Modernism in Music | Modern Classical Music | Music History Video Lesson

Summary

This video explores the modern period in Western music history, from 1890 to 1945, highlighting the era's social and political upheavals and their impact on music. It delves into modernism's diverse musical styles, including impressionism, primitivism, neoclassicism, and atonality, showcasing composers' experimentation with sound, rhythm, and harmony. The script also touches on the influence of scientific advancements and the avant-garde movement, setting the stage for the post-modernist trends to come.

Takeaways

• 🎼 The modern period in Western music history spanned from approximately 1890 to 1945, characterized by both a historical time period and a philosophical aesthetic.
• 🌟 Modernism in music arose as a reaction to radical changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reflecting a wide range of musical styles that emerged during this era.
• 🏛 Modernist composers saw themselves as the avant-garde, pushing the boundaries of music through experimentation with sound, timbres, rhythms, and tonality.
• 🎶 One of the key traits of musical modernism was the rejection of functional tonality, leading to the exploration of new sound colors and organizational techniques.
• 🌅 Impressionism in music was both an extension of romanticism and a reaction against German romanticism, focusing on innovative sound colors and non-functional harmony.
• 🦋 Primitivism took the romantic focus on nationalism and folk music to a new level, with composers exploring humanity's natural and primitive roots through non-Western harmonies and driving rhythms.
• 🎩 Neoclassicism rejected romanticism by looking back to the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, incorporating modern harmonies into classical forms and genres.
• 🔍 Atonality, connected with expressionism, sought to emancipate dissonance from traditional harmonic conventions, leading to the development of serialism by composers like Arnold Schoenberg.
• 🤝 Many modernist composers mixed and matched elements of different styles within their compositions, creating a diverse and experimental musical landscape.
• 🌐 The musical experimentalism of the first half of the 20th century laid the groundwork for even more innovation in the second half, with a heavier reliance on new technologies and structural procedures.
• 📚 The script provides a list of major composers of the modern period and musical examples to explore the sound of modernism, offering a comprehensive overview for further study.

Q & A

What is the time period covered by the modern period in Western music history?

The modern period in Western music history covers approximately from 1890 to 1945.

What does the term 'modernism' signify in the context of music?

In the context of music, 'modernism' refers to both a historical time period and a philosophical aesthetic, describing forms of musical expression that adhered to the radical changes happening at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century.

What were the major social and political upheavals during the period of modernism in music?

Major social and political upheavals during the period of modernism included the Franco-Prussian War, the Spanish-American War, the First World War, the Russian Revolution, the Spanish flu, the Great Depression, the rise of Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, and the Second World War.

How did scientific achievements influence the modernist composers?

Scientific achievements such as Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory, Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, and Albert Einstein's theories of relativity, along with technological inventions like recorded sound, the telephone, automobiles, and airplanes, inspired modernist composers to challenge traditional musical conventions and experiment with new ways of constructing music.

What is the significance of the rejection of functional tonality in musical modernism?

The rejection of functional tonality in musical modernism signifies a break from traditional harmony rules, allowing composers to explore different sound colors, new ways of organizing sound, polytonality, and even post-tonality.

What are the key characteristics of Impressionism in music?

Key characteristics of Impressionism in music include innovative sound colors, an avoidance of strict meter, the use of non-functional harmony, and a focus on instrumental solos that blend into each other to create a dreamy, impressionistic effect.

How does Primitivism in music relate to the broader cultural and scientific context of its time?

Primitivism in music is influenced by both national pride in folk music and Charles Darwin's theories of evolution, focusing on a more natural or primitive expression that is disengaged from the modern world's complexities. It often utilizes non-Western harmonies, scales, driving rhythms, and odd meters.

What distinguishes Neoclassicism from other styles of modernism?

Neoclassicism distinguishes itself by rejecting Romanticism and looking back to the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, utilizing baroque genres and forms with modern and even jazz-influenced harmonies, creating a sense of objectivity and timelessness.

What is Serialism and how did Arnold Schoenberg pioneer its use in music?

Serialism is a form of atonality where all 12 pitches of a chromatic scale must sound before any can repeat, aiming to make all pitches equal. Arnold Schoenberg pioneered its use by constructing melodies and harmonies based on a matrix of all 12 pitches, which influenced a generation of composers.

How did composers during the modern period experiment with combining different styles?

Composers during the modern period often mixed and matched elements of different styles within single pieces or across their careers, such as combining primitive rhythms with atonal harmonies within a neoclassical structure, as seen in the works of Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland.

What technological and structural changes in music composition are hinted at for the second half of the 20th century in the script?

The script suggests that the second half of the 20th century saw an explosion of musical experimentalism, relying more heavily on new technologies and structural procedures for composing music, which will be explored in the next video on post-modernism.