A Brief History of 20th Century Classical Music (Tetris-style)
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- Опубліковано 29 лип 2024
- Where the timeline of classical music history was more or less a line, a series of relatively consistent and coherent approaches one after another, classical music in the 20th century was more like a complicated game of Tetris, a bunch of interlocking and overlapping pieces. So why not visualise it as one! That's what I did in this video.
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Spotify Playlist for pieces in this video:
open.spotify.com/user/8rc0jzw...
Mahler, Symphony No.10
Debussy La Mer
Puccini Madama Butterfly
Richard Strauss Elektra, Salome
Arnold Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht, Pierrot Lunaire
Alban Berg Wozzek, Lulu
Anton Webern Symphony Op.21
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Hans Werner Henze
Peter Maxwell Davies
Maurice Ravel Alborada del gracioso
Erik Satie
Debussy Estampes Pagodes
Igor Stravinsky The Soldier's Tale, The Firebird, Petrouchka, The Rite of Spring, Violin Concerto, In Memorium Dylan Thomas, Les Noces, Symphony of Psalms
Shostakovich 4th Symphony, 2nd Piano Trio
Leos Janacek Káťa Kabanová
Bela Bartok 4th String Quartet
Olivier Messiaen Quartet for the End of Time, Turangalîla-Symphonie
Pierre Boulez Le Marteau sans maître
Stockhausen Gruppen, Gesang der Jünglinge, Helicopter Quartet
Iannis Xenakis Metastaseis
Gyorgy Ligeti Atmospheres
Edgar Varese Ionisation
Charles Ives 4th Symphony
Henry Cowell
Luciano Berio Sinfonia
Steve Reich Music for mallet instruments voices and organ
Philip Glass
John Adams
John Luther Adams there is no one, not even the wind
Arvo Part Tabula Rasa
Henryk Górecki
Gerard Grisey Les Espaces Acoustiques
Tristan Murail
Louis Andriessen
Harrison Birtwistle
George Benjamin
Per Nørgård
Toru Takemitsu
Magnus Lindberg
Gyorgy Kurtag String Quartet 6 Moments Musicaux
Brian Ferneyhough
Lutosławski
Henri Dutilleux
Kaija Saarlaho
Unsuk Chin
Thomas Ades - Asyla
3:51 Oh hey it me
bonus points (-:
And I got included too
Keep on rockin'
Wow what a great channel to be able to understand music even a child can understand
this was such a wild idea! loved it, and jeez, that must have taken a while to edit!
that's what christmas break is for (-:
@@DBruce You missed Robert Simpson, William Walton, Vagn Holmboe. Giacinto Scelsi and Penderecki. What gives?
I agree, this was a unique concept. Some 20th century classical music never really appealed to me, as the music became dissonant or atonal and chaotic like a thunderstorm after WWI and WWII ended, or is too sad for me (such as Barber, though his stuff is good), which is when the classical station will be turned off on the radio and where the 1970s classic rock or 2020s indie station goes on, my dad does the same thing, but switches the radio off. The 1700s-1800s is where it is at, with Mozart, Bach family and Beethoven. Rachmaninoff is my favorite 20th century composer. :) Max Bruch - Allegro Con Moto is also good, from the 1910s.
For 21st century classical music, I like Mirana Faiz - Bach G minor arranged by Luo Ni, Robert Gromotka - Where Words End, and my favorite of all 21st century ones is Kai Engel - Global Warming. Kai Engel is a young composer who escaped Russia during 2022 to the country of Georgia. He makes regular piano classical, as well as fusions of electronic with orchestral. His piano compositions are my favorite.
Now knocking at your backdoor: The ghosts of Orff, Hindemith, Milhaud, Britten, Holst, Prokofiev, Respighi, Villa-Lobos, Vaughan Williams, Delius, Penderecki... ...👻
It was so hard watching you constantly do the wrong thing in tetris, but I understand that was so you didn't erase any of the composers... but at about 10:42 you completely mess up placing conlon nancarrow's piece where it goes on the field (it stops one too high!)
I was so invested in the Tetris game, that I didn't hear a word he said. I'll have to watch it again.
Consider it a transposed version: The piano roll was installed a half-step off. Perhaps Can-Narrow would have fit better.
More precisely it was to illustrate that we don't have the full picture of musical history.
This was super interesting - thank you David!
When I saw "tetris-style" in the video title I really thought you were going to play versions of the tetris theme, having re-composed it to imitate the different musical styles and composers you mentioned at the start.
But I wasn't disappointed with the video you actually made
that's a good idea though!
@@DBruce You could even turn it into a game for the viewers. You could select 5 composers, compose an interpretaion based on each composer then ask us to guess which composer had inspired which version.
@@DBruce The idea with tetris is very innovative. It was very suprising to run into it in video like this. However, it was hard to follow your brief explanations of composers` styles while 'something' is playing tetris, especially when playing it wrong - my brain collapsed a few times. Taking in mind the music playing in the background, it was really difficult to comprehend your speech, it even seemed monotonous - although in other videos it gave me pleasure.
Sorry for such a rude criticism but I hope it will help you upgrading video format. I am a big fan of you as your content introduces new horizons of music. Please make more videos about modern composers revealing their styles more deeply!
You put an amazing amount of commitment and thought into these videos... thank you for enriching music theory UA-cam with your fantastic work! 🎼🙏
Bit of space underneath the Nancarrow-Brick at 10:44
The Nancarrow-Brick: "I'm gonna pretend i didn't See that"
Masking each composer's face, changing the colour hue and applying it to a block texture... that must have been painful! Way to suffer for your art.
Actually the hardest thing I found was doing the fake gameplay-like 'rotations' of the pieces. The little keyframe window in premiere is one crappy interface in an otherwise great piece of software I think (a video from you about it maybe??!)
@@DBruce Oh wow! You did it in premiere? Yeah, that keyframe thing is painful. If ever you have a mind to spend a day or two learning a new program, I'd recommend After Effects - it has beautiful integration with Premiere and has (I believe) one of the best user interfaces of all time. It would have been perfect for this.
ah! Yeah I've played around with it, but haven't had enough time to fully get to grips with it, and my computer struggles to handle both programs open at once.. someday hopefully!
If you want to talk about UIs, Blender is getting a new UI in version 2.8.
@@Tantacrul At least it's not Paint and Windows Moviemaker xD That's kind of the level I'm on haha
I was surprised that you didn't mention sonorism, nevertheless this video was soooo good - the whole tetris concept, the execution, and the historical content!
I love this! 20th-Century composing trends are difficult to comprehend and this is a fantastic survey. Thanks!
Great video David- very informative and fun as always!!! Thanks so much for the resource
I enjoyed watching this small documentary very much. Learnt some new names along the way as well. Thank you. More like this would be very much appreciated. Good work.
Fantastic video, thank you for all of your work and passion
Thank you, thank you a lot! Brilliant idea to make such a video, I'm so glad I have found it !❤
This was such a great concept for telling the history of 20th century classical composers! Well done, it must've taken ages to complete. I can't believe I haven't seen this video until now... xD
Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Excellent.
I would vote for Space Invaders of romantism... :D
Snake of baroque : )
Incredible video Bruce, thanks a million times!!
I'm happy John Luther Adams got a mention! I got to study with him a bit over a decade ago: A smart guy, one who definitely was quick to understand what I was trying to write and help make it more what it was. And his music is just a treat.
thexalon whoa that’s awesome! Become Ocean is magnificent
Very interesting and informative. You have given me a lot to listen to!
Your concept of time-based documentation of works (by way of recording) leveling the playing-field of legacy blew my mind. I always felt inclined to believe it, but no one has ever put it so succinctly. Of course, this could apply to most of the works archived by "American race-records". Blues, jazz, and rhythm-&-blues were survived by the technology as much as the adherents of said compositions.
This was a really excellent summary of 20th century music! Bravo!!
I would love to see you do a video about the trends in 21st century music and what we might see in music in the near future!
Really brilliant. Difficult to pick and choose and get the most important ones either placed or mentioned. Very concise. Thank you!!
thanks for this wonderful content
I love this analogy. well done on another cracking video
Thank you so much. This was phenomenal. I now know what to do with the rest of the night listening to all of this!
Incredibly well done! Thank you
Very enjoyable overview!
Wow. What a presentation. It brims with quality and creativity.
amazing video, David! the format is really cool and engaging
wow David, this was amazing thanks again!
I was pleased to see you included Charles Ives even though he was almost unknown in his lifetime (like the painting world... die to get famous?). What about wholly electronic folks like Isao Tomita or other performance based composers like Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman?
I’ve always wondered - do any composers ever cite Ives as an influence or did they just recognize his prescience later on?
Really love this and all your content! Thank you :)
This was so awesome and really helped me put composers' lives into perspective!
Awesome content!!! Totally subscribed and belled!!!!
I like all your videos, but this one stands out. Kudos!!
that game of tetris in the beginning was brilliant. well done david
10:43 Of course Nancarrow doesn't just fit in like everyone else.
Oof
Great video sir! Very informative, I really enjoyed it :)
In reading the comments there are many complaints about who is missing. I was happy to have the privilege of being the 1000th like. Thanks for the knowledge you share with grace David. For a classical music ignoramus like myself this was very educational and informative. Your way of describing classical music makes it easier to understand and be drawn in to the different textures and flavours of the eras. Debussy and minimalism (Reich's West African sounds) and post minimalisms are areas I look forward to learning more about. How world, microtonal and jazz music is influencing composers of classical music is fascinating. Thanks for the unique Tetris presentation. The tension was never resolved and it kept me slightly on edge despite seeing why resolving was not the goal, just like some of the out there classical composers pushing the boundaries.
Extend the tension by making Nancarrow fail to complete the row. Nice! ;-) Anyhow, thanks again for sharing your knowledge.
This was really cool! I love your expertise and ability to teach it, that's how I want to be some day.
I am new to your channel, but currently I'm enjoying every bit of it
This format is a neat and engaging way to present musical trends in history. Would love a similar treatment of other periods! :)
Content-wise this is a real treat! Of course there will be comments about the quality of your tetris game, and everyone's personal favorite composer you obviously missed. But you didn't miss mine so I won't complain ;-) Rather than rehashing the game-style presentation, just be creative with the presentations as you feel. I'll be coming back for new content in any case.
This is a great video for untangling the complex nature of the 20th century’s hodgepodge of styles.
Another great video; would have liked to see more examples from chamber music (basically less full-orchestra stuff) and electronic music.
In case it's helpful - I wrote down the composers mentioned:
Mahler, Debussy
Puccini
Richard Strauss
Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Webern
Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Hans Werner Henze
Ravel, Satie, Debussy
Stravinsky, Shostakovich
leos janacek, bartok
messiaen, boulez, stockhausen, xenakis
lygeti
verese
luciano berio
reich, glass, john luther adams
Arvo Part, Henryk Górecki
gerard grisey, Tristan Murail
Andriessan, harrison birtwistle, george benjamin, Per Nørgård, Toru Takemitsu
magnus lindberg, gyrogy kurtag
Brian Ferneyhough
Lutosławski, Henri Dutilleux
kaija saarlaho, Unsuk Chin
thomas ades
Thank you! I was frantically scribbling
You missed Gershwin, Copland, and John Adams
That's a great summary!
This was brilliant! So well researched, and so much information! Unfortunately for me, I now have a short list of about 20 composers, about whom I know nothing, but nevertheless I need to listen to their music , as they were (apparently!!) pivotal in the development of 20th century music.
Great video! Very informative.
This was awesome! It gave me a far clearer, bigger picture of this ocean of 20th century music which I've never quite understood how to traverse.
I understand that a lot had to be condensed into under 15 mins, but one important thing which I noticed wasn't really mentioned was Iannis Xenakis' mathematical approach to composition; his 'formalized music' that drew upon group theory, stochastic analysis among other mathematics to compose peaces and experiment with timbre. Perhaps this isn't particularly profound when it comes to being 'musical', but as someone who is really fond of both math and music, this aspect of Xenakis' music is sublime.
Great video, but what about Poulenc and Hindemith?
He mentioned Les Six, calling them "minor composers," which I don't think is true re. Milhaud and Poulenc. But, yes, what about Hindemith?
That's the thing about the 20th century, the time has not travelled a long path enough to perceive and somehow divide the composers more racionally, meaning that he must have included other prominent composers to fully please everybody. From my perspective, I was lacking Riley, Bernstein, Nono, Enescu, Britten, Orff and Hindemith as well, maybe Kutavicius as he combines influence of folk music and microtonal experimentalism. But I actually learned some new names, so I'm quite fond of David's enthusiasm he put into the editing of this whole video.
Loved it!
Love this, such an accessible approach, giving a small taste into all the diverse schools of thoughts in concert music during the 20th century! However I would have loved it even more if you managed to sneak in A. Schnittke and the school of Polystylism!
Well done! This is the video we all needed and none of us deserved
Although I am sure that these visuals will make some people with mild OCD extremely anxious!
Villa-Lobos, man!
anyone else feel itchy at 10:28 when a possibly full row was ruined?
Great vid david
I really enjoyed this approach, it feels fresh just like the 20th century music
Also itd be really cool if you did a reharm of the tetris theme
thank you very much , it is very interesting video , thank you a lot
This was amazing! Thank you so much! I know it's not history anymore, but I'd love to see something similiar about contemporary composers. Ideally done as Super Mario, that should be easy :D
The Tetris thing you did there is brilliant...
i don't know where this 20th century stuff is heading towards,all i can say ,it has alienated the vast number of audience from attending to concert halls..i occasionally compose in the style ,which gives me more freedom,however the audience want their taste not too committed to unknown spices.
Wonderful!
Elliot Carter and Rautavaara; two of my favorites
This whole video is my life
Very cool. You have a knack for making music education lively! Not sure how you might approach Rennaisance music in the context of Red Dead Redemption, or perhaps Romantic era Doom, but I'd love to see the attempt. :-)
My personal favorites in the 20th century are Bartok, Stravinsky, Penderecki, Arvo Part, and John Adams. I had the pleasure of attending a concert he conducted in Seattle with Leila Josefowicz performing his violin concerto. I have yet to hear Harmonielehre performed live, but it's on my bucket list.
Fantastic!
Such a great video! I’ve got my COVID listening homework cut out for me
Very enjoyable and interesting! Would love to see a video about living composers, and where they are/what they are writing and who they are writing for. Maybe a map oriented game like risk would be cool, or composer monopoly😝
I liked all the touching points with folkloric music , world music , percussive elements , uneven meters , ragas , modality ... exoticism ( I think polyrhythm and polymeter wasn´t touched ... - but you have special video anyway ) . If you ever want to make another similar video , this focus would be my wish .
This video is a masterpiece
So good
Impressive effort---Bravo! While thorough and succinct, I might suggest some reference to the two dozen or so "Holocaust Composers", such as Ullmann, Krasa, Schulhoff, etc. who, if they had been allowed to live and/or flourish, might have had cumulatively a counter-balancing effect on classical music after WWII.
Right, I made a nice 'to listen' list out of this. Thanks.
As a fan of your videos: This is a great video, you should do more videogame themed videos. Congrats!
As a musician: I really felt the evolution of music with great helping visuals and a good musical selection.
As a videogamer: I will just throw a fact that maybe you already know, is called TETRIS because all shapes are made with 4 squares (from latin "tetra" = four).
Very interesting overview, but not mentioning Frank Zappa is an oversight, I think. He combined classical music (including or even mostly modern classical music), jazz, blues, rock and extramusical elements to a unique mixture.
VERY useful revision, the Tetris conceit works well. I increasingly think Webern is crucial, but they are SO short! By the time you’ve got into his sound world the piece has finished.
It would be it be awesome if you did a video about the state of classical music today and the major players to look out for. I feel like I have a very small grasp on the contemporary classical world, one you probably have much more experience in.
I have to restrain myself from taking personal offence that holst wasn't even mentioned. Once. Otherwise, great video, David!
Amazing, thank you (very very much) for that! Greetings from Cuiabá - Brazil, the (very warm) geographical centre of south america! haha
David's list stresses innovations over substance; not sure how many of these composers' works will last or even be heard. He leaves out many composers who ARE frequently heard--Sibelius, Prokofiev, many British composers, such as Britten, Vaughn-Williams, and Simpson (odd, since I assume that David himself is British...Villa-Lobos and other Latin Americans, Skalkottas, some Scandinavians. Granted, hard to include everybody, but there are some major omissions (Carter, Riegger, and Feldman among Americans).
This ia great!
I am approqching 20th century music and this video provided me a lot of helpful information!
Now i know that i know nothing, ahah.
Thanks for sharing a Very enlightening summary. Of course as commonly happens with summaries some pieces are left out. Villa-Lobos, de Falla, Ginastera, Sibelius... Material for a second installment?
HARRY PARTCH. Someone already mentioned him, but i think he and his program are your biggest miss, by far. Other misses include Elliott Carter, and Milton Babbitt.
Gloria Coates?
He mentioned Charles Ives and Aaron Copland. Just how many Americans would he have had to put in to satisfy you?
@@rosiefay7283 Not anyone's fault that there were many significant American composers in the past century.
I really enjoyed this video, but I wish you would have spoken on Penderecki and his place in this tapestry of modern composers. Firstly because I enjoy his work, and secondly because I'm curious how he fits in!
Excellent video! Please do the same with baroque, classical & romantic!!
David Bruce! Genius conceptualization! I haven't seen nearly as much retracing of 20th century movements in music as I have with artistic movements of the same century.
I believe that the addition of people like Michael Torke, Frank Ticheli, David Maslanka, even Percy Grainger would have been reasonable. I know a lot of those are American wind band composers, but Ticheli and Michael Torke are still alive and might have made your recap of 20th century classical music seem a little less bleak at the end. Mr. Torke especially has been thought of as a post minimalist composer with a pretty recognizable style and talented writer of chamber music. Villa-Lobos, Aldemaro Romero, Roberto Sierra also helped give those of classical training a more diverse repertoire, and Gustav Holst and Percy Grainger could've helped give some more body to the list of mid 20th century composers.
Maybe this goes deeper into the issue of determining who carries the legacy of the "classical" tradition, since a lot of these composers I listed aren't quite as tied to the symphony repertoire as the the others... You covered quite a few musicians, I'm going back and making sure I didn't miss anyone else, your video essay is a little different from the collage itself. It did seem reasonable to include composers that had a heavy influence/involvement in romantic era music, but I would say at LEAST by the next 3 or 4 decades following, classical music had influences that don't quite reflect this complete spiral into atonality. I'm a relatively new subscriber, but again I love the stuff of yours that I've seen, I just though that I had to make that observation. I look forward to more!
Classical music is and has always been my refuge from the hectic pace of the day. Rhapsody in Blue, which I liken to a musical tour through the busy times and mechinizing of the Industrial Revolution, is one of my favorite American pieces, by George Gershwin. I enjoy all of the different forms of Classical music as my daily background music.
Gooood!
I'd love an extension of this for the 21st century too. I'm fairly comfortable with my knowledge up to the late 20th century, but I have no idea what is going on in the current milieu.
The majority of the "you missed X" comments are about composers from the anglosaxon bubble. I'm so surprised! (Except when the commenter is from another bubble.)
Excellent video!
Very educational..
A video on trends in contemporary music in the last 20 years!
That was really good, thank you! Any chance you could link to the recordings you showed for each piece so we can hear them in full?
I started my Masters this year with mapping 20th century composers/styles. This would have saved me so much time. Still glad I did it though, 20th century music is such an interesting jungle of great music.
Really entertaining ! Rautavaara and his magical pieces were still missing.
I came here to say this.
I really like Rautavaara, but I don't think he was as influential as the others were in the development of 20th century classical music since his works are mostly neo-Romantic music.
You forgot that Bruce guy, I hear he's pretty good.