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Research paper topic: Composers Of 19th And 20th - 1024 words

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Composers Of 19th And 20th This essay will consist of information about nine composers and one piece of work that they are known for dating from 1862 to 1990. The names of these composers are: Aaron Copeland, Claude Debussy, Charles Ives, Scott Joplin, Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Leonard Berstein, Igor Stravinsky, and Arnold Schoenberg. The first composer I will discuss will be Aaron Copeland (1900 1990). Mr. Copeland was born in Brooklyn, New York USA to Russian American immigrant parents. His style is strongly tonal with polychords, polyrhythm, changing meters and percussive orchestration.

His influences include his teacher Nadia Boulanger, Picasso, Stravinsky and Ernest Hemmingway. Some notable history about Mr. Copeland is that he created Appalachian Spring for Martha Graham and he used American folklore as the subject with many of his works. The piece I will be discussing will be Appalachian Spring Section VII Theme and Variations on Simple Gifts I (1943-1944). The media of this piece is the orchestra and the texture is definitely homophonic.

The melody is songlike, lyrical, and danceable, with conjunct motion. The harmony is tonal because the tune is easily recognizable. This piece is in duple meter with a moderate tempo. The form is theme and variations because the theme is recognizable throughout the entire piece. One of the programmatic ideas is that this piece is to be performed as a ballet. The ballet is a story of a pioneer celebration in spring around a newly built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the 1800s.

The second composer is Claude Debussy (1862 1918). My Debussy was born in St. Germainen-laye, Paris France. His style is typically impressionistic, he used unprecedented tone color with subtle changes in timbre. He used frequent instrument solos and the woodwinds were used in unusual registers. Mr.

Debussy also used catatonic scales and whole tone scales. Some of his influences were Richard Wagner, Asian music, literary and pictorial ideas and Russian model music. The music of The Prelude to the Afternoon Faun (1894) is a piece of work that Mr. Debussy wrote after reading the poem by Stephane Mallarme. "This poem evokes the dreams and erotic fantasies of a pagan forest creature who is half man, half goat". The media of this piece is orchestra with shifting textures.

The melody is based on the E Major scale, and the harmony is tonal. The meter is very vague with a moderate tempo, and the form is definitely ABA with a vagueness of rhythm and distinct cadences. Charles Ives is the third composer I will discuss (1874 1954). Mr. Ives was born in Danburry Connecticut, USA.

His style is eclectic with his influences being his father who was a bandmaster, the war, personal experiences, and Horetio Parker. His music also has features of American tradition. Mr. Ives is also known as a transcendentalist. A transcendentalist is someone that lives on intuition.

Some notable history about Mr. Debussy is that he made his"living" selling insurance so he could spend time composing his music. He also won a Pulitzer Prize. The representative work I will discuss is Three Places in New England Putmans Camp, Redding, Connecticut (1912). The media is orchestra, with the texture having a distorted polyphony.

The melody has super imposed familiar melodies against a chromatic background. The harmony is tonal with a complex rhythm and a fast tempo. The form is a one movement orchestral work, most commonly known as ABA form. Three Places in New England is a set of three pieces for an orchestra to excite memories of American history and landscapes. Putmans Camp is a childs impression of a Fourth of July picnic with fireworks and carnival rides.

The fourth composer I will be discussing is Scott Joplin (1868 1917). Scott Joplin, the "King of Ragtime" music, was born near Linden, Texas on November 24, 1868. He moved with his family to Texarkana at the age of about seven. Mr. Joplins style of music is ragtime yet he was trained in "classical" music and wrote a ballet and two operas along with many piano rags.

His influences were his parents, and Julius Weiss, who became his teacher when he was eleven. His music is a unique blend of European classical styles combined with African American harmony and rhythm. True-life events and real places inspired many of Mr. Joplins songs. One of his first compositions was The Great Crush Collision, which was inspired by a great locomotive crash near Waco Texas.

The piece I will be discussing in this essay is Maple Leaf Rag (1899) which is a classical example of ragtime. The media for Maple Leaf Rag is the piano with a homophonic texture. The melody has conjunct motion with tonal harmony. The meter is in duple with a steady rhythm and a moderate march tempo. The form is standard ragtime form, which is AA BB A CC DD. Standard ragtime form has exactly sixteen bars in each section. Maple Leaf Rag was named after a saloon in Missouri, where he worked as a pianist. The success of this song helped Mr.

Joplin to quit his job and move to St. Louis, where he taught piano and composed. The only female composer I will be discussing will be the great Bessie Smith who is also known as "the empress of blues" (1894 1937). Mrs. Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee USA.

Some of her influences include her brothers Clarence and Andrew, and Ma Rainey who was known as "the mother of blues". Mrs. Smith recorded as many as 160 songs from 1923 to 1933. Some notable history concerning Mrs. Smith is that she was introduced into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. The piece I will be discussing will be Lost Your Head Blues (1926).

The media for this song is the cornet, piano and voice with a homophonic texture. The melody is structurally shaped with a tonal harmony. The meter is in 4/4 with a flexible and syncopated rhythm. The form is the typical twelve bar blues. The song is heartfelt and very personal.

The song is about a woman who plans to leave her man because she has "been treated wrong." The sixth composer I will be discussing in this essay ...

Related: bessie smith, claude debussy, scott joplin, leonard, bars

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