Anthony Douglas

23 April 2015
MUCO 110, MWF 8:00am
Four 20th Century Musical Techniques
20th century modernism brought about significant changes in the way composers
wrote music. Among these changes are the invention of atonal music, the increased
use of polytonality, Schoenburgs system of serialism, and aleatoric music.
Tonality, as we know, is the feeling of centrality, focus, or homing toward
a particular pitch that we get from simple tunes and much other music. As
melody grew more complex and harmony grew more dissonant, tonality grew
more indistinct. Finally, some music reached a point at which no tonal center
could be detected at all. This is atonal music. (316) An example of atonal music is
Charles Ives Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1 in Three
Movements), composed mainly between 1911 and 1914.
Polytonality use of more than one musical key simultaneously has been used as
early as the classical period an example of which is the ending of Mozarts Ein
musikalischer Spa, K. 522, a divertimento for two horns and a string quartet. The
instruments play in B-flat, G, A and E-flat major at the same time. A more modern
example of polytonality exists in Samuel Barbers Symphony No. 2, which was
written to simulate the feeling of flying.
Arnold Scheonburg, one of the most respected composers of the 20th century, saw
that the use of atonality could become overly chaotic and created a system meant
to impose order on atonality. This resulted in the twelve-tone system, defined by
Schoenburg as a method of composing with the twelve tones solely in relation to
one another that is, not in relation to a central pitch, or tonic, which is no longer
the point of reference for music. This method become known as serialism. (332)
One of the earliest examples of a piece using serialism is Schoenburgs String
Quartet No. 3.
Aleatoric music is music that is commanded by chance or by the performer moreso
than the composer. An example of this is John Cages Aria, composed in 1958 in
graphic notation for voice. In this piece the vocalist is meant to create their own
interpretation of the notation, leaving each performance of Aria to be different
from one another.