20 th Century

Styles and Forms

2 nd Viennese School Serial Music A 20th-century method of musical composition invented by Arnold Schoenberg in which the twelve notes of the Chromatic scale are organised into a series or a tone row. This row can be transposed, inverted or played in retrograde. Serial music is highly dissonant. Audio Clip Anton Webern Audio Clip Arnold Schoenberg Audio Clip Alban Berg Audio Clip

Tone Row – A serial of 12 notes. Each note is a different note of a chromatic scale Retrograde – Playing a melody backwards Inversion – Playing a melody upside down The Tone Row

Audio Clip Another technique adopted by Schoenberg and Berg was Sprechgesang. This is a technique used in vocal music where the singer is required to use the voice in an expressive manner half-way between singing and speaking. Audio Clip Sprechgesang

Composers and Nationality Edvard Grieg Norway Audio Clip Leos Janacek Czechoslovakia Audio Clip Aaron Copland America Audio Clip Bela Bartok Hungary Audio Clip Nationalism A term used to describe music which incorporates elements of folk music of the composer’s country. It emerged about the second half of the 19th century and was a type of Romanticism. Manuel De Falla Spain Audio Clip

Famous composers Neo-classical New classicism. From about 1929 onwards this style in music came about when composers reacted against Romanticism and wanted to return to the structures and styles of earlier periods but combined with dissonant, tonal and even atonal harmonies. The composers started to write for smaller orchestras. Igor Stravinsky Audio Clip Paul Hindemith Audio Clip Sergei Profiev Audio Clip

Musique concrète Recorded natural sounds which are transformed using simple editing techniques such as cutting and re-assembling, playing backwards, slowing down and speeding up. Audio Clip

Weather Report Audio Clip Jazz funk A combination of jazz Improvisation and the amplified instruments and character of Rock. A chord very common in all jazz styles is the added 6 th. Chick Corea Elektric Band Audio Clip Marcus Miller Audio Clip

Chant A series of chords to which the words of psalms are sung in the Church of England. The texture of the music is homophonic and the word setting mainly syllabic.

Other Important Features

Polytonality The use of two or more keys played or sung at the same time, e.g. the melody may be in the key of C major whilst the accompaniment might be in E major. Audio Clip Darius Milhaud Gustav Holst

Microtone Any interval noticeably smaller than a semitone, most often found in the music of Eastern European countries and also in Indian and Arabic music. It is sometimes used by contemporary classical composers. György Ligeti Audio Clip Krzysztof Penderecki Audio Clip John Cage Audio Clip Charles Ives Audio Clip

Tritone Interval of an augmented 4th, e.g. C–F# or F–B. It is made up of three whole tones. The tritone has commonly been used in music since the Romantic Period. The tritone interval is also known as Diabolus in Musica (The Devil in Music) Romantic Music Audio Clip Heavy Metal Audio Clip West Side Story Audio Clip

Sting Audio Clip Irregular metres Often in modern or rhythmically based ethnic music, groupings of notes change, but the underlying pulse remains constant. Sometimes composers in the 20th century try to destroy the feeling of a regular down beat by changing the time signature frequently or using unusual time signatures eg. 5/4, or 7/8 Howard Shore Audio Clip Dave Brubek Audio Clip Electric Counterpoint – Steve Reich