Notes from Monday, April 7 class session:

Preparation For Mon. April 7:
1. Complete the online eWorkbook assessment Quiz #11 (Reading Orchestral Scores) in WebCT/Vista/Blackboard by 3PM Monday, April 14 (click here for instructions on how to log onto WebCT). To do this assignment, you must study the information and scores provided at the following link: http://www.wmich.edu/mus-gened/mus170/OrchestraCompare.html

2. Read textbook Chapter 8 (20th-century)--pages 93-104 (Music Guides 56, 57, 58, 59, 63, 65)

3. Listen to "Classical Music Online" examples for 20th-century Art Music.

4. Read Lecture Notes from April 2.

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LECTURE TOPIC: THE EARLY MODERN ART MUSIC ERA

(See Chapter 8 for details)

The following bold or bold/italic terms/works/composers were studied:

OPPOSITE RESPONSES TO WAGNERIAN ROMANTICISM
- Around the turn of the twentieth century, the post-Wagnerian generation of German/Austrian and the French composers had opposite responses to Wagner's intense psycho-political ultra-Romanticism.

1. FRENCH IMPRESSIONISM
- The French modern style of IMPRESSIONISM--represented by some of Debussy's music--was an intentional rejection of Wagner's approach to the musical elements (See Music Guide 56/Chapter 8)--Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

2. GERMAN/AUSTRIAN "ULTRA-ROMANTICISM"
- The German "ultra-Romantics," such as Mahler and Richard Strauss, did the opposite, by taking Wagnerian power and emotional expression to even greater extremes (See Music Guide 55/Chapter 7)--R. Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

3. GERMAN/AUSTRIAN EXPRESSIONISM
- In the early decades of the 20th century, German/Austrian EXPRESSIONISM took Wagnerian psycho-dramatic power and experimentation to shocking new levels, and in the process made the chromatically-logical break with tonality through ATONAL works such as Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire (See Music Guide 58/Chapter 8) and his ATONAL/SERIAL (controlled by a numerical "tone row") works such as A Survivor From Warsaw (See Music Guide 59/Chapter 8). In both of these examples, the singer uses a new half-sung/half-spoken technique called SPRECHSTIMME (strict rhythm with a somewhat free vocal contour indicated in the musical score by "x"-headed notes.

4. STRAVINSKY
- This 20th-century Russian composer created a unique blending of the spectacular color effects of French Impressionism, and the intense rhythm and power of German-Austrian Expressionism, as reflected in works such as his famous ballet The Rite of Spring (See Music Guide 57/Chapter 7), which was so revolutionary that it caused a riot in the audience on the night of its premiere in Paris in 1913.
- Stravinsky uses OSTINATO-like repetitive figures presented by a collage of multi-colored instruments, gradually building to intense climaxes with pulsating/pounding cross-accents that use the orchestra as a massive drum.