Glossary

Altered notation: Notation that uses shapes, symbols, unorthodox directions of reading, and other manipulations of a typical score notation to illustrate something about a piece of music’s meaning or performance. George Crumb was a strong proponent of altered notation.

Extended techniques: Non-traditional ways of performing on instruments, such as the use of amplification for acoustic instruments, multiphonics, key clicks, prepared piano, beatboxing on wind instruments. Examples are nearly endless.

Indeterminate music: Music that involves some level of chance (hence, it is also called “chance music”). The indeterminacy can be in the way the music is composed, by using randomness to notate the music (e.g. Cage Music of Changes), it can be in the performer’s license to perform the sections in any order, or it can be in a lack of specificity of pitch/duration (e.g. graphic notation).

Modernism: An early-twentieth-century movement that rejected tradition and placed emphasis on increasing technological innovation, the role of the individual in art, and an increasing rate of change in artistic disciplines.

Musique concrète: Electronic music built out of acoustic sounds. Incubated at the Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète and promoted worldwide by Schaeffer, Boulez, Stockhausen, Varèse, and Xenakis.

Serialism: A compositional technique that uses series of musical elements, usually pitch, that repeat and are manipulated throughout a work of music.

Socialist Realism: A style of art meant to uphold the principles of the USSR. 1934 guidelines require such art to be proletarian, typical, realistic, and partisan. In practice, symphonies have militaristic elements and end in a major key, and music with text promotes the family, the state, and Stalin.