MUSIC

COMPOSERS OR
MUSICIANS OF
IMPRESSIONISM,
EXPRESSIONISM AND
20th CENTURY
MUSICAL STYLES

Made by:
Name: Joe Mart Medrano
Section: G-10 STE

IMPRESSIONISM

 Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in

Western classical music (mainly during the late 19th and early 20th
centuries) whose music focuses on mood and atmosphere, "conveying
the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed
tone‐picture".
 Impressionism, in music, a style initiated by French composer Claude
Debussy at the end of the 19th century. The term, which is somewhat
vague in reference to music, was introduced by analogy with
contemporaneous French painting; it was disliked by Debussy himself.
Elements often termed impressionistic include static harmony, emphasis
on instrumental timbres that creates a shimmering interplay of
“colours,” melodies that lack directed motion, surface ornamentation
that obscures or substitutes for melody, and an avoidance of traditional
musical form. Impressionism can be seen as a reaction against the
rhetoric of Romanticism, disrupting the forward motion of standard
harmonic progressions.

 Claude Debussy, in full Achille-Claude Debussy, (born August 22, 1862,

Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France—died March 25, 1918, Paris), French
composer whose works were a seminal force in the music of the 20th
century. He developed a highly original system of harmony and musical
structure that expressed in many respects the ideals to which the
Impressionist and Symbolist painters and writers of his time aspired.

 His works include the following:

 Clair de lune (“Moonlight”; in Suite bergamasque, 1890–1905)
 Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894; Prelude to the Afternoon of a
Faun)
 Pelléas et Mélisande (1902)
 La Mer (1905; “The Sea”)

 Maurice Ravel, in full Joseph-Maurice Ravel, (born March 7, 1875,

Ciboure, France—died December 28, 1937, Paris), French composer of
Swiss-Basque descent, noted for his musical craftsmanship and
perfection of form and style in such works.

 His works include the following:

 Boléro (1928)
 Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899; Pavane for a Dead Princess)
 Rapsodie espagnole (1907)
 Daphnis et Chloé (first performed 1912)
 L’Enfant et les sortilèges (1925; The Child and the Enchantments)
 EXPRESSIONISM

 The term expressionism "was probably first applied to music in 1918,

especially to Schoenberg", because like the painter Wassily Kandinsky
(1866–1944) he avoided "traditional forms of beauty" to convey
powerful feelings in his music.
 Expressionism is a term that, like impressionism, originated in the visual
arts and was then applied to other arts including music. Expressionism
can be considered a reaction to the ethereal sweetness of
impressionism. Instead of gauzy impressions of natural beauty,
expressionism looks inward to the angst and fear lurking in the
subconscious mind. In music, expressionism is manifest in the full
embrace of jarring dissonance.

 Arnold Schoenberg, (born 13 September 1874, Leopoldstadt, Vienna,

Austria—died 13 July 1951, Los Angeles, California, United States), The
composer Arnold Schoenberg was the leading figure in the so-called
‘Second Viennese School’, an expressionist movement that also notably
included his pupils Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

 His works include the following:

 String Quartet #1 (1904)
 Chamber Symphony #1 (1906)
 Friede auf Erden (1907)
 Verklärte Nacht (1899; probably his most popular piece)
 Mahlerian Gurre-Lieder (1900-1911)
 Igor Stravinsky, in full Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky, (born June 5 [June
17, New Style], 1882, Oranienbaum [now Lomonosov], near St.
Petersburg, Russia—died April 6, 1971, New York, New York, U.S.),
Russian-born composer whose work had a revolutionary impact on
musical thought and sensibility just before and after World War I, and
whose compositions remained a touchstone of modernism for much of
his long working life. He was honoured with the Royal Philharmonic
Society Gold Medal in 1954 and the Wihuri Sibelius Prize in 1963.

 His works include the following:

 The Firebird (1910)
 Petrushka (1911)
 The Rite of Spring (1911-13)
 “farmyard burlesque” Renard (1916)
 The Soldier’s Tale (1918)
 Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920)
 20th CENTURY MUSICAL STYLES

 Electronic Music
 Electronic music, any music involving electronic processing, such as
recording and editing on tape, and whose reproduction involves the use
of loudspeakers. Although any music produced or modified by electrical,
electromechanical, or electronic means can be called electronic music, it
is more precise to say that for a piece of music to be electronic, its
composer must anticipate the electronic processing subsequently
applied to his or her musical concept, so that the final product reflects in
some way the composer’s interaction with the medium.

 Edgar Varèse, (born Dec. 22, 1883, Paris, France—died Nov. 8, 1965,
New York, N.Y., U.S.), Varèse's music features an emphasis on timbre
and rhythm. He was the inventor of the term "organized sound," a
phrase meaning that certain timbres and rhythms can be grouped
together, sublimating into a whole new definition of sound. His use of
new instruments and electronic resources led to his being known as the
"Father of Electronic Music" while Henry Miller described him as "The
stratospheric Colossus of Sound." He is also known for having re-
introduced the "Idee-fixe," a term first introduced by the French
composer Hector Berlioz.

 His works include the following:

 Hyperprism for wind instruments and percussion (1923)
 Ionisation for percussion, piano, and two sirens (1931)
 Density 21.5 for unaccompanied flute (1936)
 His Déserts (1954) employs tape-recorded sound
 In the Poème électronique (1958)
 Karlheinz Stockhausen, (born Aug. 22, 1928, Mödrath, near Cologne,
Ger. —died Dec. 5, 2007, Kürten), German composer, an important
creator and theoretician of electronic and serial music who strongly
influenced avant-garde composers from the 1950s through the ’80s.
Stockhausen studied at the State Academy for Music in Cologne and the
University of Cologne from 1947 to 1951. In 1952 he went to Paris,
where he studied with the composers Olivier Messiaen and, for a time,
Darius Milhaud. Returning to Cologne in 1953, Stockhausen joined its
celebrated electronic music studio West German Broadcasting
(Westdeutscher Rundfunk), where he served as artistic director from
1963 to 1977.

 His works include the following:

 Studie II (1954)
 Gruppen (Groups; 1955–57; for three orchestras)
 Kontakte (1958–60)
 Stockhausen’s Stimmung (1968; “Tuning”)
 Hymnen (1969; “Hymns”)
 LICHT (“Light”)
 KLANG (“Sound”)

 Chance Music
 Aleatory music, also called chance music, (aleatory from Latin alea,
“dice”), 20th-century music in which chance or indeterminate elements
are left for the performer to realize. The term is a loose one, describing
compositions with strictly demarcated areas for improvisation according
to specific directions and also unstructured pieces consisting of vague
directives, such as “Play for five minutes.” The indeterminate portion of
aleatory music commonly occurs in two areas. The performers may be
told to arrange the structure of the piece—e.g., by reordering its
sections or by playing sections simultaneously as they wish. The musical
 score may also indicate points where performers are to improvise or
even to include quasi-theatrical gestures.

 John Cage, in full John Milton Cage, Jr., (born September 5, 1912, Los
Angeles, California, U.S.—died August 12, 1992, New York, New York),
American avant-garde composer whose inventive compositions and
unorthodox ideas profoundly influenced mid-20th-century music. The
son of an inventor, Cage briefly attended Pomona College and then
traveled in Europe for a time. Returning to the United States in 1931, he
studied music with Richard Buhlig, Arnold Schoenberg, Adolph Weiss,
and Henry Cowell. While teaching in Seattle (1938–40), Cage organized
percussion ensembles to perform his compositions. He also
experimented with works for dance, and his subsequent collaborations
with the choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham sparked a long
creative and romantic partnership.

 His works include the following:

 4′33″ (Four Minutes and Thirty-three Seconds, 1952)
 Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951)
 Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48)
 Fontana Mix (1958)
 Cheap Imitation (1969)
 Roaratorio (1979)