Ways of manipulating this basic musical material (the TONE ROW) included:
RETROGRADE: the TONE ROW played backwards
INVERSION: A mirror image of the TONE ROW (if you played it with the TONE ROW itself, it would create CONTRARY MOTION
These two techniques could be combined to create a RETROGRADE INVERSION.
Because they are based on musical material in which each note is given equal importance, as opposed to traditional tonal music in which some notes (eg. the key note) are more important than others, SERIAL compositions often sound very DISSONANT and are ATONAL. This depends on the TONE ROW, though - much of Berg's Violin Concerto, a SERIAL composition sounds TONAL (see track one in the playlist).
Key composers initially were Schoenberg himself and Berg and Webern, although many Twentieth Century composers used SERIAL techniques to a greater or lesser extent in their music.
SPRECHGESANG (also known as 'Sprechstimme') is a technique used in vocal music where the singer is required to use the voice in an expressive manner half-way between singing and speaking. The rhythm and variations in pitch are notated by the composer.
It appears in a number of pieces by Schoenberg and Berg (early 20th century), of which four examples are given in this playlist.
NEOCLASSICAL From about 1920 onwards this style in music came about when composers reacted against ROMANTICISM and wanted to return to the structures and styles of earlier periods but still use DISSONANT TONAL and even ATONAL harmonies. In orchestral music, they tended to write for smaller orchestras, more like those of the CLASSICAL period (listen, for example, to the clear textures and small orchestra in the third track in the playlist, from Prokofiev's 1st Symphony).
NB. It wasn't just CLASSICAL forms and styles that were used eg. Stravinsky's 'Dumbarton Oaks' (track 1 in the playlist) is written in the style of a CONCERTO GROSSO, which is of course a BAROQUE form. Another examples is the use of HARPSICHORDS in Poulenc's 'Concert Champetre' (track 4).
Stravinsky and Prokofiev were prominent composers of this style, although both wrote in other styles throughout their careers.
MINIMALISM is a Twentieth Century style which developed in the USA in the 1960s. It is very repetitive, being based on simple rhythmic and melodic figures which are constantly repeated with very slight changes each time. Stravinsky and Prokofiev were prominent composers of this style, although both wrote in other styles throughout their careers.
Unlike some C20 music it tends to feature CONSONANT, rather than DISSONANT, HARMONY.
Like IMPRESSIONISM and ROMANTIC music, it is a style which is used quite often in film and tv music.
Key composers include Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
ALEATORIC
Music composed by using chance procedures (eg. by rolling a dice - alea means 'dice' in Latin), or in which compositional decisions are left to the performer (eg. if the performer has to interpret a graphic score instead of conventional notation, or they have to choose when to start or begin a particular passage). Perhaps the most famous example is John Cage's 4'33 in which the performer or performers sit in silence for four minutes thirty-three seconds; partly, the idea is that whatever ambient noise is heard in the performing space constitutes the music.
MUSIC CONCRETE
Recorded sounds which are transformed using simple editing techniques such as cutting and re-assembling, playing backwards, slowing down and speeding up.
This became possible with the advent of tape machines - the first track in this playlist (Etude aux Chemins de Fer) is one of the earliest examples, manipulating recordings of a steam train.
It was by using tape machines eg. Track 4 (Come Out) that Steve Reich struck upon the idea of phasing that he used in his later minimalist compositions; when he started the same recording on two different tape machines and they gradually went out of sync as they were running at slightly different speeds.
The use of a recording from the Tokyo underground system at the start of 'Twilight World' (Track 5) could also be regarded as MUSIQUE CONCRETE. Another example from Pop Music is the start of Pink Floyd's 'Money', where cash machines are heard in a rhythmic OSTINATO (but you can't get Pink Floyd tracks on Spotify!)
Two 20th Century Harmonic Techniques
Arguably the biggest development in C20 Western Music was Schoenberg's rejection of conventional TONAL HARMONY and invention of his SERIAL method of composition. Some C20 composers however used other harmonic techniques which were pretty much new as well, amonst them two that are concepts in Higher and Advanced Higher Music:
MICROTONE
This refers to any interval that is smaller than a semitone (in conventional TONAL HARMONY, as well as SERIAL HARMONY, the smallest interval used is a semitone.) Here are the opening bars of the first piece on the playlist, Szymanowski's 'Mythes'. Notice how he uses an upside down 'flat' symbol to represent a quarter-tone, and listen to the effect it produces:
While the microtones are used sparingly in 'Mythes', alongside more conventional TONALITY, the Czech composer Alois Hába wrote pieces that rely entirely on MICROTONES (eg. track 2). He even invented new instruments in order to play these compositions.
MICROTONES can also be heard in some traditional music from Eastern Europe as well as in Arabic music and some Asian music (eg. tracks 5&6)
POLYTONALITY
This is the use of two or more keys at the same time. Here are two examples:
At the start of Milhaud's 'Botafogo' (track 1), the right hand of the piano is playing in F# major, while the left hand plays in F minor.
The prologue of Britten's opera 'Billy Budd' (track 2) features lower strings playing in E flat, and upper strings playing a CANON in C major.
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