Modernism: Impressionistic Dream

Modernism: Impressionistic Dreams

            The age of modernism began in the 20^th century and was a huge movement of cultural and artistic ideas. A contrast to the Romantic period, 20^th century ideas were pessimistic instead of optimistic and fluctuating instead of stable. This period gave rise to artistic movements including cubism, surrealism, expressionism, and impressionism. Impressionism was an important movement of art in the 20^th century as it provided a significant contribution of chaotic and fragmented ideas that were then infused into the music of the time. Musicians of the 20^th century began to use a variety of specific scales, including the pentatonic scale and the whole tone scale. Musicians aimed to upend conventional music ideas such as symmetry and the use of tonic, or do. In The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky represents these 20^th century modernism ideals through his use of fragmented phrase structures and the whole tone scale, which incorporates the disjunction of melodies and rhythm. 

            Stravinsky embodies modernistic ideals through the use of fragmented phrases structures in his pieces to depict a single story. The minute long excerpt of The Rite of Spring consists of four different ideas; this can be described as block form. The first idea, prominently played by the bassoon, lies within the time of 2:00-2:20. The clarinet and bassoon then present a new idea between 2:21-2:33 ending with a different idea combining the first idea with the second. In the 20^th century, phrases were longer because, unlike the music of the Romantic period, it wasn’t traditional. Generally, phrase structures had been smoothed, balanced and predictable. Modernistic music presented no sense of “home” or tonic and was unpredictable. These ideals mimicked the culture of the 20^th century, which had no center or values. The chaotic and fragmented phrase structures related to the period’s depressed and disorganized society, which was caused in part by the Russian Revolution, WWI and The Great Depression. Stravinsky also uses a fragmented and unrecognizable phrase structure that incorporates the whole tone scale to portray a dreamy state of consciousness, or a single story.

            The whole tone scale is a unique scale initially used in the age of modernism to portray a dreamy sensation to the listener, using complex rhythms and unpredictable melodies. During the 20^th century, musicians usually alternated between different meters in a piece while using a more complex rhythm. Melodies before modern music were usually predictable and balanced, but these were soon replaced by irregular rhythms and erratic leaps of notes. The whole tone scale divides the octave into six whole steps that can only be played two ways. This is unlike the pentatonic scale, which allows one to play it up and down multiple ways. Stravinsky’s disjunction of melody, rhythm and the use of the whole tone scale are exceptionally noted by the bassoon and clarinet that play up and down the scale at different times, creating a dreamy sound texture. The disjunction of melody and rhythm that was expressed in 20^th century music can also be seen in the art movement of impressionism. The artwork from this movement is without details and left to the imagination of the viewer, much like the sound color and texture were to the listener. The visionary sounds of the melodies and rhythms in The Rite of Spring clearly portray 20^th century ideals, as they represent vague, and imaginative ideas created by one’s own stream of consciousness.

            The modernist movement impacted many musicians, such as Claude Debussy, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky uniquely uses modernistic ideals in his piece The Rite of Spring, when he emphasizes block form and unpredicted melodies and rhythms to create a dreamy sensation to the listener. The structure of this piece is individual and abstract, a style that is also seen in the artwork of the time, including the painting of Rouen Cathedral by Monet and The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí. Music had broken all the old rules in the age of modernism, upending traditional, classical styles of music. Modernistic music was drastically different than the periods preceding it, and the ideals have influenced music that young adults listen to today, including techno and dubstep.

Outline

Thesis: In the Rite of Spring, Stravinsky represents 20^th century modernism ideals through the use of fragmented phrase structures and the whole tone scale that incorporates the disjunction of melodies and rhythm.

Intro

Topic Sentence: The age of Modernism began in the 20^th century and was a huge movement of cultural and artistic ideas.

Main Ideas

·    Art movement: cubism, surrealism, abstract & expressionism

·    Comparing to music of the time: stream of consciousness, single story, fragmented, juxtaposition

·    Whole tone scale: dreams

Transition: Thesis

Paragraph 2

Topic Sentence: Stravinsky portrays modernism ideals through the use of fragmented phrases structures in his pieces.

Main Ideas:

·    2:00-3:04

      ·    Unrecognizable phrase structures: portrays a stream of consciousness, or a single story

      ·    Presents new stories: 2:00-2:20 (A), 2:21-2:33 (B), 2:34-2:53 (A&B combined), 2:54-3:03 (goes      back to the beginning of the piece ending in a new idea/story) block form

      ·    In the 20^th century phrases were longer: not traditional

      ·    No clear sense of tonic “home”: culture having no values or center

      ·    Chaos: all of the revolutions happening at the time (Russian, Scientific, WWI)

Transition: The fragmented phrase structures used by Stravinsky incorporated whole tone scales that helped create the state of consciousness.

Paragraph 3

Topic Sentence: The whole tone scale is a unique scale used in the age of modernism to portray a dreamy sensation to the listener.

Main Ideas

·      The bassoon in the excerpt using whole tone scale (up and down): dreamy sound

·      Rhythm in 20^th century: musicians usually changed meter within pieces, more complex

·      Melody: wide leaps of notes, irregular rhythm

·      Impressionism and abstract art: dreamy, different, no absolute truth, it portrays something different     to each viewer (disjunction of melodies and rhythms)

Transition: The visionary sounds of the melodies and rhythms in The Rite of Spring clearly portray 20^th century ideals by representing vague, and imaginative ideas created by one’s stream of consciousness.

Conclusion

Topic Sentence: Stravinsky uniquely used modernistic ideals in The Rite of Spring through the use of block form and the dreamy sensation represented by his unpredicted melodies and rhythms.