Three Influential Composer's after 1950
Created | Updated Nov 11, 2002
The twentieth century had a strong start during it's first half. Many of the innovations survived to the second half of the century. Along with them, there was the development of some other innovations in music that helped to bring it to where it is today. During this time, many new ideas were happening at the same time. Some were the further development of earlier experiments of other composers. At the same time, composers were using the new and growing technologies of their time to expand the musical vocabulary and the audience of classical music. While some used the technology to cultivate and please and audience, others used it to redefine what is music. Of the composer's of the second half of the century, Olivier Messiaen, Leonard Bernstein and John Cage are the most significant.
Olivier Messiaen is a French composer who was interested in the serial technique of Arnold Schoenberg and the second Viennese school. Messiaen was best known for his organ pieces that he wrote throughout his life. His first piece to note with serialism was Mode de valuers et d'intensities written in 1949. For this piece he developed a complex matrix to determine the length and intensity of every note played in the piece. This piece and his 1951 Four Etudes on Rhythm inspired Boulez, Stockhausen, Babbit and others to use serial methods on musical factors besides pitch. Messiaen was fascinated with onomatopoeia and transcribed birdsongs. Oiseaux exotiques written from 1955-56 was a piece for piano and orchestra and was made up of transcribed birdsongs. The first major work to be based on these birdsongs was Réveil des oiseaux written in 1953. Probably one of the most important things for Messiaen was his beliefs. He was a religious mystic with Hindi beliefs, though he had strong ties to Catholicism. Some of his last works showed this tie to his beliefs. He wrote Et exspecto ressurectionem mortuorum in 1964 for the French government to be performed in Saint-Chapelle and Chartres Cathedral, both of which have medieval stained glass. This was another piece were Messiaen used synaesthesia, an influence of Skriabin which is associating colors with certain sounds. He described the A major chord with the added 6th to be the blue of Chartres, the Mediterranean and heaven.
Leonard Bernstein, an American, used technology to reach out to the general public and make classical music more available to the common man. He used television to conduct the New York Philharmonic, bringing classical music to a larger audience. He used jazz techinques in classical music and classical techniques in jazz music. His first significant work in the second half of the century was West Side Story written in 1957. He collaborated with Steven Sondheim to write the musical, which is based on the story of Romeo and Juliet. This was the first musical to show that musical theatre could be taken seriously and thus put it onto a higher level than it had been before. The success of the musical can be seen not only with it's popularity in theatre and on screen but also in the fact that many of it's songs are performed outside of the piece on both voice and various instruments. His next important work was commissioned by an espicopal chruch. Chichester Psalms written in 1965, used Hebrew text for Psalm 108. This piece showed some of the conflict that Bernstein felt as a jew writing a chrisitan mass. The piece had a chorus singing with bells in a seven eight meter. The piece had a popular feel to it, reflecting the music of the time and Bernstein's ability to combine popular ideas with classical music. The last piece that was of huge importance was Bernstein's 1971 Mass, which he wrote for the opening of the Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts in New York City. Once again, Bernstein was faced with the conflict of being jewish and writing a catholic mass. The piece was very theatrical and used some new technology of the time. There were instruments not only on stage, but there was also a pit orchestra. In the pit, there was strings, percussion and two organs, though they were not pipe organs. On stage there was brass, woodwinds, electric guitars, electric keyboards, singers, dancers, a chorus and pre-recorded tapes. Off stage, during the Kryie, there was a marching band. The piece showed influences of Alban Berg, the musical Hair and popular music of the 1970's. Despite that fact that there was popular influences to the piece, there were still bitonal harmonies, which kept it out of the popular realm of music.
John Cage, another American, changed the idea of what is music. Cage's main idea was of interdetermincy. He tired to take the composer apart from the composition and the performance. Many of his compositions were based on chance. In 1951, he wrote a piano solo, Music of Changes, that was dependant on chance used on charts of sounds, rhythms, tempos and dynamics. In Imaginary Landscape no. 4 for 12 radios from 1951, tweleve radios are placed on stage and the only thing that can be controlled is the volume and setting of the tuning dial. However, the location and time of day of the performance would make it different everytime that it was performed. Imaginary Landscapes, which was written from 1939-1951 had conventional instruments playing with electronic instruments including variable speed record players, radios, electric buzzers and audio oscillators. During the 1950s and 1960s, Cage became well known through performances and recordings of his works internationally.
Of these three composer's, Cage is the most influential. He was not only a composer, but also a lecturer and teacher. Cage changed the way that people thought about music and what could be defined as music. With his piece 4'33" from 1952 showed that music did not have to have sound to be a perfomance. His openmindness to music influenced many people to come and opened up compositions from being a fixed piece.
The second half of the twentieth century showed more developments of music. The line between classical music and popular music became more blurred as did the definition of music. Different ideas were happening at the same time, which can be seen with the works of Messiean, Bernstein and Cage. Each one had his contribution to music. Technology became more important in the later years of the twentieth century. Of the three mentioned composers, Cage is the one who had the largest influence on the world of music.
Any questions or comments: Email me
