Music and Culture in the Twentieth Century
Go to Outline
of Music 138S, Summer II, 2000
I. The END of ART [Spengler's
conclusion]:
WAGNER - the final peak of Western Culture
R MMoMoAH
A. Out of Germany - Wagner MSMo
1. The Artwork of the Future - Gesamtkunstwerk
2. The Ring Cycle - mythology for the mid-nineteenth century
3. Tristan - the expressiveness of delayed gratification.
B. Out of Vienna - Mahler M
1. Personal expression, use of program
2. Transition from romanticism to new age
C. Out of Vienna - Strauss MoMoMo
1. A different transition to the new age - Elektra
2. A turning back - Der Rosenkavalier
D. Realism in Opera - Puccini AH
E. Incursions from the Rest of the World
1. Russian music - Moussorgsky
2. Vernacular music in America
3. American music - Ives
4. World's Fairs in Paris - gamelan
II. The Old Principles No Longer Hold:
MODERN MUSIC: in the light of Debussy
M MoRRRAHAH
A. The Revolution
S
1. The Revolution in Paris
a. Out of France - Debussy MSSMo
i. Romanticism is over; Debussy as a reaction to Wagner
ii. New style -
(a) static
(b) Coloristic
iii. Influenced, changed, every contemporary composer
(a) Schoenberg
(b) Bartok
b. Stravinsky MR
i. Russian differences in 19th century AH
ii. Exoticism - in Russia and Paris
iii. "Primitivism" - parallel with other arts
iv. Petroushka
v. Rite of Spring
c. Other arts - Cubism, Picasso RAH
2. The Revolution in Vienna
a. Viennese Culture
Pre-World War I - a world about to fall apart R
A tortured world - the end of a culture R
Heinrich Schenker 1868-1935
Sigmund Freud 1856-1939
b. Expressionism MAH
AH
In all the arts -parallel development of abstract art (Kandinsky)[AH]
and atonality (Schoenberg)
Schoenberg part of Blaue Reiter [AH]
artistic
movement
c. Revolution S
3. 1912-1913 RR
a. Debussy, Jeux
b. Stravinsky, Rite of Spring
c. Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire
4. Birth of Jazz
3. Radical Movements - The twenties
MoRR
a. Maturity of early radicals
i. Schoenberg - twelve-tone method
ii. Berg - Wozzek
iii. Webern
b. Varèse MAH
AH
Sees the future - machines express our time AH
Crystal structure = fractal structure Chaos
B. Conservative Trends and Nationalism
1. Retrenchment- Hard times MR
a. For the people - Is this democracy? (or communism?) AHM
b. Neo-classicism AH
c. Folk influences
d. Bartok - M
2. Other musics in America
3. World War II R
IV. THE NEW becomes HISTORY:
CONTEMPORARY: Music in the Shadow of Webern
MAH
A. Fruition of Revolution M
1. Post WW II
a. Acceleration of change R
b. Dwarfing of Europe R
c. Beginning of Cold War R
d. European recovery R
b. McCarthyism
2. Age of specialists -
a. fragmentation of knowledge
b. complexity
3. Serious music - fulfilling Webern
a. total control M
b. mathematical
c. complexity like that of other areas of knowledge
d. for experts, connoisseurs, not general public
e. Influenced all serious composers. Stravinsky wrote music using techniques
of serial music
4. Pop
a. Rock and Roll begins
b. New influence from music of Black Americans
c. Popular music no longer closely related to art music
5. Jazz
a. Bop
b. No longer the big bands middle-Americans danced to
B. Sixties Mo
AH AH
1. World Events
2. Classical
a. Electronic
b. Chance AH
3. Pop
C. Seventies RQMo
1. World events
a. End of the European post-war order, a search for stability R
b. Vietnam R
c. Pirzig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance offers
an attempt to use ideas from Eastern cultures in our culture.
2. Classical
a. New Performance
b. Authentic performance of music of other periods
c. Electronic M
d. Minimalism AH
3. Pop
a. Sympathy for the Devil - albums not just songs
D. Eighties R
1. World events
a. Detente and the Soviet Union R
b. Long Prosperity, conservatism
2. Classical
a. Neo-Romanticism
More accessible music
E. Nineties RQQ
1. World
a. Fall of communism R
b. A new world order in the making R
c. European integration R
d. New Russia R
e. European disorder R
b. Technology taken for granted
c. Pirzig, Lila,
An Inquiry into Morals questions the results of the seventies and
seeks a new grounding in what is good.
2. Classical
a. Postmodern - more accessible AH
AH
b. Reich - wants process to be obvious to audience
3. Pop
a. Multiple versions of songs - anyone with computer can remix a song.
b. Afro-pop, interest of broad audience in world music
Links and Abbreviations (links are abbreviated by using the initials)
Links and Abbreviations (links are abbreviated by using the initials)