The desire of composers to make the most of all the possibilities of the chromatic scale allows us to single out a separate period in the history of academic foreign music, which summarized the achievements of previous centuries and prepared the human consciousness for perception of music outside the 12-tone system.
The beginning of the 20th century gave the music world 4 main directions in the current called modern: impressionism, expressionism, neo-classicism and neofolklorizm - they all not only pursue different goals, but also interact with each other within the same musical era.
Impressionism
After the carefully done work on the individualization of the person and the expression of his inner world, the music turned to his impressions, i.e. HOW a person perceives the surrounding and inner world. The struggle of real reality with dreams gave way to the contemplation of the one and the other. However, this transition took place through the same direction in French art.
Thanks to the paintings of Claude Monet, Puvis de Chavannes, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Cézanne, the music drew attention to the fact that the city, blurred in the eyes because of the autumn rain, is also an artistic image that can be conveyed by sounds.
For the first time musical impressionism appeared in the late 19th century, when Eric Sati published his opuses ("Sylvia", "Angels", "Three sarabands"). He, his friend Claude Debussy and their follower Maurice Ravel - all of them drew inspiration and means of expression from visual impressionism.
Expressionism
Expressionism, unlike impressionism, does not convey an inner impression, but an outward manifestation of experience. It originated in the first decades of the 20th century in Germany and Austria. Expressionism was a reaction to the First World War, returning the composers to the theme of the confrontation between man and reality, which was present in L. Beethoven and the romantics. Now this confrontation got the opportunity to express itself with all 12 notes of European music.
The most prominent representative of expressionism and foreign music of the early 20th century is Arnold Schoenberg. He founded the New Vienna School and became the author of dodecaphony and serial technology.
The main goal of the New Vienna School is to replace the “outdated” tonal system of music with new atonal techniques associated with the concepts of dodecafonia, seriality, seriality and pointillism.
In addition to Schoenberg, the school consisted of Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Rene Leibovitz, Victor Ulman, Theodor Adorno, Heinrich Yalovec, Hans Eisler, and other composers.
Neoclassicism
Foreign music of the beginning of the 20th century gave simultaneous beginnings to a variety of techniques and various expressive means that immediately began to interact with each other and the musical achievements of the past centuries, which makes it difficult to chronologically assess the musical trends of this time.
Neoclassicism was able to harmoniously absorb the new possibilities of 12 tone music, and the forms and principles of the early classics. When the evenly tempered system fully demonstrated its capabilities and limits, neo-classicism synthesized itself from the best achievements of academic music at that time.
The largest representative of neoclassicism in Germany is Paul Hindemith.
In France, a community was formed under the name of "Six", whose composers in their work focused on Eric Sati (the founder of impressionism) and Jean Cocteau. The union included Louis Durey, Arthur Onegger, Darius Millau, Francis Poulenc, Germain Tyfer, and Georges Auric. All turned to French classicism, directing it to the modern life of a big city, using synthetic arts.
Neofolklorizm
The merging of folklore with modernity led to the emergence of neo-folkloricism. His prominent representative was the Hungarian innovative composer Bela Bartok. He spoke of "racial purity" in the music of every nation, the thoughts about which he expressed in the book of the same name.
Here are the main features and results of artistic reforms with which foreign music of the early 20th century is rich. There are other classifications of this period, one of which combines all the works written during this time without tonality, in the first wave of the avant-garde.
The author - Mikhail Solozobov
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