In pre-Schoenberg tonal music, the ear finds its way around a composition by recognizing even quite disguised repetitions and variants and by sensing tensions between keys. Neither of these is possible in a piece of strict serial music. With a bit of practice, the ear can recognize the inversion of a phrase but not very readily a pattern of ...
tones is not repeated. This predetermined order or ‘row’ of tones may also incorporate any of a variety of other musical alterations, including transposition, inversion or retrograde (backwards). Serialism would later be equated with composition that uses any ordered sets in combination with an application to any music element. Accordingly, ‘total serialism’ and ‘integral serialism’ are terms used ...
, however, was on Stravinsky, widely regarded as the greatest composer living. Although in his seventies and resident in America, he remained acutely alert both to Viennese serialism and the music of Europe’s younger generation. If the ballet score Agon (1954–57) represented the point of Stravinsky’s transition from neo-classical to serialist composer, Movements for Piano and Orchestra ...
decline in more traditional music. In classical music, highly experimental compositional methods have been explored, exploiting every sort of colouristic effect and instrumental combination. Movements such as integral serialism (music derived from a single series of numbers), aleatoricism (music based on chance), minimalism (the repetition of very short musical ideas) and postmodernism (music that combines modern ideas with more ...
b. 1934 English composer Early use of serialism (Trumpet Sonata, 1955) led Davies to a less systematic method of composing with smaller sets of pitches (Prolation, 1958). Alongside this grew a fascination for the pre-Baroque. Davies makes particular use of plainsong themes, which he then subjects to quasi-serial transformations. A peculiar leaning towards parody was central to Davies’s ...
1900–90 American composer Born in Brooklyn of Russian Jewish parents (his surname is an immigration officer’s mishearing of the family name, Kaplan), Copland became the archetypal composer of the American West, his style much imitated by the writers of Hollywood film scores. Trained in Paris by Nadia Boulanger, he was strongly influenced by Stravinsky and began using jazz ...
short spell as a civil servant, he began studying under Schoenberg, whose style was advancing rapidly towards atonality. Berg’s studies formed and crystallized Schoenberg’s theories of harmony and serialism as laid out in Harmonielehre (‘The Theory of Harmony’, published 1911). And at a time when Vienna’s cultural life was burgeoning, Berg also had numerous opportunities to take in ...
was banned in Buenos Aires due to its depictions of sex and violence. Introduction | Modern Era | Opera Personalities | Philip Glass | Modern Era | Opera Techniques | Serialism | Modern Era | Opera Techniques | Expressionism | Modern Era | Opera ...
(An’-ton Va’-bern) 1883–1945 Austrian composer Webern was the most orthodox of Schoenberg’s pupils – more rigorous in his exclusive use of serialism than Schoenberg himself – and, after his sudden death (he was accidentally shot by an American soldier), the most influential upon the post-war avant-garde. Even before Schoenberg developed the 12-note system, his pieces tended towards crystalline formal ...
faith. He emigrated to the US, where he continued to teach and to write works (tonal as well as serial) that avowed his religion and explored the richness that serialism offered. They include the Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte (1942), using Lord Byron’s poem for an implacable denunciation of Hitler, and A Survivor from Warsaw (1947), an eye-witness account of ...
1874–1951, Austrian One of the most important and controversial figures of twentieth-century composition, Schoenberg was a true visionary who paved the way for serialism – a system that, while abandoning traditional western harmony and melody, gave direction to the chaos of atonality. In so doing, he attracted plaudits and outright vitriol, for although serialism has ...
(Or’-liss Sal’-li-nan) b. 1935 Finnish composer Early dabbling in serialism was swiftly replaced with a strong feeling for simple, expressive themes, diatonicism and clarity of structure (Elegy for Sebastian Knight, 1964). Like his compatriot Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Sallinen developed a strong interest in the folk traditions of his country, evident in his use of both folk melodies ...
(Bârnt A-lo’-es Tsim’-mer-man) 1918–70 German composer Initially attracted to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Zimmermann studied at Darmstadt and was already integrating serialism with elements of popular music in the ballet score Metamorphose (1954), whose ‘boogie-woogie’ passage was later incorporated into the trumpet concerto Nobody Knows da Trouble I See of the same year, itself featuring the African-American spiritual of that ...
(A’-no-yo-hä’-ne Rau’-te-vä’-rer) b. 1928 Finnish composer Rautavaara studied at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, and then at the Juilliard School, New York, with Copland, Sessions and others. His early works show the influences of neo-classicism and serialism. His atmospheric Cantus arcticus (1972) for orchestra with taped birdsong marked the onset of a mystical phase, characterized by ...
by Hans Werner Henze | Modern Era Major Operas | The Bassarids by Hans Werner Henze | Modern Era Personalities | Paul Hindemith | Modern Era | Opera Techniques | Serialism | Modern Era | Opera Techniques | Expressionism | Modern Era | Opera ...
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