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Musical Styles Since 1945

Musical styles since 1945 have included [1] chance music using random selection of elements, [2] increased use of serialism to totally organize all musical aspects, and [3] the development of electronic music using tape studios and synthesizers. Mixed media works in the 1970s incorporated performers as both musicians and actors. Minimalist music emerged in the 1970s as a simpler reaction to serialism, using steady pulse, clear tonality, and repetition. Composers also made extensive use of quotations from 18th and 19th century works.

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Mohd Haffiszul Bin Mohd Said
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418 views7 pages

Musical Styles Since 1945

Musical styles since 1945 have included [1] chance music using random selection of elements, [2] increased use of serialism to totally organize all musical aspects, and [3] the development of electronic music using tape studios and synthesizers. Mixed media works in the 1970s incorporated performers as both musicians and actors. Minimalist music emerged in the 1970s as a simpler reaction to serialism, using steady pulse, clear tonality, and repetition. Composers also made extensive use of quotations from 18th and 19th century works.

Uploaded by

Mohd Haffiszul Bin Mohd Said
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Musical Styles since 1945

Chance effects are incorporated into One (1950) by the abstract expressionist painter
Jackson Pollock. The artist dripped, poured & flung paint onto an enormous canvas
tacked to the floor.

1. Chance Music – composers choose pitches, tone


colors & rhythms by random methods, eg: throwing
coins, spinning dice. Performers can choose the
ordering of musical materials, play them in any desired
order.
Work : Sonatas & Interludes for Prepared Piano,1946-
1948
by John Cage
2-minute work, characterized by a gradual thickening of
texture & increase in rhythmic momentum

2. Increased Use of 12-tone system → serialism,


organize pitch, rhythm, dynamics & tone colors, totally
controlled & organized music.

Work: Semi- Simple Variations, 1956 by Milton Babbit


Milton Babbit (b.1916)

3. Electronic Music – with ē development of tape


studios, synthesizers & computers, composers have
unlimited resources for ē production & control of sound.

Work: Poème électronique, 1958 by Edgard Varèse

Edgard Varèse (1883-1965)


4. Mixed Media – require performers to
function as both actors & sound producers,
to break down ē ritual surrounding
traditional concerts & to increase
communication between composer &
audience.

George Crumb
(b1929)

Work: Ancient Voices of Children, 1970 by George


Crumb

• For mezzo-soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin,


harp, percussion & “electric piano”

• The mezzo –soprano sings a kind of fantastic vocalize


on purely phonetic sounds into an amplified piano,
producing a shimmering aura of echoes.

• The boy soprano singing offstage.

5. Minimalist Music – partly a reaction against ē complexity of


serialism & ē randomness of chance music. It’s characterized by
steady pulse, clear tonality & insistent repetition of short melodic
patterns. Its dynamic level, texture & harmony tent to stay constant
for long stretches of time.
Philip Glass (b.1937)

Long seen as a father of Minimalism, the sculptor Ronald Bladen looks more
and more like something else entirely.
"What I am after is to create a drama out of a minimal experience." – Ronald
Bladen

Work: Einstein on the Beach, 1976 by Philip Glass

• Knee Play 1, from Einstein on the Beach, electric organ, chorus of


men & women, 2 female speaking voices.
Einstein on the Beach (1976), has no real plot or character development, last almost for 5
hours without intermission. The spoken numerals 1, 2, 3… & solfège do, re, mi…
represent the rhythmic & melodic structure of the music. Musicians: a sound engineer, a
female vocalist, 2 electric organs, synthesizer bass, keyboards, 3 saxophones, flute,
clarinet, violin soloist dressed as Albert Einstein. Near the end of the opera, Einstein
plays the violin while the statistic of a nuclear disaster appear on the backdrop behind
him. (The opera’s title refers to Nevil Shute’s novel about nuclear destruction, called On
the Beach.)
6. Musical Quotation- composers made extensive use of
quotations from earlier works, usually works of 18 & 19 cent.

Work: Concerto Grosso, 1985 by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

• Written to commemorate Handel’s 300th bday.


• Each of its 5 movt uses thematic material drawn fr ē opening movt
of Handel’s Sonata for Violin & Continuo in D major.

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (b.1939)

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