Claude Debussy

Melody and Harmony

o

importance of melody over harmonic progression and rhythm

harmony as a dimension of melody instead of as accompaniment

use of modes and scales such as the whole-tone and pentatonic

free chromaticism

ambiguous harmonies and tonal centers

mixture of functional and non-functional progressions

rich chords

nonfunctional use of 7th and 9th chords

chord planing

fragmentary melodies

Rhythm
o

complex and non-metrical rhythms

Texture
o

subtle polyphony

chord planing

harmony as a dimension of melody instead of as accompaniment

Tone color
o

Rhythm, phrase, dynamics, accent, and tone color are largely freed
from direct dependence on tonal motion because of Debussy's
ambiguities. Thus, they tend to gain an importance in the musical
process almost equal to that of melody and harmony. One may find
individual sound patterns and even isolated sounds which seem to
create their own context.

Igor Stravinsky

Rhythm
o The binding energy is much more rhythmic than harmonic, and the
driving pulsations of "The Rite" marked a crucial change in the nature
of Western music. Stravinsky, however, left it to others to use that
change in the most obvious manner.
o primitive and brutal rhythmic patterns. The resulting complexities
included the consecutive use of widely varying metric
patterns and polyphony of widely differing rhythmic strata.
The syncopations of jazz rhythms were often imitated. In many
instances, rhythm constituted the single most important element in
Stravinsky's musical fabric.
Melody(absent)
Harmony
o use of polymeter (two meters at one time), as well as harmonic
innovation. But it was the last, the Rite of Spring, that has made the
biggest mark on music history.
Texture
o Stravinsky's music, even in his late period, is flavored with abrupt
formal juxtapositions and polarized texture.
Tone color
o exploited tone color to its utmost in both large and small instrumental
combinations. Typical examples of his unusual scoring include the
elimination of all the violins, violas, and clarinets

Schoenberg

Tonality and Harmony

- The piece is atonal (it has no key).
- Uses lots of dissonant harmonies.
- Chords and melodies are built up from hexachords (a group of 6 notes).
Rhythm
o discontinuous rhythms
o The suite has rhythm even though metrical consistency is rare.
Harmony
o Schoenberg avoids meter and triadic harmony more, increasing
senses of fragmentation.
o Pierrot Lunaire, opus 21 (1912) offers dissonant and chromatic
harmonies and discontinuous rhythms, plus the dramatic
"sprechgesang" or "sprechstimme" (speech-song) -- half speaking / half
singing. Eventually Schoenberg would be composing music with no
tonal center at all in which dissonances are not resolved because all
notes are equally related.
Texture
The piece has a largely contrapuntal texture, but does have occasional
homophonic moments.
- Complex textures are built up through the use of imitation and inversion.

- There are frequent and sudden changes in dynamics which leads

to extremes in contrasts.

Tone color
o

involves splitting a musical line or melody between

several instruments, rather than assigning it to just one
instrument (or set of instruments), thereby adding color (timbre)
and texture to the melodic line. The technique is sometimes
compared to "pointillism",[1] a neo-impressionist painting
technique.
A big band is a type of musical ensemble that originated in the United States
and is associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of
percussion, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately 12 to 25
musicians. The terms jazz band, jazz ensemble, jazz orchestra, stage band,
society band, and dance band may describe this type of ensemble in
particular contexts.
Jazz is a genre of music that originated in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century in the Southern United States. Jazz makes heavy use of
improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note,[1] as well as
aspects of European harmony, American popular music, [2] and African
musical elements such as blue notes. A musical group that plays jazz is called
a jazz band.
Ragtime (alternatively spelled rag-time or rag time)[1] is a musical genre that
enjoyed its peak popularity between 1895 and 1918.[2] Its main
characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm.[2] It began as
dance music in the red-light districts of African American communities in St.
Louis and New Orleans years before being published as popular sheet music
for piano. Ernest Hogan was an innovator and key pioneer who helped
develop the musical genre, and is credited with coining the term ragtime.[3]
[4] Ragtime was also a modification of the march made popular by John Philip
Sousa, with additional polyrhythms coming from African music.[5] The
ragtime composer Scott Joplin became famous through the publication in
1899 of the "Maple Leaf Rag" and a string of ragtime hits such as "The
Entertainer" that followed, although he was later forgotten by all but a small,
dedicated community of ragtime aficionados until the major ragtime revival
in the early 1970s.[6][7] For at least 12 years after its publication, the "Maple
Leaf Rag" heavily influenced subsequent ragtime composers with its melody
lines, harmonic progressions or metric patterns.[8]
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll or rock 'n' roll) is a genre of popular
music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s
and early 1950s,[1][2] primarily from a combination of African-American
genres such as blues, jump blues, jazz, and gospel music,[3] together with
Western swing and country music.[4] Though elements of rock and roll can be

heard in blues records from the 1920s[5] and in country records of the 1930s,
[4] the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s.[6][7]
The term "rock and roll" now has at least two different meanings, both in
common usage: referring to the first wave of music that originated in the US
in the 1950s and would later develop into the more encompassing
international style known as "rock music", and as a term simply synonymous
with the rock music and culture in the broad sense.[8] For the purpose of
differentiation, this article deals with the first definition.