The History of Music - 20th Century

The 20Th Century
Why do musical styles change? The evolution of musical styles is certainly somewhat a result of the influence individual composers have on one another. Unfortunately, this influence isn't always positive. Sometimes, the work of a composer is a reaction against the style practiced by his predecessors, even when theyadmire the music they produced. An example of this could be drawn from the relationship of the Classical era to the Baroque era which it followed, personified by the relationship of the music of J.S. Bach and his sons.
The late Romantic era had its extremes: it seems that it used the greatest possible extent of harmonies and melodies and that the progression of the art had reached the limits of possibility. It's certainly possible to see the music of the 20th century as a continuation of the Romantic style, but it can also be interpreted as a reaction against Romanticism.
The music of the 20th century is a series of 'isms' and 'neo-isms'. The rough energy of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring was labelled neoprimitivism; the extreme emotional tones of early Schönberg were given the label expressionism; the return to cleanly structured forms and textrues was called neoclassicism. All of these labels came (and are coming) as an attempt at orientation in the heterorogenous world of music in the 20th century.
During the first half of the 20th century, nationalism continued to have a large influence, the study of folk songs enriched the nusic of many composers, such as that of Ralph Vaughan Williams (England), Bela Bartok (Hungary), Heitor Villa Lobos (Brazil) and Aaron Copland (USA). Jazz and popular music also had a strong influence on many "serious" composers, whether in America or Europe.

The advance of technology has also had an enormous impact on the evolution of music in this century, with some composers using, for instance, the cassette player as a compositional tool (ie. Violin Phase by Steve Reich), or electronically generated sounds alongside classical instruments, the use of computers to compose music, and so on.

Important Composers

Leos Janácek 1854-1928
Claude Debussy 1862-1918
Richard Strauss 1864-1949
Carl August Nielsen 1865-1931
Jean Sibelius 1865-1957
Arnold Schönberg 1874-1951
Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872-1958
Maurice Ravel 1875-1937
Béla Bartók 1881-1945
Igor Stravinsky 1882-1971
Anton von Webern 1883-1945
Alban Berg 1885-1935
Sergei Prokofiev 1891-1953
Paul Hindemith 1895-1963
George Gershwin 1898-1937
Kurt Weill 1900-1950
Aaron Copland 1900-1990
Dmitri Shostakovich 1906-1975
Olivier Messiaen 1908-1992
John Cage 1912-1992
Benjamin Britten 1913-1976
Pierre Boulez 1925
Luciano Berio 1925
Philip Glass 1937

Czech Music of the 20th Century
The transition from the founding generation to the the new era was embodied by Josef Bohuslav Foerster (1859 - 1951). He studied at organ school and for several years he was an organist in Prague. After that he left for Hamburg and Vienna with his wife. He returned to Prague after the revolution of 1918, where he worked for 12 years at the Conservatory and occupied other distinguished positions in public life as well (an honorary doctorate from Charles University, 8 years as the president of the Czech Academy of Arts and Sciences).

He was a great composer of songs [the cycles Erotikon, Laska (Love), Nocni violy (Night Violets), and more] of chorals and cantatas [Stabat Mater, Svaty Vaclav (St. Wenceslas), and others], and in the orchestral arena, his output consisted of five symphonies, six suites, and four symphonic poems, as well as operas, chamber pieces and church compositions.
The destruction of Czech modernism was undertaken by Vitezslav Novak (1870 - 1949), who studied composition at the Prague Conservatory under Dvorak. As the professor of the senior class in composing (1909 - 39), he taught a generation of Czech and foreign - largely Slavic - composers. From 1897, he based his work on folk songs, especially Slavic and Slovak. This influence reveals itself particularly in his Slovacke svite (1903) (Slavic Suite). This use of folk songs matured into distinctive features of his later pieces for piano (Muj maj, Sonata eroica) and in his symphonic poemV Tatrach (In the Tatras). He enriched his harmonic and colorful ideas with impressionism, but he escaped the danger this presented to his music with an emphasis on a firm framework (ie. Toman a lesni panna - Toman and the Forest Virgin).

Clearly musical thinking and technical supremacy define his ripe creative period, which began (1910) with his ocean fantasy Boure (Storm) and a piano cycle Pan. Less known are his piano suite Exotikon, and the song cycle Erotikon. In the following years he concentrated on the dramatic genre, which produced the dramas Zvikovsky rarasek, Pohadkova Lucerna, Deduv odkaz a Nikotina

Entirely different tones were brought to Czech music by Josef Suk (1874 - 1935). This talent, flowering from the teaching tradition of the Prague Conservatory, where he was instructed by Benewitz, Stecker a Dvorak. His creative production, on which he very promisingly embarked in his youth, was substantially curtailed by his membership in the Czech Quartet, the severity of his self-criticism, difficult circumstances in his life and a apinful spiritual crisis. Later, his time was considerably taken up by his teaching activity (fron 1922) at the conservatory. With his direct musicianship and versatility, Suk was reminiscent of Dvorak, whose instrumental richness Suk further increased and individualized. He reacted to the worldwide development and intensified poetic capriciousness and expressiveness of its language especially in the melodic and rhythmic components,and he gave to his lyricism in its construction such diversity that he belongs among the greatest personalities of Czech music.

This development is reflected primarily in his orchestral work. String Serenade (1892) and Symphony in E Major are still fully Dvorakian, but then in the music for Zeyer's stories Raduz a Mahulena and Pod jabloni (under the Apple Tree) Suk's characteristic features strongly appear. They proceed into bizarre territory in Fantastickem scherzu, and somewhat receed in the symphonic poem Praga. Then begins a series of symphonic works which together form a large whole: the mournful symphony Azrael, the musical poem Pohadka leta, and Zrani a Epilog. An important testimony to his struggle for his own style is the passionate violin Fantasy in G monor with orchestra.

Besides Novak and Suk,Otakar Ostrcil (1879 - 1935) appeared around the year 1900. In the spirit of his teacher Fibich, he devoted his youth to the syphonic poem (Pohadka o Semikovi), melodrama (Balada o mrtvem sevci a mlade tanecnici) and ballads (Osirelo dite). In the symphonic realm, his most significant works are Imprompta, Suite in C minor and Symfonietta, and in his opera composition there are Kunaluvy oci, Poupe, Legenda z Erinu a Legenda o sv. Zite.

If the advance of Czech modernism is clearly outlined, it matured under the developmental interference of the much older Leos Janacek (1854 - 1928). From youth, after his studies at an organ school, he was active as a conductor, organizer, and teacher. In composition, at first he confined himself to the lesser forms of choral and instrumental music, linking Krizikovsky and Dvorak, who was also his main model in the tragic opera Sarka of Zeyer's poem. His work in cooperation with Fr. Bartos brought him to the collection and study of folk songs and music, and their expression were entirely original arrangements, to which he often returned. From there he began an orchestral version of Lasskych (puvodne Valasskych) tancu, which with Hanacky forms the essence of the ethnographic ballet Rakos Rakoczy. Janacek then applied his ethnographic interest to popular speech, whose melodies he collected and whose cadence later affected the tenor of his succint melodic inventions in their intense rhythms. This structure of Janacek's first emerges in the opera Pocatek romanu and fully appears in the folkloristically colorful and expressively captivating opera Jeji pastorkyne, which is the first Czech opera on a literary drama (Gab. Preissova) written in prose. It's followed by Osud (Fate), the charming Liska bystrouska, and the psychologically and dramatically concentrated Vec Makropulos. An entirely new style was created by Janacek in male choral production, mainly with compositions on the poems of Bezruc (Kantor Halfar, Marycka Magdonova) and his absolute originality stands out in his piano (the cycle Po zarostlem chodnicku) and chamber pieces (Violin Sonata with piano, two string quartets). General recognition came to him only very late - with the Prague opening of Jeji pastorkyne in 1916, and he was awarded the first honorary doctorate from Masarykovo University in Brno.

The politically conscious, anti-romantic generation that appeared after the First World War was led by Bohuslav Martinu (1890 - 1959). He was a pupil of Josef Suk, but he developed fully under the influence of his next teacher, Albert Rousell in Paris, where he lived from 1923 to 1941. After that he moved to the United States, where he became one of the best-known composers in the world. The final years of his life he spent in Italy and Switzerland, where he died.

His production in terms of quantity was enormous. His first successes were with the symphonies Halftime (1924) and La Baggare(1926). Then came Symfonia concertante for two orchestras, Partita for string orchestra and especially Concerto grosso and Doubleconcert for two string orchestras, piano and tympany, which belongs among the best works of all world dramatism of that period. Martinu has numerous concertos (four piano, a concerto for two pianos, a violin concerto, two cello concertos and many others for a wide variety of other instruments). What stand out the most from more than 70 chamber pieces, are his quartets, sonatas for violin and piano, and his sonatas for cello and piano. He had many notable vocal compositions, especially Novy spalicek, Pisnicky na jednu stranku, and pisnicky na dve stranky, as well as operas [Hry o Marii (Plays about Mary), Julietta, Recke pasije (Greek Passion)]. Of his dozens of ballets, the most remarkable is the sung Spalicek.
Important Composers
Josef Bohuslav Foerster 1859 - 1951
Vitezslav Novak 1870 - 1949
Josef Suk 1874 - 1935
Otakar Ostrcil 1879 - 1935
Otakar Zich 1879 - 1934
Rudolf Karel 1880 - 1945
Leos Janacek 1854 - 1928
Ladislav Vycpalek 1882 - 1969
Emil Axman 1887 - 1949
Karel Boleslav Jirak 1891 - 1972
Bohuslav Martinu 1890 - 1959
Pavel Borkovec 1894 - 1972
Alois Haba 1893 - 1973
Jaroslav Jezek 1906 - 1942
Jan Novak 1921 - 1984