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Mahler
Viennese, considered the heir to Mozart and Beethoven. He utilized aspects of the music of non-Western cultures. He made important expansions to symphonies and Lieder. -
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Debussy
French composer and pianist; inventor of musical impressionism; influential composer. Debussy is credited with composing the first modern orchestral work. A famous work of his is "The Prelude to 'The Afternoon of a Faun.'" -
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Delius
English composer of German descent; used impressionism. -
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Strauss
German, supported Wagner's use of chromaticism. Famous for tone poems and operas. Salome and Elektra are some of his famous works. -
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Schoenberg
The father of 12 tone system music (serialism), important as an innovator -
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Ravel
French composer, extremely versatile; innovator in pianistic styles, expert composer. Ravel is credited with writing the first impressionistic piano piece. -
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Respighi
Italian composer, used impressionism -
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Stravinsky
One of the most versatile and interesting composers of the 20th century, rhythmic style, interesting harmonies. His ballet "The Rite of Springs" was considered radical and very rhythmically forceful. -
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Webern
Student of Schoenberg, known for his musical brevity and clarity of textures; uses pointillism, wrote no operas. -
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Berg
Student of Schoenberg, expressive language, often atonal. -
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Maximalism
This style focused on the extremes of everything: extreme chromaticism, extreme sizes of performance groups, extreme use of themes and motives. Found in German speaking areas. -
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Impressionism
A style of composing that was very vague in terms of all aspects of composition. Impressionism used the pentatonic, whole tone, and other scales. Unresolved dissonances were used. Free rhythm and parallel chords would be found as well. This style of music was influenced by the Javanese Gamelan, a group of percussive instruments that had no western tuning system and used microtones. -
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Expressionism
Found in Germany and Austria. A system of composition that freed music from tonality. The music found in this time was atonal, having no clear melody, and did away with chord progression rules. All notes are equal, therefore there is no home, or tonic, note to fall back on. -
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World War 1
Major land war broke out in Western Europe between powers France/England and Germany. This caused a shift in the center of music to move from France to the United States of America.