1. 20th Century Music
Higher

2. Impressionism – late 1900s

3. Impressionism Often programmatic (descriptive)
Chords used for expression
Discords merge into further discords
Parallel Chords
Use of unusual scales
Modal
Pentatonic
Whole tone
L'apres midi d'une faune - Debussy

4. Whole Tone Scale
A scale made up of whole tones
Whole Tone Scale

5. Minimalism – 1950s +

6. Minimalist Ideas repeated over and over Sounds very simple
Changes happen gradually
Steve Reich – Six Marimbas

7. Neo Classical Dissonance Instrumentation Unusual harmonic changes
Stravinsky - Pulcinella

8. Musique Concrete

9. Musique Concrete Recorded Natural Sounds
Edited using techniques such as:
Cutting and re-assembling
Playing backwards
Slowing down
Speeding up
Pierre Schaeffer - Apostrophe

10. Musical A play which has speaking, singing and dancing
Performed on a stage.
In recent years the musical has seen a revival and may now deal with very dramatic stories and contain no dialogue.

11. Jazz Funk a sub-genre of jazz music.
Herbie Hancock - Chameleon
a sub-genre of jazz music.
a strong rhythmic ‘groove,’ above which instrumentalists improvise solo passages.
will typically consist of drum kit, bass guitar, rhythm guitar and synthesiser,
emerged during the 1970s with features being similar to disco.

12. Soul developed in the southern states of America
grew in popularity throughout the 1960s
a combination of gospel, blues and country music,
its gritty sound reflected what was happening socially in America at that time
Marvin Gaye – Heard it through the Grapevine

13. Serialism Berg – Violin Concerto Devised by Schoenberg
Arrangement of 12 notes of chromatic scale
Tone row
None should appear out of order
A note may be immediately repeated
Any note may appear in any octave

14. Tone Row Original form Retrograde (in reverse order)
Inversion (turned upside down)
Retrograde Inversion (backward and upside down)

15. Harmonics Harmonics can be produced by a number of instruments.
By lightly touching the string of a bowed stringed instrument at certain points for example, a high eerie sound is produced.
On a guitar or harp these have a bell-like quality.
EXAMPLE

16. Polytonality Two or more keys played or sung at the same time
The melody might be in the key of C major whilst the accompaniment might be in E major
Bartok
Ives
Holst
Stravinsky
Jesus Must Die from Jesus Christ Superstar

17. Cross Rhythms The effect of two notes being played against three
The effect that occurs when the accents in a piece of music are different from those suggested by the time signature
4/4 time into quavers
VISUAL EXAMPLE

18. Note Clusters
A group of notes played on a keyboard instrument with the palm of the hand or even with the forearm

19. Irregular Metres
Groupings of notes change, but the underlying pulse remains constant. 
Groupings of two and three produce irregular accents and metres
Destroy the feeling of a regular down beat by changing the time signature frequently
MONEY

20. Sprechgesang A technique used in vocal music
Half-way between singing and speaking
Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire

21. Hemiola
A rhythmic device giving the impression of a piece of music changing from duple (2) to triple (3) time
vice versa
Sometimes placed at the end of a piece to act as a kind of Rallentando.
EXAMPLE