The History of Art

The Parallelism Between Various 20th-Century Art Movements and Music

According to the documentary, the main characterisAc of Modern Art (1860-1970) is abstract
representaAons of subjects. In this era, Due to the invenAon of cameras and the widespread use
of photography, arAsts (parAcularly, painters) no longer needed to record historical events.
Consequently, they began exploring aestheAcs and self-expression. This exploraAon led to the
emergence of different arAsAc movements with varied aestheAcs. Similarly, parallel trends
happened in music. With the development of industrialism and Technology, musicians leaned to
self-expression more than ever. These movements, generally known as Avant-garde, were
“ahead of their Ame” since they challenged criteria which were accepted as aestheAcs by
people. Based upon this, the movements were hated by society and even some governments.
Among the wide variety of arAsAc movements discussed in the documentary, I will briefly
explore three of them that directly influenced the world of music.

Impressionism:
In art of painAng, Impressionists were interested in capturing the light on objects to depict
moods, atmosphere and feelings. Similarly, in music, composers such as Debussy and Ravel
began using non-tradiAonal harmonies like unresolved chords and non-Western musical scales
such as the Pentatonic scale. These changes led to the creaAon of a sense of ambiguity and
fluidity which mirrored shiZing hues and textures found in Impressionist painAngs.
Expressionism:
This movement was a response to IndustrializaAon and poliAcal changes brought about by
World War I. Expressionists had tendency to express strong emoAons and psychological turmoil,
such as depression, and its social causes like poverty. Just as Expressionist painters who used
distorted forms and arbitrary colors to convey subjecAve experiences, Expressionist composers
employed dissonant harmonies and unconvenAonal techniques to express the complexiAes of
the human mind and mentality. Composers such as Schoenberg and his students (Second
Viennese School) who invented Atonality in music (twelve-tone music) radically departed from
norms in music. ParAcularly, in his most important composiAon, “Pierrot Lunaire", Schoenberg
transcended the constraints of tonal harmony and mirrored the dissonance and fragmentaAon
of modern life and expressed the emoAonal turbulence of the human condiAon in the 20th
century.
Minimalism:
According to the documentary, this movement “tried to strip down everything in its essenAal
qualiAes to reach simplicity, repeAAon and clarity”. In Music, Minimalism represented a
departure from the complex and ornate composiAons of previous eras, favoring “stripped-
down” structures and minimalist materials to create the same impression. Composers such as
Ph. Glass and S. Reith, who were among the pioneers of this movement, used limited materials
like repeAAve phrases, paaerns, simple melodic moAfs, and rhythmic osAnatos to reflect the
simplicity. By avoiding tradiAonal noAons of development and narraAve progression, Minimalist
composers aimed to create music that was both meditaAve and immersive, inviAng listeners to
engage with the subtle nuances of sound over repeAAon.