20th Century compositional practices
BestStudentViolins.com
20th century works; he was trying to use major/minor tonality with
composers who used avant guard techniques. He has not studied 20th
century techniques yet, though his questions are good ones, if
premature.
I tried to respond, and have put this response in a Q & A section on
the Theory page at:
http://beststudentviolins.com/TheoryNotes.html#QA
Problem is, I can't recall what the seven categories are which Virgil
Thomson used to categorize 20th century music. I keep losing this
information and now I can't find it. Does anybody know what Thomson's
seven categories were?
Please comment on the other notes, as well, if you would.
Thanks in advance,
Connie
LJS
Hi Connie.
I don't know the Virgil Thompson seven categories but I have something
else that may help in your students' quest. One of my favorite books
to review 20th C. Music is an old spiral bound paper back book (might
have other editions now) that I ran across in our library at school so
many years ago.
Techniques Of Twentieth-Century Composition.
Dallin, Leon.
Dubuque: William C. Brown ©1957,1974
23 cm.; xv, 288 p.
Edition #/ISBN: 0697036146
Paper
It is more of an explanation of Techniques that are used, but this
alone should give some insight as to how to approach it. It should be
available in most major libraries and I would hope in all the Music
School libraries. This book is very well organized to show specific
techniques that were expanded and/or added with the start of the 20th
C. It goes into enough detail that you can understand the concepts but
not to the point of loading you down with useless information. There
are good examples and he covers a large variety of techniques. I like
to look at it every few years just to refresh my memory of these
concepts.
Try to find it in a library before buying as the new editions are
around $65. If it helps, it is of course worth it, but its still a lot
to pay for a paperback edition of anything! ;-)
LJS
Jerry Kohl
I don't remember Thomson's categories, either, but I do have a few
observations about your other points:
: Major/minor tonality began to break down with the invention of
: chromaticism, started by Richard Wagner in the late Romantic
: era
I suppose that, when simplifying things for a beginner, you can
attribute the breakdown of tonality to the *increase* in chromaticism
in the middle of the 19th century, but it was not "invented" at that
time (Your student's next question is liable to be "What about Bach's
Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, then?"), and Wagner didn't start the
trend, either. To be more accurate, the use of chromaticism didn't
just "happen" and thereby cause the dissolution of the functional
harmonic system. Rather, the increase in chromaticism was itself a
product of composers' increasing exploitation of linear harmonies, a
process which can be seen prominently already in the music of J. S.
Bach.
I would be very surprised if Thomson pointed to Aaron Copland as an
exemplar of major/minor tonality without making a caveat. Your student
will have nearly as much difficulty trying to use this framework to
analyze Vitebsk, the Piano Variations, the Piano Quartet, or Inscape
as he would in attempting to apply it to Cage's 4'33". You had better
qualify this statement by specifying pieces like the Danzón Cubano, El
Salón México, or Billy the Kid.
Similarly with category no. 3. The Rite of Spring is scarcely a
neoclassical work, nor is Petrushka, Les Noces, the Movements for
Piano and Orchestra, or Threni.
The description of category 4, "electronic music", is confused.
"Musique concrète" is a particular technique, and is sometimes found
in in pop music as well (e.g., Beatles' songs like "A Day in the
Life"). You should also be aware that the Wikipedia articles around
this subject are particularly contentious at the moment, and you are
linking only to the "Musique concrète" article, where even the "see
also" links do not include "Electronic art music" or "Electronic
music", which are probably where your student should start (though
these two articles are particularly subject to editorial debate at the
present time).
Your student will get a much better idea of category 5, "serialism",
from the Wikipedia, but he is bound to come back with questions about
this "based on the 12 1/2 steps of the octave (versus the eight tones
in a major or minor scale)" business (and I'll bet he's already
questioned the number of notes in a major or minor scale being set at
eight instead of seven). Stockhausen's Stimmung, for example, is a
serial composition, but its pitches do not comprise the chromatic
scale--in fact, there are only six, and they are from the overtone
series. Henri Pousseur's electronic composition Scambi is also a
serial composition, but has no pitches at all, being composed from
filtered white noise. Your definition better fits twelve-tone
technique:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique>
than the broader category of serialism and, though the serialism
article has a link to it, I think it would be better for your student
to begin there. Also, as with the other categories, when naming
Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, it is necessary to stipulate that even
twelve-tone serialism will not be found in any of their works from
before 1920 (e.g., Verklärte Nacht, Wozzeck, the Passacaglia for
orchestr op. 1, respectively), and there are later exceptions in
Schoenberg's output, as well.
As for Penderecki, much of his music from after about 1975 (e.g., the
Polish Requiem, Cello Concerto No. 2) can in fact be "evaluated and
analyzed in terms of major/minor tonality", though naturally of the
extended sort found in late-nineteenth-century composers. Once again,
it is necessary to specify which pieces you are speaking of.
I hope you find these comments helpful.
--
Jerry Kohl
"Légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal."
BestStudentViolins.com
> I hope you find these comments helpful.
Great response; thank you. This student is a unversity student
alright, but in a different field. He is my beginning piano student,
so he's not going to ask the questions you suggested, though he does
have other questions.
I have archived the response(s) here:
http://beststudentviolins.com/TheoryNotes.html#responses
These are only brief notes for beginning piano students (and violin
students taking placement exams), but it's very nice to get the
intense responses from professional musicologists, which is what I
expected. Thank you.
BestStudentViolins.com
> I don't know the Virgil Thompson seven categories but I have something
> else that may help in your students' quest. One of my favorite books
> to review 20th C. Music is an old spiral bound paper back book (might
> have other editions now) that I ran across in our library at school so
> many years ago.
>
> Techniques Of Twentieth-Century Composition.
> Dallin, Leon.
>
> Dubuque: William C. Brown ©1957,1974
> 23 cm.; xv, 288 p.
> Edition #/ISBN: 0697036146
> Paper
Thank you, Liz. The 1974 ed. appears to be available on Amazon, used,
for $15.95:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0697036146/conniesviolin-20
The cover looks awfully familiar; I suspect I have it somewhere.
LJS
<SunMusicStri...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mar 14, 10:12 am, LJS <ljsche...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I don't know the Virgil Thompson seven categories but I have something
> > else that may help in your students' quest. One of my favorite books
> > to review 20th C. Music is an old spiral bound paper back book (might
> > have other editions now) that I ran across in our library at school so
> > many years ago.
>
> > Techniques Of Twentieth-Century Composition.
> > Dallin, Leon.
>
> > Dubuque: William C. Brown ©1957,1974
> > 23 cm.; xv, 288 p.
> > Edition #/ISBN: 0697036146
> > Paper
>
> Thank you, Liz. The 1974 ed. appears to be available on Amazon, used,
> for $15.95:
Yes I know. There was some edition for $6.98 before I scooped it up!
I just hope that my seller is for real!
>
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0697036146/conniesviolin-20
>
> The cover looks awfully familiar; I suspect I have it somewhere.
The one I had was yellow with brown print on the cover with brown
spiral binding.
You are welcome. But who is Liz?
LJS
I would hope that it is familiar although I am constantly surprised by
the number of people that are not familiar with this book. There may
be more complete analyses of 20th C music, but this one has so much
packed into such a small space. I learn something new or see something
in a new light every time that I re read it!
BestStudentViolins.com
> You are welcome. But who is Liz?
Sorry about getting your name wrong; my eyesight is very poor.
LJS from now on, sorry.
Neil
That's pretty good, Connie -- "the other notes." Their existence is
what we're trying to explain and understand, eh? I'm commenting on the
other notes. There is order and structure to every work of art.
Opinions vary on what qualifies. If a newer piece of music is one I
want to play or a student has chosen one, the analysis will still
endeavor to outline the movement of the music to the places where the
composer has chosen it to end -- temporarily and finally. The analysis
will probably uncover some embedded traditional harmony and we'll deal
as best we can with the sounds that depart from that. If Glenn Gould
and Andre Previn can memorize Hindemith Piano Sonatas there must be a
logical order to his music.
Neil Miller, author of THE PIANO LESSONS BOOK
Enter in Amazon.com search: Neil Miller Piano Lessons Book
OR http://www.createspace.com/3332371