What is 20th Century Music?
During the 20th century, music scenes expanded rapidly and experienced numerous significant shifts. The fact that music can now be experienced without performers was probably the most significant change. The twentieth century was the main hundred years of recorded music.
The aim of swing jazz in the 1920s and 1930s was to get people moving. The music was cadenced, monotonous and danceable. Bebop, cool jazz, and free jazz, however, became less danceable over time and became subgenres of jazz. The rhythm turned out to be excessively quick – or excessively sluggish. The design was less straightforward, with many ad libber parts. The respectful jazz audience stopped dancing and instead focused on the musicians. Jazz concert conventions eventually became as established as those for classical concert halls: a seated audience that should modestly nod their heads or tap their feet to the beat and applaud after solos. The only way to show respect for the musicians was to listen intently, as was traditional in classical music.
African American rhythm and blues was the inspiration for the rock’n’roll movement that took off like wildfire in the 1950s. In the church, at concerts, and at social gatherings, the African American music culture has always had a strong connection between music and movement. Additionally, many African American music genres are particularly rhythmic-oriented (funk, hip hop), with an obvious focus on dance. According to Wilson (1983), Olly Wilson cites elements such as repetition, a percussive orientation, and the connection between music, movement, and dance as indicators of African heritage.
During the 1950s, American culture was still exceptionally isolated, and a white craftsman was expected to break this new music sort to a bigger white crowd. Elvis Presley was the ideal man; He had good looks, moved well, and could sing. While his hip movements today do not appear to be particularly provocative, they were immediately linked to sex and a promiscuous lifestyle in the 1950s. However, in an effort to evade parental reactions, TV hosts and concert organizers made every effort to conceal his dance moves. The association of music and movement with wild and uncivilized life was perceived.
20th Century Music Origin
The term twentieth century old style music refers to craftsmanship music composed between 1901 and 2000, which is comprehensive. The 20th century saw musical styles diverge as never before, leaving this century with no dominant style. While Modernism, Impressionism, and Post-Romanticism can be traced back to the years prior to the turn of the century, they are considered old style music because they transcended the musical limits of the 19th century styles that were part of the common practice period. Neoclassicism and Expressionism emerged mostly after 1900. Moderation began much later in the century and should be seen as a transition from the cutting edge period to the postmodern period, although some postmodernism can be dated as far back as 1930. The twentieth century saw the emergence of concepts such as alate, atonality and serialism. Electronic music and concept music were also developed during the century.
20th Century Music History
The set of experiences and legislative issues of the twentieth Century gave motivation to the different scope of melodic styles created somewhere in the range of 1900 and 1999, spearheaded by authors going from Elgar and Britten, to Stravinsky, Gershwin, and John Williams. Propelling innovation empowered the recording of old style music and jazz, which thus lead to the ascent of globe-riding craftsmen like Pavarotti and Callas.
The hostile political climate of the 20th century, technological advancements, and significant stylistic shifts all had a significant impact on music’s evolution. Numerous authors, battling to construct any further on the music of ages gone by, responded against laid out melodic patterns, making invigorating new structures and styles.
Music was extraordinarily impacted by the gigantic political occasions which shook Europe in the twentieth 100 years. Shostakovich, specifically, was mistreated by the Soviet system when his music was believed to be too ‘present day’ or élitist, meaning he had to write in two styles – ensembles for the specialists, and more modest works, for example, string groups of four which were consistent with his own voice. The Holocaust, Hiroshima and The Second Great War persuaded many post-war arrangers that they expected to put the previous behind them and track down always moderate techniques: see Pierre Boulez’s Designs, Schoenberg’s examination with resonance and John Enclosure.
American composers like Duke Ellington and George Gershwin began to use jazz, their own native music. Ravel and Stravinsky responded by creating jazz-influenced music. Society music was likewise an incredible wellspring of motivation for writers like Vaughan Williams, Bartók and Messiaen.
In music, modernism was about being different and radical. Interestingly, performers and crowds understood that music didn’t need to be restricted to custom, however by 1960 this thought had reached a dead end. The “serious” composers of the next generation relaxed and had access to a wider range of musical colors to work with, including influences from other cultures, popular music, ancient music, and modernism’s experiments.
Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman and John Adams supported Moderation, breaking melodic limits and winning them tremendous prominence. Their music reflects musical and technological advancements, sometimes incorporating elements of rock and jazz.
A gathering of writers who met while concentrating on in Manchester have turned into the primary types of ‘post-present day’ music in England. While music composed by Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr isn’t everyone’s favorite, it very well may be significantly strong and animating.
Film music and computer game music expanded in fame towards the century’s end, with the soundtracks to E.T., Star Wars, Harry Potter and Ruler of the Rings transforming old style music.
Types of 20th Century Music
- Impressionism- Impressionism began in France as a response, drove by Claude Debussy, against the close to home richness and legendary subjects of German Sentimentalism exemplified by Wagner. Debussy believed that art was more of a sensual experience than an intellectual or ethical one. He urged his fellow citizens to re-discover the music of the French masters of the 18th century, who intended for it to be a “fantasy of the senses,” charm, and entertainment.
Different writers related with impressionism incorporate Maurice Ravel, Albert Roussel, Isaac Albéniz, Paul Dukas, Manuel de Falla, Charles Martin Loeffler, Charles Griffes, Frederick Delius, Ottorino Respighi, Cyril Scott and Karol Szymanowski Many French arrangers proceeded with impressionism’s language through the 1920s and later, including Albert Roussel, Charles Koechlin, André Caplet, and, later, Olivier Messiaen. Writers from non-Western societies, like Tōru Takemitsu, and jazz performers like Duke Ellington, Gil Evans, Craftsmanship Tatum, and Cecil Taylor additionally have been emphatically impacted by the impressionist melodic language.
- Expressionism- By the end of the 1920s, while many composers were still working in a loose expressionist style, it was being replaced by the more monolithic style of the German neo-sachlichkeit and neo-classicism. Since expressionism, like many other movements that had been persecuted by the Nazis, found a place in popular culture after the Second World War, expressionist music reappeared in the works of composers like Hans Werner Henze and Pierre Boulez, as well as Peter Maxwell Davies and Wolfgang Rihm, as well as Bernd AloisZimmermann.
- Neoclassicism- Neoclassicism was a style that developed between the two world wars. Its goal was to reject what people thought were the exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism and revive the balanced forms and clearly discernible thematic processes of the 17th and 18th centuries. The term is frequently taken to imply parody or distortion of the Baroque or Classical style because these composers typically replaced the functional tonality of their models with extended tonality, modality, or atonality. Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is frequently seen[weasel words] as neo-elaborate (a structural term), however the differentiation between the terms isn’t made all the time.
- Electronic Music- The advancement of recording innovation made all sounds accessible for possible use as melodic material. The term “electronic music” typically refers to a body of art music that emerged in Europe, Japan, and the Americas in the 1950s. In this decade, the increasing availability of magnetic tape provided composers with a means of recording sounds and then modifying them in a variety of ways. All electronic music relies upon transmission through amplifiers, yet there are two wide sorts: acousmatic music, which exists just in recorded structure implied for amplifier tuning in, and live electronic music, in which electronic mechanical assembly are utilized to produce, change, or trigger sounds during execution by artists utilizing voices, customary instruments, electro-acoustic instruments, or different gadgets. Computers started to play a bigger role in this field in 1957. When acoustic sounds from everyday life were used as the source material, the term musique concrète was used. It was referred to as electronic music when the sounds were produced by electronic generators.
Both types of music came to be referred to as “electronic music” after the 1950s. Edgard Varèse’s Déserts (1954), Stockhausen’s Hymnen (1969), and Claude Vivier’s Wo bist du Licht! are examples of electronic music that utilized more conventional instruments at times. Examples include Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms series (1963–2006) and 1981.
20th Century Music Period
As the nineteenth century finished, normal melodic guidelines were addressed, twisted, rethought, modified, and some of the time discarded totally. Close to the conclusion of the Heartfelt age, music started to separate into numerous classes and styles. It would be difficult to clearly define the music of the twentieth century—from 1910 to the present—as a single style because numerous novel and unusual trends emerged and persist today.
During the twentieth century, some composers both moved away from tradition forms and returned to them. This chapter will provide a concise overview of the artistic developments that resulted in significant styles of the twentieth century, the historical context of the twentieth century, and in-depth introductions to particular modernist schools of thought and genres.
According to Burkholder, formal concert music from the 1900s is typically referred to as twentieth-century music rather than rock, pop, jazz, or world music. However, we will examine these subgenres later.) Because the various musical styles could not be summed up in a single stylistically descriptive term, twentieth-century composers adopted this term to describe their musical era. Several developments from the late Romantic era, including impressionism and neoclassicism, preceded twentieth-century music. During the 1900s, expressionism, serialism, innovation, electronic music, moderation, exploratory music, and chance music arose and turned out to be mentally based melodic styles. While music was recognized by structure and instrumentation in the Old style period and by writer and identity in the Heartfelt time frame, music of the 20th century appears to squeeze into patterns and developments tied near visual expressions.
20th Century Music Characteristics
PERFORMING MEDIUM: Performing bunches during this time incorporate chamber ensembles; ensembles for instruments; orchestras; choral ensembles; instruments made by computers, such as synthesizers; as well as mixed media (sounds recorded using conventional instruments).
RHYTHM: Intricate, individual rhythms are utilized, and new rhythms and meters are normal, for example, polyrhythms and polymeters.
MELODY: Melodies are frequently experimental, dissonant, and fragmented. Melodies can be based on non-Western scales, chromatic scales, twelve-tone rows, or microtonal scales, depending on the form or style used.
HARMONY: Dissonant and experimental harmony is frequently used. Some harmony is based on seconds, fourths, and fifths (respectively, secondal, quartal, and quintal harmony), as opposed to tertian harmony, which is used in a lot of Western tonal music. Atonality, meaning a shortfall of resonance, is available in music like twelve-tone arrangements.
TEXTURE: Polyphonic textures are frequently used, as is the homophonic texture used in twelve-tone music. Impressionism and aleatory music, on the other hand, experiment with new textures by layering distinct sounds.
FORM: Melodic structures from past melodic periods are utilized, frequently in trial ways.
Advantages of listening to 20th Century Music
- Lowers blood pressure Want to maintain a healthy heart? As per an Oxford College review, standing by listening to traditional music can assist with diminishing one’s pulse.
Participants in the study were exposed to a variety of musical genres, including rap, pop, techno, and classical.
Old style music was powerful at bringing down member’s circulatory strain, while rap, pop, and techno really raised pulse.
- Enhances memory Does classical music increase intelligence? Did you know that you can actually improve your memory by listening to Mozart? A study found that listening to Mozart’s music increased brain wave activity that is directly related to memory.
Put some Mozart on while you practice the next time you have to memorize a lengthy speech or presentation.
- Boosts creativity Listening to classical music can help you come up with new ideas. While paying attention to old style music will not in a split second make you imaginative, it will help put into a more inventive outlook, as per music specialists at Guitar Lousy.
Next time you want to conceptualize, take a stab at paying attention to a Mozart or Bach to get your brain considering new ideas.
- Decreases feelings of anxiety
Assuming you’re feeling especially worried, pay attention to a few traditional tunes. According to the findings of a study, listening to classical music during pregnancy reduced the likelihood of pregnant women experiencing feelings of stress.
Researchers guarantee that traditional music’s rhythm is like the human heart, which facilitates both uneasiness and sadness.
- Enhances cognitive capacity Do you have a significant test or project coming up?
Students who listened to a lecture with classical music playing in the background performed better on tests than other students, according to a French study.
20th Century Music Examples
Composers from all over the world, including Latin America, rose to prominence in the 20th century as well. Numerous female composers also flourished during this time period. Naturally, there were still political and social issues at this time. For instance, at first, African-American musicians were not permitted to join or conduct major orchestras. Likewise, numerous writers were imaginatively smothered during the ascent of Hitler. Some of them stayed, but they were made to write music that was in line with the rules. Others made the decision to move to the United States, which became a hub for musical activity. Many schools and colleges were established during this time that took care of the people who needed to seek after music.
Some conspicuous twentieth century arrangers are not related with any generally perceived school of piece. Some of those are on the following list :-
- Samuel Adler
- Louis Andriessen
- Béla Bartók
- Havergal Brian
- Elliott Carter
- Carlos Chávez
- Edward Elgar
- George Enescu
- Gabriel Fauré
- Morton Feldman
- Brian Ferneyhough
- Alberto Ginastera
- Henryk Górecki
- Sofia Gubaidulina
- Alan Hovhaness
- György Ligeti
- Witold Lutosławski