Class Notes

Modernism and National Traditions

October 5, 2016
Russia: Rachmaninoff and Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)

o Influences
Liszt, Wagner: chromaticism
Rimsky-Korsakov: octatoinic scale, other exotic elements
Debussy, Russian composers: juxtapositions of texture, scale,
figuration
o Complex harmonic vocabulary evolved
Chords featuring tritons from octatonic (alternating whole and
half steps), whole-tone scales
Evaded conventional tonal resolution
Music as means to transcend, daily existence, glimpse of the
divine
o Very Popular when he was alive, forgotten after his death
o Toward the Flame
Written in 1914, last piece by Scriabin
Poem
Used tri-tones extensively. Whole piece is based on tri-tones that
do not resolves.
If they do resolve, they resolve in to perfect 5 th
Develops from dark to a big explosion of sound
Motive of two notes (either up or down)
Rachmaninoff
o Pianist
o Rhapsody of a Theme of Paganini
Not typical Rachmaninoff
Usual style sat in romanticism
Starts very modern (1st movement)
Resolves to the pretty romantic style he is known for (2 nd
Movement)
Gives melody to the orchestra, and not to piano
Comes back to modern later in piece (3rd Movement)
Textbook Between the World Wars: Jazz and Popular Music
Music of Andalusia
o Romani (Gypsy) Music
o Sephardic Jews
o Flamenco Songs cante jondo
Focus on rhythmic beats (Dance style)

October 12, 2016

Spain: Albeniz, Granados, and Falla

o Spanish composers sought to reclaim national tradition
o Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909)
o Best known for piano music
Early music in salon style
Rhythmic Dance-like Spanish music
Canta jonda (deep song; spanis flamenco style singing)
Phrygian mixolydian mode and whole tone scales used a lot
Would put guitar texture in piano music
o Felipe Padrell
Leader of national Spanish music
Taught Albeniz, and suggested he go back to Spanish style
o Iberia (1905-1908), twelve piano pieces by Albeniz
Suite- 4 books with three pieces in each
Spanish melodic traits, dance rhythms
Virtuoso style drew on Liszt, Debussy
Debussy loved it and encouraged him to continue to write in this
way
Invoking of Spain impressionistic style that you do not hear
right away
Flamenco and conta jonda styles evoked in piece
o Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
o Best known for piano music, conductor
o Nationalistic style, romantic Spanish style and Goya (painter)
o Goyescas (1909-1912), inspired by sketches of Francisco Goya, by
Granados
Ornamented, but feels improvised
Granados was the first performer of this piece
o Manuel De Falla (1876-1946)
Collected, arranged national folk songs (learned from Padrell)
Liked renaissance Spanish church music, romantic music, folk
Spanish music
1907 relocated to Paris, met Debussy and Ravel and Paul Ducas
(wrote The Sorcerers Apprentice)
1914 returns to Madrid, tries quasi-impressionistic style
Mature works: national elements, neoclassical approach
El retablo de maese Pedro (Master Padros Puppet Show,
1919-1923)
Concerto for harpsichord with five solo instruments
o Harpsichord was unpopular at the time
Written in renaissance neoclassical style
Based on chapter of book Cervantes by Don Quixote
Opera with puppets, made it unpopular at the time
He does not use Andalusian language or style at all

October 14, 2016

Britain: Vaughn Williams and Holst

Composers sought distinctive English Voice

o Very good friends
Met at Royal College of Music in London
Would play songs for each other and seek each others advice
Ralph Vaughan Williams
o Started at Royal College of Music in London
o More national style than Holst
o Inspirations
Folk song
1903 began to collect folk songs to use in his edition of
The English Hymnal in 1904. Was the editor
English Hymnody
Earlier English composers: Thomas Tallis, Henry Purcell
Wrote Fantasia based on Tallis Theme in Phrygian mode
(Tallis Fantasy)
o Written for 3 parts:
Large Orchestra
Small orchestra for 9 players (create an echo
effect)
String Quartet
3 group would be sprinkled around the space
o Evokes Organ sound
Studied with Ravel
Moved to Paris to study in 1909 and studied Orchestration
with him
Strongly influenced by Debussy, Bach, Handel
o Wrote art and utilitarian music
Composed, arranged hymns, folk tunes, sixteenth-century tunes
o Links to amateur music-making, kept from esoteric style
Gustav Holst
o Thought function of composer was not to express personality, but to
pass on the ideas of what a musician, performer and educator and fill
practical needs. Music should help people understand the education
better it is for everyone
o Father was professional pianist
He pushed Holst to be a pianist, and did not become a pianist
due to a nerve disease in his right hand.
Played trombone as his way of staying in music
o Works for stage, chorus, orchestra, band
o Somerset Rhapsody (1906-1907), uses folk melodies
o Choral Hymns from Rig Veda (1908-1912), Hindu sacred texts
o The Planets (Mars) (1914-1916), non-nationalist work
Astrological, not astronomical
All planets featured as its own piece in this larger work

Originally written for piano duet

All but Neptune, which was written for Organ
All pieces were orchestrated
Phrygian Mode

Eastern and northern Europe: Janacek and Sibelius

Nationalism was urgent political concern

o At home: assertion of independent national identity
o Abroad: appeal for international recognition as a nation
Janacek
o Czech
o Started with romantic tendencies
o Established a declamatory style (recetitive/spoken)
Used for sitting the voice on the music
o Opera: Jenufa (1904), gained wider prominence
o Collected folk tunes, rhythms and used them in his pieces
o Conductor, critic and organizer
Founded Brno Organ school (aka Brno Organ Conservatory)
Organized musical festivals
Presented folk music and lesser known composers
interested in national music
o Sinfonietta
Small symphony
Wrote when he was 72 y/o
Success for meaning of piece
Composed for Czech gymnastic competition (similar to
Olympics for Czech)
Dedicated to Czech armed forces
Became Unofficial anthem for Czech
7 movements
Used folk elements
4th movement
o Stress on 1st movement of the song supports this,
the first beat of melody does not always come on
first beat
o Makes the song sound like the time signature
changes when it does not.
1st movement
o Written for brass and percussion only
o Motives very repetitive
Classical Concert
o 2 exposition
Orchestra, then solo instrument
Romantic Concerto
o No double exposition
o Cadenzas throughout the movement

October 21, 2016

Avant-Garde
o Erik Stie (1866-1925)
Liked to make fun and evoke other composers (Debussy, who
was a good friend)
Musical motifs, piano techniques key relationships
Embryons desseches (Dried Embryos, 1913)
Three movements
No key signatures or barlines written
mocks classical masterworks
first movement evokes Debussy
o Mocks Beehtoven in Coda as well here
second movement makes fun of Chopins funeral march
(Piano Sonata #2)
Third movement (NAWM 171) satirized Wagnerian
leitmotivs
o Hunting sounds
o Mocks Beethoven by using and endless Coda (8 th
Symphony)
o Switches from I to V repeatedly
Larger Pieces
Parade (1916-1917), realistic Ballet
o Written by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Leonide
Massine, Scenery and costumes by Picasso
Massine and Picasso collaborated with
Diagaliv and Ballet Russes
o Term Surrealism was used to describe ballet
o Incorporated jazz elements, a whistle, siren,
typewriter
o Caused a scandal
Satie mix of unusual sounds was necessary
Diagaliv too much unusual sounds
Musique dameublement (Furniture Music, 1920), music
that should not be listened to
Influenced younger French composers and American
avant-guarde
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
o One of the most influential composers of 20th century
A tonal
12 tone scale
Dodecaphonic serialism
Debussy, Ives, Mahler
Started as atonal composer, but also wrote Tonal music
o Born in Vienna, son of Jewish shopkeeper
Began violin lessons, age 8

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Tonal
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Self-taught composer, minimal instruction

Worked as bank clerk
1901 moved to Berlin
Taught composition at Stern Conservatory
1903, returned to Vienna
Taught privately, Alban Berg and Anton Werbern
Works met stormy reception
Left Germany for France, then US in 1933
LA in 1934
Converted back to Judaism to protest Nazism
Only 50 Opuses
Perfectionist
Began composing in Wagnerian style
Super chromactisism, still tonal
Works
Transfigured Night (1899)
Wagners chromatic idiom
String sextet
One movement
Could be divided into a few movments
25 y/0 when composed
Used dissonance
The piece was rejected by Viennan musical society
Group of composers
non existent chord he used was inverted 9 th chord, so it
was rejected
Uses developing variations of Brahms structure
Single motif can be developed rhythmically different (or
key, or text)
Pelleas und Melisande, draws on Mahler and Strauss
Debussy Opera, should be different that Wagner Opera
Debussy (Lighter and shorter operas)
Schoenberg focused more on the dark parts of the story
(jealousy, hate)
Schoenberg didnt know Debussy was writing this opera as well
Symphonic poem (Op. 5) last breath of romanticism in 20 th
century
Same was said about Rochmaninoff
Traditional romanticism and Wagnerian influence, Maher
and Strauss
Scored for a huge orchestra
Motifs that represent each person in the story
o Can hear up to 5 leitmotifs at one time
Golland Theme: 3 Horns
Melisande: descending figure starting in
Oboe and ending in English Horn

Fate: tremelo in low instruments

4 movements that correspond with a normal symphony
Reviews were negative, within 5 years audiences were
ready to hear this, and was then successful
Eventually staged as a ballet, which was not his original
intent but gave permission
o Choreographed by Anthony Tudor

October 26th, 2016

Alan Schoenberg (continued)

o Turn to chamber music
Applied developing variation of Brahms
String Quartet No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 7
One-movement work, enlarged sonata form
Influence of Liszt
o Non-repetition
Each work not repeat but build on the past
o Atonal Music
1908, pieces avoided tonal center
Schoenberg preferred to used Pantonal, did not like atonal
Late 19th century music weakened pull to tonic
Difficult to arrive at tonic convincingly
emancipation of dissonance atonality inevitable
Uses more dissonance than consonance
Tonal music aided:
Characters
Form
Meaning
Development of themes
Coherence in atonal music
Three methods
o Developing variation
o Integration of harmony
Ways to tell characters in atonal
o Texture (heavy or light)
o Tempo
o Registers
o Instruments used
Atonal is NOT 12 tone technique
Atonal Works
The Book of the Hanging Gardens
o 15 vocal song cycle (1908-1909)
o Uses garden as a metaphor for destruction of
traditional form
Lack of tonality was the point
o First time we can attach Expressionism to a piece