20TH CENTURY

MUSICAL STYLES

Electronic and
Chance Music
Electronic
Music
REVIEW
1. He was the Father of
Electronic Music.

Edgard Varese
Answer: _________________
 2. His music was known due
to its heavily atonal
content.

Answer: Karlheinz Stockhausen

____________________
3. It is a music that uses tape
recorder wherein sounds are
arranged in different ways.

Music Concrete
Answer: _________________
4. It is an instrument that creates
electromagnetic fields that create
sounds at different pitches when the
musician moves his or her hands
around it.

Theremin
Answer: _________________
5. It is a style in music
involving the use of machines
like tape recorders and
synthesizers.

Electronic Music
Answer: _________________
 •New inventions and discoveries of
science and technology lead to continuing
developments in the field of music.
Technology has produced electronic music
devices

•These devices are used for creating and

recording music to add to or to replace
acoustical sounds.
Music Concrete or Concrete Music
 music that uses the
experiment with
tape recorder different sounds
that cannot be
 the composer records
produced by
different sounds that are
regular musical
heard in the environment
instruments such
 playing the tape recorder in as the piano or the
violin
its fastest mode or in reverse
Edgar Varese Karlheinz John Cage
Stockhausen
  1883–1965
 Edgard (also spelled Edgar) Varèse
was born on December 22, 1883
 considered an “innovative French-
born composer”
 his musical compositions are
characterized by an emphasis on
timbre and rhythm
invented the term “organized sound”
Edgar Varese - certain timbres and rhythms can be
grouped together in order to capture
a whole new definition of sound
  “Father of Electronic Music” and
described as the “Stratospheric
Colossus of Sound”
 his musical compositions total
around 50, with his advances in
tape-based sound proving
revolutionary during his time.
Edgar Varese he died on November 6, 1965
  1928 – present
Born in Cologne, Germany
 Together with Pierre
Boulez, Stockhausen drew
inspiration from these
composers as he developed
Karlheinz his style of total serialism.
Stockhausen  music - no clear melodic
or rhythmic sense
 Some of his works include:
1. Gruppen (1957), a piece
for three orchestras that moved
music through time and space;
2. Kontakte (1960), a work
that pushed the tape machine
to its limits; and
3. Hymnen (1965), an
Karlheinz ambitious two-hour work of 40
Stockhausen juxtaposed songs and anthems
from around the world
Chance
Music
• refers to a style wherein the piece always
sounds different at every
performance because of the random
techniques of production, including the
use of ring modulators or natural elements
that become a part of the music.
• most of the sounds emanate from the
surroundings, both natural and man-made,
such as honking cars, rustling leaves,
blowing wind, dripping water, or a ringing
phone.
• As such, the combination of
external sounds cannot be duplicated as
each happens by chance.
  1912–1992
 born in Los Angeles, California,
USA on September 5, 1912
 He challenged the very idea of
music by manipulating musical
instruments in order to achieve
new sounds. He experimented with
John Cage what came to be known as “chance
music.”
  created a “prepared” piano,
where screws and pieces of wood
or paper were inserted between
the piano strings to produce
different percussive possibilities
 Sonatas and Interludes (1946–
1948), a cycle of pieces containing
John Cage a wide range of sounds, rhythmic
themes, and a hypnotic quality
  His involvement with Zen
Buddhism inspired him to compose
Music of Changes (1951),written
for conventional piano, that
employed chance compositional
processes
 He became famous for his
John Cage composition Four Minutes and 33
Seconds (4’33")
  advocated bringing real-life
experiences into the concert hall
 he gradually returned to the
more organized methods of
composition in the last 20 years of
his life
 he was considered more of a
John Cage musical philosopher than a
composer
  Cage was an important force in
other artistic areas especially dance
and musical theater.
 His musical compositions total
around 229.
 Cage died in New York City on
August 12, 1992.
John Cage
Performance Task in Music
- Do your own Quarantine
Chance Music at home.
(use any materials you have at home)