Music 271: 4/16/07 I: Schönberg’s twelve-tone composition or Serialism (c1923-1951): • Logical use of all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale • Suite für klavier: Presents prime row right at the beginning and the top line • Note = length of time • Pitch = frequency • Prelude, Menuett, and Trio • His alternate row forms favor the tritone, one semitone below the P5 II: Bartók and Stravinsky: their separate points of origin in 19th century European art music: • Bartók born in 1881: Went from Germanic nationalism for Hungarian nationalism • Stravinsky born in 1882: Abandoned nationalism for neo-classicism (and dabbled in serialism) • These two would change their direction as composers, unlike Schönberg III: Bela Bartók’s multi-faceted career and its legacy: A: Four major roles: 1. Virtuosic pianist: Educated to be a concert pianist and composer; 2. Ethnomusicologist: One of the first scholars to collect music of a tradition outside the realm of European art music (Hungary and Slavic Europe) (Bonds: p. 570) 3. Composer: 3rd stage Nationalist: “Allegro Barbaro” was one of the first compositions of this nature (1911), “Three Rondos on folk tunes” another example • Large quantity of folk songs • 3rd stage nationalist: Radical innovations of style and form inspired by the native culture (sometimes accompanied by a deprecation of the formerly venerated foreign culture) 4. Pedagogue: wrote the six volumes of Mikrokosmos, prepared performers to play Bartók’s own music B: Three-fold legacy: • IV: Igor Stravinsky’s contributions to the formation of 20th century art music: Part I - Second-Stage nationalist (to the beginning of WWI): • Came from a musical background • Born in St. Petersburg • First composition teacher was Rimsky-Korsakov: introduced Stravinsky to several volumes of Russian folk songs • Rite of Spring Bassoon solo is a Lithuanian folk tune • Went to Paris to study music