IMPRESSIONISM

Composers

Debussy and Ravel. Some of the work of Lili Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger, Germaine Talleferre and Erik
Satie can be described as impressionist.

Techniques

Synthetic scales — New scales which use unusual divisions of the octave, such as the whole tone scale
(comprised entirely of major 2nds), or the octatonic scale (continuous pattern of semitone-tone, semitone-
tone, or tone-semitone, tone-semitone).

Planing — The use of the same chord shape moving exactly in parallel motion.

See: Debussy ‘Sunken Cathedral’

Rhythmic ambiguity / obscured downbeat — Rhythmic textures which create ambiguity as to what the
time signature or tempo (or both) of a passage is. Usually through layered tuplets, but can also be through
tempo flexibility, polymetre (i.e. 5/4 and 3/4 playing at the same time).

See: Debussy ‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’, Rvel ‘Miroirs’, Stravinsky ‘The Rite of Spring’

Non-functional harmony — Harmonic decisions that do not make use of the tonal function of the chord
(i.e. the use of a dominant 7th chord simply for its colour, rather than its function as a chord that falls to I,
is a non-functional harmony). Modes such as the whole-tone scale, which do not imply a tonal centre, also
obscure traditional tonal function.

See: Debussy ‘The Sunken Cathedral’, ‘Voiles’, ‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’.

Thematic fragmentation/non-linear forms — The development of musical ideas not according to the
linear exposition, development and resolution of a thematic idea. As an example, a sonata form is a ‘linear’
form, but if one were to take the sections of a sonata form, sub-divide them into smaller sections, and put
these back all in the wrong order, this would effectively create a ‘non-linear’ structure. Many of Debussy
and Stravinsky’s compositions exhibit thematic fragmentation.
See: Debussy ‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’, Stravinsky ‘The Rite of Spring’.

Delineating structure using modalities — Changing the mode of a piece to signal a new section, rather
than changing key (i.e. instead of changing from C to G, changing from C major to whole tone scale, or C
major to C mixolydian).

See: Debussy ‘Voiles’, Lili Boulanger ‘Pie Jesu’

Rotational form — A form based on a repeated, unchanging theme, with variations that occur around the
theme (like a theme and variations where the theme itself stays the same but the context the theme is in
changes).

See: Debussy ‘Des pas sur la neige’

Secundal, quintal & quartal harmony — Chords built off of stacked 2nds, 5ths or 4ths (respectively)
rather than stacked 3rds.

See: Debussy ‘The Sunken Cathedral’.

Composers

Charles Ives & Edgard Varese, John Cage are the main ones we look at. Also George Antheil, Henry Cowell
& Leo Ornstein, the futurist Luigi Russolo, and the dada sound poet Kurt Schwitters.

Techniques

Timbral structure/block form — Composers such as Varése and the futurists were interested in timbre
becoming the principal compositional element; structure is formed by ‘blocks’ of sound changing,
morphing or harmonising with other ‘blocks’.

See: Varése ‘Ionisations’, or most of Varése’s work.

Polytonality/bi-tonality — Multiple key centers at once (ie, C major and Bb minor simultaneously). Also
common in neoclassical work.

See: Milhaud Chamber Symphony Op. 2, Bartok Mikrokosmos 125

Microtonality — Divisions of the scale into smaller numbers of pitches.

See: Ives ‘Three Quarter-Tone Piano Pieces’.

Probably the most common form of notation of microtones is below:

See: Ives ‘The Unanswered Question’, Grainger “The Warriors”.

Tone Cluster — A cluster of notes very close together, used most by Bartok, Ives, Cowell & Ornstein. Used
for extreme dissonance, intensity or a textural effect.

See: Bartok Mikrokosmos (Syncopation), Ornstein ‘Danse sauvage’.

Futurism / The Art of Noises — Italian futurism was an early 20th century art movement that embraced
the new industrialised world and its aesthetics. Luigi Russolo wrote the ‘Art of Noises’ which divided
‘noises’ into different categories to be used for a composition.

Intonarumori — The instruments used by Russolo for his noise compositions.

Sound poem — A poem which explores the pure sound of human phonetics rather than semantic and
syntactical meaning.
Fused ensemble timbre — A technique of Varese’s where a group of instruments in an ensemble are
combined to one ‘fused timbre’. Fused ensemble timbre often involves more-or-less unison dynamics,
rhythm and articulation between each instrument that is part of the fused timbre. Varese’s compositions
often involve the collision of different fused ensemble timbres, or soloists against fused ensemble timbres.
 NEOCLASSICISM / STRAVINSKY’S RUSSIAN PERIOD

Composers

Stravinsky was the figurehead of this form, but Bartok, Hindemith, Poulenc and Milhaud could also be
described as neoclassicists, along with many other composers of the time.

Techniques

Polytonality / bi-tonality — Multiple key centers at once (ie, C major and Bb minor simultaneously).

See: Milhaud Chamber Symphony Op. 2

Classical form & phrase structure — Melodic shape, rhythmic complexity and form is very similar to
baroque or early classical music.

See: Poulenc Sonata for Horn, Trumpet & Trombone.

Octatonic scale — a scale constructed of alternating semitone-tone (half-whole diminished scale) or tone-
semitone patterns (whole-half diminished scale).

Pastiche or ‘collage’ — ‘Recomposition’ of earlier classical or baroque works.

See: Stravinsky ‘Pulcinella’, Histoire du Soldat.

Rhythmic displacement — Stravinsky used simple ostinati often, but created complex rhythmic variation
over them by displacing the other parts in relation to the ostinato.

See: Stravinsky ‘Histoire du soldat’

Rapid block development — Very short blocks of different rhythmic lengths, each having a distinct
character (e.g. register, instrumentation, harmony). These blocks are juxtaposed rapidly one after another
to ‘develop’ a section.
See: Stravinsky ‘The Rite of Spring’ (Sacrificial Dance), ‘The Rite of Spring’ (The Augurs of Spring), Les Noces

Rhythmic cells — Rhythmic ostinati of different lengths, superimposed atop of one another. This usually
gains interest by obstinate overlapping in interesting ways (i.e. one ostinato of 3 beats, one of 8, one of 13).

See: Stravinsky ‘The Rite of Spring’ (Procession of the Wise Elders), ‘Three Pieces for String Quartet’

Vertical chromaticism — Passages that are diatonic, tuneful or folk-like horizontally, but chromatic
vertically, forming a dissonant texture made out of lots of fairly clear or consonant melodies. A kind of bi-
tonality.

See: Stravinsky ‘The Rite of Spring’ (Introduction)

Pitch displacement — A transformation applied to at least two linear, co-incident pitch sequences. One of
the sequences is displaced rhythmically, distorting the harmony. As an example, take a cadential
progression like iii-vi-ii-V-I in C major (Em, Am, Dm, G, C). A displacement of this progression could have
the bass notes displaced by one beat, so that the bass note E arrives as the root note for Am, the bass note
A arrives as the root note for Dm, the bass note G arrives as the root note for G, etc.

See: Stravinsky ‘Les Noces’.

Golden section — The climax of a work and its substructures adhering to proportions of the Golden
Ratio (the ‘golden section’ is roughly 2/3s into a piece).

See: Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta

Polymodal chromaticism — the use of two simultaneous modes which share the same tonal centre but
which aggregate to a highly chromatic scale. I.e. use of C Phrygian and C Lydian at the same time, either in
counterpoint or in aggregation.

Fibonacci sequence — the use of fibonacci sequences to determine intervals, chords and scales.
Fibonnaci intervals are m2 (1), M2 (2), m3 (3), P4 (5), m6 (8), m9 (13) and M13 (21).

Axis system — principal of musical organisation which creates an equivalence between keys that are
tritone opposites on the circle of fifths. Used by Bartok to structure works (i.e. works that modulate from
A/Eb to F#/C and back over the course of the work). All keys on one ‘axis’ are relatives (C-A-F#-Eb, G-E-
C#-Bb, F-D-B-Ab). See the Bartók slides for more detail on this.

Counterpole substitution (tritone substitution) — any chord can be substituted for its opposite a tritone
away. For example C and F# have some functional equivalence, because they share a dominant (Db/G). In
jazz this often happens at cadence points (i.e. the V is substituted for IIb) but it can functionally happen
anywhere.

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Added-value rhythm — Rhythms created by the addition of a dot to a note, or the addition of a rest that
would give the same value as if a dot were added (i.e. a quaver could be transformed either into a dotted
quaver or a quaver followed by a semiquaver rest). These rhythms are often ‘unbalanced’ i.e. not according
to a fixed metre/time signature.

See: Messiaen ‘Quartet for the End of Time’, or pretty much any Messiaen piece, for all of the below:

Modes of limited transposition — A set of synthetic scales created by Messiaen which have a limited
number of transpositions that can be applied to them. The whole tone scale is a mode of limited
transposition because it can only appear in two forms (starting on C or C# — if it starts on D, it contains
the same pitches as when it starts on C). There are seven in total.

Non-retrogradable rhythm — A rhythm that, when played backwards, is the same (‘ta ti ta’, ‘ti ta ti’, ka ta-
a ka’ etc.)

Rhythmic pedal — Basically an ostinato. Messiaen uses these and accompanies them with
transformations of themselves by different augmentations or diminutions.

Isorhythm — Having a repeated rhythmic pattern onto which a repeated pitch pattern (of a different
length) is superimposed. This is a Medieval technique; Messiaen used many techniques from early music.

Ta ti ti ta ti ti ta Ta ti ti ta ti ti ta Ta ti ti ta etc…
A BC D EA B C DE A BC D E AB C etc…

Rhythmic scales — obvious manipulation of ascending or descending ‘scales’ of rhythm; i.e. a piece of
music in two parts where one part is adding a semiquaver value to each subsequent rhythm whilst the
other part is removing a semiquaver value.

See: Vingt regards

Rhythmic canon — a canon structure where the only element that is treated canonically is rhythm; pitch
can operate according to an independent process.

Birdsong — use of bird-song as musical material.