20th Century/Contemporary Period
1900-present
Keyboard instruments used: piano
Popular forms: there are limitless forms, some of which borrow from the past, but in general forms of the 20th century are freer and more abstract.
Harmony: pieces may be atonal, 12-tone, use nonWestern scales, modal, or use traditional Western tonality. Dissonance, tone clusters, and invented chords/scales are also used.
Style: There are many different movements representing different styles, such as: Impressionism, Neoclassicism, Atonality, 12-tone, Expressionism, Minimalism, the Avant-garde, and Aleatoric or “chance” music.
Composers: Claude Debussy, Bela Bartok, Charles Ives, Sergei Prokofiev, John Cage, Emma Lou Diemer.
To learn more about–
Debussy: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/debussy.html
Bartok: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/bartok.html
Ives: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/ives.html
Prokofiev: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/prokofiev.html
Cage: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/education/cage.html
The following videos represent a range of styles and moods of twentieth-century piano music. Press the play button in the middle of the video screen twice.
Debussy: 2 Preludes, Book II– “mists,” and “ondine”; performed by Elena Ulyanova:
Prokofiev: Finale from Sonata no. 6; performed by Evgeny Kissin:
Henry Cowell: “Aeolian Harp”; performed on the strings of the piano; pianist Lydia Aoki:
