Richard Wagner 1813-1883 (Start War, The giants come to take Freya away)

What is the state of music composition in central Europe, ca 1876?

Chromaticism: what is different now?
Chromaticism is beginning to undermine the tonality.
Ex, Tristan und Isolde. (late 1850s)
“Tristan” chord-F-B-Dsharp-Gsharp
Orchestration S dense, colorful, singers need power
*Brass are important; expanding brass role from a classical context.
(Wagner tuba – never caught on)
T&I – forbidden love, chromaticism in this case representing longing/ desire
Leitmotiv – (“leading” motive) – short motive / idea represents character, setting,
abstract concept, item
Texts in Wagner operas written by: Wagner.
Wagner first modernist become public intellectual?
In the past they had patrons, worked at court, church.
Still, Wagner had a patro , King Ludwig II of Bavaria, built theater for him in
Bayreuth(finished 1876)
Katharina Wagner (great- daughter), still a director
A cultural phenomenon: his music –dramas attracted audiences beyond other
musicians
Gesamtkunstwerk _ total art work; Epic, spectacle, modeled on Greek drama; music,
poetry, gesture
Self-style progressive (music- dramas/ gesatkunstwerk should inspire people to a
utopia)
“society is sick – Wagner is a symptom”

Johannes Brahms 1833-1897

Brahms is “the conservative side” - “preserve tradition somehow”
Typical example of Brahms the historicist: Symphony 4, op 98, mvt 4. Passacaglia _
it’s a ground bass: to repeat baseline or harmonic foundation.
Series of variations on that 8-bar harmonic model.
Developing variation- term invented by Arnold Schoenberg in his essay “Brahms the
progressive”
Brahms is doing modern stuff: uneven phrase lengths, Wagnerian harmony,
developing variation
Brahms’ music is not very easy to access, which means the melody is hide in the
harmony.
Develop a very short motive (2 notes) into a melodic idea. “Germinal seed that
grows into the piece”

Brahms attracted more musicians as fans. Did not need patrons.

Made all his money off proceeds of publication. He loves silk and spends a lot money
on it.

What is historicism? Belief that progress happens through awareness of past.

Musical museum
Brahms thought about his symphonies/ quartets “standing test of time.”
Harold Bloom calls it “anxiety of influence”

Scene change: Russia

St. Pestersburg
Modest Musorgsky nationalism – folk influence modal music.

Modernism intro chapter:

Author: Daniel Albright.
He discusses what OTHER people think is modernism:
Car Dahlhaus says modernism is characterized by :
1) comprehensive and depth
2) Semantic specitify and density.
3) extensions/destruction of tonality: Sciabin, strauss, Schoenberg, Debussy,
Musorgsky, Liszt.

Albright says that is not quite right.

This has been going on since medieval music.
How does Albright define modernism then?
Testing of the limits of aesthetic construction.
Eg: Debussy, expanding resources, pitch collection(pentatonic, whole tone,
octatonic, different modes), is it tonal.
What aesthetic movement interested him?

In 1870s France. Impressionism was happening in art. Monet, Seurat, Manet,

Degas.
Impressionism was a derogatory term applies by a critic 74
First Debussy piece as the first impressionism music for him in 1887 –
Printemps(Choral – vocalize-orchestral peice)
Debussy was not so found of the term Impressionism.
Symbolism - aesthetic mvt originating in poetry and prose. Also in art, and
moves across the continent. Suggestiveness is key!! Appeal through senses
(sound, smells, tastes.)
Debussy likes the French symbolists, Eg: Mallarme- thus setting the “afternoon
of the faun”
What is characterized of Debussy? Sense of atmosphere, spacing of chord and
voices
Triadic in parallel motion(nondunctional)
Harmonic language built with 7,9 chord. Arabesque-like quality to melodic lines.
Motivic recurrences in piano part “C’est extase” – from ariettes oubliees
 R. Strauss, Salome (1904) Op54
Biblical setting, original play written by Oscar Wilde.
Salome as a figure represents dangerous female sexuality I this ear.

How does that translate to music.

String swells and long melodies, textural density between orchestra and voice –
getting that from Wagner. Chromatic harmony from Wagner, expanded
orchestra, and leitmotivic technique from Wagner.
He treats music too seriously.
Sense of dramatic structure: Salome ends quickly after the climax.

Scriabin(1872-1915)
“Skryabin” in Russian language.
Growth as a composer : earlier in style of Romantic (Chopin), late period is
atonal, chromatic. Chromaticism led to atonality.
Mystical belief in the power of his music.

Short writhing propmt;

What do these three composers have in common that could be considered as
Modernism.

-turn of the century Vienna

How is this interest in psychology “modern”?
Sigmund Freud(1856-1939)
Developing theory of unconscious desires affecting person.
Exploration of motivations /meaning behind people’s action.
Aspects of sexual identity being theorized.

Second Viennese school

Alban Berg’s “Why is Schoenberg’s music so Difficult?”

Synthesis of all historical development
Why is hard?
Density of materials that are developed simultaneously.
Uneven phrase lengths – result of motivic development.
More sophisticated harmonic language (speed of harmonic change –
lack of harmonic stability through use of dim7th. Other 7 chords as
stable), abandonment of periodic phrase structure.
Arhythmic- as a critique of SVS, lacke of easy-to-follow metrical
regularity.
Hauptstimme : head/main voice
Nebenstimme : next to/adjacent voice

There is a period of “free atonality” – often called “expressionist period”

for AS.
Expressionism – began as visual arts mvt, exploring dark, psychological
emotion
Famous example: Munch’s “The scream”(1893)
This spreads to other arts, even film in first two decades of 20th century.
Erwartung op.17 (expectation) – monodrama – woman alone in woods
at night waiting for lover (stumbles across dead body of lover? Did She
kill him?) Freudian, Wagnerian use of orchestra (Although motivic
material passed around through instrument more quickly)
“Post-Salome”

Basic principles of twelve-tone construction:

How to structure atonal music without text?
Schoenberg post WWI in 1920s develops the system.

“The twelve-tone row” must contain all 12 chromatic pitches within an

octave, not repeated.
I can do things to it.
“perform operation” – such as: retrograde, inversion, r-i. rhythmically,
diminution, augmentation… break up the row into chords (hexachords)

Klangfarbenmelodie: Sound- color-melody: melody is created through

use of dif. Timbres of the instruments rather than in one instrument or
group

Berg VS Webern

A .Berg – Sounds more tonal; more expressive; use of

Klangfarbenmelodie; coherent musical lines in different instruments,
some repeat, gestures repeat.
Sprechstimme – (speaking voice), notated as Xs for notehead, most
famous eg: Pierrot Lunaire
Wozzeck (eg of Berg) – lower-class man Wozzeck, has a hard life, kills
his cheating wife. First twelve- tone opera

B. Webern
C. Webern – Symphony op.21

Webern dose like softer dynamics, sounds more fragmented, more

emphasis on the tiny gesture/motive. He becomes much more
economical with musical ideas. He was the most influential for later
serial composers.
12-tone system not incompatible with older forms (forms that had
relied on tonal drama and resolution)

“Emancipation of the dissonant” – they see themselves as nest step in

musical evolution (so, not a totally radical break)

Reception history: how to critics people wrote about piece, composition,

and style. (How other composer react)

Composer Biography
Sources:
Score, manuscript, writing letter (how does composer want other
people to understand them?), other people’s accounts.

Chronological reconstruction, constructing composer’s attitude.

Freudian psychoanalysis

What is the radical side of modernism?

More dissonant: tone clusters
Polytonality:
Experimental use of instrument – extend techniques (eg, Cowell’s
Aeolian Harp) – this may require new notation (and/or directions to
performer)

Who are the most influential European composers?

Schoenberg

Stravinsky - famous for “Russian” ballet. (1910-1913) for ballets Russes

Develops “a more restrained” neo-classical style around 1920 (Pucinella
ballet, violin concerto, piano sonata, ect.)
Eg: Violin concerto mvt 1 “toccata”
Neoclassical style: borrows from more baroque style (not classical
period), fugal, imitative textures, smaller orchestra forces, more
chamber-like, motoric rhythmic. (like Bach), more tonal sounding
(sometimes polytonal)
Some composers wind up as jazz performers, composers, arrangers,
because they are turned away from conservatories.

Florence Price (1874-1953) African American woman who studied with

Chadwick in Boston.

Modernism, however, doesn’t have to sound violent. Music history likes

to tell the story of “the new” – what was always being invented.

Rut Crawford Seeger – tried to be a modernist in the sense of dissonant,

complex music. She won a scholarship to study in France, but she
married her teacher Pete Seeger.
Stopped the modernist (dissonant, complex) style because of ideological
shift, SOCOALIST mvt in the 1930s. – post 1929 depression: suddenly
interested in appealing to more people, maybe the historically
oppressed. (Economically) – answer is folk music. (daughter Peggy
becomes folk singer)

Even more social critique on part of some composers (eg, Kurt Weill,
Marc Blitzstein.)

Meanwhile in Jazz, 1930s – swing era, big band, radio broadcasting, film.
Eg: billy Strayhorn “take the A train”

Theory vs Musicology: “rhetoric” – words/phrases used to persuade,

Forte, Toryskin. “Seem arbitrary”,
Why is important to do historical context?
Layered ostinati

Sergei Diaghilev:
Experience in multiple arts, but “had talent for none”
Erik Satie and Les Six:
Satie born 1866 (died 25) Inspiration for the next generation (Les Six)
Poulenc, Taillefrre, Durec, Auric, Honegger, Milhaud – 1920s and early
1930s in Paris.
Their aesthetic principles: No Wagner or other German values. (Lack of
sentimental/ heavy drama, dense huge orchestration, lack of late 19th
century chromatic harmony, organic development of motive.)
Supposed to be light and humorous.
Embrace Stravinsky neoclassicism. (More tonal nod to Baroque
predecessors)

Ballets Russes:
To summarize, Ballets Russes testing ground for new aesthetic ideas
and combinations. Work with different artists, composers, other artistic
types.
Rite of spring scandal?
Nijinsky choreography was scandalous. Flat-footed, the inward – tuned,
the jumping for women.
This is the beginning of modern dance.

Mystery listening,
Eg, layered ostinato, big orcheatra, densely textured, post-travinsky,
Russian modernist in 1922 (Alexander Mosolov)

Pierre Boulez (1925-)

Integral Serialism: serialize components of music, rhythm, and
articulation.
Mcmanus, “all very dry and intellectual”
What is the function of this music anymore??

“Who cares if you listen?” - Babbitt - 1958

1). Composer is more isolated societally
2). That’s okay, but it’s too complicated for public
3). Contemporary music (his music) is like a science, a specialty for
experts in the fields.
4). So our composers should retreat into the academy.
5). And who cares if the public listens.
Mcmenus: “Are these people like modernists ” have to make “progress”?
Minimalism – simple, “minimal material” that often repeats and that
forms the basis of the piece

A subset or style within minimalism:

Phase shifting – two or more exact musical repetitions that slowly more
apart (and back together). Music for pieces of wood in 1973. Steven
Reich.

Reich’s early stuff is tape music (come out, 1964; it’s Goona Rain), both
gradual processes. Example of his “music as a Gradual Process” eassy.

The language loses any semantic meaning – becomes sound

Choreographers experimented with minimalism in dance. Anna terese

de keersmaeker

Phase shifting was big 1960s-1970s.

Second wave of minimalism in 1980s, not necessarily phase shifting.

John Adams uses this strategy: layering of short ostinato, shifting
harmonic moments. Triadic harmonies, not too atonal, not fully
functional but implies functionality at times.
Eg: Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

Now in a post-minimalist era. People regularly make use of this Adams

style, but it’s not the entire piece.

Performance Art – the performance is the main event, often improvised,

multimedia, and political in natural. One would refer to these events as
“pieces”. Performance artists often push the body to the limits to see
how far they can go.

Happening – group of people performing stuff. Originates in 1950s with

John Cage and his friends.
Ex: Cage’s Water Walk (1960)

Ex: Yoko Ono’s Cut piece (1965) – Feminist mvts. In 1960s and 70s.
Challenge audiences think about how society treats women as objects?
- Are they thinking critically zbout what they are doing?
Marina Abramovic, rhythm 0 (1974) ask public to do whatever. “push
energy of the body”

Performance art coexists with some development in music, but

influences some creative artists.
Ex. Peter Maxwell Davies, 8 songs for a Mad King. About King Geoge III
in his late years. Violin destruction, extended vocal techniques, and
other performance art elements.
Back to Minimalism! But – minimalist opera. Philip Glass and John
Adams bring opera back?

Ex: Glass. Einstein on the Beach. (1974) – no narrative plot, lots of

dancing and other extra-musical effects. Chorus plays a big role.
Includes “knee plays” for chorus. More about the idea of Einstein than
portraying him as a figure n a story. It does have simple repetitive tonal
musical motives, talking, chorus, etc.

John Adams

Nixon in China (1987): Minimalist repetitions, full orchestral texture,

actually has a plot. Like 19th – c grand opera: big choir, costuming, lights
and effects – about the tableau.

Coloratura soprano for the role of Mao’s wife: bad character. She sings
high notes, like the queen of the night.

Death of Klinghoffer (1991)

Doctor Atomic (2005)
Girls of the Golden West (2017)

What is style? what distinguishes it musically from other contemporary

styles? What are the essential musical charactaristics?
When / how did it cone into being?
Who are the main comosers of this tyle?
Eg.
New Complexity:

Coined in 1980s – “hard core complexity” in all dimensions, dissonant,

atonal, technically very difficult, notation is etremnlu complex – micro-
tonality created, unstable musical texture.
Two English teachers : Brian Ferneyhough and Micheal finnissy at
Darmstadt (Ferneyhough directing at that point, 1982-1996),
ensembles who could play this stuff and performed: Suoraan and
Expose. After 1995, gained international success. Bludenzer Tage –
performance festival.
Ferneyhough was very influential at this point: outgrouwth of total
serialism. Processing the mid-centeury work of Boulez, Babbitt, etc.
Eg: Ferneyhough’s Etudes transcendantales. Absured precision in
notation (multiple uneven rhythmic subdivision)

Spectral music
Bega in early 1970; using computer graphing software to look at sound
waves. Zoom in on one sound, then compose out to make a piece from it.
(eg: Grisey’s Partiels) Trying to move away from serialism and math.
Focus on harmonic series and overtones. Developed out of technology
use. Creating a sonic atmosphere based n tinbre.
It’s like amplifying a sound. Form not so important.
Saariaho L’amour de loin
A lot of spectral music may be static, Creates sound mass sometimes.
Not a lot of linear progression.

Presentations guidelines and advice:

20 minytes time.
Compare/Contrast 3 most substantial or siginifiant pieces of
scholarship on the piece.

Recommended structure:

3-4 minutes: introduce the piece, basic, who, what, where, when
5 minutes on each source
final minutes: summarize
maybe some visual component to help present the information

Don’t rely on PP for all the words- don’t read it to us.

If you play an excerpt, time it include that timing into your overall time.
Practice staying in the time limit

Music written in the past few years

Where does your music all into what we have been listening to?

New music being commissioned/played all over

Anything does stylistically today – can we discern trends or preferences

in the US?

Incorporation od computer/electronic music not unusual

Harmonic language is whatever; have to consider audiences still
Pushing boundary for pushing boundary’s sake is not a thing
Traditional classical upbringing is not standard for composers today
it helps to be a performer or be friends with performers, so a lot of NY
scene people organize their own ensemble/ festivals
Seem harder to get orchestral commissions (who’s controlling this)
Maybe more film soundtracks in orchestra performance?

Random example: Jake Heggie,

Overture to Moby Dick. 2010

Ex. Caroline Shaw, Partita

Vocal styles and techniques from world music (Courante includes some
breathing techniques inspired by Inuit song style)

Ex. Dog Days by David T. Little (what is going on here)

Ex. “In the Light of Air” by Anna thhorvaldsdottir – static, atmospheric,
not tonal, emphasis on gesture, timbre, atmosphere. (Lighting effect)