Music 1900 - 1945

American jazz is another non-European influence on twentieth-century composers. Musicians were fascinated by its syncopated rhythms and improvisational quality, as well as by the unique tone colors of jazz bands. Unlike a string-dominated symphony orchestra, a jazz band emphasizes woodwinds, brasses, and percussion. Jazz elements were used in works as early as Debussy’s Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk (from the suite Children’s Corner, 1908) and Stravinsky’s Ragtime (from The Soldier’s Tale, 1918). But the peak …showed first 75 words of 3174 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3174 total…auuu! Isolde, where (lie pull of a central key is weakened by frequent modulations and by liberal use of all twelve f tones iii the chromatic scale. Arnold Schoenberg wrote the first signiIicant atonal pieces around 1908. I Ic avoided traditional chord progressions in these works and used all twelve tones without regard to their traditional relationship to major or minor scales. But atonality is not a specific techinique of composition; each atonal work is sfrtmchure’~