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The Modern Age

The Modern Age. Key Events. 1894 Debussy composes the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun 1895 Rontgen discovers X-rays 1896 the first automobile accident in the United States occurred when a motor vehicle crashed into a pedalcycle rider in New York City in 1896! 1897

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The Modern Age

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  1. The Modern Age

  2. Key Events • 1894 • Debussy composes the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun • 1895 • Rontgen discovers X-rays • 1896 • the first automobile accident in the United States occurred when a motor vehicle crashed into a pedalcycle rider in New York City in 1896! • 1897 • Diesel demonstrates the compression-ignition engine (cough cough! Gasp! Choke! Yum! - it burned peanut oil!)

  3. Key Events • 1898 • Deutsche Grammophon organized • 1899 • Elgar composes The Dream of Gerontious • 1902 • Caruso makes his first recording and becomes, along with John Philip Sousa, the best-selling recording artist of the time! • 1903 • The Wright brothers fly, Henry Ford driveslook out, everybody!

  4. Key Events • 1904 • The London Symphony Orchestra gives its first concert • 1905 • The Duma formed in Russia following the revolution • 1906 • Ives composes The Unanswered Question • 1907 • First Cubist exhibit in Paris

  5. Key Events • 1909 • Ballets Russe formed • Bleriot flies across the English Channel • 1911 • Mahler composes Das Lied von der Erde • Rutherford thinks up the theory of atomic structure

  6. Key Events • 1912 • Captain of SS Titanic makes BooBoo • 1914 • World War I begins

  7. 20th Century “Firsts” • Technology • Travel • Medical science • Two world wars • New words: “genocide” “ethnic cleansing” • The atom bomb • AIDS • Short-sighted economic policies • Commercial greed • Destruction of the environment • Inability to feed millions of starving people

  8. The Arts 1900-1939 • Modernism - a movement of self-conscious innovation • Composers rejected tonality • The greatest composers in the first half of the century were • Debussy, Stravinsky • Schoenberg, Berg and Webern • Bartok, Shostakovich, Britten, Ives, Copland

  9. The Arts • The Jazz Age • Neo-Classicism • Machine Music, Electronic Music, National styles in England and America

  10. History • WW I (1914-1918) • 40 million died, 20 million wounded • After the war, a period of uncertainty • The Bolshevik revolution gave rise to Communism • Economic devastation of Germany led to Hitler • Mussolini founded the first Fascist state in Europe • Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 • “The business of America is business” • The Great Depression of 1929-1933 • A time of turmoil and change

  11. History-1939-present • WW II (1939-1945) • 30 million people died • Cities and town in England, Europe, and the Far East suffered enormous damage • The economy of Europe was in shambles • Many refugees came to America making the United States the most prominent center of Western culture after the war

  12. The Arts • From 1945-1960s - two trends: • Intellectualization • Music became organized and mathematical • Experimentation • Everything was tried • Experimentation with sound • Foremost figures: • Pierre Boulez and John Cage • Postmodernism

  13. General Characteristics of Modern Music • The Replacement of Tonality • 12-tone system • Atonality • Pantonality • Tone clusters • Pentatonic scale • Whole-tone scale

  14. Characteristics • Tonality • Modal • Polytonality • Non-triadic harmony • Quartal chords

  15. Characteristics • Melody • Rhythm • Length • Tone-color and sound • Quarter tones

  16. Telharmonium • Telharmonium • The Telharmonium was an immense structure about 200 tons in weight and 60 feet long assuming the proportions and appearance of a power station generator....the quoted cost was $200,000. The monstrous instrument occupied the entire floor of "Telharmonic Hall" on 39th Street and Broadway New York City for 20 years.

  17. Theremin • Lev Sergeivitch Termen • Termen's first machine, built in the USSR in 1917 was christened the "Theremin" (after himself) or the "Aetherophone" (sound from the 'ether') and was the first instrument to exploit the heterodyning principle.

  18. Debussy

  19. IMPRESSIONISM • the impressionist painters, Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, Pissarro etc. had three famous exhibits from 1874 to 1877 • the term “Impressionism” was derived from a painting by Monet titled Sunrise - an Impression

  20. Claude-Achille DebussyAugust 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918 • Debussy disliked the term, but • He developed new theories of light and color in music and • is probably the greatest musical impressionist.

  21. Claude-Achille DebussyAugust 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918 • entered Paris Conservatory at age 10 • a rebel • followed his own rules in composition • Prix de Rome (a three year award) in 1884 (lived in Villa Medici)

  22. Claude-Achille DebussyAugust 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918 • Portrait of Debussy at age 24 now hanging in the Villa Medici in Rome

  23. Claude-Achille DebussyAugust 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918 • became disillusioned with Wagner • turned to Mussorgsky • piano teacher to the children of Nadejda von Meck and fell in love with Sonia • interested in primitive and medieval music • disliked most earlier composers (Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven) • first of the post-Wagnerian composers to work entirely in a new style

  24. Claude-Achille DebussyAugust 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918 • L’Apres-midi d’un faune takes its place in music history along with Beethoven’s Eroica and Monteverdi’s Orfeo • Opera Pelleas et Melisande (Materlinck) premiere on April 30, 1902 • composed a great deal of piano music • almost all his works have names which are placed after the music

  25. Claude-Achille DebussyAugust 22, 1862 - March 25, 1918 • died of cancer on March 25, 1918 during the bombardment of Paris • Debussy was the beginning of 20th century music - no great structures - no rules - no tonal relationships

  26. Claude-Achille Debussyplays The Sunken Cathedral • Debussy (and many other composers and artists) cut piano rolls of their own music in the early days of the 20th century) • on this recording Debussy “plays” seven of his own piano pieces“The Sunken Cathedral”

  27. Claude-Achille DebussyL’Apres midi d’un faune • planned in 1892 as an orchestral triptych consisting of a prelude, interlude, and finale based on Mallarme’s poem (p. 1876) • completed late in 1894 and premiered on December 23, 1894 • audience was so enthusiastic that the Prelude had to be repeated • this piece was used for one of the most successful ballets in the repertory of the famous Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo • the Ballet was premiered on May 29, 1912 in Paris

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