MH3 Test 3

music that assimilates pre-Romantic ideas

around the end of WWI (1918) we see, for the first time, a conscious break with tradition

Stravinsky in 1913 - continued a little bit on his “Russian” patharound

1920 - Stravinsky rejects “Russian” ideas

• Some aspects that changed with the end of WWI:
• music no longer meant to be overtly emotionalemotionalism/sentimentality/nature etc...no longer calid subject matters
• decadent ensembles (at least for a time) - rejected
• music was supposed to now represent just music
• Neoclassicism - music that assimilates pre-Romantic ideas
• Stravinsky:communists took over Stravinsky’s heritage
• Soviet Union id not sign any international copyright agreements until 1970
• 1914 -- moved to Switzerland
• 1920 -- moved to Pariswanted to break with his “Russian” stylea lot of ironic/cynical/sardonic/humorous works

• - Stravinsky
• - all music is RUssian-folk basedall text is
• - Russian-folk based1913-1923last work for
• - Ballets russesmaximalization of orchestrational ideas form Rite of Spring

(Symphonies of Wind Instruments)- Stravinsky rejecting Russian and romantic aestheticsThe Symphonies of Wind Instruments (French title: Symphonies d'instruments à vent) is a concert work written by Igor Stravinsky in 1920, for an ensemble of woodwind and brass instruments. The piece is in one movement, lasting about 9 minutes. It is dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy, who died in 1918, and was premiered in London on 1921-06-10, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky.Stravinsky shortened and re-orchestrated the work when he revised it in 1947

• Stravinsky
• 3 mvmts
• SinfoniaVariationsFInale
• abstract forms and harmonic relationships
• overuse of classical and baroque gestures - trills, ornamentsoveruse of forms - and clarity of forms is primary
• 1st mvmt clear sonata form
• 3rd mvmt bossa nova-ish foxtrot

• group of six composers
• Georges Auric
• Darius Milhaud
• Arthur Honegger
• Francis Poulenc
• Germaine Taileferre
• Louis Durey
• trying to make music completely French except for the influence of American jazz

Honegger - influenced by German Romanticism

did scenario for Satie’s Parade

• said young French composers should not be influenced by Debussy
• encouraged young composers to follow Satie’s musical aesthetics

- did sets and costumes for Satie’s Parade

• ballet (“The does”) -- ballets russes commission first premiered 1924
• Poulenc

- Poulenc’s first opera

• Apollinaire - coined the term surrealism; wrote the play Les mamelles de Tiresias was based on
• premiered in 1947 at the Opera Comique
• relationship with Denise Duval

• - Premiere in 1917
• - Satie (music)

• Cocteau - scenario
• Picasso - sets and costumes

Cocteau said young French composers should not be influenced by Debussy

complete lack of ploy in opera/ballet or surrealist/absurdist plots

Cocteau encouraged young composers to follow Satie’s musical aesthetics

coined the term surrealism

The word surrealist was first used by Guillaume Apollinaire to describe his 1917 play Les Mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias), which was later adapted into an opera by Francis Poulenc

polytonality - simultaneous use of more than one keyin order for this to be perceptible by the listener, the constituent parts had to be extremely simpleChamber Symphony No. 3 - “Serenade”Saudades de Brasil (“Memories of Brazil)

• suite of piano pieces representing popular Brazilian dances and cities - 1918
• influential on American composers who were flocking to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, especially Copland

the use of more than one key simultaneously

• Georges Auric
• Louis Durey
• Arthur Honegger
• Weill
• Brecht
• Germaine Tailferre (female)

• Dessau --> NYC1918 - end of WWIborn in to a Jewish family
• not wealthy, but had good musical connections
• studied at Berlin Conservatory, not inspiring; found it old fashioned
• sought out Schoenberg in Vienna to study with1921: studies with Busoni
• works of the early 20s are very modernist, expressionist influenced, highly chromatic, and contrapuntal
• abstract instrumental works (string quarter, symphony, violin concerto)1924: Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra
• was said to be only enjoyable by virtuosos because of its virtuosity

• revolutionized theater
• reaction against what he called “culinary” theater (theater that merely provided an experience and didn’t provoke thought)
• high political figure - devoted to Marxist throughout his entire life
• “Epic” theater: wanted audience to be completely aware that a play is happening instead of being carried off into a fantasy world
• Verfremdungseffekt - “enstrangement” effect

• achieved through breaking of 4th wall - actors communicated directly to the audience
• harsh, unrealistic stage lighting
• unrealistic sets
• announcing what will happen in each scene
• transpositions of text, switching tenses and persons
• use of silent film projections
• use of montage: scenes occurring at the same time

• advocated simultaneous use of music, word and scene but independence of the three
• prevalent themes are persecution of the poor unfairly; main crime was to not have money
• biting criticism of capitalist society

• premiered in Berlin 1928
• made Brecht and Weill extremely wealthy
• introduced to the world Lotte Lenya 1898-1981 (played Jenny) - would become Weill’s wife
• reverted to Mozartian singspiel style; they called it a songspiel
• extreme pastiche, or collage
• broadway/tinpan alley songtypes, blues, operatic arias; ensemble finales; deus ex machina
• Band: 7 players doubling on 23 instruments
• Voice types: singing actors, not opera singers
• Song structures: simple strophic throughout
• “Mack the Knife” - sung as an introduction but completes one of the character arcs
• “Salomonsong” - aria that made Lotte Lenya famous

• first performed in Leipzig in 1930
• a true opera that deconstructs all of the traditional operatic mechanisms
• could be considered satirical and neo-classicist
• libretto in German, but set in the American West
• some of the main songs are sung in English
• operatic themes treated satirically; loves becomes a commodity, law is run by criminals, every type of behavior acceptable except being poor

• born in Brooklyn to Jewish Russian immigrants
• at a young age, family moved to Harlem where he had his first experiences with jazz clubs
• dropped out of high school at age 14 to earn a living
• became a “song-plugger” in Tin Pan Alley
• became a rehearsal pianist on Broadway
• started working with Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, Irving Berlin, etc.
• 1919: published his first song Swanee
• 1920-24: completed 11 musicals, all highly successful
• Tin Pan Alley ‘formula’: 32-bar chorus form

• AABA (most common)
• 4 eight bar phrases

1924: Lady, Be Good!”

first musical with text completely by Ira Gershwin (1896-1983)

Desire was to be a concert music composer - symphonic

• “King of Jazz” -- called by Duke Ellington
• commissioned Gershwin for a work for solo piano and Whiteman’s jazz orchestra

• AABA (most common)
• 4 eight bar phrases

• Porgy by Dubose Heyward
• true Grand opera - European style
• 3 acts
• set in Charleston, South Carolina
• Gullah: African American rice immigrant influence
• premiered in 1935 - first concert run in Carnegie Hall, week preview in Boston
• ran for 124 performances

• lyricist
• George Gershwin’s brother

wrote novel “Porgy” which Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess was based on

• shared heritage with Gershwin
• both born of Russian Jewish immigrants
• originally “Kaplan” - Anglicized to Copland
• Gershwin had a not very advantaged upbringing
• Copland’s parents ran a very successful department store in Brooklyn and were well off
• Copland from an early age had access to the best teachers and facilities
• Gershwin was largely self taught at first, only seeking formal training after he had become successful
• while both incorporated jazz elements, Copland’s was seen as an outsiders view of jazz while Gershwin’s was more authentic
• Copland first really was taken by jazz not in America but in Vienna
• Only really incorporated jazz elements until about 1926
• 1910-26: jazz influenced works, not very successful
• 1925-38: highly modernist works, Expressionist
• 1935-50: American period
• 1950s-74: serialist period

- Copland studied there

found instruction too similar to what he was receiving in America

• drew out from this early jazz style, Copland’s true voice
• 1887-1979
• sister of Lili Boulanger
• virtuoso organist and teacher of harmony
• conductor - first female conductor of NYPO, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, etc..
• Copland studied from 1921-24 with her
• introduced Copland to Serge Koussevitsky
• 1924: Koussevitsky commissions Organ Symphony from Copland
• Koussevitsky founded Tanglewood Music Center, Copland taught many seasons there

• Copland
• second commission by Koussevitsky
• not felt by public of critics as “authentic” use of jazz

• Copland
• Ballet
• purely diatonic
• leaping motions in the melodies
• monorhythmic
• cadences skip members of tonic triad
• parallel harmonic motion, no contrary motion
• wide spacing
• written for the Ballets russe de Monte Carlo
• choreographed by Agnes de Mille
• Corral nocturne - slow section of the ballet
• doesn’t incorporate any folk tunes
• doesn’t sound incongruous - incorporates folk elements into original music

• Arnold Schoenberg
• Alban Berg
• Anton Webern

Schoenberg saw this as a continuation of the Austro-German tradition

• after WWI - musical epicenter shifted to Paris
• 1920s the predominance in Paris and popularity of Neoclassicism

Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex

• aim was to be universal
• plot was universal
• Latin as the “universal” language -- language ‘set in stone’
• a direct rejection of Wagnerian opera
• this was no longer ‘parody’

Schoenberg hated it -- wrote much about this

• Popularity of htis style -- one problem
• Another problem -- all students had left
• Also facing a compositional crisis -- only way he could hold music together structurally was text
• How can I maintain ‘emancipation of dissonance’ while creating a large-scale dramatic and musical structure?

Three Satires for chorus

contradictions between Stravinsky and Schoenberg

• Schoenberg’s 12-tone music of the 20s-30s is almost always cast in pre-Romantic instrumental forms (Gavotte, Musette, Minuet, Sonata form, Rondo, Waltz)
• Stravinsky, in 1950s began to compose only serial music

Schoenberg - about 1919-25, didn’t publish many new works

Josef Hauer - ordering of 12 pitches melodically

Klavierstucke, Op.23, No. 5 “Waltz”

incorporates strict usage of 12-note row, but not manipulated in any way like he would do in later works

- Schoenberg

• exclusive use of 12-tone system
• exclusive use of Baroque dance-suite forms

• Prelude
• Gavotte/Musette
• Intermezzo
• Minuet & Trio
• Gigue

Tone row - the initial row that a piece is based on

• note that in Schoenberg this is always 12-tone
• tow can be any number of notes; not always all 12 notes
• “serial” means use of a “series” or row

Schoenberg’s idea

• 12 notes must be presented before any can be repeated
• this is called the “prime” form of the row - P0
• the other row forms allowed are:

• inversion: turning the row upside down
• retrograde: playing the row backwards
• retrograde inversion: upside down and backward
• transposition: moving any row form up by a certain number of half steps

Invariance = some ‘constant’ element in the row forms

order of intervals is as important as the order pitches themselves

Arnold Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31, completed in 1928, is among a clutch of works composed from 1925-1928 in his neo-Classical style. These pieces include his Wind Quintet, Op. 26, Suite, Op. 29, String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30, and parts of his Suite for Piano, Op. 25.

- 12-tone technique is just that, a technique, not a style

• “major” 12-tone composer
• Chamber Concerto (1923-5) - uses the Schoenberg cipher:

A-D-(S)-C-(H)-Bb-E-G

Webern Cipher:

A-E-B-E

Alban Berg

A-B-A-B-E-G

- for string quartet

• uses musical initials of him and a lover
• uses all-interval row form

- Berg

• finally balanced tonal usage of row with non-tonal elements
• commissioned by Louis Krasner (1903-1995)

• 1933: Nazis take over government in Austria and Germany
• Berg took commission $1,500 to pay past bills

• programmatic element “To the memory of an angel”
• death of Manon Gropius

• concerto is at once a traditional concerto - tone poem illustrating Manon’s life
• two large movements, split into two sections each

• Sonata form, Andante; Landler dance movement
• Extended, accompanied cadenza; adagio chorale variations

chorale variations based on Bach’s “Es ist genug”

• starts with whole tone ascent
• row acting as a harmonic and melodic “Grundgestalt”
• situation surrounding premiere:

• Premiere in Barcelona April 1936
• Louis Krasner (violinist)
• conducted by Hermann Scherchen
• May 1, 1936: BBC SO with Louis Krasner conducted by Webern
• 25th October 1936 - Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Otto Klemperer

• likely Schoenberg’s first pupil
• applied Schoenberg’s more strictly than either Schoenberg himself or Berg ever did
• born Anton von Webern
• 1918 after WWI with the dissolvement of Austro-Hungary, Anton Webern
• wealthy upbringing (like Berg) and could assist Schoenberg financially
• 1902-1906: studied at the University of Vienna
• devoted to the study of Heinrich Isaac and Flemish Renaissance music
• when he turned to serialism, he found many similarities between Flemish school of composition and the devices of serialism
• just like Berg and Schoenberg, tonal compositions early on (up through his published Op.2)
• Op.3-11: free atonality (“Expressionist” period)
• aphoristic - extremely short and contained - nature reached its apex in Op.11
• Op.12-19: all vocal works; feature a new lyricism, longest of his works, very particular in his instrumental choices
• reach the apex in Op.19 - Zwei Lieder to texts by Goethe
• 1918 - foundation of the Society for Music Private Performances

• founded by Schoenberg in Vienna
• active until 1921
• gave 117 concerts
• “elitist” -- invitation only
• professional performers from the leading orchestras in Vienna
• Webern was chiefly the conductor and rehearser of the music

• 1920s: first uses of 12-tone technique, beginning of his conducting career
• 1920-36: conducting career
• met the poet Hildegard Jone, used her poetry for some of his vocal works
• first fully developed 12-note work - String Trio, Op. 20 (1928)
• 1938: Anschluss - “linking-up” of Austria and Germany

• Webern, 1938
• final puclished work
• published by Boosey & Hawkes
• most concentrated dedication to Bach
• “Derived Row” - where a tetrachord or trichord is manipulated through serial means to produce a 12-note row

In his 12-tone music he sought utmost symmetry in the row

• Webern, 1936
• 3 mvmt work
• the row is not symmetrical, but all the structures are
• 1st mvmt opens with an audible palindrome

Achieved symmetry in row selections in final works

• inversion: turning the row upside down
• retrograde: playing the row backwards
• retrograde inversion: upside down and backward
• transposition: moving any row form up by a certain number of half steps

main voice, chief part; i.e., the contrapuntal line of primary importance, in opposition to Nebenstimme

secondary part; i.e., a secondary contrapuntal part, always occurring simultaneously with, and subsidiary to, the Hauptstimme

using the twelve tone technique combinatoriality is a quality shared by some twelve-tone tone rows whereby the row and one of its transformations combine to form a pair of aggregates.[

a tone row whose entirety of twelve tones is constructed from a segment or portion of the whole, the generator. Anton Webern often used derived rows in his pieces.

combinatoriality may exist among tetrachordal and trichordal sets, as well as between pairs of hexachords

combinatoriality may exist among tetrachordal and trichordal sets, as well as between pairs of hexachords

collection of pitches, usually all 12

Different musical notes are made in seclusion, rather than in a linear sequence, giving a sound texture similar to pointillism.[4] This type of music is also known as punctualism or klangfarbenmelodie.

found in Webern’s String Quartet, Op. 28

• Communist Manifesto (1848)
• had a vision of a classless society (Socialist)

• degeneracy
• Hitler wanted to rid German music of Jews

• Italian
• one of the best conductors of the 20th century

• championed by Nazis
• pawn of the Nazi regime

• Orff
• based on Pagan texts - non-Christian
• huge organization of performing forces
• style was “Stravinsky” - white key neo-Primitive ostinato based

• early works were extremely avant-garde/expressionist
• sensationalist early operas
• “anti-Schoenberg”
• left via Switzerland after being banned a second time, ended up in the U.S.

• after initial banning by the Nazi regime he was defended by Furtwangler
• Hindemith was now composing “Gebrauchsmusik” - “useful music”
• meant to be played by high level amateur performers
• composed for a purpose
• most famous example is Trauermusik

- book by Hindemith

devised a ‘new tonal system’ - set forth in The Craft of Musical Composition, published in 1939