6.1: Overview of the Time Period

The 20th Century: A collection of smaller artistic movements.

We have now looked briefly at the Baroque Period (1600-1750), the Classical Era (1750-~1820), and a small amount of the 19th and 20th century. This unit covers the various artistic movements within the 20th century through the lens of some of the types of orchestral and chamber music that were introduced in the previous two chapters.

The 20th century is a fascinating time in Western music. The increased globalization allowed for different countries peoples to share their cultures and to exchange their ideas with one another (we'll see this with both Bela Bartok and Claude Debussy). The rise of the electronic medium like the phonograph allowed widespread dissemination of new music. Different styles of music were being explored, and from the early 20th century through the 1950s, one could listen to ragtime, blues, popular song, country, folk jazz, traditional, modernist, or atonal music! It was truly an eclectic century of music. Though this is not an exhaustive list of different types of music, it certainly represents the more common and well-known types of music of the time period.

The 20th century also saw the birth of film and film music. Early film and cinema of the late 1800s through the 1920s were completely devoid of sound; live musicians would often accompany the film on organ or piano to provide music for the audience. Different techniques that we know today in film, video games, and other forms of multimedia like the use of recurring main themes and character themes owe a great amount of debt to early 20th century composers writing for film---who in turn, owe their lineage in part to 19th century composer Richard Wagner. These topics will be explored further in Unit 2 when we discuss music and drama.

The different types of artistic movements that we'll cover in this chapter include Impressionism, Early 20th century Modernism, Expressionism, Avant-garde, and Minimalism. As mentioned above, these are not the only types of movements in the 20th century, but they're certainly those that had the longest and most significant influence on their contemporary society, as well as our own modern society.

For each artistic movement, you'll examine a composer who exemplified that movement, as well as one of their compositions. As you read and listen, make sure you really begin to focus on what makes the music sound so different from other music we've come across.

Lastly, it is important to understand that each of these artistic movements does not refer solely to the musical arts --- it refers to arts in general. As we look at these different movements, we'll also look at a piece of visual art and discuss its attributes. By doing this, we'll be able to understand more clearly what the composers are trying to do and what they're trying to say.

For those interested in downloading a PDF handout of this unit's PowerPoint file, click here.