From the year 1890 to around the year 1940, there became a variety of new changes to communities and the artists within communities across Europe and America. During this time, artists found a heightened sense of self-awareness and as a result, they created new developments. This era became known as modernism. The role of musicians and music during this era was different than it was in the previous Romantic era. Famous composers such as Bach and Beethoven whose pieces were based on principle and logic inspired the musicians during the modernism period to abandon these standards. This led to a development of the tone color and rhythm in the music of avant-garde modernist. Music increasingly became a form of expressing creativity and serving …show more content…
A musician named Claude Debussy was famous for the rich harmonies, soft tonality, and fragmented melodies and motives within his music. His orchestra often had a subtle pulsing tonality with occasional contributions of sound or “color” from instruments. For this reason, many people compare his orchestra to an impressionist picture which contained small, separate areas of color close up that merge into a unified whole as an observer moves further away from it. While Debussy’s compositions were classified as impressionism, Maurice Ravel’s pieces were both a part of impressionism and neoclassicism. Neoclassicism is a movement which involved returning to the style and form of music from previous centuries, typically the eighteenth century. Another famous musician who rejected music from romantic and modernist composers was Igor Stravinsky. For many years, Stravinsky was considered the leading neoclassical composer in the French orbit. Even though some composers associated with the neoclassical movement were against the sentiment of romantic music, other composers worked to increase the emotions and complexity of music during the modernist period. Some musicians even extended their emotional states to hysteria, nightmares, and even insanity. This was known as expressionism. Arnold Schoenberg was considered the leader of the expressionist movement regarding music because he was an essential factor in the emancipation of dissonance and he helped to break down tonality. Schoenberg met two young men named Anton Webern and Alban Berg who he taught as students and partook in his innovations, such as the twelve-tone system technique which ensured that all twelve notes of the chromatic scale were uniquely used. The three became referred to as the Second Viennese
Ludwig Von Beethoven was a very important transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras. Beethoven’s early work was heavily influenced by Mozart and Haydn. He had a very great influence on the composers of the Romantic era. Beethoven emphasised the emotional expression in music, which is a key characteristic of Romanticism.
‘Impressionism’ was a derogatory term first used to mock Claude Monet’s painting Impression, Sunrise, and other later paintings that were patterned after his revolutionary style. At a time when artists took great pains to make their artwork look as life-like as possible, the quick brushstrokes and blurry figures in Monet’s paintings looked anything but realistic to the art critics. Because of its focus on mental images, Impressionism later came to include not only visual arts, but also certain music as well. Debussy and Ravel are two of the most famous Impressionist composers, and our textbook states that what sets their style apart is that “instead of dealing with human emotions, [their] music evoked the atmosphere of nature” (p. 704). This type of
Dmitri Shostakovich was a Soviet composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music. Shostakovich developed a hybrid voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his music. Shostakovich was also heavily influenced by the neo-classical style pioneered by Igor Stravinsky, and by the post-Romanticism associated with Gustav Mahler.
His ninth symphony which was premiered in 1824 was nowhere near as unconventional of The Rite of Spring, however, at the time of Beethoven, writing a symphony that was over an hour long, included a full chorus and vocal soloists, and was expressive and romantic as it was, was in fact unconventional for his time. Beethoven’s music was so rebelliously emotional, the last seven years of his life marked the beginning of the Romantic era. This meant that Beethoven’s music was so influential and unique he started the world’s brand new “norm” of music in 1820, when the Romantic Era started. Stravinsky’s composition took place at the end of the romantic era and went into the 20th century era. It is not coincidental that these composers who were shunned at the time ended up being so revolutionary and influential that a new musical age
This paper will explain Beethoven’s impact during and after the Romantic Era. It will also emphasize the influence Beethoven had during the 1800s as well as the remarks he left and the ones that continue to grow. As known, the Romantic Era is one of the most classical pieces of history. This era was not like the others, meaning it wasn't about war but more of an artistic, literacy, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the eighteenth century. The Romantic Era was where all the composer we know today started.
Musical modernism can be seen as the time where music emerges its liberty from Romantic era style -that started in the late nineteen century to end of the Second World War- and gains new ideas and freedom. With the political turmoil and chaos that took over the European countries, -that lured countries into the First World War- composers and artists started to find, create more and new ways to express themselves. They eagerly began to discover the art of Eastern countries with the hope of finding new ways of expression. The changes in tonality, irregular rhythms, tone clusters, distressed and antagonistic melodies, the expressionist, abstract, unusual ideas over powers the music, the traditional structures recreated or composed with
Baroque music tends to be complex, but with a very organized system of forms and harmonies that is the basis for almost all music from what is called the “Common Era,” the period between 1700-1900. The Common Era developed throughout the nineteenth century, but after 1900 music entered an age of experimentation; music perhaps became a postmodern art genre very early on. Baroque music all sounds similar, although the educated listener can tell Bach from Handel without difficulty. In the realm of contemporary music, however, entirely atonal music from Schoenberg and Webern can easily exist alongside French Impressionism and Copland’s American neo-Romanticism. Today’s composers are similar only in that their styles, and entire musical languages, are radically different.
Expressionism – This trend came about in the early 1900s. Composers of this trend attempted to evoke the human inner emotions and often times those emotions were dark. The leading composers of this compositional trend were Schoenberg, and his students Webern and Berg who became known as the Second Viennese School. One example of expressionist music is the Berg’s opera entitled “Wozzeck” composed around 1920. To tell the story of Wozzeck’s decent into madness, Berg set the libretto to with rhythmic and melodic fragments that express moods needing to be conveyed in the scene.
I think Twentieth-century composers should be able to compose their music subjectively without any restrictions whether it is aesthetically pleasing or not.Some may agree that some composers of the expressionism movement like Schoenberg, music may not be pleasant to listen to and may not be able to hold the attention of an audience.But expressionism is closely associated with art and art is considered a subjective statement of talent.While there may be many audiences that may not appreciate the music of Schoenberg, there may still be other audiences who find his music
Thanks to Beethoven, music was taken highly serious among the people and the literatures of arts. During the nineteenth century, the first two decades were devoted to Romanticism. Literature wasn’t the only thing that poured out during this time period, so did the music. People such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who was an Enlightenment philosopher in the mid-eighteenth century, provided the Romantics with ideas on how to express themselves as opposed to what society expected from one. These ideas led people to live an upbeat joyful life rather than a sluggish boring one. However, Romanticism came to be during a time of war, and because of how freely expressive the Romantics were they became know as rebels who went against the rules and regulations. So rebellious that the Romantic composers were experimenting with chords that had been off limits.
Modernism was a movement that was developed during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Modernism developed due to the changes happening in societies at the time. Around the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century there was a rise in the industrial society’s where there were advancements in technologies and machines, and a rapid growths in cities. This lead to a change in cultural trends and philosophies, which is known as modernism. Modernism was well known for the rejection on traditional way, such as the arts and beliefs. It rejected the idea of realism and religious beliefs. During these years modernism could be distinguished by two aspects, High and Low Modernism.
Igor Stravinsky makes for a first-class example of differences and similarities between neoclassicism and modernism. Modernism is defined as “A term used in music to denote a multi-faceted but distinct and continuous tradition within 20th-century composition”1, while neoclassicism may be defined as “A movement of style in the works of certain 20th-century composers, who, particularly during the period between the two world wars, revived the balanced forms and clearly perceptible thematic processes of earlier styles to replace what were, to them, the increasingly exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism”2 By not only comparing his works to others but within his own body of work the two movements can be better
The romantic period of music began in the 1820s and with it came a change of stylistic features. Beethoven largely impacted the new way that the music of the Romantic era was viewed. He made people perceive music as a true form of art made to be taken seriously, rather than just a fun time passer. Another reason for the change of music during that time was due to nationalism and exoticism. Nationalism promoted music, such as folk songs and dances, which was created for the purpose of supporting the nation. Exoticism had the opposite effect as nationalism. It caused audiences to listen to folk music from other nations and it allowed people to have a better understanding of unique qualities and cultures of surrounding nations. These factors led to the music during the Romantic period becoming more personal and emotion than it was in the previous classical era, although it still contained a melody, harmony, tone color, and a form. Much of the music from the Romantic era can be recognized by its melody. The melodies became wider, more irregular, and dramatic during this time. The harmony of Romantic music was further advanced as well. The composers learned how to use harmony to build the melody and intensify its emotionality, while at the same time experimenting freely with new chords. The tone color of music during this time was expanded allowing the quality of the sound of the music to improve. One of the most important changes that were made to the features of music during
For my era, I chose the Romantic period and the artist I chose associated with this time is none other than Johannes Brahms. The Romantic movement originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, however, it reached its peak in most areas approximately between 1800 and 1850. Nevertheless, since the spread and popularity of the movement depended on the region, it’s said to have reached Vienna around 1825 and ended roughly around 1900. The Romantic period was not only an intellectual, literary, and artistic movement, it was a change in musical style as well. Like most periods, it was divided up into three phases: early, high, and late, which is often referred to as post-romantic. Romanticism followed Classicism, which was centered in Vienna, and was ultimately the result of political and social upheavals in relationship to the French Revolution. In the spirit of Romanticism, this era is considered to have fostered the rise of the middle-class. Overall, the work of artists, writers, and poets was defined as passionate and imaginative. The subjects and settings were usually exotic and they all typically explored the depths of eternal human conflict. Overall, emotion, imagination, and mystery inspired Romantics.
The Modernist Period was first a reaction against the previous Victorian culture. Intellectuals and artists of the 20th century believed that the previous era’s way of doing things was a cultural dead end and they wanted to break away from traditions.