The Modern and Post-Modern Eras

The Modern Era

1910-Present

Key words

• Expressionism

• Chance Music

• 2nd Viennese School

• Impressionism

• Neo-classicism

• Nationalism

Social Context

The Modern Era has been a period of massive technological and socio-political change, sparked largely by the increasingly rapid transit of people and information (via automobiles, airplanes, spacecraft and telephone, radio, television, satellite transmission, the Internet, etc.).

War, what is it good for?

There have been more wars and outbreaks of social violence in the past century than in all previous ages combined, including two major World Wars that dramatically affected all aspects of life in Europe and America between 1914-18 (WWI) and 1939-45 (WWII).

The fall of Imperialism

This era has seen the gradual decline of the worldwide British Commonwealth (which once included India, Hong Kong and other parts of the Far East, much of Africa, Canada, and the British Isles), the establishment of the United States as the major force of the Free World, and the rise and fall of Soviet Communism.

Multiple Select

What social and political changes were happening during the Modern Era? Check all that apply

• World wars

• Fall of the Roman Empire

• Fall of Imperialism

• Rise of patronage

• Rise and fall of Communism

Multiple Choice

What sparked the biggest change during the modern era?

• Neoclassicism

• The movement of people and information

• War

• Patrongae

Untradtion

The Modern Era   has been a period of turbulent change in musical style and taste. Many modern "art-music" composers have  explored untraditional sounds  and have  based their music on rhythm, texture and tone color , instead of the more traditional aspects of melody and harmony.

Notable Composers of the Modern Era

• Claude Debussy ( 1862-1918)

• Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

• John Cage

• Igor Stravinsky

Impressionism

The first modern style to emerge was  Impressionism—developed in the late 1890s by the French composer Claude DEBUSSY  as a  rejection of excessive Wagnerian German Romanticism. Modeled after the impressionistic art movement, musical  impressionism is based on understatement, blurred effects, and the creative use of color.

Expressionism

In answer to French Impressionism,  Austrian-German composers developed Expressionism around the turn of the 1900s, as an expansion of Wagnerian Romanticism. 

Expressionism is...

• The form of the 2nd Viennese School

• Meant to shock listeners

• Based on graphic or morbid texts and themes

Chance Music

Music composed at random or based on an improvised selection of material is called  chance music

Neoclassicism

Between 1920 and 1940, many composers began to incorporate traditional Classic/Baroque forms and gestures into their modern-sounding works. The Russian composers Igor STRAVINSKY and Sergei  PROKOFIEV  were among the first to "update the past" in the style known as neo-Classicism.

Multiple Select

Who were notable composers of this era? Check all that apply.

• Copland

• Bach

• Cage

• Tchaikovsky

Multiple Choice

Impressionism is...

• being impressed

• a rejection of excessive Wagnerianism

• impressing someone

Multiple Select

Expressionism is...Select all that apply

• Expressing yourself

• An expansion of Wagnerian Romanticism

• Designed to shock listeners

• Based on graphic or morbid texts

Multiple Choice

Neo-Classicism is...

• The revival of Classical and Baroque forms of harmony

• Being classy

• Separating music into classes