- •Music in the Modern World western music of the twentieth century (general survey)
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Additional Assignments
- •Some twentieth-century composers arnold schoenberg (1874-1951)
- •The composer speaks: arnold schoenberg
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Bela bartok (1881-1945)
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Bartok
- •Discussion Points
- •Paul hindemith: his life and work (1895-1963)
- •The composer speaks: paul hindemith
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Electronic music
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Stravinsky
- •Additional Assignments
- •Britten's operas
- •The composer speaks: benjamin broten
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions about Britten
- •Additional Assignments
- •Menotti. The opera composer
- •The composer speaks: gian carlo menotti
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Michael tippett: a child of our time
- •30 Questions on the Text
- •Experimental (avant-garde) music
- •Olivier messiaen
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Discussion Points
- •Additional Assignments
- •George ligeti (b. 1923)
- •Karlheinz stockhausen
- •35 Discussion Activities Questions on the Text about Ligeti
- •About Stockhausen and Experimental Composers
- •Questions about Western Music of the 20th Century
- •Points for Discussion and Written Compositions
- •Popular music rock
- •Points about rock
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Elvis presley - story of a superstar
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The beatles
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •English and American Musical History english music (general survey)
- •1. Opera.
- •2. Performing groups.
- •3. Festivals.
- •4. Education.
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •The golden age in england
- •The english virginal school
- •Virginal music composers. William Byrd (1542-1623)
- •Byrd in his time and ours
- •English madrigalists
- •"The british orpheus"
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •56 American music (general survey)
- •61 Charles ives, the first truly american composer (1874-1954)
- •Charles ives and american folk music
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The relation of jazz to american music
- •Louis armstrong
- •The swing era (duke ellington)
- •Spirituals
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The Art of Musical Interpretation the problem of interpretation
- •Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
- •Questions for Discussion
- •Additional Assignments
- •Conducting
- •The art of conducting
- •Questions on the Text
- •Some musical encounters
- •Questions on the Text
- •86 Leonard bernstein
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Herbert von karajan
- •Interview with herbert von karajan
- •The art of piano playing: glenn gould
- •Interview with glenn gould
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The art of violin playing: eugene ysaye
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •The world of opera handel in performance
- •Franco zeffirelli: the romantic realist
- •La divina: maria callas
- •Callas remembered
- •Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Peter pears: ronald crichton speaks
- •Discussion Activities Comprehension Questions and Points for Discussion
- •Notes Page 5
- •Page 21
- •Page 31
- •Page 32
- •Page 34
- •Page 35
- •Page 37
- •Page 39
- •Page 46
- •Page 47
- •Page 48
- •Page 49
- •Page 52
- •Page 53
- •Page 54
- •Page 57
- •Page 58
- •Page 59
- •Page 60
- •Page 61
- •Page 62
- •Page 63
- •Page 65
- •Page 66
- •Page 111
- •Page 112
- •Sources
- •Contents
Discussion Activities Questions on the Text
1. Say what you know about Bartok's musical education and environment. What were the main sources of his inspiration? Name his first major compositions.
2. When did Bartok begin his systematic exploration of Hungarian folk music? Who accompanied him on his early expeditions? What was the outcome of these trips?
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3. What other folk music, besides Hungarian, did Bartok study? What conclusion did he arrive at?
4. What is Bartok's significance as a "folk" composer?
5. Find in the text the passage describing how Bartok's musical language was formed. What impact did folk music make on Bartok's concept of tonality, harmony, and rhythm?
Questions about Bartok
1. What other "folklore" composers do you know? Make a comparison between Bartok's approach to Hungarian folk music and that of Kodaly. Say in what respects they differ.
2. Compare Bartok with Schoenberg and say how Bartok expanded the traditional notions of tonality.
3. Why do you think Bartok's musical language is considered to be new and highly individual? How do you understand the following: "Bartok's music is a highly individual blend of elements transformed from his own admirations: Liszt, Strauss, Debussy, folk music, and Stravinsky"?
4. Say what you know about Bartok as a pianist.
5. What do you know about Bartok's visits to Russia?
6. Name Bartok's most important works. Why, in your opinion, are the six string quartets regarded as his greatest achievements?
Discussion Points
1. Do you agree with the following statement: "Bartok, not Schoenberg, is the true revolutionary of the early 20th century"? Give your reasons.
2. Bartok's role as founder of the Hungarian national school of the 20th century.
Paul hindemith: his life and work (1895-1963)
Those writers who enjoy finding a spiritual kinship between one famous composer and another have described Hindemith (1895-1963) as "a twentieth-century Bach". The relationship between these two composers is not difficult to trace. Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis* has a strong similarity in purpose and method to the Well-Tempered Clavier; and the works grouped under the title of Kammermusik (Chamber Music), can be described as contemporary Brandenburg Concertos. The bond that ties Hindemith to Bach is counterpoint. With both composers, polyphony is the basis of their thinking; with both, polyphony serves as the material out of which mighty architectural structures are built. Yet one might say of Hindemith what was once said so well of Bach: "The best way to listen to Bach's music is to forget the word counterpoint and to listen just for the music."
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With Hindemith, counterpoint is not the end, but the starting point. He is no neo-classicist living in the past, but a very modern composer belonging to our times. Though counterpoint is his method, there is independence in his thinking. His music is linear, by which we mean that the voices move with complete freedom of harmonic relationships. It has intensity, concentration, energy - qualities that we associate with contemporary expression rather than with Bach. It is sometimes dissonant, sometimes atonal.
In his treatise, The Craft of Musical Composition - which some writers consider to be the most important theoretical work on music since Rameau's* - Hindemith has given us a clue to his technique by analyzing the techniques of contemporary composers. All tone combinations are possible as an altogether new conception of "key" is realised; melody is freed from its dependence of harmony.
Strange to say of a composer whose method is so complex and whose language is so remote, Hindemith did not keep himself altogether aloof from his public. As a matter of fact, he strongly felt the responsibility of the composer to society. Consequently, he produced a great number of works for mechanical organ, radio, pianola, theater, etc. This music has often been described as Gebrauchsmusik* - functional music - a term invented for Hindemith.
Hindemith was born in Hanau, Germany, on November 16, 1895, and studied at the Frankfurt Conservatory. In Frankfurt, Hindemith distinguished himself as a violinist (he was concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opera House Orchestra), conductor, founder and violinist of the Amar String Quartet (which specialized in contemporary chamber music), and, finally, as a composer. His early works, introduced at the Donaueschingen Festivals of contemporary music in Baden-Baden between 1921 and 1923, attracted attention. In the half-dozen years that followed, Hindemith became one of the major creative figures in Germany, particularly after the successful premieres of his operas Cardillac (1926) and Neues vom Tage* (1929).
In 1927, he was appointed professor of composition at the Berlin Hochschule,* a post he held up to the time of Hitler. Soon after the Nazis took over Germany, Hindemith became the center of a celebrated political and musical controversy. The Nazis did not look with favor on Hindemith, despite his international fame. His music was banned on all German concert programs.
In 1935 Hindemith left Germany, and went to Turkey, on the invitation of that government, to help reorganize its musical life. After that, Hindemith came to the United States and taught at Yale.*
When the war ended, Hindemith's music was again played in Germany. He returned to Europe in 1947, visiting Italy, England, Germany, and other countries. In 1953 he settled in Switzerland. In 1949-50 he spent a year at Harvard University, giving lectures, later published as A Composer's World.
In 1951 he accepted a teaching post at Zurich University, dividing his time with his duties at Yale, but in 1953 resigned from Yale
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and returned to Europe. In the last decade of his creative life Hindemith concentrated on introspective and spiritual compositions. He also devoted much time to conducting. In 1957 he completed the opera Die Harmonie der Welt (The Harmony of the World), which was staged in Munich in August of that year, with only moderate success.
The best of his music occupies an important place in the history of 20th century compositions.
Based on: The Complete Book of Twentieth-Century Music; The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music