MUSIC 10

UNIT 1: MUSIC OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

OVERVIEW:

This unit module will showcase the stylistic period in music known as the 20th century
music. It includes the musical genres, the great twentieth century composers, and acclaimed
musical works of the period. It will also manifest how music and society had impact on each
other during the period. This unit module will also strengthen your interest in the study of the
history of Western music.

SUMMARY OF LESSON NUMBER, TITLES AND COMPETENCIES/ OBJECTIVES

Lesson Title Most Essential Learning Competencies

Number
1 Impressionism 1. describes distinctive musical elements of given pieces
in 20th century
2 Expressionism 2. explains the performance practice (setting, composition,
role of composers/performers, and audience) of 20th
3 Electronic and Chance century music;
Music 3. relates 20th Century music to other art forms and media
during the same time period;
4. performs music sample from the 20th century
5. evaluates music and music performances using guided
rubrics

PRE-ASSESSMENT
1. 20th century classical music was a lot about "breaking up"
A. True B. False
2. Concepts such as polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters and quarter tones were much
used and experimented with by 20th century composers such as Charles Ives.
A. True B. False
3. Another type of music, associated with the breaking of traditions, lack of sequence, lack
of tonality, lack of balance and lack of cadence, is identified with Arnold Schoenberg and his
atonal music. This type of music is known as ...
A. Impressionism B. Minimalism
C. Futurism D. Expressionism
4. Expressionist music is often based on the psychology of the unconscious
A. True B. False
5. The twelve-tone technique (also known as 12-tone serialism) was devised by [...] and
used by many composers during the 20th century, including the inventor's own students
Webern and Berg.
A. Igor Stravinsky B. Edward Elgar
C. Arnold Schoenberg D. Gustav Mahler
6. Which of these musical styles is generally associated with John Cage?
A. Serialism B. Chance music
C. Spectralism D. Jazz fusion
7. Which of the following is not an example of sound capture before recording technology
existed
A. Mechanical instruments / automata B. Training songbirds
C. Simple condenser microphones D. Vibrations captured in
manufacturing processes

Key Answer:
1.a 5. c
2.a 6. b
3.d 7. b
4.b

FIRST QUARTER – MUSIC 10

LESSON 1: IMPRESSIONISM
OBJECTIVES:
1. Recognize the following 20th century musical forms
2. Identify what Impressionism is
3. Differentiate the different characteristics of Impressionism music
4. Recognize the two prominent composers of Impressionism.
5. Listen perceptively to selected compositions of the composers.
6. Sing same genre of Impressionist music or musical fragments of given impressionism
period pieces.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS: Printed Module, Headphones, Smartphone, Mobile Data

and WIFI (for Internet Connection)

INTRODUCTION:
The 20th century music spanned through the end of the 19th century to the earliest
part of the 20th century. It was a time of great expansion and development of and dramatic
reaction to the prevailing late Romanticism of previous years. Expression became overt,
huge and merely suggestive. Nationalism found its way through various composers of the
period.
Twentieth century music has seen a great coming and going of various movements,
among them were post-romanticism, serialism, neoclassicism, “aleatory” or chance music,
neoromanticism, and minimalism.

DISCUSSION/LEARNING ACTIVITY:

20TH CENTURY MUSICAL STYLE

The 20th century composers developed new compositional techniques. They explore
every kind of sound they desire to hear and adapted it in their music. Even noise-like sounds
and sounds brought by technology were incorporated in some musical works. The
composers often used diverse materials from different parts of the world. They incorporate
folk, ethnic and popular culture materials in their music.

Composers began to write music with frequent key changes. This weakened
traditional major and minor tonalities in music which led to Atonality, the absence of tonality
in a piece. Bitonality, the simultaneous presence of two different keys or tonalities in a piece
and polytonality, the simultaneous use of two or more different tonalities were introduced by
composers of the period. In search of new harmonies composers combined two chords
simultaneously played also known as polychord.
Melodic and rhythmic elements of twentieth century music were often unpredictable
because of the rapid change in key and meter. Rhythms were grouped irregularly and
pitches were organized to intentionally make unusual and unforeseeable melodies. Different
meters and rhythms are stack-up together, creating what is called polymeter and
polyrhythm.

Listen to Bartok’s Sixth Dance in Bulgarian Rhythm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RMv9I9C5H4&feature=share

1. What musical style does the music you have heard employs? Why?
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2. Describe the tonality and rhythmic characteristics of piece.
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Scoring Rubric: Ideas and Concept – 5 points
Use of Terms - 2 points
Sentence Fluency - 3 points

IMPRESSIONISM

One of the earlier but concrete forms declaring the entry of 20th century music was
known as impressionism. It is a French movement in the late 19th and early 20th century.
The sentimental melodies and dramatic emotionalism of the preceding Romantic Period
(their themes and melody are easy to recognize and enjoy) were being replaced in favor of
moods and impressions. There is an extensive use of colors and effects, vague melodies,
and innovative chords and progressions leading to mild dissonances. Sublime moods and
melodic suggestions replaced highly expressive and program music, or music that contained
visual imagery. With this trend came new combinations of extended chords, harmonies,
whole tone, chromatic scales, and pentatonic scales. Impressionism was an attempt not to
depict reality, but merely to suggest it. It was meant to create an emotional mood rather than
a specific picture. In terms of imagery, impressionistic forms were translucent and hazy, as if
trying to see through a rain-drenched window. In impressionism, the sounds of different
chords overlapped lightly with each other to produce new subtle musical colors. Chords did
not have a definite order and a sense of clear resolution. Other features include the lack of a
tonic-dominant relationship which normally gives the feeling of finality to a piece, moods and
textures, harmonic vagueness about the structure of certain chords, and use of the whole-
tone scale. Most of the impressionist works centered on nature and its beauty, lightness, and
brilliance. A number of outstanding impressionists created works on this subject.

CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPRESSIONIST MUSIC

Musical Elements Characteristics
Rhythm Vague and Free, irregular phrases, unclearly defined cadence (progression
The element of of at least two chords that ends a phrase or section of musical piece.
TIME in music.
When you tap your
foot to the music,
you are "keeping
the beat" or
following the
structural rhythmic
pulse of the music.
Melody Use of whole-tone scales, 9th chords, frequent use of modality (concept
the element that involving musical scale and melody) exotic and pentatonic scale.
focuses on the Veiled orchestral colors
HORIZONTAL
presentation of
Pitch.
• PITCH: the
highness or
lowness of a
musical sound
Harmony Avoidance of Traditional Harmonic Progressions
The art of Use of primary intervals – octaves, fourths, and fifths – in parallel motion
combining pitches Unresolved dissonances
into chords
(several notes
played
simultaneously.
Form Ambiguity of form and preferred use of short forms such as nocturne,
The musical arabesque and prelude.
composition can
be built from any
combination of
musical elements
Texture Sonority (group of notes sounded simultaneously) and delicate texture
The number of
individual musical
lines (melodies)
and the
relationship
these lines have to
one another.
Dynamics Musical instructions written in French rather than Italian
The relative
loudness or
quietness of music

PROMINENT COMPOSERS OF IMPRESSIONIST MUSIC

CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862–1918) One of the most important and influential of the 20th
century composers was Claude Debussy. He was the primary exponent of the impressionist
movement and the focal point for other impressionist composers. He changed the course of
musical development by dissolving traditional rules and conventions into a new language of
possibilities in harmony, rhythm, form, texture, and color. Debussy was born in St. Germain-
en-Laye in France on August 22, 1862. His early musical talents were channeled into piano
lessons. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1873. He gained a reputation as an erratic
pianist and a rebel in theory and harmony. He added other systems of musical composition
because of his musical training. In 1884, he won the top prize at the Prix de Rome
competition with his composition L’ Enfant Prodigue (The Prodigal Son). This enabled him to
study for two years in Rome, where he got exposed to the music of Richard Wagner,
specifically his opera Tristan und Isolde, although he did not share the latter’s grandiose
style.

Debussy’s mature creative period was represented by the following works:

 Ariettes Oubliees
 Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
 String Quartet  Pelleas et Melisande (1895)—his famous operatic work that drew mixed
extreme reactions for its innovative harmonies and textural treatments.
 La Mer (1905)—a highly imaginative and atmospheric symphonic work for orchestra about
the sea
 Images, Suite Bergamasque, and Estampes—his most popular piano compositions; a set
of lightly textured pieces containing his signature work Claire de Lune (Moonlight)

His musical compositions total more or less 227 which include orchestral music, chamber
music, piano music, operas, ballets, songs, and other vocal music.

The creative style of Debussy was characterized by his unique approach to the
various musical elements. Debussy’s compositions deviated from the Romantic Period and is
clearly seen by the way he avoided metric pulses and preferred free form and developed his
themes. Debussy’s western influences came from composers Franz Liszt and Giuseppe
Verdi. From the East, he was fascinated by the Javanese gamelan that he had heard at the
1889 Paris Exposition. The gamelan is an ensemble with bells, gongs, xylophone, and
occasional vocal parts which he later used in his works to achieve a new sound.
From the visual arts, Debussy was influenced by Monet, Pissarro, Manet, Degas,
and Renoir; and from the literary arts, by Mallarme, Verlaine, and Rimbaud. Most of his close
friends were painters and poets who significantly influenced his compositions. His role as the
“Father of the Modern School of Composition” made its mark in the styles of the later 20th
century composers like Igor Stravinsky, Edgar Varese, and Olivier Messiaen. Debussy spent
the remaining years of his life as a critic, composer, and performer. He died in Paris on
March 25, 1918 of cancer at the height of the First World War.

JOSEPH MAURICE RAVEL was born in Ciboure, France to a Basque mother and a Swiss
father. He entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 14 where he studied with the
eminent French composer Gabriel Faure. During his stint with the school where he stayed
until his early 20’s, he had composed a number of masterpieces. The compositional style of
Ravel is mainly characterized by its uniquely innovative but not atonal style of harmonic
treatment. It is defined with intricate and sometimes modal melodies and extended chordal
components. It demands considerable technical virtuosity from the performer which is the
character, ability, or skill of a virtuoso—a person who excels in musical technique or
execution. The harmonic progressions and modulations are not only musically satisfying but
also pleasantly dissonant and elegantly sophisticated. His refined delicacy and color,
contrasts and effects add to the difficulty in the proper execution of the musical passages.
These are extensively used in his works of a programmatic nature, wherein visual imagery is
either suggested or portrayed. Many of his works deal with water in its flowing or stormy
moods as well as with human characterizations.

Ravel’s works include the following:

Pavane for a Dead Princess (1899), a slow but lyrical requiem
Jeux d’Eau or Water Fountains (1901)
String Quartet (1903)
Sonatine for Piano (c.1904)
Miroirs (Mirrors), 1905, a work for piano known for its harmonic evolution
and imagination,
Gaspard de la Nuit (1908), a set of demonic-inspired pieces based on the poems of
Aloysius Bertrand which is arguably the most difficult piece in the piano repertoire.

These were followed by a number of his other significant works, including Valses Nobles et
Sentimentales (1911)
Le Tombeau de Couperin (c.1917), a commemoration of the musical advocacies of the
early 18th century French composer Francois Couperin,
Rhapsodie Espagnole
Bolero
 Daphnis et Chloe (1912), a ballet commissioned by master choreographer
Sergei Diaghilev that contained rhythmic diversity, evocation of nature, and choral ensemble
La Valse (1920), a waltz with a frightening undertone that had been composed for ballet
and arranged as well as for solo and duo piano.
The two piano concerti composed in 1929 as well as the violin virtuosic piece Tzigane
(1922) total the relatively meager compositional output of Ravel, approximating 60 pieces for
piano, chamber music, song cycles, ballet, and opera.

Ravel was a perfectionist and every bit a musical craftsman. He strongly adhered to the
classical form, specifically its ternary structure. A strong advocate of Russian music, he also
admired the music of Chopin, Liszt, Schubert, and Mendelssohn. He died in Paris in 1937.

COMPARISON BETWEEN DEBUSSY AND RAVEL

-Debussy walked to his own tune instead of -Ravel played his music in order to please the
playing to what the people wanted. audience no matter what his personal decision
-Debussy had more of a French influence to his would have been.
music no matter what style was considered in at -Ravel grew with the times and adjusted his
the time. music to fit the changing times.
-Debussy did put his all into his music while also -Ravel perfected his music, but always seemed
expecting perfection. to hold back when we wrote.

Watch and listen to Debussy’s Claire De Lune on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea2WoUtbzuw and answer the following questions.
1. What atmosphere or scenery does the piece suggest?
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2. What are the impressionistic characteristics of the piece?
_________________________________________________________________________
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Scoring Rubric: Ideas and Concept – 5 points

Use of Terms - 2 points
Sentence Fluency - 3 points