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LECTURE 15
From Romanticism to Modernism – Ballet
Thursday, May 22
Announcements and Reminders
Concert reports due no later than today
Paper due date: Tuesday, June 3
Final:
Not cumulative (starts after Beethoven)
Wed., June 11, 12-2pm
Similar format as midterm
Study guide to come next week
Outline
I. Late Romantic Ballet (traditional)
a. Tchaikovsky – Sleeping Beauty
II. Music in the Age of Modernism: The 20th Century
III. Modern Ballets
a. Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Late Romantic Ballet
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Russian
“Late-Romantic”
End-of-the-century pessimism
Sexual identity *hard time w/ his sexual identity; really wasn’t accepted by public during this time to be homosexual; lover committed suicide; unhappily married a woman after*
Carried on Romantic era traditions
Successful
Tchaikovsky and the Ballet
Ballet thrived in Russia
Tchaikovsky’s popular ballets:
Swan Lake
Sleeping Beauty
The Nutcracker
Sleeping Beauty (1890)
1890 (written in ~40 days!)
Ballet
Three acts
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Excerpt: Waltz (Act I)
Listen for:
Romantic melodies and harmonies
The Twentieth Century
Modernism: A 20th century movement in art and literature that centered around making a self-conscious break with the past in order to create works that were wholly new.
“Make it new” (Ezra Pound)
No centralized style: umbrella term for many “isms”
Impressionism (Debussy)
Primitivism (Stravinsky)
Expressionism (Schoenberg)
Many more!
Modernism in Music: How to Detect It
Unconventional/non-traditional plot for ballet, opera, or program music
Radical concept or performance style
Harmonic language for each music “ism”
Very unfamiliar; unprecedented
Three Harmonic Options After 1900
Tonality isn’t the only option anymore
Harmony now based on different scale/pitch combinations
Debussy: Exotic scales
Stravinsky: Polytonality
Schoenberg: Atonality
Modern Ballets: Debussy and Stravinsky
From Romanticism to Modernism – Ballet
Thursday, May 22
Announcements and Reminders
Concert reports due no later than today
Paper due date: Tuesday, June 3
Final:
Not cumulative (starts after Beethoven)
Wed., June 11, 12-2pm
Similar format as midterm
Study guide to come next week
Outline
I. Late Romantic Ballet (traditional)
a. Tchaikovsky – Sleeping Beauty
II. Music in the Age of Modernism: The 20th Century
III. Modern Ballets
a. Debussy – Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Late Romantic Ballet
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Russian
“Late-Romantic”
End-of-the-century pessimism
Sexual identity *hard time w/ his sexual identity; really wasn’t accepted by public during this time to be homosexual; lover committed suicide; unhappily married a woman after*
Carried on Romantic era traditions
Successful
Tchaikovsky and the Ballet
Ballet thrived in Russia
Tchaikovsky’s popular ballets:
Swan Lake
Sleeping Beauty
The Nutcracker
Sleeping Beauty (1890)
1890 (written in ~40 days!)
Ballet
Three acts
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Excerpt: Waltz (Act I)
Listen for:
Romantic melodies and harmonies
The Twentieth Century
Modernism: A 20th century movement in art and literature that centered around making a self-conscious break with the past in order to create works that were wholly new.
“Make it new” (Ezra Pound)
No centralized style: umbrella term for many “isms”
Impressionism (Debussy)
Primitivism (Stravinsky)
Expressionism (Schoenberg)
Many more!
Modernism in Music: How to Detect It
Unconventional/non-traditional plot for ballet, opera, or program music
Radical concept or performance style
Harmonic language for each music “ism”
Very unfamiliar; unprecedented
Three Harmonic Options After 1900
Tonality isn’t the only option anymore
Harmony now based on different scale/pitch combinations
Debussy: Exotic scales
Stravinsky: Polytonality
Schoenberg: Atonality
Modern Ballets: Debussy and Stravinsky