Summary 20th Century Features Notes

MUSIC IN THE 20TH CENTURY

Main genres and approach to musical style
 Composers make use of all existing genres plus individualism
 Popular referenced: film, Broadway musical, blues, jazz, rock.
 Stylistic elements of other world music.

Forms and Structures
 No common approach. Experimental and nostalgic schools of thought expand
variety and allow deep musical exploration

Harmony
 Romantic harmony (Elgar, Rachmaninov)
 Tonality expanded through chromaticism and bitonality.
 Emergence of novel ways of creating and organising pitch (whole-tone,
octatonic, and other scalic patterns)

Melody
 Different approaches to melody style dependent
 Working ranges from the move to extremes of tessitura
 Melodic lines of romanticism to the often angular 'unsingable' tone
 Electronic means (Steve Reich, Philip Glass)

Rhythm and Metre
 Irregular rhythm
 Changing metres
 Rhythmic complexity
 Rhythm becomes an important element in its own right
 Polyrhythms
 Superimposition

Texture
 Full range of textures (rich and complex/lean and sparse depending on
composer and context)

Timbre
 Increased orchestral resources
 New and exotic sounds usually from folk instruments
 Expansion in percussion instruments
 Expansion of performing techniques on instruments
 New range of sonorities via electronic means
 Exploitation of solo instrumental sonorities eg 'prepared' piano of John Cage.

Expression
 Wide range of approaches to the concept of expression depending on the
individual composer's approach to the composing process