# data[].attributes.body
When?

1920s

Who?

Schoenberg, Webern, Berg

Why?

Breaks from tonal system.

2nd Viennese School - link to classical music.

Instate a new standard/system.

# data[].attributes.body
Pieces based ordering the 12 semitones to form rows.

Prime - row in order

Retrograde - row backwards

Inversion - inverts the intervals of the prime.

Retrograde-Inversion - inversion backwards.

All rows can be transposed to start on any pitch.

# data[].attributes.body
Atonality.

Dissonance.

Use of serialism.

Angular melodies with wide leaps.

Pointillism

Interpretations of traditional forms

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlE5wt6SnOc

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_X5e9ImQxo

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTwPOHWEHI

# data[].attributes.body
'New Classic'

Clarity and sense line

Primacy of melody over harmony

Stripping out of emotional expression - moving away from romanticism.

Started to favour woodwind over strings.

# data[].attributes.body
Stravinsky

Milhaud

Hindemith

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_E7w9P8x5o

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Debussy Estampes Explained: A-Level Seminar

# data[].attributes.body
When - Post Romantic / Early C20th

Paris at the turn of century - 1900 World Fair

Debussy first encountered Gamelan.

What is it?

Influenced by impressionist painting - giving an impression of something. Reaction to realism and fixed form.

Lack of definition - blurring

Soft edged

Colour and shade - 'nuance'

Who?

Debussy, Ravel,

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UAYCubihlc

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPNrvzdn3qI

# data[].attributes.body
When - 1920s - Schoenberg, Expressionism, emanicipation of dissonance. Stravinsky - Rite of Spring.

1950s-70s - John Cage, Stockhausen, Messiaen, Berio, Varese, Ligeti.

Modern aesthetic - drive for new ideas, harnessing new technology, avant-garde.

# data[].attributes.body
Integral serialism - took the ordering and numbering further to control other musical elements including instruments, rhythm, structure etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans Maître (Audio + Full Score)

# data[].attributes.body
Modes of limited transposition - working to find new systems and combinations to replace tonality.

Based on prime numbers - 17 and 29 note rhythms, sequence never realigns.

Expressive use of dynamics

Dissonant

Challenging for performers (and audience)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps / Weithaas, Gabetta, Meyer, Chamayou

# data[].attributes.body
+Aleatory

4:33

Electronics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
John Cage: 3 Dances, for two prepared pianos (Ali and Leung)

# data[].attributes.body
Micropolyphony

Kubrick

# data[].attributes.body
Opposite of modernism - desire for simplicity, tonal, often major, includes amplified instruments, rhythmic.

Philip Glass

Steve Reich

Terry Riley

La Monte Young

# data[].attributes.body
Musique Concrete - Pierre Schaeffer - combined real life sounds to create a soundscape. 1920s.

Tape techniques.

Synthesizers 1950s/60s - sounds shaped by tone generators.

Effects interacting with real instruments.

# data[].attributes.body
Interest in exploring the possibilities of instruments - techniques, sounds, ranges etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Zlatomir Fung | Luciano Berio: Sequenza XIV for Cello

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Igor Stravinsky. The Rite of Spring (Augurs of Spring)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Philip Glass | Music in Contrary Motion (1969) | Live Performance | Paul David Kean (Electric Organ)

# data[].attributes.body
Tape and voice

# data[].attributes.body
Greek myth. Combination of live voice and instrument and synthesizers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Philomel for soprano, recorded soprano, and synthesized sound

# data[].attributes.body
Audience walk between speakers playing the piece.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Edgard Varèse – Poème électronique (1958)

# data[].attributes.body
Manipulation of recorded vocal sounds.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Mikrophonie II (1965)

# data[].attributes.body
Inspired by similar ideas - ambience and layers to add density and explore tonal possibilities of a single instrument. Exploration of sonority. Reverb, looping, delay (echo)

# data[].attributes.body
Lack of harmonic direction

Free in sense of form - melody and harmony.

Rhythm and pulse undefined, spacious.

Rubato.

Sound over structure.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kaija Saariaho - Petals for Violoncello and Live Electronics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
le portail du violoncelle contemporain en france

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Anssi Karttunen discusses Petals and Kaija Saariaho

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kaija Saariaho - Nymphéa [Jardin secret III] (1987) for string quartet and live electronics

# data[].attributes.body
More tonal and melodic - uses mix of acoustic sound and electronics. Looping, reverb.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spectralism - a short introduction to spectral music

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Liam Cagney pays tribute to the pioneering spectralist composer

# data[].attributes.body
Expanded use of instrument techniques, unusual and complicated demands on the performer. Exploration of instrument sonority and possibilities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Zlatomir Fung | Luciano Berio: Sequenza XIV for Cello

# data[].attributes.body
Extreme level of complexity designed to stretch the performer as an element of the composition. Playing technique - breath tone, percussive tapping, bending, glissandi, extremely disjunct and episodic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Brian Ferneyhough is widely recognized as one of today's foremost living composers.

# data[].attributes.body
Shows how the use of electronics in live performance had become a key influence among composers in 20th Century - also stretching to minimal composers such as Steve Reich.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint (Rachel Yoder, clarinet and prerecorded clarinets)

# data[].attributes.body
Close dissonance, utilisation of sound of harmonic partials/series. Exploration of tonal layering.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Born in Le Havre in 1947, Tristan Murail received advanced degrees in classical and North African Arabic from the Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales Vivantes, as well as a degree in economic science, while at the same time pursuing his musical studies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explorers of the avant-garde will have a fascinating time in the microtonal world

# data[].attributes.body
Exploration of held note dissonance - similar effect to harmoniser. Combination of close harmonies and the acoustic effect created.

# data[].attributes.body
Quarter tone possibilities - smoothness of chromatic movement. The possibilities of close intonation combination.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ivan Wyschnegradsky - 24 Quarter-Tone Preludes for two pianos Op. 22 (audio + sheet music)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Charles Ives - Three Quarter-Tone Pieces [1/3]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Julia Kent is a cellist and composer. She creates music using looped cello, found sounds, and electronics.

# data[].attributes.headline
Sonority: Prelude a l'apres midi d'un faune - Debussy

# data[].attributes.subject
Sonority: Prelude a l'apres midi d'un faune - Debussy

# data[].attributes.body
Use of solo woodwind sonority to open - Flute.

Similarity to the bassoon opening. Debussy places the flute in the mid range creating a more mysterious mellow tone in contrast to the intense and even strained sound of the bassoon voiced in its highest register.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada

# data[].attributes.headline
Rhythm: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

# data[].attributes.subject
Rhythm: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

# data[].attributes.body
Bartók frequently uses irregular rhythmic groupings and driving ostinati, creating tension through constantly shifting accents. This resembles the changing metres and unpredictable accents in Jeu du Rapt where rhythmic instability heightens the sense of violent movement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta / Boulez · Berliner Philharmoniker

# data[].attributes.body
Debussy uses of orchestral colour and layered textures, often combining unusual instrumental timbres to create more of a soundscape. This is comparable to the varied orchestral colours in the Introduction, where Stravinsky uses unusual instrumental registers to create atmospheric textures.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Debussy: La mer | Bernard Haitink and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

# data[].attributes.headline
Sonority: Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra

# data[].attributes.subject
Sonority: Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra

# data[].attributes.body
Bartók highlights individual instrumental groups and unusual timbral combinations, often treating the orchestra as a collection of soloists. This is similar to the distinctive orchestration in Jeu du Rapt where instrumental textures are also sharply contrast to intensify the drama.

A further possible parallel is in the use solo orchestral instruments to imitate traditional Hungarian and Romanian folk instruments and timbres.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra, BB 123

# data[].attributes.headline
Sonority: Symphony of Wind Instruments - Stravinsky

# data[].attributes.subject
Sonority: Symphony of Wind Instruments - Stravinsky

# data[].attributes.body
In the Introduction of The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky gives unusually prominent roles to solo woodwind instruments in extreme registers, most famously the bassoon opening melody in a very high register, followed by layered entries from other woodwinds.

This emphasis on clear instrumental colour and prominent woodwind writing does anticipate Stravinsky’s later Neoclassical works, where wind instruments frequently take structural or melodic prominence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Igor Stravinsky  - Symphonies of Wind instruments [With score]

# data[].attributes.body
Holst uses a relentless 5/4 ostinato rhythm in the strings that drives the entire movement and creates a mechanical, militaristic character. This is comparable to the pounding accented chord ostinato in Les Augures Printaniers, where repeated rhythmic blocks generate a similarly aggressive and primitive energy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Holst: The Planets, Op. 32: I. Mars, the Bringer of War

# data[].attributes.body
CHORD OF THE WEEK #1 - THE PETRUSHKA CHORD - YouTube

Stravinsky layers C major and F♯ major triads simultaneously, producing the famous “Petrushka chord” and creating striking bitonality. This is closely comparable to the E♭7 and E major polychord in Les Augures Printaniers, where two unrelated harmonies clash to create extreme dissonance.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Strawinsky: Petruschka (Fassung 1947) ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada

# data[].attributes.body
Bartók uses dense chromatic harmony and dissonant orchestral chords to create a brutal, unsettling sound world. This parallels the violent harmonic clashes and dissonant chord blocks in Les Augures Printaniers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bartók: Der wunderbare Mandarin ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada

# data[].attributes.headline
Harmony: 5 Orchestral Pieces - Schoenberg

# data[].attributes.subject
Harmony: 5 Orchestral Pieces - Schoenberg

# data[].attributes.body
In these pieces Schoenberg uses atonal harmony and fragmented melodic gestures, producing intense dissonance and unstable musical textures typical of Expressionism. This is comparable to the violent harmonic clashes and dense orchestral sonorities in Jeu du Rapt, though Stravinsky’s music tends to rely more on rhythmic energy and repeated chord patterns.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Schönberg |  Fünf Orchesterstücke op. 16

# data[].attributes.body
Bartók incorporates authentic Eastern European folk melodies, often using modal scales and narrow melodic ranges. This is similar to the folk-derived bassoon melody at the start of the Introduction, which also draws on Russian folk material.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Béla Bartók - Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra Sz.56 BB 68

# data[].attributes.body
Kodály writes melodies based on Hungarian folk scales and dance rhythms, giving the music a distinctly national character. This mirrors the folk-influenced melodic style in the Introduction of The Rite of Spring.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kodály: Háry János Suite / Rattle · Berliner Philharmoniker

# data[].attributes.body
Ravel often uses extended tonal harmony and modal inflections, creating ambiguous tonal centres rather than clear functional progressions. This is comparable to the weak tonal focus in the Introduction of The Rite of Spring, where harmony functions more as colour than traditional progression.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé | Sir Simon Rattle | Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks | BRSO