Music Formative Assessment

Expressionism
Presented by Sophie Lipayon and Natalia Pascual
What is Expressionism?
An artistic movement depicting subjective, abstract
emotions rather than an objective, pragmatic reality
Evokes emotion, experiences, ideas, and deeper meanings
through radical distortion and exaggeration
Done by intensifying sizes, shapes, colors, sound, etc.
May sought to tell a story or tap into the 'spiritual vigor' of art
Can be an emotional vessel for self-expression, often
drawing from one's ardent and unfeigned feelings, such as
violence, hatred, disgust, anxiety, infatuation, heartbreak, or
horror
Expressionism in different forms of art

Van Gogh self-portrait (1889) The Scream (1893) Sagrada Familia

Vincent van Gogh Edvard Munch August Strindberg Antoni Gaudi

Dutch post-impressionism Norwegian expressionist
Swedish dramatist, playwrite,
Calatan architect from Spain,

painter, known for his painter who particiapted in

poet, and essayist, famous for
known for his unique style

broken brushwork, and his the German Expressionism

his works such as A Dream
uniting voluptuous color and

use of pure and vibrant movement Play, and Miss Julie texture with organic forms
colors
"No longer shall I paint interiors
with men reading and women
knitting. I will paint living people
who breathe and feel and suffer
and love.” - Edward Munch
 Other forms Music
Visual Art:
Characterized by jarring dissonance
Use tonal contrasts and jagged lines
and radical distortion; a far cry from
Color is intense and not bound by
the ethereal melodies of the
the laws of reality, brushwork and
texture are visible and raw, paint is impressionist period that preceded it
applied liberally The expressionist era exerted
An extension of romanticism influence in the music scene from the
early 1900s to 1930
Literature Found its natural outlet in opera
Conveyed their ideas through truths Likely because expressionism is very
and symbolic characters dramaticized and is a highly narrative form of art
Also used in program music / tone poems
Focused on internal drama, such as
its characters' mental states, values
and spiritual lives
 Igor Stravinsky
“I haven't understood a bar of music in my life,
but I have felt it.”
Early life

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky

Born on June 17, 1882, in Oranienbaum

(Lomonosov), Russia
Decided to pursue a law degree, although later

on found his passion in music

Became Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's private

student
He was able to perform and get commissions

from renowned individuals in the music and

ballet industry, such as Sergei Diaghilev, a famed

Russian impresario.
mostly influenced by the Russian techniques

and styles, and for majority of his career was

part of the neoclassism movement

Adulthood/Career

During World War 1, Stravinsky escaped to Switzerland

then subsequently moved to France wherein he

premiered his most famous ballet, The Rite of Spring, in

Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris on May 29th 1913

The Russian style along with other neoclassism forms

began to fade in the 1920s, and so he abandoned his

Russian features in his music and adopted an

expressionistic tone instead, using Schoenberg’s 12-tone

technique
In 1938, his eldest daughter of four passed due to

tuberculosis, with his wife and mother following a year

after
remarried and moved to Hollywood, USA, wherein he

spent the remainder of his life, which ended on

April 6, 1971, due to heart failure

COmpositions
Famous for his collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev, for his

orchestral compositions for the Ballet Russes, most

notably The Firebird (1910)

In 1913, his work The Rite of Spring is popularized for its

use of constantly changing rhythms, and dissonant

harmonies
The Rake's Progress is Stravinsky's only full length opera

(1951)
During his conversion to an expressionist style, Stravinsky

composes experimental works such as The Cantata, and

In Memoriam Dylan Thomas.

The Rite of Spring
one of Stravinsky's most well known works,

commissioned by Diaghilev, and choreographed by

Vaslav Nijinsky
commemorated as a historical event, the premier

opening of the ballet resulted in a riot among the

audience
with a chaotic momentum, the ballet depicts the pagan

ritual wherein a virgin sacrifices themself by dancing to

death
Using the instruments in ways that mimic the primitive

instruments in historical rural Russia

The Rite of Spring
The Rake's Progress
Stravinsky's only full length opera composed between 1947-

1951
the libretto written by the famed poet WH Auden,

collaborated with Stravinsky composing the music

Inspired by William Hogarth's series of artworks entitled

The Rake's Progress dated back to 1733

With the opera based on the protagonist of Horgarth's art

series, Tom Rakewell.

Stravinsky uses a combination of traditional formality and

dramaturgy (using exaggeration and distortion), slowly

transitioning him into the expressionist movement

The Rake's Progress
Arnold Schoenberg
“If it is art, it is not for all,
and if it is for all, it is not art.”
Early Life & Career
Born September 13, 1874, in Vienna, Austria
His father owned a small shoe shop in Vienna
He began composing pieces for two violins before the age
of nine, before eventually expanding to the viola and piano
Met with the musician Oskar Adler, who encouraged him to
play cello
Worked as a bank clerk at 16 after his father died
Became aquainted with and eventually befriended
Alexander von Zemlinsky, who taught him about harmony,
counterpoint, and composition
Played cello in the amateur orchestra Polyhymnia
Career and COmpositions
First publicly performed work was the String Quartet in D
Major (1897), inspired by the style of 19th century Romantic
composer Johannes Brahms
In 1899 composed his first major work,Verklärte Nacht
(“Transfigured Night”)
Began work as a musical director at Überbrettl, an artistic
cabaret, wherein he taught harmony and composition
His next major work was String Quartet No. 1 in D Minor,
Op. 7 (1904)
Four movements of a string quartet, high density musical
texture, played without interruption for 50 minutes
Composed Chamber Symphony in E Major (1906), with a
similar structure to the prior
 Transfigured Night
String sextet for two violins, two violas, and two cellos
Highly romantic program music / tone poem
Based on a poem by the same name by Richard
Dehmel, which narrates a man and woman walking
together on a lonely night
Focuses more on the emotions of the characters
rather than the physical reality they are in
Audiences harshly received the work. It incited
disruptions among crowds:
“It sounds as if someone had smeared the score of
Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde while the ink was still wet!”

"Now life has taken its revenge: Now I have

met you, oh, you."

6:04 - 6:50
15:35
28:05
Two people walk through a bare, cold grove; So, shuddering, I allowed my sex
The moon races along with them, they look into it. To be embraced by a strange man,
The moon races over tall oaks, And, on top of that, I blessed myself for it.
No cloud obscures the light from the sky, Now life has taken its revenge:
Into which the black points of the boughs reach. Now I have met you, oh, you.
A woman’s voice speaks:
She walks with a clumsy gait,
I’m carrying a child, and not yours, She looks up; the moon is racing along.
I walk in sin beside you. Her dark gaze is drowned in light.
I have committed a great offense against myself. A man’s voice speaks:
I no longer believed I could be happy
And yet I had a strong yearning May the child you conceived
For something to fill my life, for the joys of Motherhood Be no burden to your soul;
And for duty; so I committed an effrontery, Just see how brightly the universe is gleaming!
There’s a glow around everything;
You are floating with me on a cold ocean,
But a special warmth flickers
From you into me, from me into you.
It will transfigure the strange man’s child.
You will bear the child for me, as if it were mine;
You have brought the glow into me,
You have made me like a child myself.

He grasps her around her ample hips.

Their breath kisses in the breeze.
Two people walk through the lofty, bright night.
Career and COmpositions II.
As a teacher, taught Austrian composers Alban Berg and Anton
Webern, and published a series of textbooks
In 1909, finished his opus 11, which was the first composition to
ever completely omit the ‘tonal’ means of organization (atonal or
pantonal music)
The arrival of WW1, and Schoenberg’s enlistment in the army, left
much of his work unfinished
During the war, Schoenberg worked on a new method of
composition known as the '12-tone method'
Used the 12-tone technique for most of his music going forward
Following the end of WWI, Schoenberg's work was met with wide
acclaim (though some opposed his 12-tone method
Career III. & Death
Reached the 'peak' of his career after he began teaching at the
Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin in 1925.
Wrote the Third String Quartet, Op. 30 (1927) and the opera
Von Heute auf Morgen, Op. 32 (1928–29)
Began working on the 12-tone, three-act opera Moses und
Aron in 1930, what many consider to be his greatest work. Its
third act was never finished
Due to the rise in antisemitism and fascism in Germany.
Schoenberg was dismissed and immigrated to the US in 1933
Died on July 13, 1951.
* Fun Fact: Schoenberg had triskaidekaphobia, so he avoided the
number 13 his whole life. Unfortunately for him...
A Survivor of Warsaw, Op. 46
Divided into three sections (English, German, Hebrew)
Used the 12-tone structure, extremely disjointed and dissonant, fast
and patternless tempo, sudden and intense 'outbursts' of both music
and vocals in forte and fortissimo that increase up until the third
section; every element embodies complete chaos
The 3rd section, in contrast, is rhythmic, simple, and cohesive, with
the trumpets and trombones final unifying with the chorus
Written two years after the fall of the Third Reich and the Nazi Party
as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust
Accompanied by raw, passionate narrative poetry
Excellently captures the horrors and visceral emotions of war

"I remember only the grandiose moment when they all started
to sing, as if prearranged, the old prayer they had neglected
for so many years – the forgotten creed!"
 Other composers

Sagrada Familia

Alban Berg Anton Webern Ernst Krenek Béla Bartók

Austrian composer, who
Austrian composer with a
one of Hungary's greatest

became Schoenberg's pupil

Doctorate in Musicology, who
composers and a renowned

Austrian composer famed for

after his father died. became a private pupil of ethnomusicologist, with the

his jazz opera such as Jonny

Schoenberg and helped in the
majority of his works being

Spielt Auf (1927)

composed Lulu Suite: I
reemergence of atonality folk songs or quartet pieces
Rondo

composed Passacaglia composed The Cantata

Profana (1930)
Musical Styles and

innovations
The 12-Tone Technique
Invented by Schoenberg to replace the old basis of tonality
"Organizes all twelve notes of the chromatic scale into a
series called a tone row" ; the order remains static
Does not have the tonal/diatonic sound as other Western
music, purely atonal/non-conforming to tonal hierarchy
All notes are "relatively equal" in terms of significance
Sound neither major nor minor
key when applied to compositions
6 Types of 12-Tone Rows
Prime Form Inverted Form Retrograde Form

The original tone The intervals Tone row played

row, wherein all between notes in reverse order.
12 notes are are inverted. Ex:
played before tone row B-G-F♯
they can be ♯
becomes B-D -E
repeated

Retrograde Inversion Transposed Form Unorthodox Changes

Played both in An entire tone Tone rows 'with

reverse order row is moved liberties' that go
and with inverted either higher or against the
intervals lower original 12-tone
compositions of
Schoenberg
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