The Arrival of the Twentieth Century

Impressionism and Symbolism Turning away from subjectivity in Romanticism and post-Romanticism Emphasis on sensation Symbolism in literature – evocation of sensual experience – use of phonemes for their sound qualities Impressionism in painting – light and color supersede distinct images – irregular surfaces (in subjects and on canvas) – objects in motion

Sensualism in musical style Scoring — strongly emphasized for sensual effects Rhythm — unmetered rhythms or hypnotic ostinato Melody — meandering lines or isolated motives Harmony — nonfunctional (avoids leading tones) – whole-tone scales – pentatonic scales (influence of exoticism) – modes Texture — layers of foreground and background Form — free or very simple

Primitivism Based on resistance to decadent overripeness in fin-de- siècle Romanticism and post-Romanticism Draws on exoticist ideas of reenergizing Western music from other cultures Style elements drawn from imagined “primitive” music, emphasizing – percussive timbres – irregular rhythmic patterns – narrow-range folklike tunes or improvisatory melody – free use of dissonance – characteristic or programmatic content and form

Expressionism Exaggeration of post-Romantic emotionalism to neurosis or psychosis Literary style — disruptive, destabilized; stream of consciousness technique Painting – exaggeration of forms or abstract shapes – juxtaposition of harsh, unblended color

Expressionism in musical style Mysterious or disturbing textual content Timbral juxtaposition rather than blend; Sprechstimme Extreme dynamics Irregular rhythm Angular melody, awkward intervals Atonality — most characteristic feature Complex texture Short, idiosyncratic forms

Charles Ives New England heritage Influence of nineteenth-century transcendentalist philosophers — Emerson, Thoreau Libertarian spirit – rejection of convention – emphasis on originality, experiment – iconoclasm American resources Eclectic combinations in collage Free use of dissonance Programmatic forms

Questions for discussion Is a literary model valid for understanding so-called impressionist music? Explain how other arts might be viewed as taking this music as their model. Why did ballet become a particularly important genre for composers in the twentieth century? Should “beauty” have an essential place in defining art? How is beauty defined? Is expressionist music really not “beautiful”? Not “music”? Not “art”?