20th Century

The Age of Technology

Science and Medicine

• Louis Pasteur – pasteurization of food, germ theory

• Joseph Lister – sterilization techniques during surgery greatly reduced post operative infections.

Everyday life

• Thomas Edison – incandescent lightbulb

• Electricity – power plants

• Alexander Graham Bell – telephone

• Guglielmo Marconi – wireless telegraphy

• Sir John Fleming – electron vacuum tube

• Lee de Forest – amplification tube

• Edison/Johannes Brahms - phonograph

Everyday Life

• Medical advancements – machines that will scan without making incisions, neonatal observations, cures to fatal diseases

• Computers, satellite

• Wrist watches, cell phones, video cameras and television

• The “global village”

Political Climate

• Karl Marx – Communist Manifesto• German/French dispute over Rhineland• Germany, France, Italy, Austria and

Russia had large professional armies with millions of civilian reserves

• WWI – assassination of heir to Austro-Hungarian throne

• Russian Revolution

Political Climate

• Warfare changed, using poison gas, heavy artillery, and air raids

• Formation of the League of Nations

• The Great Depression

• Rise of Mussolini and Hitler

• WWII – atomic bomb

Claude Debussy

• 1862-1918• Parents enrolled

him in Paris Conservatory

• Pianist• When not receiving

top honors at school, turned to composition

Claude Debussy

• “Wagner was…a beautiful sunset that was mistaken for a sunrise.”

• Lush orchestration• Parallel chords• Extended ranges• Impressionist –

Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_7loz-HWUM

Impressionist Painting

Impressionist Painting

Maurice Ravel

• 1875-1930

• Mother was of Basque heritage

• Bolero

• Daphnis and Chloe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK23BhEQVyU

Erik Satie

• 1866-1925• Gymnopedies• Kicked out of school

–had no special gifts• Military for short

period of life• Influenced and

associated with Debussy and Ravel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Xm7s9eGxU

Igor Stravinsky

• 1882-1971

• Father leading bass at Imperial Opera St. Petersburg

• 19 studied composition with Rimsky-Korsokov

• Experienced both World Wars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWotpIy0uTg

Igor Stravinsky

• Fascinated with Russian folklore

• Russian Revolution of 1917 wiped out his families wealth

• Firebird Suite• Rite of Spring• 1939 applied for U.S.

citizenship – L.A.

Igor Stravinsky

• Four periods of career

• Early Period – late romantic and national flavored music

• Russian period – firebird, Petrushka, Rite

• Neoclassical period – Soldier’s Tale, Symphony of Psalms

• Serial period

Arnold Schoenberg

• 1874-1951

• Hungarian/Czech

• Violin lessons- 8

• Lived on edge of poverty

• No concert tickets – formed his own chamber ensemble

Arnold Schoenberg

• Late Romantic style

• Second Viennese School of music

• Equality for all notes – atonal

• Taught Berg and Webern

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CFnJiElpks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bq4EykKzEg

Alban Berg

• 1885-1935

• “Master of the smallest link”

• Wozzeck

• Violin Concerto

• Student of Schoenberg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCa7QG2oVf0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSSHwFEn_8

Anton Webern

• 1883-1945

• Foremost student of atonality

• Five Pieces for Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOnFKLvonQw

Charles Ives

• 1874-1954

• Insurance salesman

• Could hear nine rhythms in his mind simultaneously

• Composed with overlapping ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIFowc-9j3I

Aaron Copland• 1900-1990• First American

composer to receive international acclaim

• Simple Gifts• Rodeo, Appalachian

Spring• Music for the masses• Movie scores• Olympics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ajQYANLiug http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEro8pG0hiE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dCRd-g6Qp8

Jelly Roll Morton

• 1890-1941

• Claims he created jazz music

• First to write it down

• Told grandmother he worked the night shift at “the docks”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8_2ISGOIjU

George Gershwin• 1898-1937• 11 parents bought second

hand piano for older brother

• George dropped out of school at 15

• Tin Pan Alley – pop music of the time

• Rhapsody in Blue, Porgy and Bess, Embraceable You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U40xBSz6Dc

Leonard Bernstein

• 1918-1990

• Tanglewood and Koussivetsky

• Youngest conductor of N.Y. Philharmonic

• Wrote for the stage

• Popular and Art music combined

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20XqYgJsz9A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6wo2wpT2k

Edgard Varese

• 1883-1965

• Philosopher of music

• Did not like to write things down

• “organized sound”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mg4KHqRPw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7AIiTeKBUc

Bela Bartok

• 1881-1945

• Ethnomusicologist

• Royal Academy of music

• Travelled Hungary and collected authentic folk music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2E058Ep99Y

Sergei Rachmaninoff

• 1873-1943

• Parents aristocratic Russians

• Pianist and conductor

• Connects the Romantic Era and the 20th Century

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-qwJoFQ3qo

Benjamin Britten

• 1913-1976

• English composer

• Peter Pears

• Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

• Many genres of music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHNgfF19CTY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HhTMJ2bek0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piNH18JhDU4