Analysis 20th. century, 1
november 2001
to index analysis assignments
adress:    http://www.composersmusic.com/20th.htm
1. In a rather common view of music historians Debussy is betrayed as the first 'modern' or 'modernistic' composer. The history of modern music/music of the 20th. century would then start around 1890.
 
a Can you think of some reasons for this view on musical history? (thinking of some technical aspects of Debussy's compositions, starting with the Prelude a l'apre-midi..., but also of his views on composition, and on tehe future of composition, in a more general sense)
b Debussy integrates in his pieces the following 'techniques' and/or 'tone-systems':
  • whole-tone scale
  • modal scales ('neo-modality')
  • octotonic scale (though the more precise examples ore more common in the works of Ravel and Messiaen)
  • pentatonic scale
  • use of chords with 'added notes' (such as b10, #11, b13)
  • use of certain chords either in a nontypical situation (for instance on the 'wrong degree': dominant seventhchord on I or V, minor chord on V etc.) or in a nontypical order (things like V IV I etc.
Which of these techniques can be found in the following pinao-preludes (all: first book)?:
  1. I Danseuse de Delphes
  2. II Voiles
  3. II Les sons et les parfums..
  4. VI Des pas sur la neige
  5. X La Cathedrale engloutie
(you don't have to mention everything, just mention and explain e few typical examples.)
c Make an analysis of one of the Preludes for piano of Debussy (or else: of one of the songs composed after ca. 1892) This I asked you to do already, so maybe you did it already..
d Early in his musical career Debussy is clearly Wagnerianer. Later he behaved as an opponent not only to Wagner, but to german romantic music in general. His views seem to have changed around the World Exhibition of 1889. 
The first very important Debussy piece after this exhibition is the Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun.
  • why can the World Exhibition be seen is an important influence on the composition technique of Debussy?
  • In which way can at least the beginning of Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun be betrayed as an 'answer' to Wagner's Tristan-Vorspiel? Is there any relation with the title of the piece as well?
e Look up (somewhere in a lexicon, internet, book on general music theory..) which are the 7  modes a transposition limitees of Messiaen. Which of these modes are used by Debussy (and Ravel)?
f Speaking of the work of Debussy, very often a term like 'widened tonality' is used. Explain why this makes sense (and maybe mention a few examples).
g Looking to the first movement of La Mer we find another (and compared to Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faun rather new) aspects of Debussy's composition technique:
  • the use of a cell of only a few notes as the basis not only for various melodies, but also as the basis of harmony and accompaniment
Explain
  1. which cell Debussy uses in the beginning of this piece
  2. how he uses it the 'generate' both vertical and horizotal aspects of the piece
  3. in which way the first 'real chords' (beginning of the second page, under the melody g# - a   g# - g# - f#) are dependent of this cell.
2. The period around 1908 can be seen as a 'breaking point' in the work of all three important composers of the Viennese School (Schoenberg, Berg, Webern). Around this year in the work of all three we encounter the transition from a style which can still be heard and analysed as 'late romantic' to the socalled 'free atonality' ('Wiener espressivo'). Before this transition Schoenberg wrote pieces like 'Verklaerte Nacht' - pieces that, though essentially tonal, have moments that are hardly explainably whith traditional means of harmonic analysis.

The first piece that partly can be seen as non-tonal is probably the last movement of the second string quartet of Schoenberg (op.10). Within the work of Schoenberg ths 'free a-tonal period' lasts untill the invention of the twelve-tone- technique in 1924 (but ended in fact earlier, because Schoenberg stopped composing for several years after op.22).
 
a Looking into bars 40-45 of 'Verklaerte Nacht' a vienesse music theorist (I'am happy I forgot his name) declared: "Der Schoenberg beherrscht seine Harmonielehre nicht" (Schoenberg does'nt know how to wrie harmony).
Explain:
  1. why the man thought Schoenberg could not write correct harmony
  2. why he is wrong, nevertheless..
b
  1. Explain why the beginning of the last movement of Schoenberg's opus 10 is definitely non-tonal.
  2. However: the way Schoenberg uses sequenses in this beginning does remind of tonality.. why?
  3. The moment the voice comes in (around bar 20) we can feel a conflict between on the one hand the part of the singer, and on the other hand the accompaniment (at least: part of it), and interprete this 'conflict' as a conflict between atonality and tonality. Explain why.
  4. After the line "ich fuehle luft vom anderen planeten' Schoenberg uses in the string parts the same chords as before, around bar 20. But in a different order... In Philosophie der Neuen Musik Adorno states the technique Schoenberg uses here is typical 'modern', and would be impossible within a traditional tonal context. Explain why.
  5. The same is true for the beginning of 'ich loese mich in...', but here the accompaniment of the strings seems to play the tonal role, whereas the singer has a rather non-tonal line. Eplain this.
  6. What is the (intervallic) relation between the notes of the singers part and the notes of the first 'gesture' in bar 1?
c The piano pieces opus 19 of Schoenberg are typical 'free-atonal' pieces. Though there is no such thing as a system (tonal, twelve-tone or whatever..) used to compose them, it is not entirely impossible to analyse them...
  1. At lots of places within these pieces we can find the use of a 'principle' that is indeed not only typical, but also rather logicalwithin a non-tonal context: the role of consonance and dissonance is inverted: a (more ar less) consonant situation (a chord, an interval) resolves to an (more) dissonant situation. Find one or two examples for this in the first piece of opus 19.
  2. We can state the effect of resloution in these cases is achieved by suggestion only, and not by 'facts'. Explain why.
  3. In the second piece Schoenberg makes rather 'systematic' use of major and minor thirds (and of the diminished and augmented triad). Explain how.
  4. Make a copmplete analysis of one of the opus 19 pieces. (I asked you to do this before, so maybe you have done this already)
d In the Altenberg-Lieder of Alban Berg probably the first twelve-tone chord of musical history is written.
  1. Explain why this chord has in itself nothing to do with twelve-tone technique
  2. In the melody of the singers part ther seems to be a tendency to use all chromatic steps too; though this as not a twelve-tone row either, this kind of situations (also to be found in works of Webern around the same time) can be seen as the first steps towards twelve-tone technique. Explain why.
  3. The situation in the beginning of this movement can als be called Klangfarbenmelodie. Explain this.
e
  1. Tell something about the role of the differnt figures (persons) acting in Pierrot Lunaire, and try to describe in which way the figure of Pierrot develops during the piece.
  2. Give a short description af the relation between the original comedia dell'arte figures and the way they 'behave' within Pierrot (in fact: in the poems of Giraud/Hartleben).
  3. What relation can be found between Pierrot Lunaire and Stravinsky's Petrouchka?

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(sorry the above took me longer then planned....
Martijn)