Welcome again to our collection, Classical Music 101! Our objective with this collection is to supply an approachable, non-intimidating introduction to classical music so you can begin appreciating this timeless musical style.
In our final article, we explored the passionate and expressive music of the Romantic period, during which composers like Tchaikovsky and Wagner infused their music with persona and emotional depth. As we speak, within the closing installment of our collection, we’ll enterprise into the Fashionable period — a interval of radical reinvention of Western orchestral music.
The Fashionable Period (1900-As we speak)
The Fashionable period started round 1900 and continues at this time. It’s marked by composers’ rising need to interrupt free from conventional and formal musical guidelines and requirements. The driving force? A world altering at breakneck pace.
The flip of the twentieth century noticed unprecedented technological and scientific breakthroughs, together with the primary computerized phone switchboards, magnetic recordings of sound, heavier-than-air flights, vehicles, and X-rays. Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and Max Planck had been revolutionizing how we understood the universe and human consciousness itself.
On the similar time, Western societies, which had been turning into increasingly pluralistic, more and more questioned the thought of absolute reality and the legitimacy of dominant norms.
Fashionable-era musicians paralleled the frenzied tempo of this technological and social change by creating new and various kinds of music. In earlier musical eras, adjustments in composition and elegance would take a century to develop; within the twentieth century, new music genres had been birthed in solely a decade’s time. The record of musical genres that arose within the Fashionable period consists of expressionism, serialism, neoclassicism, experimentalism, minimalism, and post-Modernism. There’s even a style known as post-post-Modernism. Which could be very post-modern.
The rise of individualism that occurred within the Romantic period marched on unabated in the course of the Fashionable. Artists sought to differentiate themselves from the pack by creating music infused with originality. However in contrast to the Romantic period musicians who channeled their individuality by the buildings of musical custom, Fashionable period composers rejected such constraints. For that cause, music scholar Jan Swafford describes the Fashionable interval as “the Romantic period with out brakes.”
Traits of Modernist Music
As a result of the Fashionable period is made up of various sub-eras, it’s in all probability extra useful to debate the traits of every of those sub-eras as a substitute of making an attempt to explain the traits of the Fashionable period as a complete.
Submit-Romanticism and Impressionism (1900-1920)
Within the closing echoes of Romanticism, composers stretched conventional tonality — the group of music round a central pitch or key — to its limits and sometimes infused their music with intense emotional themes. Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, which grapples with mortality and existential reflection, is emblematic of this period. Gustav makes use of a variety of chromaticism within the piece, which simply means he provides extra notes to a standard scale. It offers the music a bit extra texture. You’ll additionally see him begin stretching the boundaries of Romantic tonality, whereas not going into full-on atonality (music that isn’t organized round a central pitch).
Take a hear:
Working parallel to Submit-Romanticism was the Impressionist motion, which emerged within the late nineteenth century and targeted on evoking ambiance and temper. Impressed by the visible arts, composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel used nontraditional harmonies, modal scales, and unique influences to create music that painted vivid sonic landscapes. Works reminiscent of Debussy’s Clair de Lune and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune exemplify this model, with their dreamlike textures and delicate dynamics.
Take a take heed to Clair de Lune. For those who’ve seen Oceans 11, you’ll acknowledge it:
Expressionism and Serialism (1910s-Nineteen Forties)
Throughout this era, led by Arnold Schoenberg and his college students Alban Berg and Anton Webern, music underwent a revolutionary departure from conventional tonality. Expressionist works, reminiscent of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire used atonality to convey intense psychological states. Later, Schoenberg pioneered the twelve-tone method, an method to composition that turned a cornerstone of serialism. Serialism is a approach of composing music the place the composer follows a strict system to determine what notes, rhythms, or dynamics to make use of as a substitute of simply going with what sounds good or conventional. Consider it like making a playlist, however you’re not allowed to repeat a track till each monitor has been performed as soon as — and you must play them in a particular order.
Serial music usually sounds very organized however also can really feel unpredictable or unusual as a result of it doesn’t comply with the same old patterns of “joyful” main keys or “unhappy” minor keys.
Whereas serialism marked a radical formal innovation, expressionism was primarily an aesthetic motion emphasizing emotional and psychological depth.
Right here’s Schoenberg’s Suite for Piano, Op. 2, a serialist piece:
And right here’s his Pierrot Lunaire, an instance of expressionism:
Neoclassicism and Experimentalism (Nineteen Forties-Nineteen Sixties)
Neoclassicism emerged as a response to the perceived excesses of Romanticism and modernism, with composers like Igor Stravinsky revisiting older kinds and types whereas infusing them with fashionable harmonic and rhythmic improvements. Works reminiscent of Pulcinella and Symphony of Psalms replicate this synthesis of custom and modernity.
Right here’s Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky:
On the similar time, experimental composers reminiscent of John Cage launched likelihood (aleatoric) strategies like flipping cash and rolling cube to make musical choices, difficult conventional notions of authorship. Cage’s most well-known and controversial work is 4’33” during which performers don’t play any music and simply sit in silence for 4 minutes and thirty-three seconds. He additionally used a method known as “ready piano,” the place objects like screws, bolts, and rubber balls are positioned between the piano strings, altering the instrument’s sound to provide percussive and otherworldly timbres.
Right here’s John Cage’s Sonata V with a ready piano. Sounds bizarre:
Minimalism and Submit-Modernism (Nineteen Sixties-Current)
Minimalism emerged as a response towards the complexity of serialism and avant-garde music and emphasised simplicity, repetition, and gradual transformation. Composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley used repetitive buildings and patterns to create meditative and hypnotic results.
Right here’s Glass’ “Echorus,” a nice instance of meditative minimalism:
Submit-modernism, in contrast, is broader and extra eclectic, rejecting inflexible stylistic boundaries in favor of pluralism. It usually incorporates parts of in style music, historic pastiche, and cross-cultural influences, making a tapestry of numerous musical expressions.
For an instance of post-modernist music, take a take heed to John Adams’ Brief Journey in a Quick Machine:
George Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 3 is an instance of post-modern music that makes use of a pastiche-approach to borrowing historic types and remixing them into one thing new:
Conclusion
Effectively, there you go. A journey by practically 2,000 years of Western music, from historic Greek chants to fashionable experimental compositions, in fewer than 10,000 phrases.
After I began this collection, I discussed that I used to take heed to classical music whereas doing homework as a result of it made me really feel “studious.” Now, after diving deep into the historical past and evolution of classical music, I’ve developed a deeper appreciation for it. It’s made listening to classical music way more pleasurable. My hope is that this collection has executed the identical for you.
Classical Music 101 is now dismissed. Pleased listening!
Learn the remainder of the collection:
