20 CENTURY

TH

MUSIC
QUESTIONS:
◦ What can you say about the music?
◦ How will you describe the emotion of the composers
trying to portray?
◦ How will you relate the personality of the painter
with that of the musical composers?
Analyze the music and compare from the
previous music.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
•The primary exponent of the impressionist movement and
known as the “Father of the Modern School of
Composition”
Debussy’s compositions is clearly seen by the way he
avoided
metric pulses and preferred free form and developed his
themes.
•He was fascinated by the Javanese gamelan, an ensemble
with bells, This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed

gongs, xylophone, and occasional vocal parts which he

under CC BY-SA

later used in his works to achieve a new sound.

Debussy’s compositions is clearly seen by the way he avoided
metric pulses and preferred free form and developed his
themes.
•He was fascinated by the Javanese gamelan, an ensemble
with bells, gongs, xylophone, and occasional vocal parts which
he later used in his works to achieve a new sound.
•He is the proponent of whole-tone scale.
Images, Suite Bergamasque, and Estampes— his most
popular piano compositions; a set of lightly
• He is the proponent of whole-tone scale.
◦ 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.
◦
JOSEPH MAURICE RAVEL
◦ Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist
and conductor. He is often associated with 
Impressionism along with his elder contemporary 
Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the
term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally
regarded as France's greatest living composer.
◦ Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other
composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of 
Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best
known.
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
He taught himself music theory, but took lessons
in counterpoint
His tonal preference gradually turned to the
dissonant and atonal, as he explored the use of
chromatic harmonies
His works were met with extreme reactions,
either strong hostility from general public or
enthusiastic acclaim from his supporters.
He is credited with the twelve-tone system
His works include PIERROT LUNAIRE and VERKLARTE
NACHT(Transfigured Night, 1899) one of his earliest successful
pieces, blends and lyricism, instrumentation and melodic beauty of
Brahms with the romanticism and construction of Wagner.
His works is a total of more or less 213 which include concert
orchestral music, piano music, choral music , songs and other
instrumental music.
 IGOR STRAVINSKY ( 1882-1971)
◦ He was born in Russia on June17, 1882. Stravinsky’s early music
reflected the influence of his teacher, the Russian composer
Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov. But in his successful masterpiece, The
Firebird Suite. Stravinsky adapted the forms of the 18th century
with his contemporary style of writing. Despite its shocking
modernity, his music is very structured, precise, controlled, full of
artifice, and theatrically.
◦ Stravinsky’s musical output approximates 127 works included:
◦ Russian Dance
◦ Petrouchka
◦ The Rite of Spring
◦What significant differences do you notice
about the two composers?

◦? Why do you think they have different styles

in terms of expressions and moods in
composing music?
◦ Direction: Listen to recordings or watch video clips from YouTube on
Impressionist, Expressionist, Neo-Classicist, Avant-Garde, and Modern
Nationalist music. Analyze the characteristics and styles of each through their
impressions, experiences, thoughts, and feelings after listening to the music.

◦ 1. What group of people inspired many of Bartok’s compositions?

◦ 2. Which Russian composer created the music for the ballet The Firebird?
◦ 3. Who is considered the foremost impressionist?
◦ 4. What kind of musical style is attributed to Schoenberg and Stravinsky?
◦ 5. Who was the target audience of Prokofieff’s Peter and the Wolf?
Direction: Give an example of a musical work of each of
the composers below. Write the title in the blanks.
◦ Debussy
◦ Ravel
◦ Schoenberg
◦ Stravinsky
◦ Bartok
◦ Prokofieff
◦ Poulenc
◦ Gershwin
◦ Direction: Choose among these composers Claude
Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor
Stravinsky, Bela Bartock and choose a composition you
like. Write a brief profile about the composer, and to also
give their personal reactions about the music on a one
whole sheet of bond paper.