-
Period: to
John Philip Sousa
Bandmaster, known for marches:
The Washington Post (1889)
Semper Fidelis (1888)
Stars and Stripes Forever (1897)
El Capitan (1896)
At least 9 operettas
Started “The President’s Own” Marine Band -
Period: to
Charles Ives
One of the most innovative and original composers
One of the great American composers of the first half of the 20th century
Most of Ives’ works were not known until the 1950s
Made his living in insurance (Ives & Myrick)
Polytonality
Polyrhythms and Polymeters
Quotations of American tunes and hymns (“Americana”)
Limited atonality
The Unanswered Question (1906) -
Period: to
Luigi Russolo
Futurist painter, composer, and builder of experimental musical instruments wrote a creed or manifesto titled “The Art of Noises” (1913) -
Period: to
Nadua Boulanger
Taught practically all 20th Century American composers except George Gershwin, whom she refused to let in her class.
Composer, but preferred to help other composers find their “voice.”
Her sister died and she dedicated her life to teaching in memory for her sister. -
Period: to
Louis Durey
Born in Paris –non-musical family
Instigated the first Les Six album
Wrote songs for the French Resistance during WWII
Wrote with Vietnamese themes in the 1960s as a protest to the war -
Period: to
Sergei Prokofiev
Russian composer: orchestral pieces, piano works and film music
Seven symphonies, suites, incidental music, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, one cello concerto, operas, ballets, choral music, film scores, and other works.
“Peter and the Wolf” (1936) -
Period: to
Arthur Honegger
Born to Swiss parents – considered himself Swiss
Huge compositional output in all mediums
Appreciated the “architecture of music
Composed most of his works on commission -
Period: to
Darius Milhaud
Born on the southern coast of France
Studied Debussy, immediately rejected Impressionism
Became close friends with Tailleferre – gave her needed encouragement to continue composing
Traveled to Brazil with Claudel in 1918 – this influenced his compositions
American Jazz also influenced his work -
Period: to
Germaine Tailleferre
-
Period: to
William Grant Still
First Black American composer to have a symphony and opera performed by a major ensemble (1931, 1949)
First Black American to conduct a major symphony orchestra (1936)
A Black Pierrot” from Songs of Separation, (1949) -
Period: to
Henry Cowell
John Cage’s teacher
He was an American innovator who was drawn to non-Western music
A huge supporter of Charles Ives
He invented chance music
He invented new techniques for playing the piano
Cowell coined the term tone cluster, which he used often after 1912
“The Tides of Manaunaun” (1912) -
Period: to
Scott Joplin
Raised in Texarkana, Texas
The Sting (1973) featured his music
Title: Maple Leaf Rag (1899)
Charlie Chaplin chose to include it in the music to accompany his 1928 film, The Circus
Joplin himself is playing onto a piano roll -
Period: to
George Gershwin
American composer: wrote classical, concert hall music infused with jazz and popular music
Wrote for Broadway, film, and the concert hall
Virtuoso pianist
His most famous works include:
An American in Paris
Rhapsody in Blue
Porgy and Bess (opera)
Lady, Be Good!
Concerto in F (for piano and orchestra) -
Period: to
Federico Garcia Lorca
Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director
Shot dead by the fascists for making anti-fascist comments and staging anti-fascist plays
Involved with Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Spent time in the U.S. -
Period: to
Georges Auric
Studied composition in Paris with Satie’s teachers, Neo-classicist, Film Music, Ran SACEM, Music journalist -
Period: to
Francis Poulenc
Born in Paris to rich parents
Self-Taught, but had musical tutors
With Milhaud, traveled to meet Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, but both rejected their style
His partner Pierre Bernac (baritone) premiered many of his songs -
Period: to
Duke Ellington
Major band leader in the swing era (1930s) and then in the big band era (1940s)
Composed hundreds of tunes, film scores, concertos, concert pieces, and works for the theater. -
Period: to
Aaron Copland
Composer, teacher, critic, conductor, and sponsor of concerts. Taught at Harvard, gave lectures and conducted festivals in many American schools
Composed a variety of genres, but not a huge amount of works
Copland’s style is mostly tonal. He did write atonal music, but it is not the popular part of his output
Appalachian Spring(1944) -
Period: to
Elliott Carter
An American composer; influential as a teacher and as a composer for 50 years -
Period: to
Olivier Messiaen
Serialist French composer and teacher
Known for incorporating bird songs into his music
Many of his works focus on religious subjects, including aspects of non-Western cultures and religions – “Art is the ideal expression of religious faith.” -
Period: to
John Cage
Innovated many modern compositional techniques
He helped change the definition of music to “organized sound -
Period: to
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday: one of the leading female jazz singers
She broke racial barriers by performing with white bands
Known for her renditions of blues songs
Billie’s Blues (1936) -
Period: to
Billy Strayhorn
Strayhorn composed A Train
Strayhorn and Ellington collaborated on songs for many years
The “A” train is the subway line that runs through Manhattan up to Harlem (NYC) -
Period: to
Milton Babbitt
American composer, music theorist, and teacher interested in computer music
Wrote an article for High Fidelity magazine called, “The Composer as Specialist” (1958)
Later the article was published under the title, “Who Cares if You Listen?” -
Period: to
Leonard Bernstein
Conductor
Composer
Teacher
Pianist
Lecturer
TV personality
West Side Story (1957)
“Make our garden grow” from Candide (1956/1989) -
Les Six "Created"
Think Simon Cowell puts a boy band together, this is Satie's version. Les Six coined by Henri Collet.
Famous works, Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918), Le Bœuf sur le toit (n/d), L'Album des Six (1920), Les mariés de la tour Eiffel (1921) -
Period: to
György Ligeti
Hungarian composer – settled in Germany
Active in electronic music and as a teacher
Interested in clusters of sounds, orchestrally and chorally
His choral music is especially complex and beautiful
Became well-known when his music was in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) -
Period: to
Pierre Boulez
The most important composer (and conductor) of the French avant-garde -
Period: to
Luciano Berio
The leading modern Italian composer of the 20th century
Helped establish the electronic studio in Milan which became a center of avant-garde activity -
Period: to
Karlheinz Stockhausen
German composer who made innovations in electronic music and all sorts of other types of experimental music -
Period: to
George Crumb
American composer, best known for his anti-War sentiments during the Vietnam War (1955-75)
Makes use of non-Western musical idioms
Created a new spatial notation to accommodate his musical innovations -
the Harlem Renaissance
William Grant Still and Langston Hughes (poet)
There emerged a kind of cultural capital of African American arts, including literature, painting, and music
Lasted up until the depression in the 1930s, but provided a cultural movement well into the 1940s -
Period: to
Henryk Górecki
Had so much success and popularity that other composers criticized him
His style combines:
the slow harmonic movement of minimalism
Neo-tonality (with the new consonance of major 2nds)
Clusters
Strong emotional symbolism
TONAL
Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) -
Period: to
Paul Lansky
American composer, theorist, professor at Princeton, and critic
A pioneer in digital sound synthesis
Embraced computer assisted composition and even wrote a computer opera
Followed in Varèse’s footsteps