Study Guide-Twentieth-Century & Non-Western Music
The section on twentieth-century music will involve chapters 1-8, 15-17. Chapters 1-3 will be utilized for the discussion of Non-Western music. It will be necessary to study these chapters, as well as the listening examples contained within, to achieve full comprehension of these sections.
Twentieth-Century Overview
(Chapter 1)
Within the music of the twentieth century can be seen influences of folk and popular music, Asian and African music, and European art music from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century. The principal parameters of music — tone color, harmony, tonality, rhythm, and melody — undergo vast changes in relation to the music of earlier periods. New musical innovations in this period include the prominence of the percussion section, new ways of playing conventional instruments, polychords, fourth chords, tone clusters, polytonality, bitonality, atonality, and polyrhythms.
(Chapt. 2)
During the twentieth century, radio, television, and recordings had a direct impact on the listening habits of the public. Various institutions regularly commissioned new music. These include: ballet and opera companies, foundations, orchestras, performers, film studios, and wealthy music lovers. Also impacting the direction of Twentieth-Century music was the emigration of many famous composers to the United States because of World War II, the widespread dissemination of American jazz and popular music, and the role of universities in nourishing new music.
(Chapters 3 & 4)
Two artistic movements that were to have their musical counterparts in the work of Claude Debussy were impressionist painting and symbolist poetry. The painters Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro represent the impressionist movement in painting. Symbolist poetry is represented by Mallarmé, Verlaine, and Rimbaud. Debussy was influenced by Wagner and Asian music, and he achieved many artistic successes and underwent