Art Music Theater F200

Innovations and Change

[audio:intromusicearlymodern.mp3]
Composers, like visual artist rejected traditional conventions
The departure from conventions took 2 paths

• The first path — change the definitions
  • Transform traditional ways of presenting Melody, harmony, meter, rhythm and timbre
• The second path — the incorporation of the music of Africa
  • This had a profound impact on professional music making

Igor Stravinsky (Russian) 1882-1971

[audio:riteofspring.mp3]

International career
Considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th Century
Early ballets based on Russian folk lore

• His early work LeSacre du Printemp (The Rite of Spring)
  • Controversial and ground breaking
  • Harmonic shifts, changing meters, rhythmic surprises
  • Primal and violent sound
  • Lack of a harmonic center
  • Instruments played in unconventional ways
• The story line
  • A pagan rite, where Siberian tribal elders select a young girl to dance herself to death as a sacrifice to the god of spring.

Watch the recreation of the original ballet that caused a riot at it’s premier!

Arnold Schoenberg (Austrian) 1874-1951

• Took the dissonance and harmonic disorientation of Stravinsky one step further
• Wrote music without any tonal center
• Tonality was a “straitjacket’ of tradition, so he named his new innovation “atonality’
• His music written before WW1 was not well received
• Recognized that more structure was needed
• Created 12 tone serialism, giving each note of the chromatic scale equal weight
• Conceived of an order for each of the 12 tones and played this series of notes over and over in a sequence

Popular Work — A Survivor from Warsaw

Charles Ives (American) 1874-1954

[audio:Ives.mp3]

• An insurance executive and one of the leading innovate composers of his day
• His music was distinctly American incorporating many
  • “American’ sounds
  • Fiddle tunes
  • Marches
  • Folk songs
  • Spirituals
  • Patriotic tunes
• His work reflects an optimistic attitude
  • The goodness of mankind
  • Self reliance
  • Appreciation of nature

Popular Work 4th of July

Optional video – Unanswered Question: “A Cosmic Landscape’

American Jazz

[audio:jazz.mp3]

Born out of the Southern United States
Based on the Rhythms and vocal music of Western Africa

• Call and response – Optional video:

• Syncopated rhythms
• Bent notes, optional video
• Swing rhythms – optional video link

Jazz Beginnings [audio:ragtime.mp3]

• A jazz piano composition
• The left hand plays a steady beat
• The right hand plays a syncopated melody

Scott Joplin (American) 1868-1917
Son of a Slave

• Sold hundreds of thousands of copies of his composition “Maple Leaf Rag’
• “Maple Leaf Rag’ became one of America’s first pop hits

Optional video:

Louis Armstrong (American) 1900-71

[audio:Armstrong.mp3]
(Optional video on his life – full length)

• Known as “Satchmo’
• Stunning trumpet improvisations
• Gravelly voice for singing
• Vocal improvisational technique — “scat’
• Composed very little music, but his performed improvisations were spontaneous compositions

Optional video:

Duke Ellington (American) 1899-1974

• Pianist and band arranged
• Conducted the Duke Ellington Orchestra, a “big band’
• A swing band of about 15 musicians
• Prolific composer and arranger
• Popular work — C Jam Blues

Optional Video:

Satin Doll optional video:

George Gershwin (American) 1898-1937

• Jewish background
• Inspired by African American blues and jazz
• An accomplished jazz pianist
• Fused jazz with orchestral works and opera
• Popular works Rhapsody in Blue

Optional Video:

Summertime from Porgy and Bess
Optional Video:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-Qa92Rzbk&feature=related[/youtube]