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Period: to
20th Century
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Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington was an American composer, pianist and bandleader. Born in April 29 1899, he created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in Western music. His first performance based job was at a Broadway nightclub as the bandleader of a sextet. In the 1940 is when Ellington composed his most including Cotton Tail, and Satin Doll. His blend of melodies, rhythms and subtle sonic movements gave audiences a new experience. Duke earned 12 Grammy awards from 1959 to 2000. -
Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy was trained at the Paris Conservatoire. He extended the contemporary limits of harmony and form. His strong point was definitely not composing operas, however, he did complete one based on Edgar Allan Poe called Pelleas et Melisande. Debussy composed orchestral music, chamber music, vocal music and piano music. His vocal music was usually based off a poem. Some of his works are La Mer (orchestral), Chansons de Bilitis (vocal), and Feux d'artifice(piano). -
Charles Ives
Charles Ives is known for unifying the voice of the American people with the forms and traditions of European classical music. Ives was a cornet player, band director, theater orchestra leader, choir director, and teacher. His Symphony No.1 echoed Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. Right after that he produced the First String Quartet which integrates gospel hymns. Ives didn’t find music to be just sound. He thought of it as the underlying spirit, human and divine, which the sounds express. -
Wright Brothers
The Wright Brothers’ first successful airplane was in 1903. Their first powered airplane flew 20 feet above a beach in North Carolina. The flight only lasted 12 seconds but covered 120 feet. They made three flights that day and the longest flight lasted 59 seconds and covered 852 feet. The year before they made over 700 successful flights with their glider. -
Theory of Relativity
The Theory of Relativity was created by Albert Einstein in 1905. He determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers and that the speed of light in a vacuum was independent of the motion of all observers. He also found that space and time were interwoven into a single continuum known as soace-time. Einstein realized that massive objects caused a distortion in space-time. -
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson became known has the “King of the Delta Blues Singers”. He took the personal experience of the intense loneliness, terrors and tortuous lifestyle that came with being an African American during the Great Depression into his music. There is a myth about him that says he gained his musical talents by aking a bargain with the devil. Some of Johnson’s work are Sweet Home Chicago and I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom. -
Model T
Ford Motor Company, conceived by Henry Ford, created the Model T also known as the “Tin Lizzie”. It was the first automobile made to be affordable for a majority of Americans. The Ford factories produced more than 15 million Model Ts between 1913 and 1927. They were offered in several body styles including a five-seat touring car, a two-seat runabout, and a seven-seat town car. -
The Planets
The symphony The Planets Op. 32 was written between 1914 and 1916 by Gustav Holst. It consists of 7 movements named after 7 planets. The movements are Mars, the Bringer of War; Venus, the Bringer of Peace; Mercury, the Winged Messenger; Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity; Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age; Uranus, the Magician; and Neptune, the Mystic. Holst considers The Planets a progression of life. Each movement answers or adds on to the movement that precedes it. Holst borrowed ideas from -
The Planets continued
Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Debussy. However, Holst hated the popularity of this piece, therefore, he never composed another piece like it. -
World War I
World War I began in 1914 when Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist. The war consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan. In 1917 the United States joined the Allies. More than 9 million soldiers were killed and 21 million were wounded in this war. The Central Powers were defeated in 1918. -
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was viewed as the “King of Ragtime”. He was born on the border between Texas and Arkansas and took up the piano as a child. He emersed himself in ragtime while he became a travelling musician. Some of Joplin’s compositions are The Entertainer, Peacherine Rag, Cleopha, Solace and Maple Leaf Rag. -
Women win the right to vote
June 4, 1919 Congress passed the 19th amendment that granted women the right to vote. Women suffrage supporters lectured, march, wrote, lobbied and practiced civil disobedience to achieve a radical change of the constitution. The women have been fighting for this since the beginning of the 1800s. This victory took decades of protests but was finally successful. -
World War II
World War II started two decades after the last great global conflict. It is known as the deadliest war in History. This war started with Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. The invasion made Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany who allied with Italy and Japan. Hitler allied with these two contries to further his ambitions of world domination. -
World War II continued
About 45-60 million people were killed during this world as well as 6 million Jews that Hitler murdered in his Nazi concentration camps. He had these camps as part of his “Final Solution” known as the Holocaust. The war ended when Japan formally surrendered in 1945. -
Atomic Bomb
100,000 scientists of the Manhattan Project had been working on the bomb’s development since 1942. In 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan by a US B-29 bomber. This bomb instantly killed 80,000 people. The second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki causing 40,000 more deaths. In a few more months about 100,000 people died due to radiation poisoning. All these deaths were under the command of U.S President Harry Truman. -
Tania Leon
Tania Leon is a Cuban conductor and composer. While living in New York she became co founder of the Dance Theater of Harlem that she played piano for. She toured as a conductor for various orchestras and made appearances at the Restival of Two Worlds in Spoleto and the Nervi Festival in Genoa. She also attended Orquesta Sinfonica de Madrid and the Orchestra de Santa Cecilia. She also conducted for Braodway's The Wiz and has recieved various awards for her work. -
4'33''
4’33’’ is a piece written by John Cage that consists of entirely rests. This piece became an icon in the post-war culture. The first movement is 30 seconds followed by the next two movements being 2 minutes and 23 seconds and 1 minute and 40 seconds. For each movement nothing was played. The pianist or orchestra would sit there and turn the pages as necessary. Cage composed this piece to show that noises around create music just as much as someone’s voice or instrument. -
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was a Civil Rights activist who refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger in 1955. Her actions causes a city wide boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks refusal and trial also caused people to support the boycott and Martin Luther King’s movement more. -
I Have A Dream
“I Have A Dream” was a speech made by Martin Luther King in August 1963. Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister, and social activist who led the Civil Rights Movement from the mid 1950s until his assassination in 1968. Before the March on Washington started, which attracted more than 200,000 people, King made his “I Have A Dream” speech emphasizing his belief that someday all men could be brothers. -
Corey Dargel
Corey Dargel is a Texas born composer and singer. He intertwines pop and classical idioms that create a tension that pervades his music. Dargel studied music composition at Oberlin Conservatory. His detached vocals express intimacy, awkward and obtrusive drum patterns, and fragile harmonies. His music was considered mainly synth pop. Some of his compositions are Less Famous Than You, Other People’s Love Songs and Last Words. -
Austin Wintory
Austin Wintory was obsessed with the music of Jerry Goldsmith as a child which served as influential basis. He has scored over 25 feature films as well as created music for tv shows and video games. In 2010 he released a meditation album called “Sounds of Darkness” using Aztec Chants. Aside from making music he is also an active member on the Board of Directors for Education Through Music. -
9/11
On September 11, 2001, the largest al-Qaeda attack occurred. 19 people associated with the group al-Qaeda hijacked 4 airliners and carried out suicide attacks. Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City and a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 people were killed during the NYC and D.C attacks. -
