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Let’s Learn
The start of the 20th century saw the rise of distinct musical styles that reflected a
move away from the conventions of earlier classical music. These new styles
were:impressionism, expressionism, neo-classicism, avantgarde music, and
modernnationalism. The distinct musical styles of the 20th century would not have developed
if not for the musical genius of individual composers such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel,
Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofieff, and George Gershwin
stand out as the moving forces behind the innovative and experimental styles mentioned
above. Coming from different nations—France, Austria, Hungary, Russia, and the United
States— these composers clearly reflected the growing globalization of musical styles in the
20th century.
In this module, you will learn the first part of the history of the Music of the 20 th century.
We will be discussing the characteristics of musical styles such impressionism and
expressionism, composer, historical and cultural backgrounds.
 Listens perceptively to selected music of the 20th Century such as Impressionism
 Describes distinctive musical elements of given pieces in 20th century styles.

Let’s Try
Classify the items in the box according to the musical styles which they belong. Write
your answer on the box provided.
Igor Stravinsky Three Piano Pieces OP.11, NO.1
Bolero Arnold Schoenberg
Russian Dance from Petrouchka Maurice Ravel
Claude Debussy Claude De Lune
Impressionism Expressionism

Lesson
Impressionism to
1 Expressionism

Let’s Explore
IMPRESSIONISM
One of the earlier but concrete forms declaring the entry of 20th century music
was known as impressionism.
- It is a French movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. The
sentimental melodies and dramatic emotionalism of the preceding
Romantic Period (their themes and melody are easy to recognize and
enjoy) were being replaced in favour of moods and impressions.

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 - Extensive use of colours and effects, vague melodies, and innovative
chords and progressions leading to mild dissonances.
- Sublime moods and melodic suggestions replaced highly expressive and
program music, or music that contained visual imagery. With this trend
came new combinations of extended chords, harmonies, whole tone,
chromatic scales, and pentatonic scales. Impressionism was an attempt not
to depict reality, but merely to suggest it.
- It was meant to create an emotional mood rather than a specific picture. In
terms of imagery, impressionistic forms were translucent and hazy, as if
trying to see through a rain-drenched window.
The impressionistic movement in music had its foremost proponents in the
French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Both had developed a
particular style of composing adopted by many 20th century composers. Among the
most famous luminaries in other countries were Ottorino Respighi (Italy), Manuel de
Falla and Isaac Albeniz (Spain), and Ralph Vaughan Williams (England). (Adam
Augustyn,Britannica Encyclopedia)

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918)

Claude Debussy. He was the primary exponent of

the impressionist movement and the focal point for other
impressionist composers.

 changed the course of musical development by

dissolving traditional rules and conventions into a new
language of possibilities in harmony, rhythm, form,
texture, and colour.

 Debussy was born in St. Germain-en-Laye in France on August 22, 1862. His early
musical talents were channel to piano lessons. He entered the Paris Conservatory
in 1873.
 He gained a reputation as an erratic pianist and a rebel in theory and harmony.
 He added other systems of musical composition because of his musical training. In
1884, he won the top prize at the Prix de Rome competition with his composition L’
Enfant Prodigue (The Prodigal Son). This enabled him to study for two years in
Rome, where he got exposed to the music of Richard Wagner, specifically his
opera Tristan und Isolde, although he did not share the latter’s grandiose style.
Debussy’s mature creative period was represented by the following works:
 AriettesOubliees􀀃
 Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun􀀃
 La Mer (1905)—a highly imaginative and atmospheric symphonic work for
orchestra about the sea
 Images, Suite Bergamasque, and Estampes—his most popular piano
compositions; a set of lightly textured pieces containing his signature work
Claire de Lune (Moonlight)
 His musical compositions total more or less 227 which include orchestral
music, chamber music, piano music, operas, ballets, songs, and other vocal
music.
 His role as the “Father of the Modern School of Composition” made its mark in
the styles of the later 20th century composers like Igor Stravinsky, Edgar
Varese, and Olivier Messiaen. Debussy spent the remaining years of his life

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 as a critic, composer, and performer.
 He died in Paris on March 25, 1918 of cancer at the height of the First World
War.
MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)

Joseph Maurice Ravel was born in Ciboure, France

to a Basque mother and a Swiss father.
 He entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 14
where he studied with the eminent French composer
Gabriel Faure.
 His compositional style is mainly characterized by its
uniquely innovative but not atonal style of harmonic
treatment. It is defined with intricate and sometimes
modal melodies and extended chordal components. It
demands considerable technical virtuosity from the
performer which is the character, ability, or skill of a
virtuoso—a person who excels in musical technique or
execution.
 Harmonic progressions and modulations are not only musically satisfying but also
pleasantly dissonant and elegantly sophisticated.
 His refined delicacy and colour, contrasts and effects add to the difficulty in the
proper execution of the musical passages. These are extensively used in his works
of a programmatic nature, wherein visual imagery is either suggested or portrayed.
Many of his works deal with water in its flowing or stormy moods as well as with
human characterizations.
Ravel’s works include the following:
 Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899), a slow but lyrical requiem
 Jeuxd’Eauor Water Fountains (1901)
 String Quartet (1903)
 Sonatine for Piano (c.1904)
 Miroirs(Mirrors), 1905, a work for piano known for its harmonic evolution and
imagination,
 Le Tombeau de Couperin (c.1917), a commemoration of the musical
advocacies of the early 18th century French composer Francois Couperin,
 Rhapsodie Espagnole
 Bolero
 Daphnis et Chloe (1912), a ballet commissioned by master choreographer
Sergei Diaghilev that contained rhythmic diversity, evocation of nature, and
choral ensemble.
 The two piano concerti composed in 1929 as well as the violin virtuosic piece
Tzigane (1922) total the relatively meager compositional output of Ravel,
approximating 60 pieces for piano, chamber music, song cycles, ballet, and
opera. Ravel was a perfectionist and every bit a musical craftsman. He
strongly adhered to the classical form, specifically its ternary structure. A
strong advocate of Russian music, he also admired the music of Chopin, Liszt,
Schubert, and Mendelssohn. He died in Paris in 1937.

EXPRESSIONISM
This musical is often features a high level of dissonance, extreme contrasts of
dynamics, constant changing of textures, “distorted” melodies and harmonies, and
angular melodies with the leaps. (Anon, 2014)

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 ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874–1951)

Arnold Schoenberg was born in a working-class

suburb of Vienna, Austria on September 13, 1874. He
taught himself music theory, but took lessons in
counterpoint.
His works include the following:
 Verklarte Nacht, Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11
 Pierrot Lunaire,
 Gurreleider􀀃

 Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night, 1899), one of his earliest successful

pieces, blends the lyricism, instrumentation, and melodic beauty of Brahms
with the chromaticism and construction of Wagner.
His musical compositions total more or less 213 which include concerti,
orchestral music, piano music, operas, choral music, songs, and other instrumental
music. Schoenberg died on July 13, 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA where he
had settled since 1934.

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971)

Igor Stravinsky stands alongside fellow-composer

Schoenberg, painter Pablo Picasso, and literary figure
James Joyce as one of the great trendsetters of the 20th
century.
 He was born in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov), Russia
on June 17, 1882. Stravinsky’s early music reflected the
influence of his teacher, the Russian composer Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov. But in his first successful
masterpiece, The Firebird Suite (1910), composed for
Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet, his skillful handling of
material and rhythmic inventiveness went beyond
anything composed by his Russian predecessors. He
added a new ingredient to his nationalistic musical style.
The Rite of Spring (1913) was another outstanding
work.

Despite its “shocking” modernity, his music is also very structured, precise,
controlled, full of artifice, and theatricality. Other outstanding works include the ballet
Petrouchka(1911), featuring shifting rhythms and polytonality, a signature device of
the composer. The Rake’s Progress (1951), a full-length opera, alludes heavily to
the Baroque and Classical styles of Bach and Mozart through the use of the
harpsichord, small orchestra, solo and ensemble numbers with recitatives stringing
together the different songs. Stravinsky’s musical output approximates 127 works,
including concerti, orchestral music, instrumental music, operas, and ballets, solo
vocal and choral music. He died in New York City on April 6, 1971.

Let’s Elaborate
The following are the musical elements that you can use in analyzing the given music
of the 20th century such as impressionism and expressionism.

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Pitch – register (high or low); organization of pitches with a pattern
of intervals between them creates scales;  Words we might use to describe scales:
major/minor, chromatic, gapped, pentatonic.

Rhythm – the time element of music.  A specific rhythm is a specific pattern in time;
we usually hear these in relation to a steady pulse, and mentally organize this pulse
or tempo into meter (sometimes called a "time signature").  Meter organizes beats
into groups, usually of two or three; beats can be divided into small units usually 2, 3
or 4 subdivisions

Melody, or musical line, is a combination of pitch and rhythm (some say

"duration").  Sometimes a melody is considered to be the theme of a composition. A
melody that uses mostly small intervals (or scale steps) and is smooth is said to be
a conjunct melody.  
 
Timbre – sound quality or tone color; timbre is the characteristic that allows us to
distinguish between one instrument and another and the difference between vowel
sounds. I prefer to avoid describing timbre in emotional terms (excited, angry, happy,
sad, etc.); that is not the sound quality, it is its effect or interpretation.  Rather than
describe the timbre of an instrument in other terms, it is often more clear just to
describe the timbre by naming the instrument, once we have learned the names and
sounds of a few instruments.
 
Dynamics – loud or soft, a composition that has extremely soft passages as well as
extremely loud passages is said to have a large or wide dynamic range.  Dynamics
can change suddenly or gradually (crescendo, getting louder, or decrescendo,
getting softer.)
 
Texture – monophonic (one voice or line), polyphonic (many voices, usually similar,
as in Renaissance or Baroque counterpoint), homophonic (1. a melody with simple
accompaniment;  2. Chords moving in the same rhythm (homorhythmic)) heterophony
– “mixed” or multiple similar versions of a melody performed simultaneously (rare in
European music; possibly used in Ancient Greece) collage – juxtaposition &
superimposition of extremely different textures or sounds.

Let’s Dig In
Activities:
1. Watch the video clip about the musical elements.
https.www.slideshare.net>mobile
Write your reactions regarding the elements of music in your notebook.
2. Listen to the following songs:
a. Moonlight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvFH_6DNRCY
b. Bolero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r30D3SW4OVw
c. Three Piano Pieces, OP. 11, NO. 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VeTFxbsVGrI
d. Russian Dance From Petrouchahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Yn2wPdfDvYM
3. Describe the difference of the two musical pieces according to their elements.
Three Piano Pieces, Russian Dance
Elements Moonlight Bolero
OP.11, NO.1 from Petroucha
Meter/ Time
signature

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 Tempo/beats
per minute(slow,
moderate, fast)

Texture

Timber

Dynamics

Let’s Remember
REFLECTION:
1. Were you aware that some of these music were composed centuries ago?

2. How were they used as background music?

3. Do you think they were used creatively? Was the music used appropriately?

Let’s Evaluate
Read the items very carefully. Choose the answer of the correct answer and write in
your activity notebook.

1. Which of the following elements used to describe the degree of volume,

stylistic interpretation or functional execution in music?
a. Texture
b. Dynamics
c. Timber

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 d. Melody
2. What does 'andante' mean?
a. At a moderate/'walking' pace
b. Gradually getting faster
c. Very fast
d. Very slow
3. What is a 'homophonic' texture?
a. A single and unaccompanied voice
b. Multiple voices varying a main melody simultaneously
c. The overlapping of several melodic voices in a piece
d. Where one voice stands out on top of a backing harmony
4. Which element of music best describes how 'high' or 'low' notes sound?
a. Pitch
b. Rhythm
c. Texture
d. Timbre
5. A tempo marking, which means to change the tempo slightly slower?
a. meno mosso
b. messo mosso
c. mezzo mosso
d. mezzo forte
All your answers will be written in your activity notebook and send to: Option 1. Send
to group chat Option 2. Send to teacher’s email.

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