Impressionism

Impressionism

It was a movement in art in general which originated in France between the years of 1870-1880. Some of the crucial factors for impressionism to come along was the innovation of camera, and opening up Japan to west and the rest of the world.

Impressionism in Music.

Impressionism in music was a reaction to the Germanic tradition way of writing music and it was also an attempt to avoid the Wagnerian style of writing. The composers of Impressionism completely re-examined the traditional values of writing music and they created their own technique and style of writing.

Pioneers of Impressionism;

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) 

 Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

The music of Debussy in terms of;

1.     Form.

In his earlier works Debussy uses all the standard traditional forms like (Sonata form, Rounded Binary, Baroque dances etc)

 Later on the formal structure of his music gets much more complicated and he start breaking all the old rules down. His composition like the Preludes for piano contains very complicated forms. The works no longer fall into simple tradition forms, but each movement has a lot of different parts and ideas.

2.     Sound/texture/color; Debussy uses different techniques in order to distinguish his sound from all the former composers before him.

_For example in Orchestrating he uses these techniques. 

·       Impressionistic use of tone color

·       new orchestral combinations

·       lyrical wind writing

·       preference for muted string sounds and "non heroic" brass

·       delicate percussive sounds

·       extensive use of harp

·       soloistic writing 

Works like”La Mer” for orchestra is best suited example. 

3.     The Overall language of Melody and Harmony

• importance of melody over harmonic progression and rhythm
• harmony as a dimension of melody instead of as accompaniment
• use of modes and scales such as the whole-tone and pentatonic
• free chromaticism
• ambiguous harmonies and tonal centers
• mixture of functional and non-functional progressions
• rich chords
• nonfunctional use of 7th and 9th chords
• chord planning
• fragmentary melodies

All these techniques can be found in the  2 books of “Images” for solo piano

4.     Forms of analysis; The earlier works of Debussy can be analyzed with the traditional ways of analysis (Harmonic progression, intervallic relationships, rhythmic structure) which is used in Romantic and Classical era, this fact can be seen in the Piano trio in G major which was written when he was 18 years old.  

Debussy starts to use new techniques in his writing later on in his life and that is what starts to distinguish his work from the older composers of Romantic era. His music could still be analyzed with the traditional way of analysis, but while analyzing we will stumble on new techniques like “Quartal/Quintal” harmonies, “non-functional chords”, use of church modes, use of whole tone scales etc. While analyzing these new techniques needs to be addressed.

5.     Basis for organization;  Debussy’s “ impressionistic” works are mainly organized depending on certain sounds and colors and feelings. Debussy tries to capture certain moments, certain feelings, certain images through his music.

_For instance his composition “Nuages” composed for orchestra is about clouds and when you listen to the piece you can feel the slow simple motions of groups of clouds in the sky.

_ in the 2^nd movement of Iberia titled “Les parfums de la nuit” in English “the Perfume of the night” the work is about the secnt of nights in Paris.

Musical Techniques of impressionism which later was used by almost all the 20^th century composers including Stravinsky;

1.     Quartal/Quintal Harmony;  using intervals of Fourths and Fifth instead of the traditional Third “Triad”                 

2.     Poly chords; having two or more different chords in the same time

 

3.     Planning; Parallel motion of chords

4.     Ostinato; a repeated musical idea or rhythmic idea.

5.     Added tone harmonies; is an added tone to a triad which is not a seventh

6.     Poly rhythm; the simultaneous use of two or more conflicting rhythms.

7.     Rhythmic displacement; moving the motive to different beats in the bar but keeping the rhythm ic structure of the motive.

8.     Modality; using Modes instead of traditional Major/Minor scales

Examples of Modes (Dorian, Phrygian, etc…)

9.     Non-functional harmonies; 7^th chords which doesn’t resolve into tonic.

10.  Pentatonicism; Using pentatonic scales.

11.  Poly tonality; the simultaneous use of more than one key

12.  Non-traditional use of instruments; for instance emphasizing solo woodwinds, muted brass

13.  Additive process; slowly adding a new thing to a melodic idea.

14.  Mixed meter;   having more than one time signature in a piece.

“In this example from Nauages By Debussy we can see that the English horn is in  4/4 time while the rest of the orchestra is in 6/4

15.  Use of color.

Primitivism

Primitivism

It was a reaction of the over refinement of composers like Debussy and Ravel. Composers of this era started using folk tunes from Africa, dances from borderlands Western culture, southeastern Europe, and Asiatic Russia.

Stravinsky; (1882-1971).

 

He is considered one of the most influential music figures in 20^th century. His Ballet “Rite of Spring” change the way composers think about rhythm and Musical structure. 

In this study we will take Stravinskys most famous work “rite of spring” and look into it in terms

_formal structure

_melodic/rhythmic structure

_harmonic/tonal structure

Formal Structure; the work is a ballet its has two large sections;

1. Part I: L'Adoration de la Terre (Adoration of the Earth) Which contains 7 different episodes (Introduction, Augurs of Spring, Ritual of Abduction, Spring Rounds, Ritual of the Rival Tribes, Procession of the Sage: The Sage, Dance of the Earth)

2. Part II: Le Sacrifice (The Sacrifice) which contains 7 episodes.

(Introduction, Mystic Circles of the Young Girls, Glorification of the Chosen One, Evocation of the Ancestors, Ritual Action of the Ancestors, Sacrificial Dance)

 Ballets are most concerned with musical episodes. Some may be held together with bits of thematic material, others not.

This ballet's music is really built up of accumulated bits of repeated motives, Rhythm being the almost first consideration, once a 'bundle' of these has gone on a while, a new idea is presented and something similar is done with that

Melodic/rhythmic structure; Stravinsky uses a lot of short little Russian folk tunes through out the ballet. There also a lot of short motives in the pieces which you hear one time and they don’t get repeated again.

Rhythm is one of the most important weapons of Stravinsky. He himself confesses that his music is nothing more than (rhythm and interval). In the Rite of spring there many compound rhythms and polyrhythm. In a lot of instances in the piece it’s not obvious where the central pulse is. Different rhythm in different section of the score correspond together for example in the “, Spring Rounds” episode the double bass and the bass clarinet has the same rhythm, and the cellos and the violins have another rhythm together, and the different wind section have different rhythmic patterns.

harmonic/tonal structure;

Two distinct categories of harmonic behavior can be discerned in The Rite of Spring. One operates on the principle of pedal point or sustained core harmony combined with ostinato. Virtually all the internal sections—that is, those enclosed by the Introduction of Part I and Danse sacrale of Part II—use this approach of asserting tonality by simply stressing a keynote. The other principle, employed in these two outer sections and ultimately used to determine the global succession of pedal tone centers during the course of the work, involves various and sophisticated manipulations of traditional functional progression grounded in circle-of-fifths and major-minor related key hierarchies.

Stravinsky's tonal practice in the Rite draws upon four techniques easily classifiable: (1) the use of a standard tonic-subdominant-dominant (or "functional") chord progression, which includes also the exploration of chord prolongation and chord substitution, especially at the tritone; (2) bifocal statement of material first in the minor and then in the relative major; (3) the fusion or crushing together of principal harmonic functions within a key; (4) and the application of large-scale tonal progression to the relationship between the first and second parts of the work, and to the succession of static pitch centers from section to section throughout.

Bartók

Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer who lived March 25, 1981-September 26, 1945. His compositions were based on native folk music. He used harmonies of polytonality, polymodality, chromaticism, clusters, planing and intervallic parallelism.

In this example of the “Song of the Harvest” which is violin duet number 33 of 44, he uses polymodal chromaticism, with the 1^st violin starting in A Aeolian and the 2^nd violin starting in D# minor. Then the next section starts in D Dorian, and then G# Dorian. 

Avant-Garde/ Crumb/Cage

Avant–garde: new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or in the presenters of the ideas themselves.

Avant-garde in music: those artists, writers, musicians whose techniques and ideas are experimental or in advance of those generally accepted  of the time period. 

George Crumb: (b. 1929) is one of the most frequently performed composers in today's musical world. Crumb is the winner of Grammy and Pulitzer Prizes, and continues to compose new scores that enrich the lives of all who come in contact with his profoundly humanistic art.

George Crumb Madrigals, book 1 “Los muertos llevan alas de musgo” (pages 530-532)

Terms you will see in the score:

-Glissando: performed with a gliding effect by sliding one or more fingers rapidly over the keys of a piano or strings of a harp.

Vibrato: a pulsating effect, produced in singing by the rapid reiteration of emphasis on a tone, and on bowed instruments by a rapid change of pitch corresponding to the vocal tremolo.

-Pizzicato tremolo: Tremolo notation along with the term pizzicato, indicates the player should use pizzicato tremolo. To do this, the finger moves up and down, rapidly plucking the notes for a tremolo effect.

-Wafting: gentle movement of sound

-Modo ordinario: Modo means "manner" or "style" and ordinario means ordinary. Modo ordinario means play in the ordinary way (often used after an unusual way of playing).  

Style of George Crumb’s compositions:

-Crumb uses a synthesis of 20^th century techniques, for example:

-Use of non western insturments and unorthodox performance methods on conventional insturments

-Ostinato: repeated melodic or rhythmic figure throughout the piece

-Indeterminate music: leaving some things up to the performer

-A-tonalily: the absence of functional harmony as a primary structural element. 

-Organized sounds

-Electronic music: music performed using synthesizers and other electronic instruments.

-Irregular meter: asymmetrical meters

-Silences that may or may not be decided by composer

Sounds and textures:

Go to: http://www.lunanova.org/WhaleFlash/whaleflash.html

Look at Vox Balaene for three masked players, take a look at the performance notes tab before moving on to the score and recording tab.

-Amplification and reverb used to create a surrealistic effect.

-George Crumb’s composition Vox Balaenae for three masked players is written for an electric flute, electric cello and electric piano. In Variation IV when the flute and cello enter the words “broad with passion” are written underneath their melodic lines; instructing the performer to play broader is a way to amplify their sound.  In Variation 1, measure 1 we see in quotes “seagull effect” underneath a gliss written in the electric cello part. 

-Extended instrumental techniques:

knocking on instruments, glass rods, bowing over

fingerboard, scratch tone, “pedal tones.”

-Crumb wrote in the “performance notes” for the piano player using a glass rod on the piano strings in Mesozoic Variation IV of the Sea-Theme. He writes, the glass rod needs to produce an ultimately jangling and distorted sound, and more than one may be needed to employ the greatest effect. He also notes the steel frame construction and how that will affect how the strings will sound.

-In Crumb’s Sea Theme we see examples of pedal tones in the electric piano in measure 1-4.  In measure 3 we see an example of a rapid gliss over the paino strings with the performer’s fingertips. 

George Crumb Madrigals, book 1 “Los muertos llevan alas de musgo” (pages 530-532)

-Use of voice: speaking, shouting, whispering,

chanting, tongue clicks.

We see examples of intense whispers, use of voice in unorthodox ways in measures 6 and 9. In measure 11 we see examples of large pitch bending in the vocal part while the vocalist is chanting words. 

Forms used to analyze Vox Balaenae:

To see the score: http://www.lunanova.org/WhaleFlash/whaleflash.html

George Crumb’s composition Vox Balaenae for three masked players can be organized by movement, using of small pitch class sets.

(Pitch class set: a list of pitches independent of octave displacement and enharmonic spelling)

(Octave displacement: the displacement of tones into octave registers that are not their referent position.)

(Enharmonic spelling: Some key signatures have an enharmonic equivalent that represents a scale identical in sound but spelled differently. The number of sharps and flats of two enharmonically equivalent keys sum to twelve.)

John Cage: (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) Cage created sound for performances and to investigate the ways music composed through chance procedures could become something beautiful. Many of Cage’s ideas about what music could be were inspired by Marcel Duchamp, who revolutionized twentieth-century art by presenting everyday, unadulterated objects in museum settings as finished works of art, which were called “found art,” or ready-mades by later scholars. Like Duchamp, Cage found music around him and did not necessarily rely on expressing something from within.

Sonatas and Interludes Nos. 1 and 5  (Pages 517-520)

                                                                          Sonata 1

                                                                     Sonata 5

Terms you will see in the score:

-Loco: The Italian musical term loco, or “at place,” is used to cancel a previous octave command such as 8va.

-Pedal

-Una corda: the soften pedal of the piano

-Ritardo: to gradually slow down

Styles of John Cage's compositions:

-Indeterminate music: leaving some things up to the performer

-A-tonalily: the absence of functional harmony as a primary structural element. 

-Organized sounds

Sounds and textures:

This example shows the chart of objects placed on the strings of the piano in order to produce certain percussive sounds. (pages 517-518)

-Sounds chanced upon via the radio waves      

John Cage attempted to show this in this video performance of his composition Water Walk:

-Sounds from everyday life and the intended sounds of music.

John Cage composed a part in his piece Water Walk for a duck whistle in a bowl of water

Forms used:

Music for Marcel Duchamp by John Cage

Cage drew out the notes in “sets” (similar to a pitch class set) that would be used in his composition Music For Marcel Duchamp. (see below)

Atonal/Modernism

• Atonal: Music without a tonal center or key.
• Modernism: scale down pattern
• Consists of 12 Tone Row and/or Pitch Class Set
• Schoenberg was to first to compose this type of music with Webern and Berg following his footsteps.
• Began around 1908

Example of Pitch Class Set on p. 492 m. 11 violin I

Step 1:  F(0)    Ab(3)  G(2) →Unordered pitches

Step 2:  F(0)    G(2)    Ab(3)→Best Normal Order(BNO)

                         G(0)   Ab(1)   F(10)

                         Ab(0)  F(9)    G(11)

Step 3: BNO (0 2 3)

Step 4:  3 F(0)   G(2)   Ab(3)

                         1 Eb

                         0 D

                         Reterograde Inversion (RI)

Step 5: Prime Form(PF)  [0 1 3]

Example of 12 Tone Row p. 493 m. 17 violin I
 
Step 1: P(0)   Ab    G      F     F#    E     C    D     Bb    A     B     Eb   C#  →Original Tone Row

Step 2: P(1)    A      Ab   F#   G      F    C#   Eb   B      Bb   C     E     D   →Find the Matrix

            P(3)     B      Bb   Ab   A     G    Eb   F     C#    C     D     F#   E

            P(2)     Bb    A     G    Ab    F#   D    E     C      B     C#   F     Eb

            P(4)     C       B     A    Bb    Ab   E    F#   D     C#    Eb  G     F

            P(8)     E       Eb   C#   D     C     Ab  Bb   F#   F       G    B    A

            P(6)    D       C#    B     C     Bb   F#  Ab   E     Eb     F    A    G

            P(10)  F#      F      Eb   E     D     Bb  C     Ab  G       A   C#   B

            P(11)  G       F#    E      F     Eb   B    C#   A     Ab    Bb  D    C

            P(9)     F       E      D     Eb   C#   A    B     G     F#    Ab  C     Bb

            P(5)     C#    C       Bb   B     A     F    G     Eb   D      E   Ab    F#

            P(7)     Eb     D      C     C#   B     G    A     F     E      F#  Bb    Ab →Ab diagonally top left

                       RI0   RI11 RI9 RI10 RI8 RI4 RI6  RI2 RI1  RI3 RI7   RI5 → Retrograde Interversion