MUS434-571.3 Music of the Modern Era

1950s Ivory Tower, Modernism, Birth of the Avant-Garde Mar. 5, 2013

The 1950s: Cold War Era

•  Rebuilding Europe / Asia •  Booming American economy – Rise in middle class •  Military industrial complex and manufacturing •  New technology / electronics (transistor) •  G.I. Bill, Social Security expansion, Interstate Highway

System •  Consumerism, credit cards, low-interest home loans

Pierre Boulez – Le Marteau sans Maître (1955)

•  “The Hammer without a Master” •  Contralto, alto flute, viola, guitar, vibraphone,

xylorimba, percussion – Different combinations each movement

•  Surrealist poetry of René Char •  9 movements, grouped in 3 sets –  I, III, VII "l'artisanat furieux”(furious craftmanship) –  II, IV, VI, VII "bourreaux de solitude” (hangmen of

solitude) –  V, IX "Bel édifice et les pressentiments” (stately

building and presentiments)

Pierre Boulez – Le Marteau sans Maître (1955)

•  Total Serialism (works from early 50s) –  Pitch, dynamics, rhythm all serialized

•  Pitch Multiplication –  Start with tone row

•  3 5 2 1 T E 9 0 8 4 7 6 –  Groups pitches from row

by pattern 2–4–2–1–3 •  Each group a “harmonic field”

–  Find sum of every possible pair of clusters •  (2 1 10 E) + (9 0) = ((2+9) (1+9) (T+9) (E+9) (2+0) (1+0) (T+0) (E

+0)) = (E T 7 8 2 1 T E) •  Eliminate duplicate pitches = (E T 7 8 2 1)

Pierre Boulez – Le Marteau sans Maître (1955)

•  Premiered at Baden-Baden Festival (representing France)

•  Highly structured around mathematical relationships, process of pitch multiplication

•  Clear influence of Pierrot Lunaire – Disjunct vocal melodies, humming, Sprechstimme, vocal

noises •  Influence of modern jazz, African balafon (xylorimba),

Balinese Gamelan (vibraphone), guitar (Japanese koto) + percussion

Elliott Carter – String Quartet No. 2 (1959)

•  Four movements with introduction, conclusion, and solo cadenzas as interludes –  I. Introduction –  II. (I) Allegro fantastico –  III. Cadenza for Viola –  IV. (II) Presto scherzando – V. Cadenza for Cello – VI (III). Andante espressivo – VII. Cadenza for 1st violin – VIII. (IV) Allegro –  IX. Conclusion

Elliott Carter – String Quartet No. 2 (1959)

•  Each instrument conceived as a character, exemplified by interval content, articulation, etc. –  Violin I: virtuosic, assertive and fantastical (m3, P5, M9) –  Violin II: regular rhythms throughout, the character of its part

described by Carter as "laconic, orderly...sometimes humorous” (M3, M6, M7)

–  Viola: expressive, doleful lines; odd rhythmic relationships (tritone, m7, m9)

–  Cello: impetuous, frequent acellerandi and ritardandi (P4, m6, Octave+tritone)

•  Each instrument in turn 'leads' a movement, the others interpreting the gestures of the leader in terms of their own repertoire of intervals and articulations

Elliott Carter – String Quartet No. 2 (1959)

Elliott Carter – String Quartet No. 2 (1959)

•  Relationships between characters change throughout piece, becoming more unified as movements progress, more combative in solo interludes

From The Music of Elliott Carter by David Schiff

Elliott Carter – String Quartet No. 2 (1959)

•  All-Interval Tetrachords (0146) and (0137)

From The Music of Elliott Carter by David Schiff

Elliott Carter – String Quartet No. 2 (1959)

•  Influence of Boulez, highly structured modern music with crafted complex relationships

•  Multiple musics at once (Ives, Milhaud) •  Highly contrapuntal despite fragmentation

Conlon Nancarrow – Study for Player Piano No. 21 (Canon X) (year uncertain) •  Canon in which voices accelerate and

decelerate at varying rates •  Complex polyrhythms unplayable by humans •  Influenced by jazz (Art Tatum, Earl Hines),

isorhythmic medieval music, Indian classical music

•  Moved to Mexico in 1940 to escape anti-Communist American sentiment

Grazyna Bacewicz – String Quartet No. 4 (1951)

•  Studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris •  Won first prize International Composers’

Competition in Liège for this piece •  Neo-classicism with more modern harmonic

language: Eastern European influence, use of folk material (especially during Stalin’s reign)

•  Made career as composer, influential in Poland and beyond

•  String Quartet No. 4 more expressive, more loosely structured than many of her later works

Summary

•  Avant-garde / ultramodern music of 1950s – New highly structured processes and systems of

organization with connections to traditional form –  Isolation of “serious” composers doing “research”

in music within academia –  Increasing influence of technology and interaction

with “foreign” music / ideas –  Influence of Second Viennese School – Cold War influence (competition, invention,

identity, Communist sympathizers leave US)