20th Century Music

Many things changed in music during the 20th Century. Although some music of the 20th Century can be seen as extensions of the Romantic period, much of the music was seen as a rebellion. Composers began creating music freely and using sounds that went against the grain instead of building on what was standard. Music from the 20th century is hard to define is musical terms as it didn't fit into the Romantic Era's requirements, and also because of it's own orchestral technique and expression. Because of this the music fits into only it's own category. Many new terms for musical styles were created during this time because of the diversity of music being written including atonality, neo-Romanticism, neo-Classicism, and expressionism. Nationalism, or the love of one's country; expressed by composers of the Romantic period and again 20th century music, was still an important music device. Composer used folk songs to enrich their music. Examples include Heitor Villa Lobos from Brazil and Aaron Copland from the US. Popular music styles and jazz influenced composers from both Europe and the United States. Traditional structures and forms were broken up and recreated or compused using non-Western musical techniques and abstract ideas during the 20th Century. Another important factor in the music making of the period was technology; composers have been known to use recording tape as a compositional tool. Played together with traditional music instruments, electronically created sounds are used in combination with other electronic sounds. Recently however, the use of computers has affected the music making world by manipulating the performance of instruments in real time. 20th Century music can be described as being more regined, delicate, having a mysterious atmosphere, and vauge in form.
One of the composers well known from the 20th Century is Aaron Copland. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1900 his personality often clashed with his compositions as he was a quiet and soft-spoken man, and his music was loud, brilliant, and tense. Copland studied the piano and music theory as a child. Copland traveled to France when he was old enough to leave home to further immerse himself in the music world. While there he made his first business mistake by selling a short composition, The Cat and The Mouse, for $25 and later did not recieve any royalities from the song when thousands of copies were sold. Once he arrived back the the United States he composed his famous symphony Symphony for Organ and Orchestra and went on the become the director of many musical foundtions such as the International Society for Contempory Music, the League of Composers, and his own foundation. Copland was very interested in education people about modern music and gave comcerts with fellow friend and compoers Roger Sessions. The concerts served to educate audiences about the new and dissonant music that he and Sessions composed. After the great conductor Serge Koussevitzky died Copland because the director of the Berkshire School of Music in Tanglewood, Massachusetts. Copland composed many compositions but his most famous works and Lincoln Portrait, which is a large orchestral piece with text from the Gettysburg address, and Appalachian Spring, a ballet which won the Pulitzer Prize and Critic's Circle of New York. Copland was a very versatile composer and composed music for choruses, orchestras, theater, and chamber music groups. He was one of the first major composers asked to write a piece fo music for a radio broadcast. He additionally wtote the scores for the films The Heiress, The City, Our Town, and Of Mice and Men. His film compositions are emotional and have also been performed in concert halls.
Aaron Copland retired from composing in 1965 due to the fact that younger composers were ignoring him and the general public didn't recieve his newer works well. Inscapes, one of the great postwar American scores, was one of these ignored works. From that time on Copland focused on conducting as a career, specializing in his own scores.
http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-mod.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/history/history-mod.htm

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