître and Pli selon pli
• Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) was a pioneering electronic music composer and a central figure in the Darmstadt School
  • His works include Gesang der Jünglinge and Kontakte

Atonal Music: Theory and Techniques

• Atonal music avoids the hierarchical relationships between notes found in tonal music, treating all 12 chromatic notes as equal
• Composers often use interval-based structures, such as the tritone and minor second, to create dissonance and instability
• Set theory is used to analyze and organize pitch collections in atonal music, focusing on the relationships between pitches rather than their function within a key
• Atonal works may employ extended techniques, such as playing instruments in unconventional ways (col legno, prepared piano) to create new timbres and textures
• Free atonality refers to music that is atonal but does not follow a strict system or method, allowing for greater compositional freedom
• Expressionist music, associated with the Second Viennese School, often uses atonality to convey intense emotions, psychological states, and inner turmoil
• Atonal music challenges listeners' expectations and requires a different approach to listening, focusing on the moment-to-moment unfolding of sound rather than traditional melodic and harmonic development

Serialism and Twelve-Tone Technique

• Serialism is a compositional method that uses a fixed series of musical elements (pitches, rhythms, dynamics) as the basis for a piece
• The twelve-tone technique, a specific type of serialism, uses a tone row that includes all 12 chromatic notes in a specific order
  • No note is repeated until all others have been used
• The tone row can be manipulated through various operations:
  • Inversion: Inverting the intervals of the original row
  • Retrograde: Playing the row backward
  • Retrograde-inversion: Inverting the intervals of the retrograde row
• Composers can also transpose the row to different starting pitches, creating 48 possible permutations of the original row
• Twelve-tone music often has a highly unified and integrated structure, with the tone row serving as the primary source material for melodies, harmonies, and rhythms
• Serial techniques were later extended to other musical parameters, such as duration, dynamics, and timbre, in a practice known as total serialism
• The twelve-tone technique influenced many composers beyond the Second Viennese School, including Igor Stravinsky, Milton Babbitt, and Pierre Boulez

Electronic Music: Origins and Development

• Electronic music emerged in the mid-20th century with the advent of new technologies, such as the tape recorder and synthesizer
• Musique concrète, developed by Pierre Schaeffer in the 1940s, uses recorded sounds as the basis for composition, manipulating them through techniques like splicing, looping, and reversing
• Elektronische Musik, pioneered by Karlheinz Stockhausen and others in the 1950s, involves generating and manipulating electronic sounds using synthesizers and other devices
• The development of voltage-controlled synthesizers, such as the Moog and Buchla, in the 1960s expanded the possibilities for electronic sound generation and control
• Tape music compositions, like Steve Reich's It's Gonna Rain and Pauline Oliveros' I of IV, explore the creative potential of manipulating recorded sounds
• Computer music, using digital synthesis and algorithmic composition, emerged in the latter half of the 20th century with works like John Chowning's Stria and Iannis Xenakis' Mycenae Alpha
• The rise of electronic music studios, such as those at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the WDR studio in Cologne, provided important resources and support for composers working with new technologies

Experimental Approaches and Avant-Garde Movements

• The post-war avant-garde embraced experimentation, chance operations, and unconventional forms of notation and performance
• Aleatoric or chance music, exemplified by John Cage's Music of Changes, incorporates elements of randomness and indeterminacy into the compositional process
  • Cage's 4'33" is a seminal work that consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence, challenging traditional notions of music and performance
• Graphic notation, used by composers like Earle Brown and Sylvano Bussotti, employs visual symbols and designs instead of traditional music notation to guide performers
• Fluxus, an interdisciplinary art movement, blurred the boundaries between music, performance art, and everyday life, often incorporating elements of humor and absurdity
• Minimalism, developed by composers like Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, emphasizes repetition, gradual process, and a steady pulse
  • Works like Reich's Music for 18 Musicians and Glass' Einstein on the Beach exemplify the hypnotic and immersive qualities of minimalist music
• Spectral music, pioneered by Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail, focuses on the acoustic properties of sound and the manipulation of timbre using computer analysis and synthesis
• The New Complexity, associated with composers like Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Finnissy, is characterized by extremely intricate and demanding scores that push the limits of performer virtuosity

Impact on Contemporary Music and Culture

• The innovations of 20th-century composers have had a lasting impact on contemporary music, expanding the range of musical possibilities and challenging traditional boundaries
• Atonal and serial techniques continue to be used by contemporary composers, often in combination with other styles and influences (neo-romanticism, world music)
• Electronic music has become increasingly integrated into mainstream popular music, with the widespread use of synthesizers, samplers, and digital audio workstations
• The experimental spirit of the avant-garde has inspired new generations of composers and artists to push the boundaries of musical expression and performance
• Minimalist techniques have influenced various genres, from film scores to electronic dance music, and have contributed to a renewed interest in rhythm and pulse-based music
• The legacy of 20th-century composers is evident in the diverse and eclectic nature of contemporary music, which often draws from a wide range of styles, cultures, and technologies
• The challenging and unconventional nature of much 20th-century music has helped to expand the listening habits and expectations of audiences, fostering a greater openness to new and experimental forms of musical expression