OBJECTIVES

1. Discuss the characteristics of performance practices of 20th century music.

2. Identify the settings, compositions, roles of composers/performers and audiences of
the 20th century music performance practices.
3. Appreciate the characteristics of 20th century music that shaped the development of
music at present.

COMPETENCY

Explains the performance practice (setting, composition, role of

composers/performers and audience) of 20th century music.

MU10TC-Ib-g-4

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 WHAT DO YOU ALREADY KNOW?

Review. Activity 1. Let us recall our previous lesson. You are going to match the
following composers with their respective musical styles of 20th century. Write the
number of composers in the circles provided for each musical style.

20th CENTURY MUSICAL STYLES AND COMPOSERS

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 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Presentation of the Lesson/Topic

What is performance practice? What does it say about the characteristics of

different musical styles of 20th century? How did performance practice in music helped
composers achieve success with their musical works?

The term “performance practice” in music refers to the study of how music was
performed in the composer’s own day. In this topic, performance practice involves the
setting, composition, role of composers/performers, and the audience. It is the
composer’s design of interpreting his compositions with his colleagues and audiences.

Let us read how the composers of 20th century manipulated the musical elements
to their works.

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 What can you say about the personalities of the following composers of 20th
century? Do you find them very unique? Very liberating? Kind of weird? Or so pasaway?

You already read the performance practices for the new musical styles created by
20th century classical composers and that they were truly unique and innovative. They
experimented with the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, tempo, and timbre in
daring ways never attempted before. Some even made use of electronic devices such
as synthesizers, tape recorders, amplifiers, and the like to introduce and enhance sounds
beyond those available with traditional instruments. Among the resulting new styles were
electronic music and chance music. These expanded the concept of music far beyond
the conventions of earlier periods, and challenged both the new composers and the
listening public.

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 WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?

Post-test. Write ONLY THE LETTER of the correct answer on the space
provided before each number.
______1. His creative style was characterized by his unique approach to the various
musical elements.
a. Arnold Schoenberg
b. Claude Debussy
c. Igor Stravinsky
d. Maurice Ravel
______2. His compositional style is mainly characterized by its uniquely innovative but not
atonal style of harmonic treatment
a. Bela Bartok
b. Claude Debussy
c. Maurice Ravel
d. Sergei Prokofiev
______3. He is a neo-classicist, primitivist, and nationalist composer.
a. Arnold Schoenberg
b. Bela Bartok
c. Edgar Varese
d. John Cage
______4. It refers to the kind of musical style Igor Stravinsky is well-known for.
a. Shifting rhythms and polytonality
b. Chromatic harmonies
c. Avoided metric pulse
d. Human characterizations
______5. Which of the composers is NOT of the same musical style?
a. Stravinsky and Prokofiev
b. Bernstein and Gershwin
c. Varese and John Cage
d. Debussy and Ravel
______6. It refers to the study of how music was performed in the composer’s own day.
a. Experimentation
b. Composition
c. New Styles
d. Performance Practice
______7. Which of the following is NOT a performance practice element?
a. Setting
b. Audiences
c. Composition
d. Letters

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 ______8. Which of the following best describes the role of a composer?
a. Write a song
b. Conduct his composition to an orchestra
c. Design all needed in performance practice
d. Get paid for his works
______9. He invented the term “organized sound”, which means that certain timbres and
rhythms can be grouped together in order to capture a whole new definition of
sound.
a. Karlheinz Stockhausen
b. John Cage
c. Edgar Varese
d. Philip Glass
______10. He challenged the very idea of music by manipulating musical instruments in
order to achieve new sounds.
a. John Cage
b. Leonard Bernstein
c. Karlheinz Stockhausen
d. Francis Poulenc

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 ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 1

TAKE A HIGH NOTE. Write one of the musical characteristics of the

composers that impressed you. Explain.

Composer Musical Characteristics Explanation

Claude Debussy

John Cage

Arnold
Schoenberg

Edgar Varese

Your own Choice:

Enrichment Activity Rubric:

a. Completeness of Work: 20 points
b. Clarity of Information: 20 points
c. Neatness of Work: 20 points
d. Amount of Content: 20 points
e. Timeliness: 20 points
Total: 100 points

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 ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 2

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE. Below is an illustration of “chance music”

composed by John Cage entitled “Water Walk”. Design a composition
of your own chance music. Please, be guide accordingly with the given
example.

Time Sequence: Time in seconds

Materials to be used and how it will be sounded

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 ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 3

TO THE WEST SIDE. Watch a video that will show your understanding
about performance practice. Follow the instructions below.

1. Research on the 20th century musical play West Side Story written by Leonard
Bernstein.
2. Watch any video clip of West Side Story on the internet or YouTube.
3. Write your reactions explaining the following elements of performance:
Note: Use the graphic illustration below for your answers

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 14
What Do You Already Know? What Have You Learned?
1. 1 1. b
2. 4 2. c
3. 9 3. b
4. 3/6 4. a
5. 6/3 5. c
6. 5/10 6. d
7. 10/5 7. d
8. 2 8. c
9. 7 9. c
10. 8 10. a
ANWER KEYS
 REFERENCES

Books

1. Raul Sunico, Evelyn Cabanban, Melissa Moran HORIZONS: Music and Arts Appreciation for
Young Filipinos Grade 10 Learner’s Material (Philippines: Tawid Publications, 2015), page/s
3-38

Journals or Magazines

Online Sources

1. Performance Practice. ZSR Library. Accessed on June 22, 2020 from

https://guides.zsr.wfu.edu/c.php?g=3452&p=220673

Royalty-Free Pictures and Illustrations

1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Igor_Stravinsky_1965.jpg 06/21/2020
2. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arnold_sch%C3%B6nberg_man_ray.jpg
06/21/2020
3. https://tr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosya:Bart%C3%B3k_B%C3%A9la_1927.jpg 06/21/2020
4. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sergei_Prokofiev_circa_1918_over_Chair_Bain.jpg
06/21/2020
5. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Gershwin_1937.jpg 06/21/2020
6. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonard_Bernstein_(1987).jpg 06/21/2020
7. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philip_Glass_018_crop.jpg 06/21/2020
8. https://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talaksan:Maurice_Ravel_1925.jpg 06/21/2020
9. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikolay_A_Rimsky_Korsakov_1897.jpg 06/21/2020
10. https://www.pianoversal.com/en/?limit=4&start=32 06/21/2020
11. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Debussy_1900.jpeg 06/18/2020
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin#/media/File:Theramin-Alexandra-Stepanoff-
1930.jpg 06/18/2020
13. https://www.flickr.com/photos/138224835@N02/39557420685 06/18/2020
14. https://www.flickr.com/photos/130720149@N05/16775033971 06/18/2020
15. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Cage,_Water_Walk.png 06/22/2020
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Milton_Cage_Jr.jpg 06/22/2020
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Var%C3%A8se_small.jpg 06/22/2020
18. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stockhausen_1994_WDR_(cropped).jpg
06/22/2020

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