MUSIC OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Distinct musical styles that reflected a move

01 away from the conventions of earlier classical
music.

02 New styles were: impressionism, expressionism,

neo-classicism, avant garde music and modern
nationalism.
Musical genius of individual composers such as
03 Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Arnold
Schoenborg, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei
Prokofieff, and George Gershwin.

04 Composers came from different nations- France,

Austria, Hungary, Russia and the United States.
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.
• There is an extensive use of colors and effects, vague melodies, and
innovative chords and progressions leading to mild dissonances.
• Impressionism was an attempt not to depict reality, but merely suggest
it.
• In terms of imagery, impressionistic forms were translucent and hazy, as
if trying to see through a rain-drenched window.
• In impressionism, the sounds of different chords overlapped lightly with
each other to produce new subtle musical colors.
• Most of the impressionist works centered on nature and its beauty,
lightness, and brilliance.
 THE COMPOSERS

Bela Igor
Maurice Stravinsky
Arnold Ravel Bartok
Claude Schoenberg
Debussy
1881 1882
1862 1874 1875
 THE COMPOSERS

Philip Glass
Leonard
Francis
Bernstein
Sergei Prokofieff George Poulenc
Gershwin
1918 1937
1891 1898 1899
Claude Debussy (1862-
1918)
• He was the primary exponent of the impressionist
movement and the focal point for other impressionist
composers.
• He changed the course of musical development by
dissolving traditional rules and conventions into a new
language of possibilities in harmony, rhythm, form,
texture, and color.
• was born in St. Germain-en-Laye in France on August 22,
1862.
• His early musical talents were channeled into piano
lessons.
• He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1873. He gained a
reputation as an erratic pianist and a rebel in theory and
harmony.
• In 1884, he won the top prize at the Prix de Rome
 Debussy’s works:

Prelude to the Pelleas Images, Suite Bergamasque

.

Afternoon of a et Melisande and Estampes

Faun

Ariettes Oubliees String Quartet La Mer

• His musical compositions total more or less 227 which include

orchestral music, chamber music, piano music, operas, ballets, songs,
Pelleas et Melisande (1895)—his famous operatic work
that drew mixed extreme reactions for its innovative
harmonies and textural treatments.

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)
 The Creative Style of
Debussy
Debussy was characterized by his
unique approach to the various
musical elements; deviated from
the Romantic Period. His western
influences came from composers
Franz Liszt and Giuseppe Verdi.
The gamelan is an ensemble with
bells, gongs, xylophone, and
occasional vocal parts which he His role as the “Father of
later used in his works to achieve the Modern School of
a new sound. Composition” made its
mark in the styles of the
later 20th century
composers like Igor
Stravinsky, Edgar Varese,
and Olivier Messiaen.
Debussy spent the
Clair de
Lune
 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 refined delicacy and color,
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.
The compositional style of Ravel
is defined with modal melodies
and extended chordal
components. It demands
considerable technical virtuosity
from the performer which is the
character, ability, or skill of a
virtuoso.
Many of his works deal with
water in its stormy moods as
well as with human
characterizations. He strongly
adhered to the classical form,
specifically its ternary structure.
A strong advocate of Russian
music, he also admired the
Ravel’s Composition:
Pavane for a Dead Princess
(1899), a slow but lyrical requiem
Jeux d’Eau or Water
Fountains (1901)
String Quartet (1903)
Sonatine for Piano (c.1904)
Miroirs (Mirrors), 1905, a work for
piano known for its harmonic
Rhapsodie 08
Espagnole
Valses Nobles
et Sentimentales (1911)
Gaspard de la Nuit (1908), a set
of demonic-inspired pieces
based on the poems of Aloysius
Bertrand which is arguably the
most difficult piece in the piano
repertoire.
 Ravel’s Composition
La Valse (1920), a waltz
with a frightening
undertone that had
been composed for
Boler ballet and arranged as
o well as for solo and duo
09 10 11 piano. 12 13

Daphnis et Chloe The two piano concerti

Le Tombeau de
Couperin (c.1917), a
commemoration of
the musical
advocacies of the
early 18th century
French composer
(1912), a ballet
commissioned by
master choreographer
Sergei Diaghilev that
contained rhythmic
diversity, and choral
ensemble
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
bolero
 Comparative Styles of
Debussy and Ravel
While their musical works sound quite similar in terms of
their harmonic and textural characteristics, the two differed
greatly in their personalities and approach to music.
• Whereas Debussy was more spontaneous and liberal in
form, Ravel was very attentive to the classical norms of
musical structure and the compositional craftsmanship.
• Whereas Debussy was more casual in his portrayal of
visual imagery, Ravel was more formal and exacting in the
development of his motive ideas.
 ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874–1951)
• He was born in a working-class suburb of Vienna,
Austria on September 13, 1874. Richard Wagner
influenced his work as evidenced by his symphonic
poem Pelleas et Melisande, Op 5 (1903). From the
early influences of Wagner, his tonal preference
gradually turned to the dissonant and atonal, as he
explored the use of chromatic harmonies.
• Although full of melodic and lyrical interest, his music
is also extremely complex, creating heavy demands on
the listener.
• Schoenberg is credited with the establishment of the
twelve-tone system.
• His musical compositions total more or less 213 which
include concerti, orchestral music, piano music,
operas, choral music, songs, and other instrumental
music.
 Schoenberg’s works:

Verklarte Nacht, Pierrot Lunaire, Gurreleider Verklarte Nacht

Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11 (Transfigured Night, 1899),
one of his earliest
successful pieces, blends
the lyricism,
instrumentation, and
melodic beauty of Brahms
THREE PIANO
PIECES, OP.
11, NO. 1
 IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–
1971)
• One of the great
trendsetters of the 20th
century.
• He was born in, Russia on
June 17, 1882. Stravinsky’s
early music reflected the
Russian composer Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov.
• The Firebird Suite (1910), composed
for Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet. He
added a new ingredient to his
nationalistic musical style. The Rite
of Spring (1913) was another
• Stravinsky slowly turned his
back on Russian nationalism
and cultivated his neo-classical
style.
• Other outstanding works
include the ballet
Petrouchka (1911), The
Rake’s Progress (1951), a
full-length opera, alludes
heavily to the Baroque and
Classical styles of Bach and
• Stravinsky’s
Mozart. musical output
approximates 127 works, solo
vocal, and choral music. He died
in New York City on April 6, 1971.
 Primitivi
smis tonal through the asserting of one note
Primitivistic music
as more important than the others. New sounds are
synthesized from old ones by juxtaposing two simple events to
create a more complex new event. Primitivism has links to
Exoticism through the use of materials from other cultures,
Nationalism through the use of materials indigenous to
specific countries through the use of materials from European
ethnic groups. Two well-known proponents of this style were
RUSSIAN DANCE
FROM
“PETROUCHKA”
BELA BARTOK (1881–
• He is a composer and pianist was born in
1945) the town of Nagyszentmiklós in the Kingdom of
Hungary on March 25, 1881. By the age of four,
he was able to play 40 pieces on the piano and
his mother began formally teaching him. In
1899. Bartok entered Budapest Royal Academy
of Music. In 1903, Bartók wrote his first his first
nationalistic poem and his first major orchestral
work, Kossuth. The music of Richard Strauss’s,
strongly influenced his early work.
Bartok used Hungarian folk
themes and rhythms.
utilized changing meters and
strong syncopations.
.

Because of their rich melodies and

lively rhythms, his compositions were
 Bartok’s Works

He is most The Concerto for The short Mikrokosmos

famous for his (1926–1939),
Orchestra (1943), and popular a set of books
Six String a five-movement Allegro Barbaro
work composed with progressive
Quartets
late in Bartok’s life,
(1911) technical piano
(1908–1938). pieces
• His musical compositions total
more or less 695 which include
concerti, orchestral music, piano
music, instrumental music,
dramatic music, choral music, and
songs. In 1940, the political
developments in Hungary led
Bartok to migrate to the United
Bela
States, where he died on
September 26, 1945 in New York
City, USA.
bartok
duet for
pipes
• A moderating factor between the emotional
excesses of the Romantic period and the
violent impulses of the soul in expressionism. Neo-
• It was, in essence, a partial return to an
earlier style of writing, particularly the
tightly-knit form of the Classical period,
Classicis
while combining tonal harmonies with slight
dissonances. It also adopted a modern, freer
m
use of the seven-note diatonic scale.
• The neo-classicist style was also used by
composers such as Francis Poulenc, Bela
Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Hindemith, and
Sergei Prokofieff.
 SERGEI PROKOFIEFF (1891–
1953)
Regarded today as an avant garde
composer. Born in the Ukraine in 1891,
Prokofieff set out for the St. Petersburg
Conservatory equipped with his great
talent as a composer and pianist. He write
a music for the ballet and opera, notably
the ballet Romeo and Juliet and the opera
War and Peace.
He became prolific in writing
symphonies, and solo
instrumental music. He also
wrote Peter and the Wolf. Other
significant compositions include
the Symphony no. 1. He also
composed violin sonatas, some
of which are also performed on
the flute, two highly regarded
violin concerti, and two string
 FRANCIS POULENC (1899–
1963)
a member of the group of young
French Dialogues des Carmelites (1956)
composers known as “Les Six.” His Les Mamelles de Tiresias(1944)
compositions had a coolly elegant
Litanies a la vierge noire
modernity, tempered by a classical
sense of proportion. Poulenc was Stabat Mater (1950),
His
also fond of the witty approach of
Satie, as well as the early neo-
Works Poulenc’s musical compositions
Concert Champetre
classical(1928
works of Stravinsky. total around 185 which include
) solo piano works, as well as vocal
the Concerto for Two Pianos
(1932)
Concerto for Solo Piano
solos, known as melodies, which
(1949) highlighted many aspects of his
La Voix Humane (1958),
temperament in his avant garde
style. He died in Paris on January
Other Members of Les Six

Louis Durey
(1888–1979) Darius Milhaud
(1892–1974)

Georges Auric
Germaine Tailleferre
(1899–1983)
(1892–1983)
Arthur Honegger
(1882–1955)
perpetual
motion
Avant Garde
Music
Closely associated with electronic music, the avant
garde movement dealt with the parameters or the
dimensions of sound in space. The avant garde style
exhibited a new attitude toward musical mobility,
whereby the order of note groups could be varied so
that musical continuity could be altered. Improvisation
was a necessity in this style, for the musical scores were
not necessarily followed as written.
Avant Garde
From the United States, there were
avant garde composers such as George
Gershwin and John Cage; Leonard
Bernstein and Philip Glass.

The unconventional methods of sound

and form, as well as the absence of
traditional rules governing harmony,
melody, and rhythm, make the whole
concept of avant garde. music still so
strange to ears accustomed to
traditional compositions.
George Gershwin
(1898-1937)
• He was born in New York to Russian Jewish
immigrants. His brother Ira was his artistic
collaborator who wrote the lyrics of his songs.
His first song was written in 1916 and his first
Broadway musical La La Lucille in 1919.
• He also composed Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
and An American in Paris (1928), His opera
Porgy and Bess (1934) remains to this day.
• He is a true “crossover artist,”.
• He was considered the “Father of American
Jazz,” his “mixture of the primitive and the
sophisticated” gave his music an appeal that
has lasted long after his death.
• His musical compositions total around 369
which include orchestral music, chamber music,
musical theatre, film musicals, operas, and
songs. He died in Hollywood, California, U.S.A.
Summertime
 LEONARD
BERNSTEIN
(1918–1990)
Born in Massachussetts, USA, endeared
as a charismatic conductor, pianist,
composer, and lecturer. He was asked to
substitute for the ailing Bruno Walter in
conducting the New York Philharmonic
Orchestra in a concert on November 14,
1943. The overnight success of this event
started his reputation as a great
interpreter of the classics as well as of the
more complex works of Gustav Mahler.
He achieved pre-eminence in twofields:
conducting and composing for Broadway
musicals, dance shows, and concert
music. His musical compositions total
 Bernstein’s works:
As a lecturer, Bernstein is
fondly remembered for his
television series “Young Candide
People’s Concerts” (1958– He
1973) that demonstrated (1956) composed
the sounds of the various
Mass the music
orchestral instruments as (1971) for the film
well as his “Harvardian On the
Lectures,” a six-volume set Waterfront
of his papers on syntax, West Side Story (1954).
musical theories, and (1957),an
philosophical insights American version
delivered to his students of Romeo and
at Harvard University. Juliet.
 tonight
From “West
Side Story”
 PHILIP GLASS (1937-
present)
Born in New York, USA of Jewish parentage, Glass became an
accomplished violinist and flutist at the age of 15.
He explored the territories of ballet, opera, theater, film, and
even television jingles. His distinctive style involves cell-like
phrases emanating from bright electronic sounds from the
keyboard.
He formed the Philip Glass Ensemble and produced works
such as Music in Similar Motion (1969) and Music in
Changing Parts (1970).
Glass collaborated with theater conceptualist Robert Wilson
to produce the four-hour opera Einstein on the Beach
(1976). He completed the trilogy with the operas Satyagraha
(1980) and Akhnaten (1984). His musical compositions total
around 170.Today, Glass lives alternately in Nova Scotia,
Canada and New York, USA.
Music in
fifths
• Infographic Style MODERN NATIONALISM

A looser form of 20th century music development

focused on nationalist composers and musical
innovators who sought to combine modern
techniques with folk materials. However, this
common ground stopped there, for the different
breeds of nationalists formed their own styles of
writing.
In Eastern Europe, prominent figures included Bela Bartok and Russian Sergei Prokofieff,
who were neo-classicists to a certain extent. Bartok infused Classical techniques into his
own brand of cross rhythms and shifting meters to demonstrate many primitive themes
that were Hungarian—particularly gypsy—in origin. Prokofieff used striking dissonances
and Russian themes, and his music was generally witty at times colored with humor.
Together with Bartok, Prokofieff made extensive use of polytonality, a. An example of
Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov

In Russia, a highly gifted generation of creative

individuals known as the “Russian Five” —
Modest Mussorgsky, Mili Balakirev, Alexander
Borodin, Cesar Cui, and Nikolai Rimsky
Korsakov—infused chromatic harmony and
incorporated Russian folk music and liturgical
 VISIONS
FUGITIVE
(Excerpt)
Sergei
Prokofieff
21ST CENTURY
MUSIC TRENDS
Music scholars predict that the
experimental developments of 20th century
classical music will continue to influence
the music of the 21st century. With so many
technical and stylistic choices open to
today’s composers, it seems there is no
obstacle to their creativity and to the limits
of their imagination. And yet, this same
freedom that has allowed such varied
musical experimentation in recent years has
also caused contemporary classical music
Presently, modern technology put a great
impact on all types of music. However, what
 SUMMARY
The early half of the 20th century also gave rise to new musical
styles, which were not quite as extreme as the electronic, chance,
and minimalist styles that arose later. These new styles were
impressionism, expressionism, neo-classicism, avant garde music,
01 02
Impressionism Expressionism revealed the
made use of the composer’s mind, instead of
whole-tone scale. It presenting an impression of
the environment. It used
also applied atonality and the twelve-tone
suggested, rather scale, lacking stable and
than depicted, conventional harmonies.
reality.
03 04
Neo-classicism was a The avant garde style
partial return to a was associated with
classical form of electronic music and
writing music with dealt with the
carefully modulated parameters or
dissonances. It made dimensions of sound in
use of a freer seven- space.
Modern nationalism
is a looser form of 20th century
music development focused on
nationalist composers and
musical innovators who sought to
combine modern techniques with
folk materials.
A number of outstanding composers of the 20th century
each made their own distinctive mark on the contemporary
classical music styles that developed. Claude Debussy and
Maurice Ravel were the primary exponents of impressionism,
while Arnold Schoenberg was the primary exponent of
expressionism. Bela Bartok was a neo-classical, modern
nationalist, and a primitive composer. Igor Stravinsky was
also an expressionist and a neo-classical composer.
 Thank you
for listening
“Music is an agreeable
harmony for the honor of
God and the permissible
delights of the soul.”
― Johann Sebastian Bach
la première
the first group