Where Knowledge Rules

Entertainment:

Music

Get a Widget for this title

20th century developments in western music

Russolo admitted I am not a musician', (The Art of Noises: Luigi Russolo) his ideas were striking beyond belief and made several musicians start to experiment with ways on how to use the sounds of the mechanical age.

After compiling a list of the different noises that could be achieved from machinery, Russolo thought about how to manipulate and use the outputs effectively in creating music. These thoughts spurred some of the most fascinating musical experiments in pre-First World War years. It brought along the invention of Noise Intoners or Intonarumaori, it was a new way of reproducing and inventing noises of the modern Twentieth Century sound. It was capable of not only generating the known noises, but adding others besides. The excitement from this invention boosted morale and encouraged experimentation in the futurist age throughout Italy and the world.

Still struggling for new ideas in compositional techniques, the Avant-garde era emerged. The composers in this area did not follow the ideas of the futurists in terms of using machines to generate sound, but took orchestra instruments and played them in a way much different from the normality of traditional compositional techniques. Their organized sound created by traditional instruments was another shocking turn in modern composition, Varse used unresolved dissonance to produce new shrill sounds. These sounds, when organized in declamatory rhythms, immediately suggest his noble aspirations and his energy' (W. Austin 1966: 377)

The potential of new electronic technology and music could not be allowed to be lost, the world of composition grew with the knowledge of being able to stray away from normality and create something never heard before in terms of tonality, structure, melody and timbre. Music Concrete brought a time where sound collages were made using the industrial and world ambiance sounds that the futurists had been using. More and more electronic sound creating devices were being used by composers like John Cage, Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaefer. Those Music Concrete pieces had been recorded onto newly invented vinyl and distributed around the globe, and for the first time, the public could readily hear the new soundscapes and collages. Though they were not classed as easy listening for a lot of people, it was a new way forward in terms of music composition.

Towards the end of the 1980's, the BBC Radiophonic workshop had managed to grab the attention of the listening public and made it more comfortable


Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

20th century developments in western music

  • 1 of 13

    by Jackpine

    Western Music has developed considerably in the 20th century.
    It first began as a kind of "rockabilly" style with home-grown

    read more

  • 2 of 13

    by Sianne Suicide

    Otherness: The search for new identities in contemporary composition

    Before the age of Futurism and the Art of Noise, classical

    read more

  • 3 of 13

    by Rob Jones

    The key in the development of Western music is the same that marks it up until this point- the rise in technology.

    Historic ally,

    read more

  • 4 of 13

    by Mark de Jong

    Through the 18th and 19th centuries, Bach's Baroque era gave way to Mozart and Beethoven's Classical period, which transitioned

    read more

  • 5 of 13

    by Peter Dawson

    WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL REVIEW:

    WOMADelaide 2007 Sounds Of The Planet

    Proving the doubters wrong, this year's festival showed

    read more

View All Articles on:
20th century developments in western music

Add your voice

Know something about 20th century developments in western music?
We want to hear your view. Write_penWrite now!

Helium Debate

Cast your vote!

Should the music industry do more to improve the moral content in song lyrics?

Click for your side.

133400

Featured Partner

Taxpayers for Common Sense

Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) is a nonpartisan budget watchdog serving as an independent voice for American taxpay...more

What is Helium? | Buy Web Content | Contact Us | Privacy | User agreement | DMCA | User Tools | Help | Community | Helium’s Official Blog | Link to Helium

Helium, Inc.
200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA