completely atonal, without reference
to any key. The difficulty of creating
a cohesive structure led him to
develop a system of composing in
which, instead of a having a “home
key,” all 12 notes of the chromatic
scale are given equal importance
and arranged in a series. This
12-tone serialism became the
compositional method of choice
not only for Schoenberg but also
for his students Alban Berg and
Anton Webern (known as the
“Second Viennese School”).Shock of the new
In addition to these influential
French and Viennese composers,
there was a highly significant
Russian composer, Igor Stravinsky.
Stravinsky made his name writing
ballet music in the style of the
Russian nationalist composers, butin 1913, he shocked audiences with
his discordant portrayal of Russian
folklore in Le Sacre du printemps.
The music was both primitive and
ultra-modern, and a world away
from the Romantic conception of
folk-inspired orchestral music.
Russian modernism was short-
lived: after the revolutions of 1917,
the Soviet authorities decried
anything that smacked of elitism.
Stravinsky, like several other
Russian composers, spent the
rest of his life abroad.
Nationalism was far from dead,
however, as the late works of Jean
Sibelius and Leoš Janá cˇ ek show.
It had also taken root in England,
thanks to composers such as Ralph
Vaughan Williams, who toured the
country collecting folk tunes. The
distinctive nuances of English folk
music shaped the styles ofBenjamin Britten and Michael
Tippett in the next generation.
Another collector of folk music was
Béla Bartók, who, like Stravinsky,
did not integrate the songs and
dances of his native Hungary into
an existing style but used them
to create a new, modernist style.
Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and
Bartók all spent their final years
in the US, which had become a
center for new music. In the first
half of the 20th century, it had
given birth to ragtime and jazz and
popular tunes by masters of the
genre such as George Gershwin.
It had also seen a very American
tradition of experimentalism
emerge, starting with Charles Ives,
and attracting émigrés such as
Edgard Varèse, which would come
to shape the course of musical
development into the 21st century. ■1928
1930 1941
1933 1941 1944
1937 1945
Austrian composer
Anton Webern’s
instrumental work
Symphonie further
develops Schoenberg’s
ideas on serialism.Commissioned by one-handed
pianist Paul Wittgenstein,
Maurice Ravel writes Piano
Concerto in D for the Left Hand,
infused with jazz-infuenced
rhythms and harmonies.British composer Michael
Tippett completes his
pacifistic oratorio A Child of
Our Time, influenced by events
from his life and Jungian
psychoanalysis.Edgard Varèse’s
Ionisation premieres
as one of the first
concert hall pieces
written solely for a
percussion ensemble.Olivier Messiaen stages
the first production of
Quartet for the End of Time
in the German prisoner
of war camp where he
is being held.Aaron Copland
demonstrates American
nationalism with
Appalachian Spring,
Martha Graham’s ballet
about young pioneers.Having been denounced
by Stalin, Dmitri
Shostakovich writes
his Fifth Symphony,
which is acclaimed
by the Soviet regime.Benajamin
Britten revives
British opera with
Peter Grimes, a
stirring drama about
a bullied outcast.MODERN 1900 –1950 227
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