Music of the Twentieth Century. Specifically, It Term Paper

music of the Twentieth Century. Specifically, it will compare music of the Twentieth Century to the music of a previous period, and include information about the significance of composers in society, the role of music in the societal landscape, and the evolution of musical forms through the centuries.

Twentieth Century music embodies so many different forms and types that it is difficult to lump it together under one heading. In the United States, the Twentieth Century brought music listeners everything from Gershwin to rap and blues to headbanging. Just as America is a rich cultural melting pot, her music is just as rich and varied, and this is nowhere more evident than in the Twentieth Century.

At the turn of the Twentieth Century, most of America listened to opera and classical music - much of it from some of Europe's most famous composers of the previous centuries, such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn. Many music experts believe, however, that the roots of American cultural music were already planted in the form of folk music, gospel, spirituals, and an emergence of American composers whose voice began to differ from the popular European composers. As early as the teens, jazz and blues were beginning to become known, and these two forms of popular music would make a profound effect on the people's listening tastes in the Twentieth Century. One critic notes, "Unquestionably, the most significant contribution made to music by the United States in the period under discussion lay in the field of popular music" (Hansen 84). Jazz used unusual syncopation and "blues notes," which involved a modification of the major scale.Jazz and the blues evolved from black spirituals and folk music of the South, and spread from New Orleans to Chicago and the East. Eventually, jazz would influence later styles of music, such and bebop and swing. Jazz helped create a popular music craze that swept the country, and continues today. Americans still listen to more popular music than anything else, from rap to country to rock and roll. Jazz also influenced other forms of music, as the compositions of George Gershwin and Aaron Copland clearly show. Nowhere is that more apparent than in "Rhapsody in Blue," which can switch from bawdy all out jazz, to a classical piano solo, and then the lush and romantic orchestration of strings in just a few bars. The music of the Twentieth Century embodies change, for it has changed many times, just as music of the Nineteenth Century evolved throughout its history.

Music has always played a pivotal part in the landscape of society, from blacks signing spirituals in the cotton fields, to the drawing rooms and concert halls of Europe. Music can arouse strong emotions in the listener, and evoke equally strong intellectual reactions. For example, many people find modern rap music offensive and pornographic, and yet it is one of the most popular forms of music today. In the Nineteenth Century, romanticism was at its height, and romantic composers created lush compositions that appealed to the….....