SHOSYS ACADEMY 12 LESSON: Trends In Western Music
Kelvin Sholar
1 Introduction To The Blog Series
This series of lessons and tests incorporates an easy music appreciation curriculum for adult beginners who are remote learning, or are self-taught. Lessons are posted on Mondays while Tests are posted on Saturdays. For more in depth and private guidance, I offer personal instruction by Zoom (Personal Meeting ID 8522954569) – for 1 dollar a minute. Time schedules range from a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 60 minutes. Email me at [email protected] to set up personal instruction. I accept payments and cash gifts by Cash App ($KelvinSholar), Zelle ([email protected]) or Paypal (paypal.me/kelvinsholar).
2 Revisiting The Tree Of Knowledge
In Lesson 11, we learned about conventions of melody and form. In this Lesson, we will learn about trends and sequences in Western music. This knowledge resides in the Ways branch (1.20) of the Tree of Knowledge (1.00), at the fourth leaf from the left (1.22) – Trends. In “Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives”, Benjamin Bloom describes knowledge of trends and sequences as: “Knowledge of the processes, directions, and movements of phenomena with respect to time” (Bloom 70).
2.1 TRENDS IN WESTERN MUSIC
In this lesson we will look at trends and sequences in Western music; but, we will approach it with the help of the written view point of a particular famous composer: Alban Maria Johannes Berg.
Alban Berg was an Austrian composer of the second Viennese school; he combined Romantic music with Serial music. In 1924 Berg wrote an essay to celebrate Arnold Schoenberg’s 50th birthday titled “Why Is Schoenberg’s Music So Difficult To Understand”; we will draw quotes from an English translation from the Austrian into English by Willi Reich.
In Berg’s essay, he outlines several trends in Western music; based on the interrelations of compositional techniques that were used in popular compositions over a 150 year span. For example, Berg wrote:
“If, at a first hearing, one wishes only to recognize the main voice and follow it through to the end of these ten bars, to feel the whole as a single melody, which is what it is and consequently ought to be just as whistle-able as the beginning of a Beethoven quartet – yes, even if that is all the listener wishes to do, I am afraid he will find himself faced with difficulties of comprehension as early as the third bar. Accustomed to a melodic style whose most important property was symmetry of phrase construction, and adjusted to a type of thematic construction that used only even-numbered bar-relationships – a mode of construction that has dominated all the music, with a few exceptions, of the last 150 years – an ear so one-sidedly preconditioned will doubt the rightness of the first bars of a melody that consists, contrary to all expectation, of phrases of two and a half bars in length” (Reich 1).
This quote outlines several trends in Western music. First, listeners try to sum complex compositions up into a single simple melody or a series of tones which could be whistled or sung alone. This quote also outlines the trend that Western melodies were composed by the exact repetition of phrases; which creates symmetry. Finally, this quote outlines the trend that long melodies (themes) often take place over the course of an even number of bars.
Berg outline other trends in his essay; like: the slow development of themes over many numbers of bars – but through exact repetitions, and the development of themes by sequences (or by using the same rhythmic patterns, but with different tones) (Reich 2).
Berg noted trends in terms of rhythm: “all relations of tempo and note-values …are …directly derivable from mechanical movement (e.g. mill-wheel or railway train) or from bodily movement (e.g. marching, dancing, etc.) …purposely aimed at uniform and therefore easily comprehensible rhythms, as in their dances and the movements derived from old dance forms (Scherzo, Rondo, etc.)” (Reich 3).
Finally, Berg noted trends of musical texture in Western music: “The music of the nineteenth century is almost always homophonic” (Reich 4). Homophonic texture means that a melody occurs or chordal accompaniment.
3 Bibliography
Berg, Alban. Why Is Schoenberg’s Music So Difficult To Understand?. Vienna: Musikblaetter des Anbruch, 1924
Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives: The Classification Of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Company, 1956
Reich, Willi. The Life and Work of Alban Berg. New York: 1982
Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2018