Twentieth Century

Main Composers: Stravinsky, Schönberg, Bartok, Prokofiev

The breakdown of the old certainties of society at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, heightened by the tragedy of the 1st World War, propelled composers away from the lush magnificence of late-Romantic music into a leaner and often more aggressive style.

Melodies – the long emotional melodies of the Romantic period were dead. Now composers were more inclined to deal in short fragments (called motifs rather than melodies), whose notes often didn’t relate to each other in any traditional way.

Textures – a real variety; sometimes very dense, sometimes thin.

Harmony – the most progressive composers abandoned the traditional major-minor harmonic system. Sometimes there was no sense of key at all – the technical term for this is atonal. The best word to use in your exam answers is dissonant.

Rhythm and metre – can be highly variable, with frequent and sometimes disorientating changes of time signature and accents.

Dynamics – sudden, dramatic contrasts can be a feature.

Ornamentation – rare, but not impossible.

Keyboard range – the full range is of course available, although sometimes contemporary composers choose a restrictive range.

Pedal – can be extensive, but the style is often dry and percussive, with limited pedal.

As a general hint, even if the extract has elements that might seem to belong to other periods, if it is dissonant, it is most likely to be Twentieth-Century.

Suggested listening

Bartok ‘From the Diary of a Fly’ from ‘Mikrokosmos’ – Highly dissonant; no sense of traditional major or minor key; frequent changes of time signature and accentuation patterns.

Schönberg 6 Little Piano Pieces, Op.19 (especially Nos. 4, 5) – Atonal; rapidly changing rhythmic patterns; dramatic dynamic changes; little sense of traditional melody.

Prokofiev No.10 from ‘Visions Fugitives’ Op.22 – The performer is instructed to play “ridiculously”; deliberately grotesque harmonies; spiky staccato accompaniment; sudden interjections at much higher pitch; motifs rather than melodies.