Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson entitled Classical Music in the 20th Century.

My name is Mr. Norris.

Today we're gonna be going beyond the Baroque, classical and Romantic periods to have a look at how composers in the 20th century have innovated and developed the Western Classical Tradition.

Let's get into it.

So the outcome of today's lesson is, "I can explain how classical music developed in the 20th century, identifying some key features and genres." Some keywords.

The first is atonal.

Now this is music which has no key or tonic note.

Minimalist music or minimalism.

This is a style of music that emerged in the 1960s in the USA, and it's defined by its repetition of minimal musical ideas.

We'll come back to that later.

Non-functional harmony, this is where chords don't have their traditional roles.

For example, things like chord V resolving to chord I or using mostly primary chords.

Experimental music, this is music that radically challenges what we think of as normal music.

And finally, ostinato, this is a short, repeating musical idea and the plural of that word is ostinati.

So one, ostinato; many, ostinati.

The first part of today's lesson is looking at musical language in 20th century.

Now, classical music in its true sense is music from the Classical period, which we know is from 1750 to 1820, roughly.

However, the term classical music is often used to describe any music from within the Western Classical Tradition.

So you might hear people talking about classical music and actually it's music that was written in the 20th century or in the 1600s or in the 19th century, for example.

In classical music in the 20th century, composers continued to push the boundaries of musical language.

And this saw dramatic changes in the use of harmony, timbre, structure, and pretty much all other elements of music, as composers were looking for new ways to express themselves and the world around them musically.

Listen to this typical piece of 20th century classical music.

How would you describe the harmony, the melody, the rhythm, and the texture? Pause my video, listen to the extract and have a think about those four aspects.

And here are some of the things that you might have spotted in that extract.

The harmony sounds much more chromatic than what we've heard before, with a much less obvious tonic.

So it doesn't have a clear home chord.

The melody is very broken.

It's shared between lots of instruments and it doesn't really sound like a normal classical melody.

The rhythms are very complex and the time signature is not only not very obvious, but it also changes within the clip.

And the texture is very complex with different parts of the orchestra constantly starting and stopping.

So this will sound very different from a lot of the classical music that you've heard before.

We're gonna explore some of the ways that composers created this musical language now.

One fundamental change was how composers approached harmony and tonality.

In the 20th century, composers increasingly experimented with non-functional harmony.

Now, this is where music still has a tonic, but the chords don't have their traditional roles.

So in the Classical period, for example, you'd expect chord V to resolve to chord I, and you'd expect composers to use mostly primary chords with your chord I, IV, and V being your most important.

But in the 20th century, these roles were abandoned and composers created more unusual harmony that sounds extremely traumatic with a more open musical language.

So there was still a tonic.

They were still using chords, but they weren't using those chords in their traditional ways.

This composition by Maurice Ravel, who was a French composer, uses standard triad and extended chord.

So chords that you might come across in the Romantic period, for example.

But they are chosen for the mood they create rather than their functional purpose.

So we're not gonna hear things like perfect cadences with a chord V, and then a chord I at the end of a section.

We might still hear a chord I or a chord V, but they're used in very different ways.

So cadences and normal chord roles were abandoned.

Have a listen to it and see if you can hear how the harmony just sounds slightly different to what we might expect and maybe a little bit less predictable than what might have come in the classical or the Romantic periods.

You can pause my video and do that now.

Now, many composers took this development of harmony even further by creating music with no key and no tonic note.

And this music is called atonal music.

That means without a tonic, without a key.

It can sound very unusual at first.

If you've not come across this type of music before, then it will sound quite unusual and quite strange.

Notes and chords were chosen purely for the sound they created, which creates a very complex-sounding tonality and harmony.

One of the most famous composers of atonal music was called Arnold Schoenberg.

He was a real pioneer of atonal music.

Listen to this example of one of his pieces.

Notice how the harmony sounds very unusual, and the composer uses huge variety in the timbre, the pitch and the rhythm.

Pause my video and have a listen.

Hopefully there you can hear how that harmony and tonality contrasts so much with what you might have heard before in the Western Classical Tradition.

There's no sense of a home chord, there's no sense of a tonic, and the music might sound quite strange and unusual to begin with.

And that's a really typical example of atonal music.

Many composers also drew inspiration from other sources.

Some, like the Hungarian composer, Bela Bartok, mixed modern musical harmony, like non-functional harmony we've been looking at, and modern timbres with traditional folk music.

Have a listen to this example.

See if you can hear how he is using this modern musical language but he's also using traditional folk melodies and rhythms at the heart of his music.

Pause my video and have a listen now.

Other composers mix modern musical influences with classical music.

Have a listen to this example.

What 20th century genre that's not classical music do you think has influenced this orchestral piece? Pause my video, see if you can pick it out.

And this was heavily influenced by jazz.

This was a genre that had just emerged in the 20th century, and lots of composers started fusing different musical influences like jazz into their classical composition.

Some composers also experimented with timbre, using new instruments, including electronic ones as the technology developed or creating new sounds with existing instruments or new ways of playing them.

Have a listen to this example.

See if you can work out how the piano is being played here.

Pause my video.

And well done there, if you managed pick up that the performer is scratching and tapping the strings inside the piano.

So they've opened the piano up and they're directly touching and playing on the strings themselves rather than playing the keys.

And this is just one example of many ways that composers try to experiment with the way that instruments were used, as well as creating new instruments themselves.

Composers continue to use many key genres and ensembles of the Western Classical Tradition.

So these would be things that we've come across through both the Classical, Romantic, and in many cases, the Baroque period.

This included using the orchestra, which was similar in size and makeup to a Romantic orchestra.

Some composers added different instruments as well, like some of the more modern sounds that we've heard, or things like the saxophone.

Symphonies and concertos were still popular in the 20th century, with composers using the modern musical language within the traditional structure.

So we've got that non-functional harmony.

We've got this greater variety of timbres and textures, but still using those traditional structures and genres like the symphony and like the concerto.

Let's have a listen to this example.

This is the second movement of a 20th century piano concerto.

Have a listen.

See if you can work out what it has in common with the same movement, the second movement from a concerto from the Classical period.

Pause my video and see if you can work it out.

A brilliant effort if you managed to identify that the thing this has in common with the second movement of a Classical concerto from the Classical period is that it is slow and lyrical.

Remember the conventions, the traditions of a second movement of a concerto, are that it has a slow tempo and it's lyrical and expressive.

So here we've got this modern musical language, this non-functional harmony.

There's quite a different use of timbre and textures, but it's still within that tradition, using some of the same conventions that were happening 150 years earlier in the Classical period.

Let's check your understanding.

What is non-functional harmony? Is it music with no key or tonic, music where the chords don't serve traditional roles, music without chords, or music that doesn't use the tonic chord? I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer is, non-functional harmony is music where the chords don't serve traditional roles.

So it's not as much based on those primary chords like we might expect in the Classical period, the Romantic period, for example.

And we're not expecting to hear things like perfect cadences where those chords are used in those very specific roles.

Which are ways that classical music developed in the 20th century? I'd like you to choose all that apply.

So have a look at these options and choose all that apply.

Pause my video while you do that.

And the correct answers here were all three.

These are always the classical music developed in the 20th century.

We saw the incorporation of other musical influences, things like jazz, we saw the use of atonality, that's atonal music that doesn't have a key or a tonic note.

And we saw experimentation with new sounds and technologies.

Well done if you managed to pick out all three there.

Now, in some cases, composers created highly experimental music that challenged fundamental aspects of the Western Classical Tradition.

Charles Ives is one example.

He was an American composer who experimented with microtonal music.

This is music that uses intervals that are smaller than a semitone.

We call these smaller intervals microtones.

And while microtones have been a part of other musical traditions for centuries around the world, it represented a stark contrast to classical harmony to the Western Classical Tradition, which was always based on the 12 semitone scale.

So this challenge, a fundamental norm and tradition of the Western Classical Tradition.

Have a listen to this example.

I'd like to see if you can hear the microtones here, and to some ears, you might describe them as sounding out of tune.

So sort of listen to those notes that sound a little bit unusual or out of tune.

Pause my video, see if you can pick them out.

Now, some composers set out to question core features of the Western Classical Tradition, including things like writing pieces where the notes weren't even chosen by the composer.

So a fundamental thing we think of when we think of classical music is that the composer writes notes and then the performer plays them.

But some composers decided to challenge even that idea.

And one example is use of graphic scores, which we can see an example of there.

This is where the notation consists of symbols or shapes that the performer can interpret as they wish.

They have to translate these symbols and shapes into their own choice of notes and rhythms. So the composer is not telling you play a C crotchet, play a D and an E using quavers.

They're saying, here is the symbols, here is the notation.

You interpret that and turn that into your own notes and rhythms and sounds as you want.

Now this is a typical example, and there are many other ways that graphic scores have been done.

I'd like you to pause my video, have a look at this graphic score and have a think about how could you play this? How would you go about forming this score if the composer said, "Here's the music, play this score, please." You can pause my video and have a think or a discussion.

And some of the things you might have thought about, or you might think that the longer lines mean you play a longer note.

Maybe the ones higher up mean you play in a higher pitch.

Maybe the boxes that are a bit fatter mean that you play it a bit louder.

Maybe the lines that go up mean you go up in pitch.

You know, there's lots of different ways you could interpret this and there's no right or wrong way.

And that's part of the point of what these composers were trying to do is they were trying to take the power away from themselves as the composer and give the performer more autonomy, more control over the music they were creating.

Other composers wrote "chance music." And this is where the notes were determined by chance, for example, rolling a dice with each number corresponding to a particular note.

So they wouldn't choose the notes like a composer traditionally would based on the effect they were trying to create or a melody they were trying to form.

They would choose them completely by chance procedures, and rolling a dice is one example of that.

Another example of experimental music is silent music.

John Cage was a very famous and quite a controversial experimental composer in the 20th century, and he wrote this piece of music called "4'33"," which is short for four minutes, 33 seconds.

For this, the performer sits silently on the stage for exactly four minutes and 33 seconds.

They sit in front of a piano but don't play a single note.

And the audience is supposed to hear the background sounds of the performance space.

You know, things like traffic outside or air conditioning units, or people coughing or shuffling in their seats.

That is the music.

That is what John Cage wanted the listeners to hear as the music, to focus them in on the everyday sounds that were around them rather than what was being performed on stage.

And here he is fundamentally challenging the idea of what music is, because he is writing music that doesn't have any notes in it.

This is quite an extreme example of how composers in the 20th century pushed the boundaries of music, and it still divides opinion today, more than 70 years after it was written.

So to summarize, classical music in the 20th century exists on a spectrum of composers challenging the conventions of music.

At one end of the spectrum, we've got composers who used conventional instruments, you know, like an orchestra, and conventional genres like symphony, or concerto, and they used non-functional harmony.

So they changed the way that harmony was used, but it's still based on those 12 semitones of the scale.

And it still uses things like triad chords.

Some composers fused these elements with non-classical musical influences, things like jazz music or folk music.

And the music uses a wide variety of textures and timbres.

So that's one end of our spectrum of 20th century classical music.

In the middle of the spectrum, composers started experimenting with atonality.

So not having a key, not having a tonic chord.

And they've experiment with new technologies, timbres and structures of music, things like using electronic sounds, things like playing the instruments with different unusual techniques.

And then at the extreme end of the spectrum, experimental music composers challenged the very question of what music is.

Things like using those graphic scores, using music determined by chance, by rolling the dice, and things like silent music like John Cage's "4'33"." So we've got this spectrum of different ways that 20th century composers were challenging the conventions of music.

In some ways it was really extremely challenging the fundamentals of what music is, and in other ways, developing and innovating the use of texture, harmony, timbre and so on.

Let's check your understanding.

Give an example of one way that an experimental composer challenged the conventions of classical music in the 20th century.

Pause my video while you think of one.

And here, you might have said: using graphic scores, writing chance music, writing silent music like John Cages "4'33"," or writing microtonal music, which uses notes in between the semitones.

Well done if you managed to think of one or more of those.

For Task A, you're gonna listen to each of these extracts and answer the questions.

For extract A, is this atonal? Justify your answer.

Then, is this orchestra typical for the 20th century? Again, justify your answer, explain why.

Finally, identify one aspect of this music that reflects an important trend in 20th century classical music.

So think about some of those trends and bigger ideas that we were talking about.

And then for extract B, what term describes the harmony in this clip, and what does that term mean? And then identify one other feature that is typical of many 20th century classical compositions.

So you can pause my video now, give this task your best shot.

Let's review this task.

For extract A, this is not atonal because it has a clear tonic and a key.

So we can hear that it's in a key.

We can hear that tonic chord, which means it's not atonal.

This orchestra is typical for the 20th century 'cause it's a large orchestra with a diverse range of instruments, and the non-string sections play very important roles.

So it's in line with a large Romantic orchestra, but often with a few extra instruments added.

One aspect of this music that reflects an important trend is that it draws on non-classical influence.

And in this case, it draws on Cuban and Latin American styles like salsa.

So it's taking musical inference from outside of classical music.

For extract B, the harmony is non-functional.

And you might have also used the word chromatic.

In non-functional harmony, there is a tonic and there is a key, but notes and chords are not used in their traditional ways.

That's the key point about non-functional harmony.

One feature that's typical of many 20th century classical compositions, well, you might have picked up on some of these.

There are diverse timbres.

There's complex textures, there's a large orchestra and there's unconventional melodies that don't sound like typical classical melodies.

So well done if you manage to pick up on one or more of those.

Hopefully now you feel like you've got a good grasp of some of the trends in 20th century classical music.

Now we're gonna move on to focus on minimalist music.

One key style that challenged the principles of the Western Classical Tradition was minimalism or minimalist music.

This developed in the USA from the 1960s and in minimalist music, composers repeat a minimal or small number of short musical ideas over and over again.

The musical ideas don't develop and evolve in the same way that they traditionally would.

So if we are thinking about a Classical or Romantic composer, we'd expect them to write a melody and then they would develop that melody, maybe by changing the texture, developing the harmony, adding some extra notes, using it in a different timbre or instrument or so on.

Instead, we get gradual changes that happen to the texture or the timbre, or the pictures and rhythms of the musical ideas that create variety in contrast.

So rather than developing a musical idea in a nutritional way, we'll get these gradual, incremental changes that occur.

Minimalism often uses diatonic harmony, which uses only notes within the key.

And this contrasts with most 20th century classical music, as we've seen, which, in many cases, uses non-functional harmony or is atonal.

Listen to this example of minimalism.

How many different melodic ideas can you hear playing at once? Pause my video, have a listen.

And well done if you identified there are four simultaneous melodic lines there.

That's a really typical example of minimalism where it's often based on the layering up of different melodies, different rhythms, different patterns gradually being added in layers, just like we heard there.

Now, composers use various techniques to create a varied composition while only using a minimal number of short musical ideas.

And this is the core of minimalism.

You can think of it a bit like a meal; rather than using many complex ingredients combined in lots of complex ways, and this is how the minimalist composers saw Romantic and mainstream 20th century classical composers, minimalist composers use only a few simple ingredients and they combine and use them in different ways to create a satisfying end product.

There are not lots of complex things going on.

It's quite simple, it uses a few ideas, and then the interest comes from the way that those simple ideas are used in quite interesting ways.

Let's work through the process of creating minimalist music.

Hopefully this will highlight to you some of these core principles of minimalism.

You start by creating an ostinato, which is a short, repeating musical idea.

This is the core of minimalist composition.

This would be an example of an ostinato.

(glockenspiel plays simple repeated ostinato) So that's a very simple musical idea, and it's so much simpler than a lot of the really complex ideas we would hear in those 20th century classical composition earlier on.

Once we've created that ostinato, we then repeat it over and over and we could introduce another ostinato over the top.

That might sound like this.

(original ostinato plays) (piano plays second ostinato) The next step of writing a minimalist composition is to develop the texture by adding more parts, including possibly some chordal parts and maybe some rhythmic parts as well.

Here's an example of what that would sound like.

(jabbing chordal rhythm plays over established ostinato) We can then create some variety by changing the octave, changing the dynamics or changing the timbres of the ostinati as well.

Let's hear an example of that.

(multiple layers of ostinati playing) We could also consider creating some rhythmic variety by shifting one of the ostinati rhythmically so that it starts on a different beat.

Have a listen here and see if you can pick up ostinato that's been shifted so that it starts at a different point in the bar.

(multiple ostinati playing) Hopefully you could hear there that the harp and the glockenspiel were playing that same ostinato but the harp started slightly later in the bar, so it creates some really nice contrast and a really interesting texture.

So by reusing those two or three ostinati in different ways, by varying the texture, the timbre and the dynamics, we can easily create an effective composition based on minimal musical ideas.

These ideas are nothing like as complex as some of the ones we might have explored in 20th century classical music earlier on, but they still create just as an effective composition because of the way they're used.

So let's listening to this example now of the way that we could combine all of those different features we've just looked at into quite a satisfying, varied composition.

Here we go.

(glockenspiel ostinato plays over fast clapping rhythm) (second ostinato plays on piano) (bass synth ostinato layer adds) (variant ostinato layer plays from another bar) (ostinati phrases playing) So that outlines that process of minimalist composition.

We take those short, minimal musical ideas and use them in interesting ways to create a varied composition.

And that's what the minimalist composers were doing from the 1960s onwards.

Which two are features of minimalist music? Is it a small number of musical ideas, many different musical ideas, repetition of musical ideas, or extensive development of musical ideas? Pause my video and choose two.

And well done if you chose a small number of musical ideas, that minimal number of musical ideas and the repetition of them, that's key.

A short repeating musical idea is called what? What's the word we're looking for here? I'll give you a few seconds to think of it.

And the correct answer here is called an ostinato, the plural, remember, is ostinati, and that's what minimalism is based on, repeating ostinati.

Now, one of the key figures of the minimalist movement was Steve Reich, who we can see in that picture there.

He's an American composer and his music explored many different ways of being creative and expressive with minimal musical ideas.

He was really one of the pioneering figures of minimalism.

Some of his compositions were purely rhythmic, like this piece called clapping music.

This is based on one simple rhythm which he adapted from a common West African percussion rhythm.

Have a quick listen to it, see if you can pick out that one rhythm that forms the basis of this entire piece.

Pause my video now.

Now, what Steve Reich does in this piece is he uses a technique called phase shifting to create variety and development.

Now, phase shifting is where a rhythm is copied in another part, but starting later in the bar so it plays the exact same rhythm.

But rather than starting on beat one, it might start slightly later.

So let's take this rhythm.

This is quite a complex syncopated rhythm, which is not dissimilar to the one that Steve Reich used in clapping music.

We can start it in one part, like this.

(syncopated clapping rhythm) We can then bring it in in another part, but starting a quaver later.

So that would look like this.

We've got that top part where it starts on beat one, and then we've got a second part where the exact same rhythm starts halfway through beat one.

So one quaver later.

Listen to both of these parts together and notice how it creates a really interesting rhythmic effect.

(polyrhythmic clapping textures overlap) We could then move it so it starts another quaver later.

So instead of starting one quaver later, it now starts two quavers later or a whole beat later.

Again, it's the exact same rhythm, but it's just starting later in the bar.

Now have a listen to what these two sound like together, and you'll hear that it creates another different interesting rhythmic texture.

(layers of syncopated clapping rhythms overlap) And this process creates really interesting polyrhythms that change as the phase shifting takes place.

So although it's only based on that one minimal musical idea, that one simple rhythm, by using this phase shifting technique, it turns it into this really interesting polyrhythmic texture.

Have another listen to this clip of clapping music by Steve Reich and see now if you can hear those different stages of phase shifting where the rhythm shifts slightly later in the bar.

You should be able to pick out a few of those shifts.

Pause my video and have a listen.

Now, much of Steve Wright's music was for conventional classical instruments.

And this example, which is called "Music for 18 Musicians," uses only a few different ostinati.

So as is a theme in minimalism, we're using just a few simple musical ideas.

Have a listen, and now that you've learned some of the ways that minimalist composes developed ideas, see if you can identify some of the ways that the music changes to create variety and contrast during this clip.

Pause my video and see what you can hear.

And well done, then, if you picked up on the fact that new ostinati are added with different rhythms and in different octaves.

So that creates some variety and contrast there.

We've got some new timbres that are added, repeating some of the same ostinati.

We've got some parts changing dynamics.

They're still playing the same notes, the same rhythms, but that changing dynamics creates contrast and variety.

And finally, the texture gets thicker.

As these different parts join in, it creates a thicker texture.

And although it's still only based on those few different ostinati, it creates that variety and contrast.

And that's a typical example of how a minimalist composer takes these ideas and builds them into an interesting and varied piece.

Let's check your understanding.

What is phase shifting? Is it introducing a new musical idea, slightly adapting the picture of a musical idea, layering the same musical ideas starting at different times, or layering the same musical idea using different pitches? I'll give you a few seconds to choose the correct answer.

And well done, then, if you said phase shifting is layering the same musical idea, but starting at different times.

So remember, like that rhythm, starting at half a beat later and then starting at a beat later to create these interesting polyrhythmic textures.

Identify three ways that minimalist composers create a variety in their music.

Pause my video and see if you can think of three.

Okay, and you might have thought of some of these.

Adding or removing layers of sound or instruments, changing the dynamics of parts, changing octaves or playing in a different range, changing or adding different timbres or instruments, phase shifting, that rhythmic process that we looked at, or developing the texture.

And there are many others that we've not even mentioned there.

So there's a huge variety of ways that minimalist composers take these simple ideas and develop them to create an interesting varied composition.

For Task B, listen to this extract and answer the questions.

Question one, what are the repeating patterns called? Explain how this is a typical example of minimalism.

Identify two ways in which the composer creates variety in this extract.

When do you expect this composition to have been written? And finally, describe the harmony of this extract.

And is this typical of most 20th century classical music? Think carefully about that last question.

You can pause my video now and give this task your best shot.

Let's review this task.

So with question one, the repeating patterns are called ostinati.

Remember, that's the plural of the word ostinato.

This is a typical example of minimalism because it uses a minimal number of short musical ideas.

Remember that's those ostinati and it repeats them over and over.

The key phrase, there is minimal number of musical ideas or simple musical ideas.

Two ways in which the composer creates variety, well, the texture gets slightly thicker, the new timbres or instruments that join in, the dynamics of some of the parts change and new ostinati are added.

So there's a variety of different ways there that the composer creates variety.

When do you expect this to have been written? Well, it'd have been written since the 1960s because that is when minimalism first emerged.

And describe the harmony.

Is this typical most 20th century classical music? Well, this is diatonic because it uses only notes from within the key.

So it's not chromatic.

And this is not typical of most 20th century classical music, but it is common in minimalist music.

Most 20th century classical music used either chromatic or non-functional or even atonal harmony.

Whereas in this case, this is diatonic, which contrasts with a lot of 20th century classical music.

And that was partly what the minimalist composers were trying to do.

They were trying to make things simpler again and show that you can make really interesting music with simple ideas, with simple harmony, but by getting really creative with the way you use those ideas.

Hopefully now you feel like you've got a good grasp of what minimalism is and what the purpose of these composers were trying to achieve was.

So let's review today's lesson.

In the 20th century, classical music developed in various ways, and today we've really only touched on a few examples.

Many composers used non-functional harmony, while some experimented with atonal and microtonal music.

Experimental composers challenged core principles of the Western Classical Tradition.

Things like writing silent music or chance music.

And minimalist composers wrote mostly diatonic music based on repeating ostinati and gradual changes.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Hopefully now you feel like you've got a good grasp of what 20th century classical music is all about and some of the ways the composers were innovating in this century.

And I think the point I really want to get across here is that these composers were innovating, they were challenging the conventions of the Western Classical Tradition, and that's something that carries on to this day.

So have to think about in your composition, how can you be innovative? How can you be creative and challenge some of the things that we take for granted in music? Because it's by doing things like this, it's by challenging those norms, by being really innovative and experimental that composers move music on and develop it into the future.

So have a think and hopefully you'll come up with some really interesting and exciting ideas for your own composing.

Thanks for taking part in today's lesson and look forward to seeing you in another one.