Expressionism in music is Expressionism in music of the 20th century

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In the first quarter of the 20th century, a new direction, opposite to the classical views on creativity, appeared in literature, fine arts, cinema and music, proclaiming the expression of the subjective spiritual world of man as the main goal of art. Expressionism in music is one of the most controversial and complex movements.

How Expressionism appeared

Expressionism appeared and manifested itself most clearly in the culture of Austria and Germany. In 1905, in Dresden, at the faculty of the Technical Higher School, students formed a circle, which was called the "Bridge". E. Nolde, P. Klee, M. Pichstein, E. Kirchner became its participants. Soon foreigners, including immigrants from Russia, joined the German artists. Later, in 1911, another association appeared in Munich - the Blue Rider, which included W. Kandinsky, P. Klee, F. Mark, L. Feininger.

It was these mugs that becamethe progenitors of the artistic direction, after which literary associations began to appear, magazines (“Storm”, “Storm”, “Action”) were published in Berlin, a direction appeared in fiction and music.

It is believed that the term "expressionism" was introduced in 1910 by a historian from the Czech Republic A. Mateycek. But long before that, at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries, the Spanish artist El Greco and Mattias Grunewald from Germany already used the technique of ex altation and extreme emotionality in their work. And the expressionists of the twentieth century began to consider themselves their followers and, relying on the works of Friedrich Nietzsche (the treatise "The Birth of Tragedy") on the irrational ("Dionysian") beginning of art, began to develop directions for the chaos of feelings and ways of expressing it in art.

What is Expressionism

It is believed that expressionism arose because of the painful and complex reaction of the psyche of people to the horrors of modern civilization, such as war (World War I), revolutionary movements. Fear, disappointment, anxiety, pain, a disfigured psyche - all this prevented artists from perceiving the world around them objectively. And then a new principle was developed that completely rejected the naturalism and aesthetics characteristic of previous generations of creators.

The aesthetics of expressionism in literature, painting and music is based on the expression of subjective feelings, demonstration of the inner world of man. It is not the image that becomes more important, but the expression of emotions (pain, scream, horror). In creativitythe task is not to reproduce reality, but to convey the experiences associated with it. I actively use various means of expression - exaggeration, complication or simplification, displacement.

Expressionism in music - what is it?

Composers have always strived for the new and the unknown. In any of the eras, there were musicians who kept pace with the times and, under the influence of new art trends, discovered and invented their ways through musical means of expression.

Expressionism in music is a “psychogram of the human soul”. This is what the German philosopher Theodor Adorno said. Any traditions, classical forms of a piece of music, tonality and other formal restrictions of styles (classicism, romanticism, rococo) are rejected by expressionism in music, this is its main distinguishing feature.

Basic means of expression

• Extreme degree of dissonance in harmony.
• Lack of classical understanding of time signature and rhythm in music.
• Discontinuity, sharpness, broken melodic line.
• Sharp and non-standard intervals and chords.
• The change in the tempo of the music is abrupt and unexpected.
• The absence of the standard major-minor mode - atonality.
• Replacing a vocal part with an instrumental part, and vice versa.
• Replacing singing with speech, whispering, shouting.
• Irregularity and unusual placement of accents in the rhythm.

Expressionism in 20th century music

The emergence of a new direction in music at the beginning of the 20th century led to a strong change in the idea of it. Expressionism in music is a rejection of the classical form of the work, time signature, keys and modes. Such new means of expression as atonality (departure from the logic of the classical major-minor mode), dodecaphony (a combination of twelve tones), new singing techniques in vocal works (talking, singing, whispering, screaming) led to the possibility of a more direct expression of one's soul » (T. Adorno).

The concept of musical expressionism in the twentieth century is associated with the Second Viennese School (Novovenskaya) and the name of the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. In the first and second decades of the twentieth century, Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern laid the foundations for the movement and wrote a number of works in a new style. Also in the 1910s, the following composers create their works with a tendency towards impressionism:

• Paul Hindemith.
• Igor Stravinsky.
• Bela Bartok.
• Ernst Ksheneck.

New music caused a storm of emotions and a wave of criticism among the public. Many considered the music of expressionist composers frightening and scary, but still found in it a certain depth, willfulness and mysticism.

Idea

Composers found expressionism in music in a bright and sharp subjective experience, the emotions of one person. Themes of loneliness, depression,misunderstanding, fear, pain, melancholy and despair - this is the main thing that the musicians wanted to express in their works. Speech intonations, lack of melody, dissonant moves, abrupt and dissonant jumps, fragmentation of rhythm and tempo, irregular accentuation, alternation of weak and strong beats, non-standard use of instruments (in an unconventional register, in an unconventional ensemble) - all these ideas were created to express feelings and revealing the content of the composer's soul.

Composers - Expressionists

Representatives of expressionism in music are:

Arnold Schoenberg (vocal cycle Lunar Pierrot, monodrama Waiting, cantata Survivor in Warsaw, opera Aaron and Moses, Ode to Napoleon)

Ernst Krenek (opera "Orpheus and Eurydice", opera "Johnny is strumming")

Bela Bartok ("Sonata", "First Piano Concerto", "Third Piano Concerto", "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta", "The Rite of Spring", "Wonderful Mandarin" and other compositions)

Paul Hindemith (one-act opera "Killer, Women's Hope", piano suite "1922")

Igor Stravinsky ("The Tale of the Fox", "The Wedding", "The Nightingale", "The Firebird", "Petrushka" and many other works)

Gustav Mahler (especially the later works of the "Song of the Earth" and the unfinished tenthsymphony)

Alban Berg (Opera Wozzeck)

Anton Webern (five orchestral pieces, string trio, Holy of Holies, contata Light of the Eyes)

Richard Strauss (operas Elektra and Solomeya)

Expressionist chamber music

It happened that Schoenberg's school gradually moved away from fundamental symphonic forms, and this can characterize expressionism in music. Images of chamber music (for one instrument, duets, quartets or quintets and small orchestras) are much more common in this style. Schoenberg believed that his invention - atonality - does not fit well with monumental and large-format works.

The New Viennese school is a different interpretation of music. Chaos, spirituality, a new sense of the truth of life without embellishment and obsession became the basis of artistic self-expression. The destruction of melody, the invention of a different tonality - a rebellion against the traditional view of art - has always caused indignation and contradictions among critics. However, this did not prevent Novy Viennese composers from gaining worldwide recognition and a huge number of listeners.