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C. Ives
One of the most original and innovative American composers of his time; His style could be described as polytonality, polyrhythmic, and bits of Americana. His music was not very well known until after his death. -
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Luigi Russolo
Italian Futurist painter, composer, and builder of experimental musical instruments. Russolo identified six families of noise for Futurist orchestras. These were grouped as
1. Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, and Booms
2. Whistling, Hissing, Puffing
3. Whispers, Murmurs, Muttering, Gurgling
4. Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Crackling, Rubbing
5. Noises produced by beating on metals, woods, skins, or stones
6. Voices of animals, people etc.
Wrote a manifesto titles "The Art of Noises" -
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F. Price
Infamous black female composer, had a flourishing career in Chicago. First black woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra: 'Symphony No. 1 in E minor. -
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Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger taught all of the greatest composers of the 20th century(,except George Gershwin). She conducted a few pieces, but preferred to help others find their own unique sounds. She was the first female conductor to conduct many major American and European orchestras. -
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S. Prokofiev
Russian composer; composed many orchestras, concertos, and film works. His style could be characterized by individual harmonic language, rhythmic drive, lyrical expression, comedy, and Neo-classicism. -
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William Grant Still
First Black American composer to have a symphony and opera performed by a major ensemble (1931, 1949 respectively); also the first black American to conduct a major symphony orchestra (1936)
Arranged music for jazz bands, dance orchestras, and films.
His style blended African American spirituals, blues, and traditional European genres like ballets, operas, and symphonies. -
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H. Cowell
Henry Cowell was an American innovator who was heavily influenced by non-Western music. He taught John Cage and was a big fan of Charles Ives. He invented chance music and new piano techniques, coining the term tone cluster. -
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Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington was born and raised in Washington D.C., but became famous as a bandleader in the Cotton Club in New York City. He was most famous for his jazz tunes. He recorded many classic Swing pieces in big band settings. -
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Aaron Copland
Copland was a teacher, conductor, and composer. He composed a variety of genres, but because of his teaching, he didn't compose a large number of works. These included operas, ballets, film scores, piano works, symphonies, and the list goes on. His style can be characterized by vigorous, mixed meters, exposed soloing, folk idioms and open intervals. -
"The Unanswered Question" (1906)
Composed by Ives, this orchestral work was originally one of two "Contemplations", paired with "Central Park in the Dark" The piece has three contrasting groups on instruments with a call and answer style. -
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John Cage
John Cage innovated many modern compositional techniques and helped change the definition of music to "organized sound" Cage developed the concept of Indeterminacy and aleatory, where some elements of the performance are left up to chance, so every performance is different and involves an element of chance. -
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Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday is one of the leading female jazz singers of the time. She was one of the first black women to break racial barriers by performing with white bands. Famous for blues renditions. -
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Jazz
Jazz is an extremely popular form of music that arose in the early 20th century (1916-1917). It has roots in African tradition, West African music, call-and-response singing, and 19th century ceremonial and work songs. It has many different styles, such as ragtime, swing, and bebop. -
Blues
Blues is a musical genre derived from Black American performance traditions thet used "blues notes" or bent pitches. The text often talks about the "blues": hurt, hardship, and lost love. There are many types of blues, such as city, Vaudeville, country, delta, and downhome. -
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The Harlem Renaissance
Heavily influenced by the works of William Grant Still and Langston Hughes. There was an emergence of African American art, literature, and musical styles. -
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George Crumb
American composer; known for anti-war sentiment, during the Vietnam War. His style was popularized by non-Western musical idioms and created a new spatial notion to accommodate his musical innovations. -
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Post 1900's Era (1930-2010)
The Post 1900's Era can be summarized as a time of moving away from traditional, Western classical music and there wasn't one identifiable, unified sound or style. There were so many new genres or styles; it could be described as an ever-evolving musical time period. -
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Henryk Górecki
Was so popular at the time that other composers criticized him. His style can be characterized by slow harmonic minimalism, Neo-tonality, tone clusters, and emotional symbolism. -
Philip Glass
Pioneer of minimalism; one of the most famous living composers
Studied under Nadia Boulanger. Established the 'Philip Glass Ensemble' who regularly tour. -
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World War II
World War II was one of the largest, deadliest wars ever. It was fought between the Axis powers- Japan, Italy, and Germany and the Allies- France, Great Britain, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. -
Appalachian Spring
Appalachian Spring was a ballet written by Aaron Copland for Marta Graham, who also danced the lead. The ballet portrays a pioneer celebration in spring around a new farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the 1800's. -
"A Black Pierrot"
From "Songs of Separation", the Art Song cycle. The piece was written by William Grant Still, as an echo from Arnold Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire". -
Tod Machover
One of the most creative minds in music technology today; Explores interactions between performers and computers. -
4'33"
This is one of the most famous compositions by composer and innovator, John Cage. In this piece, Cage explores the role of silence in composition. This piece was taken by many composers and musicians of the time to be a joke, but it wasn't. cage just wanted to encompass all sound. -
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American Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement was a movement or campaign in the United States to abolish institutional segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement. -
Microchip Invented
Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation develop the first monolithic integrated circuit chip. -
Valium Invented
Leo Sternbach invented Diazepam in 1961. It was much more effective than other sedative drugs, so it became extremely popular in the treatment of anxiety. -
First Human Heart Transplant
1967 was the first successful human heart transplant anywhere in the world. That patient, Louis Washkansky, 53, was terminally ill with heart failure. His surgeon at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa was Christiaan Barnard. -
Modular Synthesizer invented
Invented by Herald Bode, the modular synthesizer revolutionized the electronic type music -
MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface
In 1983, MIDI was officially adopted and incorporated into all new synthesizers. Enables computer interactions with synthesizers and sequences. -
Synthesizer Invented
What we recognize as the modern day synthesizer was invented by Robert Moog. It was one of the instruments that revolutionized electronic music.