SO ... BASICALLY ...
Avant-Garde
: pushes boundaries of what is accepted as "norm" or status quo; experimental & innovative
Quartet for the End of Time
- musicians began to create new sounds by experimentally using their instruments and voices
e. g. slamming keyboard, plucking piano strings, tapping/slapping violins, shouting and hissing, etc.
- American professor of composition at University of Pennsylvania
- utilized emotional character of his music with a sense of dramatic
- inspired by passage in revelation of St. John, ch. 10
- written during the time Messiaen was held in captive during war with 3 French musicians - a violinist, cellist, and clarinetist
- coped with their situation by writing a quartet (he played the piano)
- first performed on January 1941, in front of 5,000 prisoners from various countries
- served in the army for WW2
- appointed to faculty of Paris conservatory
- taught in Massachusetts & Germany
- believed that art is the ideal expression of religious faith & his religious feelings were centre of his art
- work inspired by religious mysticism:
- France's leading avant-garde composer
- music director of New York Philharmonics
- studied at Paris conservatory
- inspired by Olivier Messiaen
- known as a recomposer of earlier works
Hymn to the Holy Sacrament,
Quartet for the End of Time,
Twenty Glances at the Infant Jesus
Open Form
Postwar Internationalism
- musical life in Europe was disrupted more than it was in North America due to WW2
- once the war was over, Europeans quickly made up for lost time
- centre of avant-garde activity was founded in the electronic studio of Milan, by Italian composer
- where the DETAILS of the music will be outlined and the overall form and shape will be left to chance/choice - increasing reliance on improvisation (like in Baroque and jazz music)
- leader in a trend adopted from the visual arts :
"Three Flags"
Collage
Luciano Berio
- in music, musical fragments are juxtaposed an overlapped within new compositions
- purpose is "not to interpret, but to hear familiar, old preformed musical material with new ears"
Microtonal intervals
- e. g. quarter tones -- smaller than semitones
- sounds that are found "in the cracks of the piano keys"
- broke restrictions on the chromatic scale
- American musical voice (e.g. Elliot Carter) was also significant
- his rhythmmic complexity led to his introduction of the term -
Lukas Foss
- his music consisted of serialism, electronic technologies, and indeterminacy
- used collage technique to combine preexisting music into his own
Metric Modulation
- used indeterminacy, group improvisation, and fresh approaches to sound
- European composers followed in Lukas Foss' footsteps in creating new textures through unusual combinations of sounds
e.g. German composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, created a collage from various national anthems which he combined with electronic sounds, voices, and instruments
Aleatoric Music
- "alea" = dice, in Latin
- opposed total serialism
- based on intuition, chance, and spur of the moment
- where FORM of music will be outlined, while details are left to chance/choice
Inspired by:
Toward greater freedom in music...
- love of nature (bird songs)
Olivier Messiaen
- born in Southern French city of Avignon
- trained at Paris conservatory
- at 23, became organist of church of the Trinity in Paris
- at 28, became professor at 2 French schools
- free melodic lines of Gregorian chant
- old-fashioned sounds of Medieval church modes
- non-symmetrical rhythms of India
- delicate bell sounds of Javanese gamelan
Postmodernism & Avant-garde techniques
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR ??????
- piano plays strong, dissonant chords answered by disjunct clarinet & strings
- chant-like vocalise on muted strings, soft chords on piano
- varied treatment of piano (opening dissonant chords, then gentle accompaniment to vocalise)
- trills in strings & clarinet answered by piano, loud dissonant chords lead to clarinet motive
1941
chamber quartet (violin, cello, clarinet, piano)
Postmodernism
Pop Art
: a term suggesting the movement away from formalism
- consists of 8 movements: first 7 represents the 7 days in which God created the world, followed by an 8th endless day
- 1st & 3rd movements: clarinet solos that use bird songs
- Opening: a nightinggale or blackbird improvises
- extended from 'realism', which used art to exaggerate truth and emotion
- inspired by Dadaists
- "the gap between life and art"
- themes and techniques from modern urban life
: excessive and strict adherence to prescribed and traditional forms
Feminist & Ethnic Art
- focussed attention on issues of gender
"Four Campbell's Soup Cans"
Abstract expressionism
Comic Strip Art
Second movement:
- Ethnic art exemplifies achievements of America's varying ethnic communities, especially African Americans, Latin, and Native Americans
Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the End of Time
"The Dinner Party"
Drama
- Encouraged freedom, unstudied techniques and intuitive and expressive art forms.
- theatre moved into "theatre of the absurd" - lead by Europeans who viewed the world with a vast disillusionment
"Groovin' High"
Waiting for Godot, 1956
- METER : 3/4
- OPENING & CLOSING : alternate between 2 fast paced tempos, and Angel's might is evoked through penetrating fortissimo chords on piano
- MIDDLE section : lyrical song played by muted violin & cello 2 octaves apart, accompanied by "sweet cascades of blue-orange chords" on piano
- Quartet testifies to the courage of the human spirit
Recent Writers
- From the idea of disillusionment writers innovated a new literary genre called -
hysterical realism
which featured frenzied action, manic characters, and multiple secondary plots
Film
The various artistic styles presented proved that all the arts were becoming / have become increasingly intellectual, experimental, and abstract.
- Art films helped educate viewers about the different lives of other people around the world
Postmodernism today...
"Three Standing Forms"
"Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 18"
- Abstract Expressionism in sculpture
- applied to a variety of styles;
- conceptual art, minimalism, environmental art
"Grand Louvre Pyramid"
- neoclassical structure for viewing Paris' historic museum
- neoclassicism focussed on craftsmanship & balance
Total Serialism
- resulted in extremely complex and ultra rational music
- Schoenberg's idea of organized, strict 12-tone method was further extended to organize time values, dynamic values, and timbres
The German Reichstag wrapped in fabric
By: Nicole Enverga & Maria Panaligan