Scribd
Upload
47 views

Expressionism in Music

Expressionism in music emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction against Impressionism. It uses an abstract, highly expressive style to convey disturbed mental states. Key characteristics include asymmetric patterns, polyrhythms, polymeters, polyharmonies, polytonalities, and atonality. Arnold Schoenberg pioneered the twelve-tone technique, in which the twelve chromatic pitches are arranged in a series where all notes are of equal importance.

Uploaded by

Nomer Anthony Madridejo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
47 views

Expressionism in Music

Expressionism in music emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction against Impressionism. It uses an abstract, highly expressive style to convey disturbed mental states. Key characteristics include asymmetric patterns, polyrhythms, polymeters, polyharmonies, polytonalities, and atonality. Arnold Schoenberg pioneered the twelve-tone technique, in which the twelve chromatic pitches are arranged in a series where all notes are of equal importance.

Uploaded by

Nomer Anthony Madridejo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 11

Expressionism in Music

Expressionism
• Melody was not absent during the 20th Century. This
was a misperception by the listeners because it is hardly
identifiable this period.
• Melodic compositions has been relatively less important
that it was before. It gave an abstract form called
Expressionism.

• Expressionism is a highly expressive style in a rt that


sought to express disturbed conditions of the mind.
• The Germans’ answer to Frenth Impressionism.
• Musical language of Expressionism preferred a hyper-
expressive harmony with leaps between the melody and
the instrumentation’s extreme registers.
• It is better performed with instruments than sung.
Characteristics of Expressionism
• Composers discovered the possibilities of nonsymmetrical patterns.
• Polyrhythm
• Polymeter
• Polyharmony
• Polytonality
• Atonality
Simple Meters
Polyrhythm

The use of several rhythmic patters


simultaneously
Polymeter

The combination of two or more meters played.


Polytonality

Uses two or more keys (key signatures) together.


Abandoned tonality is Atonality
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
“My work should be judged as it enters the ears and
heads of listeners, not as it is described to the eyes
of readers.”

Born: Sept 13, 1874 in Vienna, Austria


Began studying violin at the age of eight
Counterpoint lessons with Alexander von Zemlinsky
Introduced Twelve Tone Technique
Twelve-tone Technique
• The twelve-tone technique is the arrangement of twelve chromatic
pitches in series that provides the melodic and harmonic basis for a
music composition.
• The twelve pitches are of equal importance.
• Notes are numbered corresponrindg number of half-steps from the
first note in the tone row.
• These numbers are called the pitch.
Four basic forms:
• Prime - Original composition fo the twelve-tone series
• Inversion - Inverted transposition from the given prime. First note of
the prime will be the basis of the tranposition.
• Retrograde - the backward transposition from last to first note of the
prime.
• Retrograde Inversion - backward and upside transposition form last
note of the prime.

Both Inversion and Retrograde Inversion use mathematical


process in the transposition.
PRIME RETROGRADE

A B F D C C D F B A
10 12 6 3 1 1 3 6 12 10

INVERSION RETROGRADE INVERSION

C B E G A A G E B C
1 12 5 8 10 10 8 5 12 1

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy