| MUSICAL
MILESTONES OF THE 20th CENTURY |
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| 1900's: New directions away from Romanticism, Impressionism and Nationalism begin to emerge … 1901: Schoenberg, A student of Mahler's, begins work on Gurrelieder, bringing post-Wagnerian Romanticism to its culmination, albeit with touches of atonality … Richard Strauss's Salome (1905) and Elektra (1908) are staged, his most musically unsettling operas … 1906: First music synthesizer, the Telharmonium, appears |
| 1910's: World War I, related events (such as the collapse of the monarchies), unrelated events (as the spread of American jazz and other styles) change art music forever … Schoenberg's serialism, or dodecaphony (which uses all 12 tones of the Western chromatic scale equally) becomes the basis of the Second Viennese School (with Berg and Webern the leading pupils) … 1911-15: Joplin's Treemonisha, first surviving all African-American opera, based almost entirely on the rhythm of the rag, is staged with composer at piano … 1912: Pierrot lunaire, one of several works by Schoenberg leading the Expressionist movement, uses Sprechstimme … 1913: Stravinsky's orchestral Rite of Spring breaks the rhythm barrier … 1914: Alban Berg's staged Wozzeck breaks the opera singer's tonality barrier … 1917: Stravinsky's Les Noces for two pianos and percussion daringly subordinates traditional melody to rhythm and stringent harmony … 1918: Stravinsky's theatre-piece L'Histoire du soldat, is scored for a jazz band … Debussy's death virtually brings Impressionist movement to an end |
| 1920's: Both the phonograph and radio become readily available to the general public … American composers begin pilgrimmages to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger … Henry Cowell uses tone clusters, playing on piano sounding board and other innovative techniques in his music … Alois Hàba is first serious experimenter with microtonality … 1920: Death of Charles T. Griffes and premiere of his Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan, he was America's only true "impressionist" … 1921: Carpenter's Krazy Kat, a jazz ballet … Milhaud's La Création du monde (1923), Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and Krenek's opera Jonny spielt auf (1926), major works using American jazz idiom … The Theremin (1924) and Ondes martenot (1928) invented, first electronic instruments to be used by serious composers |
| 1930's: Aaron Copland abandons his post-Boulanger severity for an "American" style … Roy Harris, Samuel Barber, Walter Piston, Howard Hanson, others follow suit … 1935: Gershwin's Porgy and Bess staged, eventually becoming first "repertory" American-made opera … 1938: John Cage's Bacchanale for Prepared Piano, expands the timbres of the instrument … 1939: Cage's Imaginary Landscape #1 manipulates phonograph record in an original composition |
| 1940's: Full emergence of the big band in jazz … Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto (1945) and Copland's Clarinet Concerto (1946-47) commissioned by two masters of swing jazz – Woody Herman and Benny Goodman …1940: Disney's film Fantasia uses stereophonic sound and animation set to classical music, including Stravinsky's Rite of Spring … 1944: Copland's Appalachian Spring brings "Americana" movement to culmination … 1945: Bartok's last works composed in U.S. … 1947: Khachaturian's full, untouched score for Sabre Dance makes the Hit Parade (Arthur Fiedler, Boston Pops) … 1949: Long-play vinyl record at 33-RPM replaces standard 78-RPM shellac disk |
| 1950's: Schoenberg's 'serialism' rediscovered in academic circles. Milton Babbitt explores 'maximal serialism,' adding a dynamics row, an interval row and other dodecaphonic elements to the tone row … In Europe, Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henri and Werner Meyer Eppler begin major developments in electronic music. Stockhausen's Gesang der Jünglinge (1956), a fully developed composition involves tape … In U.S., Varèse composes Deserts (1950-54), for small orchestra and tape, while electronics studios at Princeton and Columbia Universities spawn works by Babbitt, Luening and Ussachevsky … 1950: Ellington's Harlem (tone poem) blends pop, jazz and concert music … 1951: Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors is first opera composed for TV … 1954: Death of Charles Ives. Known as an American "original" for his often daring musical leanings, he had his adherents and detractors |
| 1960's: Stereophonic sound becomes widely available on radio and in the long-play record … Taking advantage of new recording techniques, The Beatles successfully merge classical elements into their pop albums 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band' and 'Abbey Road' … 1963: Milton Babbitt's Philomel involves interactive performance electronics … 1964: Terry Riley's in C, originally for saxophone and ensemble, is first notable "systematic" musical event, a label later to be changed to 'minimalism,' with roots in rock and pop … 1965: Death of Edgar Varèse, French-American avant-garde composer |
| 1970's: The cassette tape and portable recorder (boom box) make recording of original music widely accessible to composers and performers, both amateur and professional … The "rock" opera, notably The Who's Tommy, emerges as a popular form of music theater … 1972: George Crumb's Makrokosmos for Amplified Piano places theatrical demands on solo pianist … 1976: Philip Glass's Einstein on the Beach, with "minimalist" music, revolutionizes "opera" and the music theater |
| 1980's: Laser technology and digital reproduction allow the virtually "indestructible" and "programmable" compact disk (CD) to replace the long-play record … The home computer comes with music software programs to provide both amateurs and professionals opportunities to advance their musical interests … 1983: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is first woman to win Pulitzer Prize for music – her Symphony #1 … 1987: John Adams's Nixon in China (1987) and Steve Reich's The Cave (1993) are prime examples of a new theatrical style – the "CNN opera" |
| 1990's: MIDI and self-publishing computer software for composers changes the music industry … The Internet makes possible the global musical event … More and more composers take to new and retrospective styles of music, formats and means of production, such as microtonality, improvisation, interactive electronics, music with tape, "crossover" music ("cutting edge" fusions of classical and pop), "visual" music, "media" music, neo-Spiritualism, "existential" music, and many, many more |
| 2000's: ? |
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