7.10 Chapter Summary

In this chapter we examined the Impressionist style of music and its two main composers, Ravel and Debussy. We also looked at a new approach to harmony and composition developed by Schoenberg, Berg, and others that became known as Expressionism. We then briefly touched on the style called primitivism and the music of Igor Stravinsky and examined the Neoclassicism of Stravinsky and others. We saw how the minimalist composers sought to create music from its most fundamental rhythmic and melodic elements, returning to the consonant sounds of triads and the strict application of steady meter. We then discovered the uniquely American, yet contrasting styles of Aaron Copland and George Gershwin—Copland creating an American symphonic style and Gershwin creating a style which incorporated jazz music. We learned that musique concrète was a combination of recorded and electronic sounds and that the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen was the leader in elektronische Musik. We saw that the Princeton University Laptop Orchestra is an important leader in laptop computer ensembles. Finally, we looked at music for motion pictures and at one of the most recent developments in electronic and digital entertainment: music for video games.

7.11 Glossary

Atonal

Music that seeks to avoid both the traditional rules of harmony and the use of chords or scales that provide a tonal center

Chromaticism

a style of composition which uses notes that are not a part of the predominant scale of a composition or one of its sections.

Elektronische Musik

(German term meaning "electronic music") Music composed by manipulating only electronically-produced sounds (not recorded sounds.)

Expressionism

Style of composition where composers intentionally use atonality. Arnold Schoenberg devised a system of composing using twelve tones. His students Alban Berg and Anton Webern composed extensively in this twelve-tone style.

Impressionism

music composed based on the composer's impression of an object, concept, or event. This style included the use of chromaticism, whole-tone scales and chords, exotic scales, new chord progressions, and more complex rhythms

Laptop orchestra

an ensemble formed by linking laptop computers and speakers together to generate live and/or recorded performances using both synthesized and pre-recorded sounds

Musique Concrète

a type of electro-acoustic music that uses both electronically produced sounds (like synthesizers) and recorded natural sounds (like instruments, voices, and sounds from nature)

Neoclassicism

A musical movement that arose in the twentieth century as a reaction against romanticism and which sought to recapture classical ideals like symmetry, order, and restraint. Stravinsky's music for the ballet Pulcinella (1920) is a major early neoclassical composition.

Polytonality

a compositional technique where two or more instruments or voices in different keys (tonal centers) perform together at the same time

Primitivism

A musical movement that arose as a reaction against musical impressionism and which focused on the use of strong rhythmic pulse, distinct musical ideas, and a tonality based on one central tone as a unifying factor instead of a central key or chord progression.

Serialism

composing music using a series of values assigned to musical elements such as pitch, duration, dynamics, and instrumentation. Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone technique is one of the most important examples of serialism.

Synthesizers

instruments that electronically generate a wide variety of sounds. They can also modify electronic or naturally produced recorded sounds

Through-Composed

Music that progresses without ever repeating a section

Twelve-tone Technique

Compositional technique developed by Arnold Schoenberg that derives musical elements such as pitch, duration, dynamics, and instrumentation from a unique series of all twelve tones of the chromatic scale (the 12-tone row)