The 20th-21st Century

Prepared Piano - John Cage

Contemporary Classical Performing Arts (The 20th-21st Century)

From Sony's Essentials of Music (no longer available)

Historical Themes

• Phenomenal changes in technology

• The advent of instantaneous global communication

• The growth and eventual decline of totalitarian culture

Musical Context

• Ambivalent attitudes toward the musical past

• A widening gap between "art" and "popular" music

• The advent of sound recording

• The birth of a "World Music" culture

Wikipedia

• Performing Arts - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performing_arts

• Contemporary Classical Music - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_Music

• Modern Era - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_world

• Twentieth Cenutry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century

• Theatre - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatres

• Dance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DanCe

Wikipedia Discussion of Arts and Culture in the 20th Century

• • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th-century_classical_music

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th-century_music

• As the century begins, Paris is the artistic capital of the world, where both French and foreign writers, composers and visual artists gather. By the end of the century, the focal point of global culture had moved to the United States, especially New York City and Los Angeles.

• Movies, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many movies and music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world.

• After gaining political rights in the United States and much of Europe in the first part of the century, and with the advent of new birth control techniques women became more independent throughout the century.

• Rock and Roll and Jazz styles of music are developed in the United States, and quickly become the dominant forms of popular music in America, and later, the world.

• Modern art developed new styles such as expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.

• The automobile provided vastly increased transportation capabilities for the average member of Western societies in the early to mid-century, spreading even further later on. City design throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car. The car became a leading symbol of modern society, with styles of car suited to and symbolic of particular lifestyles.

• Sports became an important part of society, becoming an activity not only for the privileged. Watching sports, later also on television, became a popular activity.

• Post-World War II performing arts were highlighted by the resurgence of both ballet and opera in Europe and the United States.

• Alvin Ailey's revolutionary American Dance Theater was created in the 1950s, signaling the radical changes that were to come to performing arts in the 1950s and 1960s as new cultural themes bombarded the public consciousness in the United States and abroad. Postmodernism in performing arts dominated the 1960s to large extent.

• Rock and roll evolved from rhythm and blues during the 1950s, and became the staple musical form of popular entertainment.

Music in the Modern Era

20th Century Music

• Dovesong Music through the Centuries - http://www.dovesong.com/centuries/twentieth_cen.asp

• Contemporary Classical Music Styles - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_classical_music

• 20th Century Music - http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/20thcenturymusic/

• Jazz: PBS - http://www.pbs.org/jazz/

• Jazz - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

• Rock and Roll - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_and_Roll

• Jazz and Blues from ArtsEdge - https://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/themes/arts-resources-jazz-blues

Dance

• Ballet Timeline - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballet_timeline

• 20th Century Concert Dance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century_concert_dance

• Modern Dance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_dance

• Wikipedia List of Dance Styles - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dance_style_categories

Theatre

• Glossary of Theatrical Technical Terms - http://www.theatrecrafts.com/glossary/glossary.shtml

• Drama in the 20th Century - http://www.theatredatabase.com/20th_century/

• History of American Theatre - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_theatre

• 20th Century Theatre - http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd130et/EarlyTwentieth.htm

• Konstantin Stanislavsky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski

• Lee Strasburg Method - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Strasberg

• Bertold Brecht - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht

• The Golden Age of Theatre - http://collectorspost.com/GoldenAge.htm

• Vaudeville - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/vshtml/vshome.html

Listening

• Click Here Ionization by Edgar Varese (early electronic music)

• Igor Stravinski Russian Ballets - Rite of Spring and Firebird

• Click Here for 12-Tone (atonal) Piano Music by Arnolod Schoenberg

• War Requiem by Benjamin Britten

• American in Paris by George Gershwin

• Hoedown Rodeo from Billy the Kid Ballet Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland

• Prepared Piano by John Cage

• Facades by Phillip Glass