This slideshow covers some of the major musical trends of the early 20th century.

1. Impressionism, Expressionism,
and Twelve-tone

2. Impressionism in Art
• Pioneered by Claude Monet
• Name from his Impression: Sun Rising
• Distinctly Parisian in style
• Attempted to capture a first impression
• Focuses on light and color
• Paintings have hazy, indistinct quality

3. Impressionism in Music
• A reaction against Romantic excesses
• Use of chromatic and whole tone scales
• Subtle orchestration, winds emphasized
• Rhythm was free of regular accent
• Use of extended harmonic structures

4. Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
• One of the most prominent Impressionist
composers, though he disliked that term
• Entered the Paris Conservatory at age 10
• Associated with Nadezhda von Meck
• Awarded the Prix de Rome at age 22
• His music was not well-received by critics
in his day

5. Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
• Musical characteristics:
– Elaborate melodic patterns that make atonal
passages less jarring
– Use of parallel chords (chords as melody)
– Use of unusual scales: whole-tone and
pentatonic

6. Listening Example
• Title: Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun
• Composer: Claude Debussy
• Genre: Symphonic Poem

7. Notes on Prelude to… a Faun
• Inspired by Mallarme’s symbolist poem
• Seen as the beginning of modern music
• Woodwinds present the main themes
• Meandering quality, unconcerned with
progress toward a musical finish line
• The beat and meter are obscured

8. Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
• Like Debussy, Ravel was a leading
impressionist but didn’t like that term
• Clashed with conservative professors and
critics at the Paris Conservatory
• Smaller compositional output than others
• Recognized the potential of music recording
early on and oversaw recordings of his work

9. Listening Example
• Title: Daphnis et Chloé
• Composer: Maurice Ravel
• Genre: Ballet

10. Notes on Daphnis et Chloé,
Part III “Lever du jour”
• “Lever” is the first movement of Part III
• Ravel considered the music for the entire
ballet to be symphonic in character
• It is Ravel’s longest work – approx. 1 hour
• Note the shimmering quality of the strings
• Use of choral voices without text

11. Expressionism
• Early 20th century modernist movement
originating in German poetry and painting
• In visual art, expressionism strove to
convey individual emotional experience
• In music, expressionism focuses on the
unconscious or subconscious mind
• Highly dissonant music conveys angst
• Schoenberg is first expressionist composer

12. Arnold Schoenberg
• Austrian composer who emigrated to the
US in 1934 due to the rise of the Nazi party
• Came to be associated with atonal
compositional techniques
• Developed the twelve-tone technique
• Highly influential composer, theorist, and
teacher

13. Evolution of Schoenberg’s
Compositional Styles
• Post-Romanticism
• Atonal-Expressionism
• Twelve-tone

14. Sprechstimme
• “Speak-singing”
• Vocal line spoken more than sung
– No exact pitches
– No strict rhythm
• Best example: Pierrot Lunaire

15. Listening Example
• Title: Pierrot Lunaire, Madonna
• Composer: Arnold Schoenberg
• Genre: Art Song

16. Notes on Pierrot Lunaire, Madonna
• Great example of atonal expressionism
• No tonal center but not twelve-tone
• Use of sprechstimme
• Through composed – no repetition
• A dark psychological exploration

17. Twelve-tone Composition
• Uses all 12 notes of chromatic scale equally
• Composing begins with “tone row”
– Selecting the order of the 12 pitches
– Row can be inverted, reversed, transposed
• The original row (or its permutation) must
always appear in order
• All pitches are treated equally so no tonal
center is perceived

18. Listening Example
• Title: Trio from Suite for Piano
• Composer: Arnold Schoenberg
• Genre: Twelve-tone music

19. Notes on Trio from Suite for Piano
• Performed by solo piano
• Sparse texture
• Systematically atonal music
• Contrapuntal texture