The 20th Century and Beyond, Essay Example

By the turn of the 20^th century, the Industrial revolution and advances in technology brought about sweeping social, cultural, and economic changes. Although music had evolved considerably in the centuries since the first plainchants were created, this evolution was somewhat ordered and based on accepted rules about musical theory and also about artistic content. Artists in the early 20^th century began to question many of these rules and expectations about music and other art forms, and began exploring new ways of creating art. Discoveries in the fields of science and new theories and ideas about human psychology prompted artists to break many of the rules and conventions that had long been the basic assumptions about what was expected of art and artists. No longer was it necessary to follow the rules; in the 20^th century the rules were made to be broken.

Artists in various fields were seeking new ways to express themselves, and music was no exception. For centuries the conventions of Western music were built around the twelve-tone system of who and half notes in an octave. Composers such as Claude Debussy began to challenge the conventions of the twelve-tone system by finding new harmonies and extensions, or sometimes even by creating completely atonal, free-form works. New rhythmic structures in music were also being explored, and some musicians created works that were in completely free-time (which echoes the very earliest stages of Western music, when plainchants were sung without specified rhythmic structures). The conventions of art and music typically demanded that art be representational of the real world, but in the 20^th century the idea that art could be abstract and non-representational became popular among many artists and musicians. Just as musicians were using free time and atonality to express themselves, painters, sculptors and other artists were inventing new schools of art, like cubism and impressionism.

Composers such as Schoenberg began writing melodies that were based on the twelve-tone system, but that moved away from many of the traditions and expectations established by the great composers in the Romantic era and previous centuries. Charles Ives, Debussy, and other composers began to move away from the traditional diatonic scale and incorporated pentatonic scales influenced by non-Western musical traditions. These and other composers influenced entire generations of musicians and opened up new possibilities for compositions. Many composers looked for new influences, such as the way Bela Bartok incorporated influences from European folk music into his compositions. Aaron Copland, who was one of America’s most well-known composers, maintained many traditional musical elements, but also explored the possibilities available to him from the modernism movement.

Advances in technology led to the development of new musical instruments that used electricity and electronic components to create sound, and many composers in the 20^th century took advantage of the possibilities offered by such instruments. The musique concrete movement incorporated real-life sounds into compositions, and this was facilitated by advances in recording and amplification technology. The invention of synthesizers and samplers continued to open up more and more avenues for exploration. Famous 20^th century composers such as Phillip Glass and John Cage were known for creating musical works that challenged listeners and even challenged all the rules of music and art. One of Cage’s most famous pieces is 4’33”– composition that is actually just four minutes and thirty-three seconds of total silence. This idea from Cage demanded that listeners consider the importance of silence –such as the spaces between the notes- as being just as much a part of music as the notes themselves.

The 20^th century was a time of so much change and artistic exploration that it would be impossible to describe it all in just a few pages. The underlying theme of art in this century was that rules did not have to be followed, and that there were no limits on what artists could do. New attitudes about art were accompanied by new social and cultural attitudes, and new forms of technology that made it possible for musicians to work with sound and tone in completely new ways. Not all artists and composers embraced these changes, and some continued to work in traditional ways, but what was most important in this period was that they were free to do what they wished, as compared to earlier times where artistic expression was more restricted.