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Bruckner
Austrian composer and organist; follower of Wagner; known for his large orchestrations; incredibly conscientious approach to composition. -
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Brahms
Austrian Composer known for being a classic-romantic. Significant knowledge of music history. One of the first to edit Bach's music. Conductor and a pianist. Friends with the Schumanns. Never wrote an opera. -
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Tchaikovsky
Russian composer, conductor and teacher. Western trained. Emotional. Conservative harmonic language. -
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Mahler
Austrian composer; some of his orchestral works represent maximalism; large 10 programmatic symphonies, orchestral Lieder. Conductor in Europe and the USA. -
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Debussy
French composer and pianist; invented musical impressionism; influential modern composer. -
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Strauss
Composer of tone poems and some of the first modern operas. Was an accomplished conductor. Works epitomize maximalism. -
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Satie
Not an impressionist, but a leader in new French aesthetics on which impressionism was built; incredible innovator. -
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Ives
American; might be the most innovative, original, and creative of all the 20th century composers; worked virtually alone; he made his living in insurance. -
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Schoenberg
The father of 12-tone music; important innovator; teacher of Webern and Berg. Expressionism. -
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Ravel
French composer; extremely versatile; innovator in pianistic style; expert orchestrator. -
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Webern
Schoenberg's student who was known for his musical brevity and clarity of texture. Uses pointillism. Wrote no operas. -
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Berg
Schoenberg's student; expressive language; often atonal. -
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Boulanger
Important teacher of composers in the 20th century; most prominent American composers of the first half of the century studied with her; conductor and composer. -
Expressionism
Emerged in Germany with Schoenberg leading the way sometime in post-romantic period. Tonality abandoned and all 12 notes treated equally. Strong emotional expression was the goal and meldies were optional. The parts that remained traditional were rhythm, form, and timbre. Schoenberg created new organized compositional practice in 1921. -
Impressionism
1890s and onward. Introduced by Debussy in France. Another one of the first moderns styles. Held onto many musical elements, but let go of traditional rules. All chords treated equally and chord progression rules abandoned. Vague. Conveys atmosphere. Harmonics vague, but tonal. Lots of parallels. Harps and flutes favored. -
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Post-Romanticism
A period taking place during the decline of the romantic period and rising of the 20th century music defined by impressionism and maximalism. -
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Maximalism
One of the first modern styles. In direct contrast with minimalism as every musical element is pushed to the extreme. Tried to push against thresholds. Music was thick. Often used an orchestra. -
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Undisguised avant-garde
Went through to the 20s. Composer Satie, painter Salvador Dali, and artist Marcel Duchamp. Spoofing Wagnerian style and also attempted to step out of perceived quicksand pool of Romantic aestheticism. -
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Neo-Classicism
Return to the ideals of clarity and objectivity of the 18th century. Used textures, topics, and forms from the past and combined them with with modern harmony, tonality, and timbres. Began with a revival of Bach's music. The baroque and classic periods hadn't been firmly defined yet. Wanda Landowska highly instrumental in the revival and revived interest in harpsichord. Copland believed the spirit of the era embodied in Stravinsky's Octet for Winds. -
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Primitivism
A western visual art movement that borrowed non-Western subjects, which were often naive or folk-like in nature. French artist Pail Gauguin represented the visual artist part of the movement and Stravinsky and his Rite of Spring demonstrated the musical aspects of the movement. -
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Dadaism
A movement of anti-art thinking in which artists and poets in mid 1910s reacted against war and bourgeois in Europe. Attracted artists from across humanities including literally and fine arts. Questioned art standards and favoring irrationality, nonsense, and intuition. Forged way into modernist thinking. -
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Non-Tonal
Began at the tale end of the post-romantic period. It was a style of composition that focused on musical elements other than pitch. Much owed to Edgard Varese for his vision of new musical timbres and orchestration techniques, which sometimes excluded or minimized use of strings. -
12-tone technique invented by Schoenberg
Each of the 12 pitches was taken once and ordered, then manipulated in a very contrived manner into a musical composition. Produced some of the most random sounding music of all time.