MUSIC of
20 CENTURY
th
HONORATO C. PEREZ SR. MEMORIAL SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL
TOPICS
CHARACTERISTICS OF 20TH CENTURY MUSIC
01 MELODY, METER AND RHYTHM, HARMONY, TONALITY,
AND TEXTURE
IMPRESSIONISM AND PRIMITIVISM
02 CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPRESSIONISTIC MUSIC, AND
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
NEO-CLASSICISM AND AVANT-GARDE MUSIC
03 ATONALITY, TWELVE-TONE SYSTEM, MULTIPLE
SERIALIZATION, AND ARNOLD SCHOENBERG
MODERN NATIONALISM
04 NIKOLAI RIMSKY KORSAKOV
ELECTRONIC AND CHANCE MUSIC
FEATURES OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC, DEVELOPMENTAL
05 STAGES OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC, TAPE MUSIC STAGE,
ANALOG-SYNTHESIZER STAGE, DIGITAL-
SYNTHESIZER STAGE AND INDETERMINACY, AND
JOHN CAGE
MUSIC OF THE 20 TH
CENTURY
The music of the 20th century can be
perfectly described as eclectic simply
because musical styles in this period have
provided listeners a wide array of music to
choose from. A high regard for originality
and individuality has led 20th century
composers to please the audience through
structuring sounds in the newest and most
dynamic form of expression. That is why
Impressionism
Debussy
Ravel
I
01
MPRESSIONISM
N MUSIC
Claude Debussy
02 Maurice Ravel
Claude Debussy (France)
Born on August 22, 1862
He is the “Father of the Modern School of
Composition”
He was the primary exponent of the impressionist
movement and the focal point for other impressionist
composers.
He changed the course of musical development by
dissolving traditional rules and conventions into a
new language of possibilities in harmony, rhythm,
form, texture, and color.
His works include:
L’ Enfant Prodigue (The Prodigal Son)
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
La Mer (1905)
Claire de Lune (Moonlight)
Maurice Ravel (Ukraine)
Born on August 22, 1862
His compositional is mainly characterized by its
uniquely innovative but not atonal style of harmonic
treatment.
Many of his works deal with water in its flowing or
stormy moods as well as with human
characterizations.
He changed the course of musical development by
dissolving traditional rules and conventions into a
new language of possibilities in harmony, rhythm,
form, texture, and color.
His works include:
Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899)
Jeux d’Eau or Water Fountains (1901)
String Quartet (1903)
Bolero
E
01
XRESSIONISM
IN MUSIC
Arnold Schoenberg
02 Igor Stravinsky
Arnold Schoenberg (Vienna, Austria)
Born on September 13, 1874
Influenced by German composer Richard
Wagner.
He explore the use of “chromatic harmony”.
His music is extremely complex, creating
heavy demands to the listener.
He established the 12-note system.
His works include:
Verklarte Nacht, Three Pieces for Piano, op. 11
Pierrot Lunaire,
Gurreleider
Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night, 1899
Igor Stravinsky (Russia)
Born on June 17, 1882
Influenced by his teacher, composer Nikolai Rimsky-
Korsakov
His compositions has reached a new level of
dissonance.
His music is also very structured, precise, controlled,
full of artifice, and theatricality.
His skillful handling of material and rhythmic
inventiveness went beyond anything composed by
his Russian predecessors.
His works include:
The Firebird Suite (1910)
The Rite of Spring (1913)
Petrouchka (1911)
01
N E0-CLASSICISM
Bela Bartok
IN MUSIC
03 George Gershwin
02 Sergei Prokofieff 04 Philip Glass
Bela Bartok (Hungary)
Born on March 25, 1881
He was inspired by the performance of Richard
Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra to write his first
nationalistic poem, Kossuth in 1903.
He was a concert pianist as he travelled exploring the
music of Hungarian peasants.
He used Hungarian folk themes and rhythms.
He also utilized changing meters and strong
syncopations.
His works include:
Kossuth (1903)
Six String Quartets (1908–1938)
Concerto for Orchestra (1943)
Allegro Barbaro (1911)
Sergei Prokofieff (Ukraine)
Born on April 23, 1891
His style is uniquely recognizable for its progressive
technique, pulsating rhythms, melodic directness,
and a resolving dissonance.
He became prolific in writing symphonies, chamber
music, concerti, and solo instrumental music
His works include:
Romeo and Juliet (Ballet)
War and Peace (Opera)
Peter and the Wolf (Orchestra)
George Gershwin (New York)
Was born in New York to Russian Jewish immigrants
in 1898.
He is considered as the “Father of American Jazz”.
He was influenced by Ravel, Stravinsky, Berg, and
Schoenberg.
He used Hungarian folk themes and rhythms.
He also utilized changing meters and strong
syncopations.
His works include:
La La Lucille (1919)
Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
An American in Paris (1928)
Porgy and Bess (1934)
Philip Glass (New York)
He was born in NewYork, USA of Jewish parentage in
1937.
He became an accomplished violinist and flutist at the
age of 15.
His distinctive style involves cell-like phrases
emanating from bright electronic sounds from the
keyboard that progressed very slowly from one
pattern to the next in a very repetitious fashion.
His music is aided by soothing vocal effects and horn
sounds for its hypnotic charm.
His works include:
Music in Similar Motion (1969)
Music in Changing Parts (1970)
Satyagraha (1980)
Akhnaten (1984)
E
01
LECTRONIC
MUSIC
Edgard Varese
02 Karlheinz Stockhausen
Edgard Varese (France)
Born on December 22, 1883
He was considered an “innovative French-born
composer.”
He is the “Father of Electronic Music”.
He pioneered and created new sounds that bordered
between music and noise.
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.
His works include:
Poeme Electronique
Karlheinz Stockhausen (Germany)
Born on August 22, 1928
He is a central figure in the realm of electronic music.
His music was initially met with resistance due to its
heavily atonal content with practically no clear
melodic or rhythmic sense.
His works include:
Gruppen (1957)
Kontakte (1960)
Hymnen (1965)
Licht (Light) – (1977)
C
01
HANCE
MUSIC
John Cage
Karlheinz Stockhausen (Germany)
Born on September 5, 1912
He was known as one of the 20th century composers
with the widest array of sounds in his works.
He is one of the most original composers in the
history of western music.
He challenged the very idea of music by manipulating
musical instruments in order to achieve new sounds.
His works was intended to convey the impossibility of
achieving total silence.
He was considered more of a musical philosopher
than a composer.
His works include:
Music of Changes (1951)
Four Minutes and 33 Seconds (4’33")
