Our last section is what we now call the Contemporary Period, though it will surely be called something else as time moves on and people have the benefit of perspective. For our purposes, this period begins around 1900 and goes right up until today. One of the main ideas in this time is “anything goes.” There are so many different subcategories in this period it’s very difficult to lump them all together. For that reason, I’ll give some broad categories and an example of each.
One category we discussed is called “aleatory” or chance music. Rather than the composer having all control and dictating to the performers how everything will be, the composer sets some parameters, but ultimately it’s the performers who spontaneously compose the piece in the moment. For that reason, no two performances of any piece may be the same. Each performance can be a truly unique moment in time. John Cage (1912-1992) is famous for his aleatoric pieces. One is 4’33” (four minutes and 33 seconds) for any instrument in any venue. Essentially, the piece is a measured amount of time that the “performer” remains silent. It has four movements, so you may see the conductor or performer marking those in different ways depending on the situation. Really, every person in the room becomes the performer, as the various coughs, sniffles, squeaks, giggles, room noise, etc., becomes the music. It seems silly and kind of out there, but what it can do is to help people become aware of the space around them, and the myriad sounds that they may not notice at any given time. Check out a performance here: 4’33” with soloist
Henry Cowell (1897-1965) wrote several pieces of aleatoric music, including The Banshee (1925) for piano with two players that we listened to a bit in class.
Another form I briefly mentioned is called “graphic notation.” Essentially, the score is notated sometimes with traditional notation and sometimes not, but in such a way that the score often makes a picture or hints at an idea. Several examples are found at this blog: Graphic Notation
The complete opposite of the spectrum from aleatoric music is “serial music,” also known as “12-tone” music. In this type of composition, every half step in the chromatic scale is given equal importance. That means essentially there is no key, no tonic, and little chord structure. It can be the most challenging type of music to listen to. And example is Arnold Schoenberg’s (1874-1951) Piano Concerto Op. 42. Schoenberg also brought the sprechstimme (sing speech) style to the forefront in Pierrot Lunaire, a work for voice and ensemble in French that tells a tragic story of a clown in his descent into madness. It’s very spooky, interesting, and difficult. Personally, I love it and would like to perform it at some point in my career. The whole piece is about half an hour long, and well worth the listen, in my opinion: Pierrot Lunaire
Something we didn’t discuss but is worth mentioning is “minimalism.” It’s pretty much what it sounds like, with composers exploring what can be done with highly repetitive music. One of my favorite pieces is John Adams’ Short Ride on a Fast Machine that includes one of the most vital woodblock parts ever written. Steve Reich has also made very interesting work of minimalism. In his piece Piano Phase for two pianos, the two players start out in unison playing the same rhythm, repetitive melody, and articulation for several measures. Then while piano 1 holds to the same pattern until the end of the song, piano 2 begins to accelerate and slightly change the pattern. What happens is the two parts seem to crash, then align, then make a different pattern, and continue to morph over time. It’s similar to being at a stoplight and seeing two cars beside each other with their blinkers on at different speeds until one catches up and they blink together a couple of times, then get out of sync again. I find it fascinating. I have a good friend who is a concert pianist who specializes in minimalism. You can check out his work at his website: Andy Lee
Lastly, there is found instrument music, making music out of ordinary objects like brooms, shoes, bells, books, whatever. A great example is Stomp. Literally anything can be an instrument if used intentionally.
There’s not enough time to get into commercial music, like rock and roll, jazz, Broadway, etc. There is just so much out there it would be difficult to list all the kids of stuff that has come along in the last 75 years. However, if you want to hear some of my favorites, try Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Sam Cooke, Simon and Garfunkel, The Supremes, Leslie Gore, R.E.M., Tears for Fears, Billie Holiday, and many others from the past few decades. I’m listening lately to Natalie Grant, Indelible Grace music and Matthew Smith, Sandra McCracken, and others.
Your assignment this week is kind of a free for all. Anything goes! Choose any genre from the 20th century, including commercial or contemporary worship music, and write something new. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
As Anna mentioned this past week, try to give yourself some time to finish your composition and also rehearse it so you can give the best performance you can. We are a forgiving group, but we can also give our best critiques when you give your best performance.
The next two weeks will be lab sessions that you can work on anything you choose. Have a great week!