Composer Notes

Introduction to Twentieth Century Music Part 4

Mid-century Modernism

Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

Key interests

• Time
• Colour
• Birdsong
• Mysticism
• Apocalypse
• Roman Catholicism
• Love (Carnal and Spiritual)
• Indian rhythmic procedures

Quartet for the End of Time (1941)

• Scored for clarinet, violin, cello, piano
• Written during World War II while imprisoned in a German prisoner of war camp
• Written for the instruments and performers available
• Each movement prefaced with a quote from The Book of Revelation about the Apocalypse
• Incorporates birdsong although not yet accurate as the birdsong would be in his later works
• Ecstatic slow music intended to create a sense of timelessness

Pierre Boulez (1925 - 2016)

Interested in extending Webern's approach to pitch manipulation to all aspects of music which led to the establishment of serialism.

Le Marteau sans Maitre [The Hammer without Master] (1953 – 1957)

• A setting of texts by Rene Char for soprano and small ensemble
• Application of serial techniques to pitch, rhythm, duration, dynamics
• Highly original sound world that for all its complexity recalls the sound of Debussy, Gamelan and Jazz

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 – 2007)

• His early career was interest in serialism
• Later career interest in mysticism, happenings and installations

Gruppen [Groups] (1955 – 1957)

• Spatial effects / Three orchestras placed to the left, right and front of the audience
• Complex relationships between the orchestral groups and their musical structures

Luciano Berio (1925 – 2003)

• Explored new ways of using the human voice
• Used electronics as a way of investigating the nature of sound
• Incorporated electronics into acoustic works

Sinfonia (1968) Third movement

• 8 singers and orchestra
• Collage / Clouds of sound
• Incorporates other musical and literary sources into the work
• Merges the third movement of Mahler's Symphony No 2 with quotes from other works
• Mixes voices and instrumental sounds and blurs the line between them