GROUP 3

REPORT
AVANT-GARDE
 What is avant-garde?
• The avant-garde style was associated with electronic music and
dealt with the parameters or dimensions of sound and space. It
made use variations of self-contained note groups to change
musical continuity and improvisation, with an absence of
traditional rules on harmony, melody, and rhythm.
• Avant-garde music is a style of experimental music that
originated in the early 20th century. It is characterized by the use
of new sounds, extended playing techniques, and unusual time
signatures.
Avant-garde composers often explore extreme ranges of timbre and
dynamics and may employ complex polyrhythms or other features that
are not usually found in traditional music. Avant-garde pieces are often
difficult to listen to because they have no clear melody and rhythm.

Avant-garde music uses uncommon scales, atypical rhythms, and

nonconventional modes outside of what’s traditionally accepted as the
diatonic system. Avant-garde musicians are at the forefront of what is
considered new, different, or experimental. This often means working
with what some would consider just plain weird noise.
 AVANT-GARDE KNOWN COMPOSERS
GEORGE GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
George Gershwin was born in New York to Russian Jewish
Immigrants. His first song was written 1916 and his first Broadway
musical, La La Lucille, in 1919. He also composed Rhapsody in Blue
(1924) and An American in Paris (1928), which incorporated jazz
rhythms with classical forms. In spite of his commercial success,
Gershwin was more fascinated with classical music-that would shape
the character of his major works –half jazz and half classical. He is at
true “crossover artist,” and considered as 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.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)
Born in Massachussetts, USA, Leonard Bernstein endared
himself to his many followers as a charismatic conductor, pianist,
composer, and lecture. Bernstein’s philosophy was the universal
language of music is basically rooted in tonality. He achieved 2
preeminence in 2 fields: musicals, dance shows, and concert
music.

Bernstein is best known for his composition for stage.

• West Side Story (1957)
• Candide (1956)
• Mass (1971)
PHILIP GLASS (born 1937)
One of the most commercially successful minimalist
composers is Philip Glass who is also an avant-garde
composer. He explored the territories of ballet, opera,
theater, film and even television jingles. His distinctive style
involve cell- like phrases emanating from bright electronic
sounds from the keyboard that progressed very slowly from
one pattern to the next in a very repetitious fashion. His
music is often criticized as uneventful and shallow, yet
startlingly effective for its hypnotic charm.

He formed the Philip Glass Ensemble and produced works

such as Music in Similar Motion(1969) and Music in
Changing(1970), which combined rock- type grooves with
perpetual patterns played at extreme volumes.