Period Overview Introduction

Finale

Turandot was an opera that was written by Puccini in 1924. The finale of the piece is very grandiose; in the orchestra, the strings and brass play at a fortissimo and serve as a rambunctious accompaniment for the chorus. Aside from the music, the performers' costumes and the backgrounds really make the scene beautiful and colorful.

Nessun Dorma

This scene from Turandot greatly contrasts from the finale. Instead of hundreds of people being on stage like there are in the finale, only a solo tenor is singing on stage. The scene also has very dark lighting. After the tenor sings his solo, the chorus can be heard signing in the distance. In the orchestra, the most prominent section in this scene is the strings.

Hoedown

The musical elements from Copland's Hoedown from Rodeo give feelings and images of America and the wild west in a few ways. One of the more obvious ways Copland does this is by having the performers yell in the middle of the piece (imitation of cowboys yelling). The movement also follows the form of a square dance, it is composed in duple meter. The theme is played by the strings in an allegro tempo, followed by simple counterpoint by the horns. There is even an Irish theme that is introduced in the oboe and clarinet. Overall, the energetic mood, fast tempo, and themes evoke a feeling of the wild west. 

Psycho 

In Hermann's theme from Psycho, there are several sections that create feelings of suspension and fright. One of the interesting things in this composition is that the strings have mutes on theme. This creates a very chilly, percussive, and cold effect. At the same time, some sections in the theme don't have muted strings. Two minutes in the piece, and the mood changes; it sounds like the usual Hollywood romantic soundtrack. The most famous section of the theme is the 7th chord containing minor and major intervals, which creates a very suspenseful and chilling atmosphere. The Dance of the Young Girls from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is very similar to the theme from Psycho because it uses the same technique in the strings and the horna; jabbing, dissonant chords in an irregular meter. Hermann could have likely been influenced by Stravinsky when writing the score for Psycho. 

The theme from The Godfather composed by Fellini is a heavy contrast from Psycho & Rite of Spring. The strings dominate this theme, and the phrasing gives off a very typical Hollywood romantic soundtrack. The horns and wood-winds serve as harmony for the strings, and the score also features some unusual instru-ments like the accordion (it sounds very Italian). 

Mercury

This movement from the planets really gives off a "winged messenger" feel to the listener. The instrument comp is woodwinds and strings. The woodwinds and strings' articulation is very staccato, making the timbre of the piece very airy. The tempo is relatively fast, around an allegro. The descending scales heard in the woodwinds almost seem to convey the messenger descending down from a flight. The rhythm is very syncopated as well. 

Venus 

This movement contrast greatly from Mercury. The tempo is andante, the articulation in the winds is legato with the strings accompanying them with staccatos. The expression and mood of the piece is much more tranquil (it does make more sense, Venus is the "Bringer of Peace"). The timbre of the movement is bright from all the consonance. 

Mars

This movement is written in quintuple meter, which is very different from the other movements. The timbre is very brassy. The dynamics variate throughout the piece; the beginning is piano and it crescendos to forte. There are a lot of dissonant chords which create a dark and serious mood. The tempo remains pretty constant throughout the piece.

Jupiter

The melodies that are carried out by the brass are very syncopated. The strings continuously play a series of repeated eight notes in the beginning. The entire movement has consistent changes, for instance, meters change throughout the piece, there are several different harmonies, and Holst features quite a few unusual instruments, like the timpani. The moods and expression change frequently as well; sometimes its grand, energetic, or mournful. 

Saturn

The pitches are really low in this piece due to the double basses. The form of the piece in the beginning is almost like a funeral march. The mood is very solemn in the beginning and changes to be very alarming later with the bells and the dissonant chords. The rhythm with the winds in the beginning also create a barcarolle effect, rocking back and forth constantly. 

Uranus

The rhythm in this piece is very syncopated. It is very different from the other movements, the mood is much more mysterious. There are a lot of skirmishes from woodwinds which paint the picture of a magicians tricks. 

Neptune 

This movement has a choir at the end of it, and I think the lyrics represent the infinite nature of space beyond Neptune. The timbre is very silky from the arpeggios in the harps and also the beautiful consonant chords that it is accompanied with. The tempo is constant and the dynamics hover around a piano.

*The tonality for each of the movements really differs from one another. For an example, Mars doesn't use functioning tonality, but still has an obvious pitch-class center (key of G). Mars may sound atonal because of the chromaticism used in it and the limited functional harmony, but it still has a feeling of a tonic of G. Holst used modes in the Planets and seems to favor the Mixolydian mode - especially in movements like Jupiter. 

  • Mars - Major
  • Venus - Major
  • Mercury - Major
  • Jupiter - Major
  • Saturn - Minor
  • Uranus - Major 
  • Neptune - Minor

Period Overview Continued

Due to the extremely minimalistic nature of the pieces, they sound like they could be put into film scores as background for characters doing everyday routines in their life. They also sound like they could be good concluding pieces at the end of a movie, they sound like the music that is played after the climax of the story is finished. 

Musique de Tables was a really interesting piece to listen to. There are 3 performers and they use their hands to produce advanced rhythms and sounds. The most interesting thing was the technique of the performers, they would slap the tables, flick them, swipe, tap, and pound to make different noises and rhythms. 

Imaginary Landscape No.4 can be considered chance music because there are infinite possibilities for what the radio will have to play, when the performers change the radio station, it completely depends on what radio stations are variable and what sounds are playing. 

Drumming employs Reich's trademark technique of phrasing. The phrasing is achieved when two players are playing a single pattern in unison. One player will change the tempo ever so slightly, until the two players get out of sync with each other. There are four performers, however, one or two of them will sometimes leave for a small duration, and return on a new section, or add to the syncopation.


Period Research

There were a lot of devastating events after World War 1 that punctuated the later 20th century. The 1930s had the rise of Hitler and the tyranny of Stalin which lead to the second World War. The Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941 caused the U.S to be thrown into the war. This lead to the occupation of France, bombings in London, Tokyo, and Dresden, mass slaughter at concentration camps, and the siege of Leningrad. These horrifying events ushered a new phase of experimental modernism in the 1950s and 1960s.

Avant-Garde: Works that are experimental, radical, unorthodox, or situational with respect to society, culture, or art. Avant-garde pushes the boundaries of traditional norms or status-quo, primarily in the cultural dimension. 

Serialism: A compositional technique that was developed by Schoenberg. A fixed series of notes are used to generate the harmonic and melodic basis and are subject to change only in specific ways.

Chance Music: Music where specific elements of the composition are determined by chance. For instance, a composer might role dice to determine which instruments will be used in the score. 

Minimalism: A musical style that utilities only simple sonorities, harmonies, motives, melodies, pitches, progressions, while repeating constantly.

In order to create a prepared piano, one must insert strip of rubber, bolts, and screws in between the strings in order to modify the sound of the strings. This process is very tedious and can take over three hours to fully accomplish. The result is pretty rewarding though, it creates an awesome percussive sound to the piano. 

Its difficult to describe what the musical effects are from Cage's Sonata II, but I would say that the objects between the strings create a hollow sound when the keys are struck. At the same time, you can partially hear what the keys sound like without the objects in between the strings (on the pitches of the piano).

Jazz Audience Rules

From my past experiences at jazz concert, they can be slightly more informal than a classical concert. However, there are still some major don'ts that are seen as very rude. 

  • When a soloist finishes their solo, feel free to applaud, audience members will usually do that.
  • Don't get up in the middle of the performance, this is seen as very rude and it disrupts the audience and performers.
  • Don't take photos or videos (this applies to almost any concert, regardless of the genre) it can be illegal to record, and the flash from a phone can distract the performers.

Classical concerts are much more formal, so its important to keep a set of general rules in mind when attending one. 

  • If a performer is playing movements from a sonata, suite, etc, the audience does not applaud until the entire work is finished. (REMEMBER this one especially, it is really awkward to accidentally clap when no one else does). 
  • Try to make as little noise as possible, classical concerts are intended to have as little sound while the performer is playing, so try not to disrupt the performer or audience.
  • Never get up in the middle of a performance. 
  • If you do happen to go out or to the bathroom, return once the performer has finished their piece. 
  • Wearing nice clothes may want to be taken into consideration.

Unit 3 Notes

Modernism Between the Wars - Chapter 22

 

Traditional American Composers

  • Charles Griffes (1884-1920)
  • Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
  • William Schuman (1910-1981)
  • William Grant Still (1910-1992)
  • Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

American Musical Societies

  • International Composers's Guild
  • New York Music Society of San Francisco

Famous Film Composers

  • Max Steiner
  • Nino Rota
  • Francis Coppola
  • John Williams 
  • Akira Kurosawa

*Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss were composers that have maintained and increased their hold on audiences up to the present day. Strauss began as a composer of symphonic poems, and then transitioned to writing modernist operas such as Salome, and Der Rosenkavalier. 

*Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev were considered two of the greatest Russian modern composers of their time. Rachmaninoff's piano concertos nos. 2 and 3 are some of the most well known concert repertoire. Prokofiev composed a multitude of stunning works, such as his 9 piano sonatas, 3 piano concertos, 7 symphonies, etc. 

*Maurice Ravel was a french impressionistic composer who is ranked as one the top composers for his refinement, crispness, and elegance found in his music. Funny enough, Ravel was a mediocre pianist, yet he had the mind of a superhuman for composition - he composed some of the most breathtaking and difficult pieces for piano, such as Gaspard de la Nuit, and Le Tombeau de Couperin. 

*Bela Bartok was considered one of the most successful composers for integrating folk music into classical music. He was a man of multiple careers - a pianist, educator, composer, and musicologist. In Bartok's music, there is an earthy feel to it, and even at its most dissonant, there is still a touch of peasant melody to it. 

*Ruth Crawford was one of the earliest American avant-garde woman composers, and she only devoted less than a decade of her life to full time composition. Her repertoire consists of chamber ensembles, piano music, and songs for voice and chorus. Her music demonstrates the mastery of transparent counterpoint and dense texture. 

*William Grant Still studied with Edgard Varseé, and was a composer of concert music and opera. By 1919, his works were commissioned in the International Composers' Guild. Still's music fuses styles of blues and jazz and incorporates them into his operas, ballets, and symphonic works.

*Aaron Copland's popularity as a composer skyrocketed in the 1930s and would soon be deemed as one of the leading composers in America. Stravinsky was Copland's biggest influence. Copland also did have a phase of composing very traditional music. He adopted a nationalist agenda; and turned to jazz, square dance, shaker melody, cowboy songs, and hymns. Some of his most famous pieces include Appalachian Spring, El Salon México, and The Tender Land. 

*Bernard Hermann composed exclusively for film, radio, and television. Some of his most famous scores are from Vertigo (1958) and Psycho (1960). 

*One of the more recent composers emerging in the film scoring scene is Tan Dun, who composed for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). 

*Hitler's regime promoted the works of Beethoven and Wagner, they were personal favorites of the Nazis. Meanwhile, jewish composers faced extermination (Schoenberg is one of the best known refugees). 

*In soviet Russia, composers like Shostakovich followed the dictates of the state without question. He went over the edge with his opera, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, where the music and subject matter was shocking. After Stalin went to see the performance, the Communist Party newspaper issued a threat to Shostakovich. 

The Late 20th Century - Chapter 23

*By the 1950s, there were highly intellectual tendencies that came to the fore that were inspired by Schoenberg's serialism. There were efforts to 'serialize' rhythm, timbre, and dynamics. 

*New sound materials became in demand very quickly, composers would have singers lace their singing with hisses, grunts, and shrieks. Pianists would have to lean over and pluck the strings of the piano. Clarinets would use a special kind of breathing technique to play chords called multi phonics.

*The development of magnetic tape made it possible to manipulate a recording, composers could change the speed, make tape loops, cut and splice, etc. 

*Musique Concrete is music that composers incorporated real life sounds into. Artists called it 'concrete music' because it used actual sound. 

*The first generation of synthesizers were unbelievably clumsy - they required entire rooms to hold all of the radio equipment and complicated machinery to carry out tap manipulations.

*The technological innovation of personal computers allowed for an amazing evolution in electronic music. In present day, electronic music can be produced on a laptop by using a sequencer to edit, record, and reproduce original sounds in patterns and sequences at will.

*Chance music deals with the music being decided by chance, for instance, a composer might roll dice to determine instruments, pitches, rhythms, etc. are used in the composition. 

*Edgar Varsèse was a fascinating visionary who branched out to avant-garde and modernistic music. He developed an approach to rhythm and sonority that surpassed anything the other early avant-garde composers attempted. Famous works of his include Hyperism, and Ionisation.

*György Ligeti's has various music styles in his works; some pieces have no clear pitches or chords, or, he may start with clear pitches and chords, but will end up adding more and more pitches to the point where all sense of consonance, dissonance, and quality of pitch is lost. What remains is 'sound complexes' that slowly change with time. 

*John Cage was one of the most well known radical figures in avant-garde music. His perspective towards music was directed in a very philosophical standpoint. He question things such as 'Why compose with "musical sounds" rather than noises? Why work out music according to melodies, climaxes, twelve tone series, or anything else that gives you the impression of one thing following another in a purposeful order? Why should music be different from the other sounds of life? In other words, cage was conveying that people should open their eyes to every possible kind of sound.

*One of the earliest and most famous styles emerged in the 1960s, called minimalism. Minimalistic music focuses on simplicity of melodies, harmonies, motives, that are repeated constantly.

*A philosophy major at Cornell University, Steve Reich, studied music and has become a very well known master of minimalism. His pieces explore issues of rhythm in an abstract manner. His most famous works consist of Piano Phase ,(1967) Four Organs (1970), and Clapping Music (1972).

*George Crumb grew up in West Virginia and gained world wide popularity from his avant-garde works that became instantly successful. One of his most famous pieces was Ancient Voices of Children, a piece that explores the disturbing poetry of Federico Lorca. The piece requires amplified piano, percussion instruments, and amplified voices. Another impressive work by Crumb is Black Angels for electric string quartet (the score calls for the players to click their tongues, chant, and play their instruments in unconventional ways). 

*Tania León's compositions have a wide range of performing forces that consist of piano solo all the way to large orchestra. Her harmonies tend to lean towards the dissonant and atonal side, and her melodies are modernist and angular, but can brake out in jazzy, Latin tunes. She unites several musical and cultural traditions under a broad, avant-garde umbrella. 

*John Adams is one of the top opera and music composers today, he is strongly influenced by Reich's minimalistic approaches. The operas portray American themes, or newsworthy events.


Unit 3 Screenshots

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