The Classical Music Book

MODERN 1900 –1950 239 Dressed in red, the title character of Judith Weir's opera Miss Fortune takes center state at the United K ...

AN AUDIENCE SHOULDN’T LISTEN WITH COMPLACENCY PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21 (1912), ARNOLD SCHOENBERG US_240-245_Schoenberg.indd 240 2 ...

US_240-245_Schoenberg.indd 241 26/03/18 1:01 PM ...

242 U ntil the end of the 19th century, music had been largely dictated by a tonal system, in which keys, chords, and scales com ...

243 the 17th century, was being stretched to its limits. In 1908, he also faced a personal crisis when his wife, Mathilde, had a ...

244 PIERROT LUNAIRE, OP. 21 The resulting music chimed well with expressionism and had a disturbing, often nightmarish effect. W ...

MODERN 1900 –1950 245 unsettling atmosphere, and the dissonance of the harmonies suits the strange and sometimes violent imagery ...

I HAVEN’T UNDERSTOOD A BAR OF MUSIC IN MY LIFE, BUT I HAVE FELT IT LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS (1913), IGOR STRAVINSKY US_246-251_Stra ...

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248 A lthough the turn of the 20th century saw an increasing fascination with the exotic, no music really prefigured the explosi ...

249 Dancers of the Ballets Russes pose in costume for the first performance of Le Sacre du printemps at the Théâtre des Champs-É ...

250 on. Conversely, softer passages sometimes call upon mysterious- sounding string harmonics. Dramatic premiere The riot that b ...

251 The last page of Stravinsky’s handwritten score for Le Sacre shows the chaotic nature of the piece, with some huge intervals ...

252 AND EVER WINGING UP AND UP, OUR VALLEY IS HIS GOLDEN CUP THE LARK ASCENDING (1914–1920), RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS T he German ...

MODERN 1900 –1950 253 emptied rural areas of much of their population, and their folk traditions, spurred Vaughan Williams, Hols ...

254 STAND UP AND TAKE YOUR DISSONANCE LIKE A MAN SYMPHONY NO. 4 ( 1916 ), CHARLES EDWARD IVES M any of the manuscripts of the Am ...

255 Henry Cowell, who worked with Ives, was one of the most innovative of the experimental composers, as evidenced by his Mosaic ...

256 I HAVE NEVER WRITTEN A NOTE I DIDN’ T MEAN PARADE ( 1917 ), ERIK SATIE A t the end of the 19th century, a new musical nation ...

257 See also: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Quartet for the End of Time 282–283 ■ 4 ́33 ̋ 302–305 ■ In C 312–313 ■ ...

258 LIFE IS A LOT LIKE JAZZ ... IT’S BETTER WHEN YOU IMPROVISE RHAPSODY IN BLUE (1924), GEORGE GERSHWIN T he start of the 20th c ...