Music 10-Q1-Summary-Lesson
Music 10-Q1-Summary-Lesson
Music 10-Q1-Summary-Lesson
IMPRESSIONISM - It is a musical style that produces new indirect musical colors that
lightly overlapped in different chords with each other. It works on nature sounds like
the splashing of the waves, flowing river, chirping of the birds, and the soft music
evoked and its beauty, likeness, and brilliance. Impressionism normally gives the
feeling of finality to a piece, moods and textures, harmonic vagueness about the
structure of certain chords, and the use of a whole-tone scale.
EXPRESSIONISM – It was originally used in visual and literary arts. It was probably first
applied to music in 1918, especially to Schoenberg because, like the painter Wassily
Kandinsky (1866–1944), he veered away from "traditional forms of beauty" to convey
powerful feelings in his music. Features of expressionism music are as follows:
– a high degree of dissonance – constant changing of textures
(dissonance is the quality of – "distorted" melodies and
sounds that seems unstable) harmonies
– extreme contrasts of dynamics – angular melodies with wide leaps
(from pianissimo to fortissimo,
very soft to very loud)
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ARNOLD SCHOENBERG (1874–1951) - He was born in a working-class suburb of
Vienna, Austria on September 13, 1874. He taught himself music theory but took
lessons in counterpoint. German composer Richard Wagner influenced his work as
evidenced by his symphonic poem Pelleas et Melisande, Op 5 (1903), a counterpoint
of Debussy’s opera of the same title. Schoenberg’s style was constantly undergoing
development. From the early influences of Wagner, his tonal preference gradually
turned to the dissonant and atonal, as he explored the use of chromatic harmonies
Arnold Schoenberg’s Compositions:
Verklarte Nacht Violin Concerto
Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11 Skandalkonzert, a concert of the Wiener
Pierrot Lunaire Konzertverein.
SERGEI PROKOFIEFF (1891-1953) - He was born last 1891 in Ukraine. He combined the
movements of music like Neoclassicism, Nationalism, and Avant-Garde composition.
With his progressive technique, pulsating rhythms, melodic directness, and a resolving
dissonance he was uniquely recognized. In writing symphonies, chamber music,
concerte, and solo instrumental music, he became a productive and prolific composer.
He worked and linked with other composers, combined styles of Haydn and Mozart as
classicist and Igor Stravinsky as Neo-Classicist also inspired by Beethoven with two
highly regarded violin concerte and two string quartets.
Sergei Prokofief’s Composition:
– Romeo and Juliet (ballet) – Peter and the Wolf
– War and Peace (opera) – CONCERTO IN C MAJOR, OP. 26,
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EDGARD VARÈSE (1883–1965) - He was born on December 22, 1883, Edgard (also
spelled Edgar) Varèse was considered an "innovative French-born composer." He
pioneered and created new sounds that bordered between music and noise and
spent his life and career mostly in the United States. Varèse's is considered as the
"Father of Electronic Music," and use of new instruments and electronic resources.
He was also dubbed as the "Stratospheric Colossus of Sound." He died on November
6, 1965. He composed Poème Électronique.
His musical compositions are characterized by:
• an emphasis on timbre and rhythm; and
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• "organized sound" (certain timbres and rhythms can be grouped together in order
to capture a whole new definition
of sound).
CHANCE MUSIC - also known as Aleatoric music, refers to a style in which the piece
always sounds differently 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 emanating from the surroundings, both natural
and man-made, such as honking cars, rustling leaves, blowing wind, dripping water,
or a ringing phone.
JOHN CAGE (1912–1992) - He was known as one of the 20th-century composers with
the broadest array of sounds in his works. Cage was born in Los Angeles, California,
USA, on September 5, 1912, and became one of the most original composers in the
history of western music. He challenged the very idea of music by manipulating
musical instruments to attain new sounds and became the "chance music." In one
instance, Cage created a "prepared" piano, where screws and pieces of wood or
paper were inserted between the piano strings to produce different percussive
possibilities.
Cage became notable for his work The Four Minutes and 33 Seconds (4'33"), a chance
musical work that instructed the pianist to merely open the piano lid and remain
silent for the length of time indicated by the title.