TIme Machines
Secular Evolution
There are a lot of musical elements that have transformed over the course of 1,400 in years in 'romance'. The selection of instruments changes frequently going into the 20th and 21st century. In the 5th century to the 17th century, the pieces were chants, and could have been accompanied by string instruments and percussion. The early romance songs were sung in a variety of different languages, and could have polyphonic textures. "Sumer is cumin In" has a six part polyphony in it. From 18th century to very early 20th century, the pieces are all accompanied by instruments, and some have new scales are techniques introduced in them. For instance "O Susana's" opening measures are formed from the pentatonic scale. The 1920s is when there are significant changes in the romance period; the style of the music changes from folk songs to new genres like jazz, blues, pop, and rock. Also, this time period has a plethora of new instruments, so instruments like the saxophone can be heard in the Loesser jazz standards. The tempos in 21st and 20th century romance music stay very consistent, and the harmonic progressions are limited. For an example, 'Rockstar' only has 5 chords that are primarily used.
Sacred Evolution
Due the domination of the Catholic & Christian Church in the medieval and colonial era, sacred music became the most prevalent. The first two pieces featured, the monk chant and 'Missa Brevis' are structured in the style of Gregorian chant. The chants were comprised of the eight greek modes and followed a monophonic texture. After Gregorian chant, sacred music slowly evolved into pieces with polyphonic texture, like Bach's 'Mass in B minor', Mozart's 'Requiem', and Schubert's 'Mass in G major' . The choir is accompanied with an entire orchestra, something that the Gregorian chants didn't have. The tempos for these requiems and masses are mostly slow in all of the movements, but there are some movements that do go at an allegro tempo, like Mozart's 'Lux Aeterna' from his requiem. From 1962 to 1990, the sacred music is much more avant-garde/expressionistic. Britten's "War Requiem" is tonal, yet very dark, conveying the horrors and nightmares of war and violence. Bernstein's 'Mass' is completely unconventional from traditional sacred music, it could be considered a cross between a traditional mass, and atonalism with traditional jazz elements. The Winter 'Missa Gaia' is atonal, and uses instruments and voices to mimic animal cries.
period overview
Altenberg Lieder - Berg
My first impressions from listening to this piece was that it is very conflicted and stormy. The piece is atonal, there are many displaced ostinati in it, the lyrics of the piece deal with the harsh but beautiful conditions of the soul, and the sensations of love and belonging. Also, the dynamics really help convey a melancholy mood to the piece.
Clouds - Debussy
This impressionistic style of this nocturne really gives off a dreamy resonance. Most of the elements are very held back, for instance, the tempo is slow, the dynamics are soft, the pitches are low; which create such a calm mood, a silky timbre, and beautiful expression.
Pentatonic Scale
The demonstration that Bobby McFerrin gave about the pentatonic scale showcases the true simplicity of the scale. Because of this, the scale is extremely common in a plethora of musical genres, such as jazz, blues, folk, bluegrass, Croatian, gospel, impressionism, etc.
Whole Tone Scale
There are only two basic forms of the whole tone scale, and they consist of whole steps. This type of scale was really popularized by Debussy, the use of the scale gives a very dreamy mood to his music. You can hear the whole tone scale in a lot of his pieces, such as "Images - Book 2, cloches a travers les feuilles".
Octatonic Scale
Scriabin's preludes are one of the many works that were structured around the octatonic scale, (also including properties of whole tone and diatonic) and Scriabin used this to sculpt his "mystic chord". The effect of the octatonic scale in Scriabin's mid and late works evoke a sense of a mystic and transcendental atmosphere for his listeners.
Quarter-Tone Scale
Quarter tones are pitches half way between the usual notes of a chromatic scale and are about as half as wide (logarithmically speaking). Listening to the Ives quarter tone pieces was really interesting because the structure of the quarter tone scale creates an out of tune, sporadic, and dismantled effect, (it makes me feel really anxious).
Twelve Tone Row
This method of musical composition was discovered and popularized by Schoenberg. The technique requires all 12 notes of the chromatic scale to be sounded as often as one another in a composition while prohibiting the overuse of a specific note. Twelve tone row music creates an abstract effect and feeling to the music; it sounds dreamy but with irregularities and abstractions added to it.
period research
A general approach to modernism includes, "...the activities and creations of those who felt the traditional forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, philosophy, social organization, activities of daily life, and even the sciences, were becoming ill-fitted to their tasks and outdated in the new economic, social, and a political environment of an emerging fully industrialized world". Its hard to say exactly when the Modernist movement began, but the most convenient starting point is at the very beginning of the 20th century.
"The turn of the century also roughly coincided with the publication of several groundbreaking theories, such as Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams and Einstein’s theory of special relativity. As such, there were real shifts (not merely symbolic changes) in the natural sciences, social sciences, and liberal arts occurring at this time as well. However, using the year 1900 as a starting point for Modernism is also problematic, as it would exclude some writers or texts from the late 1800s which definitively display Modernist tendencies. Many scholars thus use the year 1890 as a starting point; it is close to the end of Queen Victoria’s reign and the end of the century, but still fairly inclusive" (faculty.unlv.edu).
There are several major differences that can be noticed in impressionism and expressionism in both art and music.
In art, impressionism came around after this invention of the camera, where artists were asked to give 'impressions' of something, instead of realistic rendering. The goal of impressionistic art is to filter something beyond the mere picture and attempt to obtain deeper qualities that require the observer to be more sensitive to them. For instance, trembling of leaves, vibrations of light, etc.
"Grainstack" - Monet
Expressionistic art focuses on trying to convey expressions of feeling or spirit, which grants the artist permission to distort or disarray their images in attempt to evoke emotions. Its very different from impressionism in the sense of how abstract it looks.
"No.5, 1948" -Jackson Pollock
Expressionistic music found its way in Germany after WW1, and focuses on delving into deeper emotions (usually nightmarish). The majority of expressionistic pieces are atonal, and have lots of discord, suggesting an atmosphere of tension. Some very popular composers in the expressionistic scene include Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, and Bela Bartok.
Question 1 - What factors influenced art and music between 1890 - 1940?
There are several factors that influenced the drastic change in the endeavored arts. For instance, the cataclysms of World War 1 and World War 2 ushered artists and composers to be more experimental with their trades - Schoenberg's compositions emerged after World War 1. "The modernists of 1900 were artists and intellectuals who insisted on a particular vision of modernity: anti-traditionalism" (303).
Throughout 1890 to 1920, modernists such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, etc. formed a specific movement noted by radical experimentation.
Question 2 - Describe some physical aspects of the 'dark side' in progress.
One aspect of the 'dark side' was the development of weaponry. By World War 1, there tanks, submarines, and chemical weapons which led to the deaths of over forty million civilian and military men dead, with twenty million injured. Even Einstein's theory of relativity eventually made its own contributions to weaponry, like the invention of the nuclear bomb. Freud suggested that in spite of what people thought they were doing or feeling, they were involuntarily being controlled by unconscious drives which was disturbing.
Question 3 - How was 'visual art' similar to the music of this time?
Both visual art and avant-garde music were very similar to each other because their compositions could be abstract, distorted, unsymmetrical (artistically and musically speaking). For instance, the language of cubism was discovered in visual art. In music, avant-garde composers could throw away conventional representations of meters, develop dissonant or atonal music, etc.
Question 4 - What characteristics did they have in common?
They were both very similar because they could each be categorized as expressionistic, where unconventional methods could be used in order to evoke emotions and spirit. In other words, there was no limit to creativity and compositions could be very unorthodox in comparison to previous musical and artistic phases in history.
Expressionism and impressionism also exist in music, and have their own differences as well.
Impressionism in music is pretty similar to impressionistic art, the goal of the style is to create mood and atmosphere rather than emotion or storyline. This musical phase occurred right after the romantic era and was popularized in France, by composers like Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. Composers like these two would try to blend tones and pitches in new ways to create different harmonic forms and textures.
Twelve Tone Row Composition
The plot of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring isn't too complex, and it can be explained through each episode (there are 12 total episodes, so this will be long). The first episode, "Augurs of Spring" begins with a celebration in the hills where a visionary foretells the future. In the episode, "Ritual of Abduction" a group of young girls arrive at a river in single file line, and begin the dance of abduction. The next episode, "Spring Round" has the girls dance the khorovod. The "Ritual of the Rival Tribes" has the people divide into two different groups and begin the ritual of rival tribes. "Procession of the Sage: The Sage" includes a holy procession that leads to the entry of the wise elders, headed by the Sage who brings the games to a pause and blesses the earth. The next episode, "Kiss of the Earth" has the sage bless the Earth with a kiss. The concluding episode for Act I is the "Dance of the Earth" where the people break into a dance and become one with the earn. For Act II, the opening episode is "Mystic Circles of the Young Girls" where the young girls engage into mysterious games, and walk in circles. After that, the episode "Glorification of the Chosen One" has one of the girls selected by fate, and is danced around in a circle twice, being deemed as the "Chosen One". "The Evocation of the Ancestors" is the episode where the girls dance and invoke their ancestors. The second to last episode, "Ritual Action of the Ancestors" has the Chosen One entrusted to take care of the men, and the last episode, "Sacrificial Dance" has the Chosen One dance to death in front of the men. Overall, the plot of Rite of Spring includes ritual like dances and a sacrifice at the end.
Disney's interpretation of Rite of Spring is really interesting and captivating - it involves the creation of Earth instead of the violent nature of primeval mankind. There are certain phases that happen in the movie; the creation of Earth, the appearance of plants, water, terrain, and dinosaurs, and then an episode of natural disasters which lead to the inevitable extinction of the dinosaurs.
Rite of Spring's music is dissonant, has exaggerated tempos, slow and fast dynamics, confusing syncopation, and intense expression. These musical elements in the composition allow it to achieve such a violent and disturbing state of nature. Rite of Spring also goes really well with both stories because of the themes that are shown in the stories - sacrifice, creation, inevitability, fate, etc. Certain sections in the piece, like the stamping dissonant chords of the strings and horns in the beginning fit very well with the scenes like the boiling lava from the volcanoes in Disney's Fantasia.
UNit 2 Notes
Chapter 20 - Music and Modernism
Avant-Garde: Literally means "vanguard" (militaristically speaking). However, radical musicians and artists embraced the term to denote their forefront of their activity.
Impressionism:
A musical and artistic style that emphasized on creating musical and artistic atmosphere rather than prioritizing a storyline.
Symbolism:
A style for the endeavored arts where composers and painters could express their performances as freely as possible, and this resulted in abstract qualities of art and music, (distorted images, atonality) in order to convey emotions that audience could interpret and analyze.
Expressionism:
An art form that sought to express the most extreme musical feelings by divorcing art from everyday literalness.
Pentatonic Scale: A five note playable scale on the black notes of the piano, originating from Asian music and folk song.
Whole-Tone Scale: A dreamy scale that divides the octave into six equal parts; all of the whole steps are played within the octave.
Serialism: The "New Language" for music invented in the 1920s by Schoenberg.
Atonal: Music that has absolutely no tonal center.
Famous Avant Garde Composers
- Claude Debussy
- Igor Stravinsky
- György Ligeti
- Arnold Schoenberg
'Dark Side' of Progress Examples
- The development of weaponry was one of the largest contributing factors to deaths in the early 20th century. The discoveries of chemical weapons, inventions of tanks, submarines, and machine guns killed over 40 million civilians and injured 20 million people.
- Scientific theories like Einstein's theory of relativity contributed to the invention of the nuclear bomb.
- The psychological theories of Freud suggested that people were involuntarily controlled by unconscious drives
Response of Modernism
- Avant-garde writers, artists and musicians developed new languages to their trades.
- In art, cubism became a popular language for art, it was developed by Georges Barque.
- In literature, there was freedom from basic assumptions, like sentence structure, syntax, and grammar. For instance, James Joyce's last novel Finnegan's Wake uses half english and half words that were invented by him.
- In music, some artists turned away from conventional structure of rhythm, meter, tonality, etc. There were many awesome musical techniques and practices that arose from this expression of freedom; Ligeti developed micropolyphony, a polyphonic musical texture that resulted in vertical cluster tones.
*The modernists of 1900 were intellectuals who insisted on a specific vision of modernity : traditionalism.
Chapter 21 - Early Modernism
Twelve Tone System: A method of composing with the twelve tones solely in relation to one another.
Serialism: The ultimate systematizing of the chromaticism developed by Romantic composers like Wagner.
*The first major phase of avant-garde took place in Vienna and Paris, while there were strong modernist rumblings in Russia, Hungary,
Italy, and the United States.
*Debussy's investigation of
rich harmonies and sensuous tone colors occupies the border between late 19th century and early 20th century. The tone colors in Debussy's music avoid the heavy sonorities that were heard in late
romantic music, and instead replaced them with mysterious, tranquil and subtle shades of sound.
*Igor Stravinsky developed his own powerful, hard-edged avant-garde style. This style can be seen in his ballets, like The Firebird, Rite of Spring, etc. His style was so controversial that there were riots at the premiere of Rite of Spring.
*Schoenberg was the leading expressionist in music. He developed the technique of serialism after World War I. Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern are referred to as the Second Viennese School, by analogy with the earlier Viennese trio of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
*Charles Ives was an American modern composer that was the first important nationalist composer. He composed quarter tone pieces for pianos, wrote dissonant music, and also had unorthodox methods that were required for some sections in his pieces (the Concord Sonata requires the pianist to use the elbow and a wooden block to play up to 16 notes at a time).
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