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MUS 2054- III 5/3/13 5:31 PM

Monday, April 8, 2013

Charles Ives (1874-1954)o Worked mostly in isolation in New England, with no contact

with Europe

o B. in Danbury, Connecticuto Father, George Ives was the town band leader

! Father served as band leader in the Union Army in theCivil War

! Charles Ives played bass drum in his fathers marchingband

" He experimented at the keyboard and tried tocome up with sonorities that resembled a drum

o Received extensive musical instruction from his father! Composition, piano, organ! Soon became a virtuosic pianist

o Took his 1st job as church organist at the age of 14! Played a lot of progressive music here, dissonant, and

experimental

! The congregation was very passive and politely listenedto these progressive works (many of which were his

own compositions)

o Studied @ Yale with Horatio Parker! Parker was one of the 1st music professors in the

country

! Ives could not major in music at this time, but musicclasses were offered

! Post-grad, Ives composed The Celestial Country, acantata based on a piece of Parkers, Hora Novissima

" Its premieer was highly unsuccessful and wastorn apart by critics

o Resigned his last organist position in 1902- gave up music,at leats publically

o Became very wealthy selling life insuranceo Continued to compose prolifically in private

! No societal pressures! No job pressures


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! Total freedom to write what he wanted since he did nothave to compose for an audience

o Was later discovered by American modernist composers,such as Henry Cowell

! He was able to self-publish his works and get it out intothe public with his own funds due to his great wealth

o Composers after Ives began considering him to be the Fatherof American Music

! Ives established a distinctly American style! Why? Ives was writing very originally. Previous

composers were (intentionally) writing music in a

conservative style in the struggle to be accepted as

composers to a wider audience

o Charles Ives- Works! 200+ songs

" 114 Songs, pub. 1922" These songs ranged the gamut from conservative

art songs to experimental music

" He placed a number of these works of his into thiscollection and self-published

! Ca. 1910 Ives began setting arrangements of Americanfolk songs

! The Majority. Highly experimental, pretty difficult tolisten to

! 2 piano sonatas" *Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., 1840-60

movements based on his impression ofAmerican Transcendental writers

o published with Essays Before ASonata

o mvmt 1: Hawthorneo mvmt 2: ???o mvmt 3: (Halcott?)

! most accessible of themovements. More tonal, and


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less rhythmically/harmonically

challenging

! theme based on the da-da-da-daaaaa (SSL) motive from

Beethovens 5th symphonyo mvmt 4: Thoreau

Ives resonated strongly with the writings ofThoreau and Emerson

! 6 Symphonies; 3 Orchestral Sets" Sets are 3-mvmt works, with programmatic titles

for each work and individual movements

! Single-movement works for orchestra" The Unanswered Question" Central Park in the Dark

o Ives and his use of Borrowed Music! Drew upon tunes he knew or found: hymn tunes,

classical works, popular songs, marches, ragtime, folk

tunes

! Usually heard thematically, and used in a distortedfashion

o Modernism! Polytonality, atonality, complex rhythms, alternative

scales

! He developed these traits independently of othercomposers

" When Ives was 50 he stopped composing andspent this last period of his life revising and

publishing. He also heard (Stravinsky?) for the

first time in this period

! His father would have him play a piece in one key onthe piano whilst singing it in another simultaneously

o Juxtaposition of the old and the new; modern and traditional;high and low

General William Booth Enters into Heaveno NAWM p. 206, v. 3 (1914)o Gen. William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army


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o Central Park in the Dark! Intended to sound like Central Park at nighttime.

Sounds of quiet, stillness, but with underlying hustle

and bustle of NYC

! Hello my baby, hello my darling quoted a Tin Pan Alley work

o a street in NY that was a huge producer of sheet music andrecordings

o popular songs! make references ton topical events, or events going on

at the time

o Hello ma Baby! piano introduction! verse (functions like recitative in opera)

" lyrics here set the scene before the catchymelodic section- the

! Chorus" This section would frequently break into 4-part

harmony. The name stuck regardless of whether

or not it was sung in harmony or not

! These songs were not intended to be performed oneway. They were used as springboard and vehicles ofcreativity

! Many different sheet music arrangements werepublished simultaneously

" This is very different from the very specific scoresand instructions in classical music at the time

! Musical Aspects:" Borrows musically and in subject matter from

Ragtime

Syncopation" Many types of music in USA borrowed from

African-American musical backgrounds

" Things like ragtime, popular dances, jazz, andeven classical music were incorporated and


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adapted and subsequently dispersed to a wider

audience

Vaudeville Revues

o A variety of show of music. Musicals***

o Surpassed the others as most important The Player Piano gave birth to recorded music

o Piano rolls could be bought and played in these player pianosat home and at taverns

o The rise of the phonograph caused the decline of the playerpiano

Tin Pan Alleyo Nickname for West 78th Street in NYC

! Had tons of music publishers installed there at the turnof the century

! Were in fierce competition for $$$ and music! Exposed audiences to the performers, the sheet music,

etc. to drive sales

o This term also refers to the music industry as a whole- bothbusiness and artistic

! Breakneck competition to write the next big hito Pluggers- someone who played music to promote it. They also

tried to get star performers onboard to perform it and lead to

greater profits

o Heres the good stuff:o $$$:

! sheet music in multiple arrangements! recordings (piano rolls, later records)! rights sold

" role of pluggerso Verse/Chorus structure

! Structure of Chorus: 32-bar song form" Most common: A A B A

! Verse serves as introduction, like opera recit sets up thearia


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! Chorus is repeated, with different lyrics" So, strophic form here

! w/in each chorus was additional from (A A B A)" w/in each 32-bar chorus

Genres of light stage music, early 20th centuryo Vaudeville

! A collection of actso Operetta

! Light stage music that is very close to opera, but lighterin subject matter and involves spoken dialogue

o Musical revues! Musical throughout, not necessarily a coherent story

o These above three developed into The Broadway Musical(1920s-present)

! Used spoken dialogue and the styles of singing ndpopular music of the day.

! Singing is very un-operatic George Gershwin (1898-1937)

o Girl Crazy(1930)! Among its songs:

" I Got Rhythm" Embraceable You" But Not For Me

o NAWM, p. 214- I Got Rhythm, from Girl Crazy! George Gershwin! Begins with verse! The music is not performed strictly to the music- it is

adapted by the performer at will

" Swung rhythms" Scooping into and out of notes" Changing some lyrics" Called: Performance Practice!

! This piece is steeped in ragtime syncopation! 32-bar song form (AABA)! uses sequences of chords that cycle over and over! Old Man


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" BbM modulates to ____?" This is common in AABA song form" Became known as the Bridge

NAWM, p. 240- by Duke Ellingtono Chords are the exact same as the piece above by Gershwin

Songs would frequently become detached from the musicals theywere part of and performed independently

Friday, April 12, 2013

Blues & Topical Songso Unlike hello ma baby, which is about the invention of the

telephone, the Blues often provide a window into society and

events going on at the time

The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927o Changes USA history. Also, the worst river flood in USA

history

o When The Levee Breaks song about ito refugee campso socioeconomic levels can be directly related to their proximity

to flood levels

! places with cheapest land values live closest to theriver. High land is more expensive and belongs to upper

classeso Huey P. Long was elected governor soon thereaftero FDR elected president around this time as well

Memphis Minnie & Joe McCoyo Married couple- blues musicians

The Blueso Ex: Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy

! When The Levee Breaks (1929)! Bessie Smith, Back Water Blues(1927)

" NAWM p. 219o Roots in African-American oral traditions; notated/recorded in

the 1920s

o Themes of lyricso Vocal/instrumental timbre

! Lots of scooping and bending of notes (vocal)


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o Rhythm- singer is playing with the beat. Approaches todownbeats are delayed

o It is in the performance, not the notation that the (mastery)is

o New electronic recordings enabled better, more accuraterecordings of music, especially vocalists

o blues notes- flatted 3rds and 7thso call and response

! built into musical forms among African slaves, etc.! African musical traditions were gradually transformed

stateside

" Integrated with Western harmonies, etc.! responsorial in Western music

o 12-bar blues form KNOW FOR TEST- also in textbookMeasure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Harmony I I(IV) I I IV IV I I V V(IV) I I

Poetic Strctr: A A B

! mm. 11-12 often features a turnaround to generateenergy to come back to the top of form (since the last

bit is all on tonic)

" each pass through the 12-bar phrase can bereferred to as the chorus

o Delta Blues! More loosely structured more personalized! Mostly male singers, accompanied only by themselves

on guitar

! Ex: Robert Johnson, Crossroads Blues (rec. 1936)! Probably used the same rough 12-bar blues form,

though the treatment of the chord progression was

different" This guys guitar technique was eye-

opening/progressive, and influenced further

generations of guitar players in many different,

unrelated genres

NAWM p. 219- Back Water Blues, 1927, Bessie Smith (1894-1937)


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o Classic Blueso Text is often more significant than merely what is written.

! Conveys suffering, mistreatment, and a search frofreedom form the troubles of life

o Pianist in out recording: James P. Johnson! An equal partner in a lot of ways in this piece

o Like ragtime, blues and other pieces like this did not appearexactly as it is in our reduction in performance

! It was discovered that there was a large white audiencefor notations of the music

! Our example is simply a transcription of Bessie Smithsinterpretation

! Stanza 2- word door rhymes with goo About the scooping were hearing in here

! It is used to especially emphasize the Blues Notes" So, Smith places the scoop/inflection on Eb and

Bb especially

" Also, flatted 3rds and 7thso Back to what James Johnson is doing in the recording

! When the vocalist cuts out, Johnson adds in some(improve?) to add interest until the vocalists reenters

o Harmonies used in this example are almost entirely I, IV, or V! However, they are often augmented with added

dominant 7ths

Monday April 15, 2013

Blues, and the difference between notation and performanceo West End Blues- is the piece Olivers music as it was in his

head, by Louis Armstrong & The Hot Five, etc.

o These ideas are thrown in the air with popular music Joe King Oliver (1881-1938)

o One of the earliest and most important figures in New Orleansjazz

o Led small bands playing in often seedier (black) areas ofNOLA

o Louis Armstrong was his protgo Originally played with coronets. Switch trumpets added later


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o Use of mutes, etc., to create new timbres! Called extended techniques in classical music

West End Blues, as performed by Louis Armstrong & His Hot Fiveo Recorded 1928o NAWM p 223o This is a 2-strain piece (2 different sections

! Each uses the 12-bar blues form New Orleans Jazz (traditional jazz)

o 1910s-1920so earliest type of jazz we know ofo also (less commonly) referred to as Dixieland jazzo rooted in blues, ragtime, popular song

! also, EUR dance music from the 19th century! these bands originally played polkas, waltzes, etc. but

played in a way very different from the (white)

European roots

o small combos; front line/rhythm section! rhythm section: tuba, banjo, and drum set! banjo used initially, but fell out of favor to the

guitar/piano

! front line consisted of coronets, trombones, clarinets" this combination fell out of favor later

o ensemble polyphony! ???

o improvisation! not all improvised! however, they usually play a type of prescribed part or

the melody.

! Back-and-forth between open improve and set partso Ex: Joe King Olivers Creole Jazz Band, Dippermouth Blues

(rec. 1923)

! Very polyphonic. Parts intertwine with one another! 12-bar blues structure! begins with and introduction! clarinet decorates the main melody with trills and

flourish figures


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! (The coronet plays the melody?)! At the chorus, most of the ensemble comes together,

except the clarinet

! Every time they cycle through the set form, somethingdifferent happens and a different instruments plays asolo/flourishing line

! Different group members are largely musical equals inthis type of music. A lot of every instrument is heard

o Louis Armstrong (1901-71)! Surpassed Oliver in fame and started his own groups

" Why? He was a star and a virtuosic musician.When his groups played, it was obvious that he

was the star

! Grew up very poor, and in a black orphanage! Played in the street, and eventually joined Olivers

group

NAWM p. 223, West End Blues, in the style of NOLA Jazzo Rec. by Louis Armstrong & His Hot Fiveo P. 226 has another transcription of the same recordingo Why? Because Armstrongs band did not play from notation.

They knew it as a tune over a blues progression

! They would rehearse and come up with a loose sense ofwhat they were going to do prior to performance

o Armstrong uses trumpet in this exampleo When playing the melody Armstrong is more alluding to it

than explicitly playing it

! (The West End Blues) melodyo trombone (p. 229) plays something akin to the 2nd strain of

WEB

o p. 231 Armstrong sings on nonsense syllableso p. 233 there is a piano solo (perf. Earl Hines)

! despite the flourishing RH melody, the LH and overallsolo still follows the blues progression

o earliest recordings have corny humorous stuff, etc., to helpthe record sell by adding novelties

! also, it had to fir on a 3-4 minute 78 RPM record


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Louis Armstrong revolutionized improvisation in jazzo In the solo bits, there is not really much of a trace of the

original melody

o The progression used only as a template/outline NAWM p. 240

o Cotton Tailby Duke Ellingtono 1940, contrafact jazz composition

Big Band Erao 1930s-1940so peak of jazzs mainstream popularity; closely associated with

dance (swing)

! listened to by a broad array of Americanso 12-18 musicians; sections:

reeds/trombones/trumpets/rhythm

! rhythm also includes a harmonic backbone" so, piano and upright bass

! singers would often sing romantic ballads" Crooners- Frank Sinatra, etc.

o increasing use of notation! why? Very difficult to put so many musicians together

" also, more of these musicians were white and hadclassical training that would play in white venuesfor white audiences

" but black bands were too! fallout: decreasing opportunities for improvisation

" virtuosic improvisers who could not read musicwere increasingly left by the wayside. Small

windows for improve as well

o role of segregation! very few integrated bands

Duke Ellington (1899-1974)o One of the most famous big band leaders and jazz composerso Performed at the cotton tail club in Harlem, NY, NYCo Ellingtons compositional approach to his band was based on

the makeup of his group at the time, and wrote pieces based

on his performers


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Ellington, Cottontail, (1940), NAMW p. 240o Uses the progression of Gershwins I Got Rhythm and plays a

new melody on top

! Called: Contrafacto Far more angular, jumpy melodyo P. 244

! Bridge section improvised! Tpt. 2 melody would not have been written (were

looking at a transcription)

! Gtr. Part just has chord ID written down, with/ / / /for the rest. So, free rhythmic improvisation

" comping- a light accompaniment" also happens on the piano part

o Swung rhythms! Central part of a lot of this music. Between ragtime and

jazz, ?

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)o Russian composerOR IS HE?

! Stravinsky was. But Shostakovich was not- the czaristera ended with the Bolshevik revolution and the USSR

was created! Nation=cultural state=political

o Stravinsky left Russia before the USSR was created anddistanced himself from it whereas Shostakovich grew up in

the USSR and had to be diplomatic and live/write in a

dangerous atmosphere (censorship)

o His real relationship with his Soviet bosses is still in questiontoday

o Following the Bolshevik revolution and purgeso Timeline

! 1919-25: Student Years" Symphony No. 1 (1925)" Lots of freedom despite radical political

movements.


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" 1st symphony is conventional and tonal but stillvery successful and well-received

" life as composer or piano performer? Soviet travel restrictions ended the dilemma

for him! 1926-35: embrace of Western modernism

" The Nose (1928) Opera in the vein of musical modernism,

upsetting audience expectations

Intentionally absurd story about a man whowakes up without his nose and discovers

that it has taken on a life of his own

Music is not conventionally operatic; rather,it is a stew of atonal, dissonant, elements of

jazz, etc.

Staged @ the MET opera a few years ago Like other opera from the 20th century,

opera, etc. is suffering-if it only appeals to a

niche audience, is it worth the $$$ to stage

it?

Interlude: written exclusively forpercussion. This medium was later exploitedby other composers, but very rare at this

point

" Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District Set in 19th century Russia. It is

exceptionally bleak and dark

Influenced by 2nd Viennese schoolexpressionism

Protagonist lashes out against her life,husband, etc.

A huge hit. There was an appetite forstories that told the dark side of life

Performed for years in USSR and in theWest, but got a huge audience


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Very explicit, uncomfortable sex scenes thatborder on sexual assault

o Music for these scenes attempts torepresent sex through music in one of

the most vulgar, explicit ways evero pornophony

! 1936- Pravda denunciation" Shostakovich was still a pretty loyal communist at

this time

" A review ofLady Macbeth denounced it on strong,certain terms, probably written by Stalin, who had

seen it just a few days previously

Title: Chaos Instead of Music" Soviet cultural ministers saw western modernism

as something to be avoided, and saw it as being

linked to individuality and expression- a symptom

seen as afflicting Western society. Individuality

over care for the group as a whole

Shostakovich was essentially given a deaththreat

! 1937-53: retrenchment" Symphony No. 5: (1937)- creative answer to just

criticism?

Did Shostakovich actually feel the criticismwas just, or was he putting up a faade?

" The Work: 4 mvmt. Work

o large, opening mvmt in sonata formo lighter scherzo, a reprieve from the

first

o slow third mvmto 4th movement ends triumphantly

" @ beginning of 1st movement, the strings enterwith a strong, dark theme

" Piece is mostly in dm. Clings to a tonal center,even if it plays fast and loose with it


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" 1st violin melody around square 1 has manyawkward leaps, such as TT and other augmented

intervals- a hallmark of many of Shostakovichs

works

" Mvmt 1, Development The violin melody named above is heard in

the brass, in a low register

Music changes itself into a diabolicalsounding march, which will have

implications later in the work

o Sounds like a Russian funeralmarch(?)

Mvmt 4 does not begin in major key, butrather with the dark, dramatic march topic

o This theme might as well symbolizethe Soviet army invading and

subjugating people, artists,

composers, etc.

o At the end of the last movement,there is a sudden rapid pivot to Major

! Shostakovich soon became simultaneously an imageboth of a loyal Soviet artist and that of a suppressedartist

" His music is indeed very ambiguous. Like, Mahler,there is not an explicit meaning.

o NAWM p 320! Symphony No. 5, II- Scherzo, 1937- Shostakovich! What is a Scherzo?

" Light, upbeat, playful" ABA form

Scherzo-Trio-Scherzo Reprise Each section is in binary form

o Repeats are written out- no repeatsigns

Track 18- musical content changes andsounds more Russian to our ears


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P. 25, a 4/4 mm. interrupts the timeo Also, we have been in cm and the

horns interrupt with a figure in Major

Trio: instrumentation is pared down (Track20)

o A dainty waltz tune in solo violin 1.Sounds a little TOO light and cute for

the rest of the symphony

o Echoed in flutes aftero P. 337: Scherzo returns again. Begins

with same string figure


Shostakovich Recap What does it mean for music/art to be accessible or inaccessible to

an audience?

o This distinction greatly affects music throughout this timeperiod, especially USA

! Tin pan Alley was all about making consumers hear andimmediately want music

" A desirable consumer object! Classical US composers were in a field where in order to

define themselves as modernist composers who neededto experiment and push the envelope for the sake of

their art

" Found themselves increasingly at odds withaudiences and popular music

During 1st part of is career, Shostakovich was indebted to theWestern musical tradition and was a modernist composer

o The Bolsheviks (SOCIALIST REALISM) wanted music to notfeature distortions of reality (like expressionism) and nor

should it distort audience expectations

! Art/music should speak to the beliefs and ideologies ofCommunism/Socialism

1920s was very crazy for both classical and popular musico also, prohibition! PARTY!!! (Apparently)o jazz, modernism


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The Ultra-Modernistso Composers in USA during the 1920s oriented toward musical

experimentation

! Ives did not actually set the stage for this since othercomposers were not aware of him

! However, he did set the stage for ito An American experimental tradition, continued by Ives

(Though not actually)

o Edgard Varse (1883-1965)! French-born Composer who lived in USA from 1915 to

his death

! USA classical mindset (Beach, Parker, etc.) wasgradually changing to having a greater appetite for

experimentation

! Varse referred to music as organized sound" Meaning: a wider palette is available for use" Isnt music all just organized sound?" Looking at available material for composition in a

much larger frame

By 1915, the instruments in the Westernorchestra had been in place for about 100

yearso A point of balance, stagnation

! He spoke about wanting to liberate sound" Schoenberg spoke of liberating something else?" Liberate sound, but liberating WHAT, exactly?

NAWM p. 402o Hyperprism, Varse, 1922-23o Half of the ensemble is percussion

! Percussion technically have a complex arrangement ofovertones that make a distinct pitch difficult to discern

o Musical instruments are just decorating 1 note 9G#) @beginning

o Pitch Space! Highness v. lowness! Varse treated notes with a strong sense of verticality


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! One pitch, (G#) here is treated as a center of gravitythat notes higher and lower return to

o Percussion not treated seriously for the most part- it wasused mainly for sound effects at the time

Henry Cowell (1897-1965)o infamous for experimental works for piano (1920s)o exploration of Extended Techniqueso bookNew Musical Resources (1930) describing new

theoretical ideas

! published New Music Quarterly, a journal with scores" a journal more about featuring modernist musical

scores for perusal and exposure

o modernist composers became music theorists not describingpast music but how future music could be devised

o NAWM p. 420! The Banshee, 1920,! Very specific instructions provided with the score and

new notation

! Liberation of sound from the enslavement of the tonalsystem, instrumentation, notation, etc.

o Pitch clusters! Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-53)

o Associated with the concept of dissonant counterpoint (aswas Cowell)

! Traditional theory balances dissonance and consonance! Dissonant counterpoint flips the relationship:

dissonance eon strong betas and treated as consonance

and consonance is used on passing notes/beats

! Studied with & married to Charles Seegero NAWM p. 424

! String Quartet 1931: Mvmt IV, Allegro Possible, 1931,Seeger

" Seeger was an experimentalist, and this work ishighly experimental

" Features same 4 movements as the traditionalstring quartet, but turns a lot else eon its head


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! Previously, dynamics are added in as an afterthought" Seeger experiments with Counterpoint in

Dynamics- so, dynamics 1st, not an afterthought

! MVMT IIIBeginning has fugue-like entrances! Long, sustained, dissonant pitches- dynamics are the

primary characteristic

" Dynamic swells- no 2 instruments reach a peakon the same beat

" In performance, performers are more spread outthan usual, creating a stereophonic effect

! Every movement is constructed differently! MVMT IV:

" Only 2 musical lines: 1st violin and every otherinstrument, all of which play in unison throughout

" Vln. 1 and trio have precise opposite parameters" A musical palindrome

This piece has a kind of mirror effect" Mm. 58 is the center of the mirror form

1-58 58-116

Vln 1 ff>pp Pp


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Seeger Recap Issue of accessibility of music in the 20th century. Does composer

have the responsibility to reach out to the audience

o Affected Shostakovich: official USSR doctrine was that musicought to be acceptable to the masses and ought to speak tocommunist ideologies

! Post Lady Macbeth, and when writing 5th symphonyhe wrote a symphony that was more accessible. 4

mvmts, etc.

Crawford Seegero USA composers were not oriented to accessibility

! Varese, Cowell, Crawford! Seegers String Quartet 1921 was challenging,

dissonant, atonal

1930s Shifto growing concern among modernist composers about

accessibility in music. Had music placed itself into a corner so

it was speaking to no one but a few musical elites?

o Impetus: Great Depression, beginning 1929 and worsened! Affected every aspect of USA social life! Devastated USA economy, especially for middle classes

o Composers were falling under sway of socio-politicalthinkers?

o Economic reforms! Addressing of widespread poverty and joblessness

o Many composers (like Seeger) underwent a huge shift! Crawford and her husband decided their abilities as

composers would be better suited to recording, writing,

and compiling USA folk music for entertainment and

escape

! Crawford became and advocate for music and musicallanguage, as well as music-making by a broader swathe

of USA community

o Crawford and her husband became leading folk musicadvocates

! Simple arrangements and harmonies of USA folk songs


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! With assistance of (_______________?), they recordedmusic that people knew and played

! MUED ramifications:" Elementary music-making grew out of theories

developed by people such as these." Kids should be making music with simple songs as

early as possible

singing simple, common tunes! Like Shostakovich, Seeger & Co. took a turn for

accessibility, though Shostakovichs was forced by the

Soviets

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)o Copland also made a move toward accessibility

! Copland + Shostakovich responded to politics sweepingtheir era- a focus on community, etc. and not elitist

works, etc.

o Early 1920s- studied in Paris w Nadia Boulanger! Stravinsky was present in Paris in the 1920s and was a

massive influence

! Boulanger was a notable pedagogue" Famous for being a Parisian teacher who taught

an number of USA composers" Belief that EUR offered a better music education

than USA

" Copland was exposed to the modernist EUR idiom,S especially Stravinsky

o 1925: Copland returns to NY; quest for American musicalidentity

! how to sound American?o Early compositions influenced by jazz and popular music

! Music for the Theatre (1925)" Spiky dissonances that arise unexpectedly" Unpredictable shifting of meter. Sounds spunky,

happy, though is still very metrically sophisticated

! Coplands music was fashionable and influential forother composers in USA at the time..thus the


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cartoonish or movie-like sound in their writings (they

reflect Copland)

o Writings about Music! Rising tendency for composers to write about what they

are doing in prose! Copland cast himself s the voice of USA composition

o Other compositions reflect tendencies of modernistcomposition in EUR

! Piano variations (1930)" Both this and Seegers 1931 String Quartet are

both just as challenging and intellectually rich as

music EUR composers at the time

" Piece opens with what is IDd as a them. Not amelodic theme, but a collection of pitches

Compare to Pierrot Lunaire(Schoenberg)***

Intervals in the motive used a s a seed forthe rets of the movement to arise from

Notes: E C D# C# ?" Not used in the same rigorous way as

Schoenbergs tone rows

" Borrowing idea/use of shifting meters fromStravinsky

Came to be seen as a distinctive USA traito Great Depression affected his writings

! Rather than taking Seegers route of folk song collection! Decided that austere, modernist music was not

beneficial for the American people at the time

! Populist- aspirations to speak or relate to a broadaudience, the common man

! The Composers Collective! Visit to Mexico (mid 1930s)

" Copland felt that the MEX had a better socialsystem

o El Salon Mxico (1936)- a new approach! Meant to celebrate MEX & MEX people


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! Leads to music geared toward wide appeal,accessibility, etc.

! Quotation of American folk material" Cowboy tunes" Folk fiddling" Cold be embraced by a wide audience

o Copland Populist Ballets of the late 1930s and 1940s! Billy the Kid(1938)! Rodeo (1942)

" Music is indebted to folk fiddling and can often beplayed on open strings

" Folk fiddle tune taken from a collection of folktunes

! Appalachian Spring (1944, with Martha Graham)o Appalachian Spring, NAWM p. 433

! Suite at this time becomes a looser term for a collectionof pieces grouped together

! Creative application of rhythm! Roughly in Eb, but there are lots accidentals

" Middle of p. 434- trombone outburst! P. 435

" Vln 1 after circle 37 starts a new motive" In C, but there is little functional tonality

Treated more as a tonal collection played onwhite notes of the keyboard

! Could be seen as a popular version of Stravinskys Riteof Spring

" Light and fun instead of unnerving! P. 454, meno mosso

" Slow section written in a style closely IDd withCoplands sound, and USA music as a whole

Built on open intervals Look @ solo oboe- see how many P

intervals there (4ths and 5ths)

! P. 457" Rehearsal 55- variations on a tune


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" Aim to make sound like classical music usingtraditional music as its basis

" Shaker tune Theyre a little like the Amish

" Every time the tune is repeated it is in a new key" VLA melody presented in augmentation, then vlns

enter with imitation

! P. 468" New bass line: recontextualizes melody @ end of

the piece

Copland knew how to transform a themeinto many different guises so it was

endlessly refreshed

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Reviewo Accessibility! Again!

! The composer who wrote modernist music was one whodid not sell-out as a musician and artist

! This modernist approach pushed audiences farther andfarther away, and music was written for one another

and a small, select intellectual audience

! Totalitarian governments ordered composers to writemusic that was accessible and spoke to ideologies

! Some USA composers turned from modernism to amore accessible idiom- they saw it as their duty to

reach out to audiences

" 1950s USA- some composers made the changeback to modernism and avant-garde

" there is a lot of variety in USA music at this time-both experimentalism, avant-garde, and

accessible composers

John Cage (1912-1992)o mid-1930a: Cage studies briefly with Schoenberg in California

! Schoenberg had fled anti-Semitism in GER/EUR in the1930s


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! The flood of artists, composers, and scientist fled EURdue to persecution because their race, political views,

etc.- enabled USA to rise as a powerhouse in the 20th

century

o Subsequently develops reputation as composer for percussion! Sidebar: Seeger- serialism, but ot Schoenbergs 12-

tone method

" She used 10 tones, and a (cycle?) of pitches" Check this

! Cage wanted a third way- not serialism, not neo-classicism

" He seeked new sounds and ideas! Works:

" First Construction in Metal(1939)" Second Construction in Metal(1940)" Living Room Music (1940)

! Construction indicates Cage was thinking of music in adifferent way- maybe like a sculpture

! for Living Room, it could be performed any way, solong as the instruments came form the performer(s)

living room(s)

! Cage was a leader in growing/finding new, differentpercussion instruments

" found instruments- onus is on the performers tocreate the timbre, sound, and feel of the

ensemble

o Develops Concept of Rhythmic Structure! Schoenberg was concerned with how row forms could

mark and form different sections of a piece

! Cage believed a composer could not just come up withideas to hold a piece together through logic and intellect

" How could he structure si music when his modelsfrom before are based on PITCH organization?

" He developed Rhythmic Structure- he decidedthat the basic organization of music is TIME

Say there are 3 large sections


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o Each section has a Big-Small-Bigsubsection

o Each unit could be broken downfurther as desired

o Write about music, developing upon ideas of earlierexperimentalists (e.g. Varse)

! The Future of Music: Credo (ca. 1940)! Cage questions how we distinguish between noise and

musical sound

" The sounds we hear today were not considered tobe musical in earlier periods

" noise is cultural, and changes over time" he imagined that composers of the future would

use electronic instruments to produce sound

" Cage di not have this available in his time period,but he was able to modify the sound of current

ones. Thus The Prepared Piano

o Prepared Piano (inv. 1940)! Was writing a piece for a dance recital with a large

percussion ensemble, but there was not enough space

for the whole ensemble

" But a piano was available, and he started placingobjects in the strings to create different sounds

! Work(s):" Bacchanale" Sonata and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1947-

48)

! Later wrote works for standalone prepared piano, notjust dance works

! Around this time, Cage was travelling the world with___________ and listening to and collecting different

sounds from around the world

NAWM p. 539: Sonata and Interludes: Sonata Vo Detailed instructions for piano preparation

! Cage eventually realized that every piano, and thusevery performance of his prepared piano pieces would


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sound differently because small differences in piano

constructions

" Gradually accepted it as what made this pieceinteresting

o Music on the page looks like standard notationbut it soundsvery different

o Rhythmic Structure! (more complex than rhythm, has to do with time

organization as as well)

! 2_2_2 _2 ! groupings of 9 bars that correspond to the #s above

" 9 measures= 2 somethings?! Look @ p. 544-545 for more explanation

o Binary formo Sonata Form- this piece is in Sonata Form, and Cage writes

his in an older definition of Sonata form, such as used by

Scarlatti (which is ABA)

Cage was growing infamous in most circleso He was treated as a kook, a curiosity by many, including

music critic and by writers in articles about him

o In the late 1940s, he was going through a great deal turmoil! He was gay and his marriage (to a woman) was falling

apart

! His music is subsequently very emotional andrepresents his emotions and feelings at the time

o Occurred to him that music should be about expression at itscore?

Cage met and befriended composer Morton Feldmano Feldman designed a system of notation that left the pitches

up to the player

! Graphic depictions of music instead of standard notation NAWM p. 557

o Little box= player makes a soundo Stratum of score dictates how sounds are played


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o Feldman essentially tied one hand behind his back as acomposer so he did not choose specific pitches for the

performer

! It is difficult for composers not to repeat gestures an dideas that have already been used, and this provided away to avoid doing so

o A bid to create more active listeners and performers and toshake up expectations

Ca. 1950: Cage exposed to new philosophic ideaso Cage decided that music would be better if a composer did

not try to express themselves or a specific emotion in their

music

o Removes control from the composero Exposure to eastern philosophy

! Letting go of desires and egos (such as of thecomposers)

! Happiest when we are not trying to shape ourselves,the world around us, and our destinies

1951 & Forwardo embraces techniques of chance in compositiono NAWM p. 546o For regular piano, written with specific notationo The composition of this piece leaves much to chance- by

flipping coins through an elaborate method. Decisions about

pitch, rhythm, etc. were left to the flip of a coin

o Music to the listener could just be about the listener onlypaying attention to the sounds of the music


John Cage Recapo 2 parts of careero transition happened in the 1950s- 1951 and forward, his

music focused on chance and indeterminism

o NAWM p. 546! Certain aspects were chosen by Cage, and the others

were randomized results

! Cage was inspired by a work by Feldman


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! Composition: Cage created tables of chords, motives,dynamics, rhythms, etc.

! He flipped coins to decide how to proceed! Result: piece does not sound continuous, but rather as

disconnected sounds in time" This is hat he wanted: individual sounds,

appreciated for themselves

! Unlike ___________ who used graphic notation, cageexplicitly writes what is wanted

" Cage used a type of notation that is spatiallyoriented towards time- space in measures directly

relates to the beat as notated at the top

o Cage saw a flaw in music (and art): that music ought to be avehicle for the conveyance of thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

He wanted listeners to be JUST listeners who cleared their

minds and simply listened to the music, the sound, and not

compare it to other music or who sounds relate to one

another or association to their emotions, psychology.

o Last 40 years of his lives, he sought new ways to createsounds for listeners: sounds for sounds sake

! Did so by hobbling himself as a composer, so his ego,tastes, desires, etc. were removed from the final result

! Huge change for us- previously, music had been avehicle for conveying some kind of meaning

o Nevertheless, very few people followed Cages exampleo Indeterminacy of notation:

! Leaving up to the performer certain elements of thepiece and its performance

o 1950s- Cage also became involved in electronic music as well(that he had predicted in 1939)

! composers were able to get their hands on electronichardware to realize their music

! wrote electronic versions of pieces (Like Music ForChanges)


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" scores for this music contained instructions forhow the tape would be cut to create discontinuous

streams of sound

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)o John Cage of Europeo constantly challenging ideas and expectationso education in Nazi Germany

! a damaged generation! psychological damage possible! Stockhausen was highly eccentric

o Post-WWII, he studied music in college while performing jazzas a night club pianist

o total Serialism: entails systematic regulation of pitch, butalso other musical parameters

! Stockhausen and many other composers at the timewanted to reinvent music form the ground up, music

free of the taint of politics, etc.

! Like a rebellion or distancing from their fathers andforefathers

o Subsequent career: continual reinventiono Schoenbergs serialism was taken and expanded to create

Total Serialism! Serialism= a series of elements (Pitches) treated in a

specific way

! Total serialism: more elements of the piece serializedthan just pitch- like dynamics, rhythm, etc.

o NAWM p. 561! Kreuzspiel: Part 1. 1951.

" Crossplay (ENG)" vertical space= pitch space" lots of voice crossings between parts- no oboe or

clarinet @ beginning- just the piano with

extremes of ranges. Registers gradually cross in

the piece. The WWs come in as pitches

rise/descend


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" p. 561: Part 1, (86) specific pitches migrate (Eb)-its starts @ top of register, and is eventually

heard at the lowest registers of the piece. All

other voices/notes behave similarly

also, crossings of dynamics, articulations,etc.

kinda like an algorithm or a computerprogram, where the computer follows the

algorithm and spits out the result

! pitch, rhythm, dynamics, articulation are all serialized! scored for piano, 2 winds, & percussion! rejection of the idea of expression and thread of

continuity

! Pointillistic: music sounds like points of music/sound intime

! Tech Specs:" Total serialism" Pitch Content:

P. 568" Fig. 2, p. 569

Basic note units are in the conga Ex: Eb=11 durations (in the percussion)

o Beginning of Part 1, CD square 86o Back to Stockhausen

! 100% control of music through total serialism was justone part of Stockhausen: he soon reinvented himself

again. He wrote like John Cage, then changed. He wrote

electronic music, then changed and so on.

! He was very well known to the Beatles, and his facewas included on the album cover of Sgt. Peppers

Whatever

Monday, April 29, 2013

Modern/Experimental Recapo Challenging audience expectationso Gradually came to be referred to as New Musiceven

though it is over half a century old now


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! Why? It was never embraced by a mainstream audience! If it has been rejected as a whole, why is it important to

us?

o Post WWII fragmentation of styles! No one kind of music that represented the main thrust

of what composers were doing

o Serial movement was one of the most potent! Born with Schoenberg between in the 19-teens! Used primarily by Schoenberg and his students! Post-WWII, serialism caught on with a wider selection

of composers

" Total serialism developed! Also, composers who had once rejected serialism later

converted to it after Schoenbergs death

" In the 1950s, the populist Copland retreated backto his earlier, thornier experimental/modernist

works. Embraced serialism

! It was one the most potent in USA universities, and wastaught as the music of the future

" Milton Babbitt, Princeton" He and his students led a school of serialism in

the USA New Music Since WWII

o splintering of audience base! 1st half of 20th century was split by musical modernism

" audiences had a choice between Swan Lake andRite of Spring or Brahms/Schoenberg

o formation of specialty ensembles, specialty performersdevoted to new music. Also, performers specialized in early

music

! bulk of musicians learned/were able to perform fromBach to Stravinsky

o The Role of Patronage! USA: Universities! EUR: state support

o Stylistic Atomization


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! Fragmentation of styles" Each composers feels that s/he is writing the

music of the future

! Relationship to classical music as its exists in theconcert hall

" How do you write music in the classical traditionwhen the goal is to sweep away all explicit

connections to the past?

o Why would someone listen to this music?! The desire of artists to create works that:

" -say something new, or" -make a contribution to music history (even

through rejection), or

" -seem relevant to contemporary life, or" -feel personally honest, or" -they themselves simply ENJOY- even if a

mainstream audience doesnt.

! Even if we change COMPOSERS to LISTENERS, the listwould stay primarily the same

Minimalismo 1960so proved to be a movement that ruptured the classical music

world by opening up new avenues

o USA movement that began in the 1950s, grew popular in the1960s, and became VERY widely popular in the 1970s

o Influenced by visual art, especially culture! Actually, an exchange between music and art

o Visual artists were grappling with the same issues musiciansand composers were

! Abstraction had been the norm for a while! Sought to create art the was objectively cold, sterile,

industrial

o Repetition: a definitive aspect of most minimalist arto Does art need to express/tell us something?o Sometimes minimalist works were massive

! Works like this are often installed in public spaces


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Steve Reich (1936-)o Studied with Luciano Berio, among others; infl. By NY school,

jazz, West African drumming

o Concerned with audible musical process! What can you hear v. what can you see on the page?! Processes: just as visual artists created patterns across

space, Reich wanted his works to unfold over time in a

way audiences could easily hear

o Early Phase Works:! Come Out (1966)! Piano Phase (1967)! Phasing: kinda like counterpoint, fugal

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Post-WWII recap, minimalism recap, and Steve Reich recap Reich and musical processes

o Not sureo Quote

Reichs Come Outo Only one musical process

! No variety of technique, styles, etc.! Only two tape recorders! One thing is unfolding over time

Minimalist music was much more consonant than othermodernist/experimental music

Reich, Piano Phaseo Work for two pianists 1967o With this, Reich began writing more music for conventional

instruments and ensembles

o Score instructions:! Piano 1 plays a motive over and over! Piano 2 enters after a while, playing in time with piano

1

! 2nd player gradually comesout of phase!... with piano1 by gradually pushing ahead of piano 1 until piano 2

gets 1/16 note ahead


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! after even more repetitions, piano 2 gets 2 1/16 notesahead

! & etc. Since 1970s, Reich works increasingly with larger ensembles, more

variety, and less purity in compositional approacho approaching the role of an established classical music

composers, seeking to be established with the greats

Reichs music was a reaction to serialism, but he and othercomposers following the romantics were all rebelling against the

romantics and their idea of expressivity

NAWM p. 670o Tehillim: part IV, 1981; Reicho Sung in Hebrew!o Very few Jewish composers through historyo Role of the Christian church loomed large in western music

! Composers like Reich made statements in their musico This work represents Reichs move toward mainstream

classicism later in his career

o Commissioned for GER State Radioo Piece:

! 4 mvmts, Fast-Fast-Slow-Fast! each mvmt sets a different psalm text (IV: psalm 150)

" this psalm makes specific allusions to song-making

! voices treated differently in each movement" IV includes a sampling of all treatments used in

the work

! Instrumentation:" Voice, organ, percussion, WW

! Relating to Piano Phase, etc,: steady pulse, but complexrhythms

o Musical:! Diatonic harmonies, cling to a tonal center

" Dm, FM- ambiguous, but chords return to thesetwo harmonies

! P. 674, t.27, rehearsal B


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" 2 voices singing are treated in 2-voice canon! rehearsal C introduces more instruments, and all 4

voices

" expanded sense of canon/imitative polyphony" overall melodic contour is the same

! p. 686, the 2nds half of the melodic material is treatedin canon (like 1st was just before)

! p. 690, 3rd part treated in canon! why do voice parts sound phased?

" Phasing is imitation!" Canon is imitation, therefore" Imitative polyphony

! P. 695: voices slowed down, pitches altered" Back to homophony

Friday, May 3, 2013

Waxing Poetico In history, one thing necessarily follows the otherunless

youre doing the wrong thing, a fear that plagued composers.

! Music doesnt get BETTER over time, it CHANGESo 1970s-80s- more apparent that there would not be one

dominant mainstream music of the future

! composers increasingly recognized that the tributariesof musicals style were all legitimate in their own right.

o Western Intellectual Changeso Pluralism

! tolerance, acceptance, and celebration of differenceo dichotomy between pop and classical/concert music

! increasingly, composers were influenced by musicoutside of the classical sphere, and by world music or

pop music

! Reichs music has a beat, or a pulse- a hallmark of mostpopular music

Michael Daugherty (1954-Present)o Like many contemporaries, he is associated with a University-

currently the University of Michigan

o Raised in Iowa; family of musicians


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! Dad was a jazz drummer, grandmother was a pianist,and all his siblings were musicians, though not

necessarily classical musicians

! Siblings formed a band that played cover songso Breadth of musical experienceso Education:

! University of North Texas! Manhattan School of Music! Yale University! Worked with Bernstein who taught him that it was OK

to blend pop and classical, and Avant-Garde USA & EUR

composers

o Contact/study with wide range of contemporary composerso Pluralism:

! Embrace of multiple approaches to composition,multiple styles of music

! Implies acceptance/tolerance for difference; no onesingle music of the future

o Pluralistic approach to compositiono Reflects greater accessibility of (some) recent music

! Daugherty wanted to compose music that would draw alarge variety of people

o Since the 1990s, many of his compositions tie in to TV,movies, comic books

o Dead Elvis, 1993- Michael Daugherty- NAWM p. 890! Quotation: actively engaging listener by quoting older

music that blends the old and the new- layering the old

and the new

! A (loose) set of variations on the chant Dies Irae" A clich in music, and Daugherty knows it

! Allusions to Stravinskys Faustian chamber piece TheSoldiers Tale (1918)

" A twist on the story of Faust" Ties in the story of Faust to Elvis Presley


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! Late 70s-80s, after Elvis died, a cult of diehard fansarose that thought he was still alive and had faked his

death

! Reflects the composers love of pop culture(music?)! NAWM p. 925- Daugherty program note! References to Latin (Pop?) music! Dies Irae 1st appearance, p. 891

" Violin sounds scratchy, like in Soldiers Tale! Music is very repetitive and grooving! Letter M- Elvis entrance! Bassoon is in a higher register- like Stravinskys Rite of

Spring

!