IMPRESSIONISM	PRIMITIVISM	NEO-CLASSICISM
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EXPRESSIONISM	SERIALISM	TOTAL SERIALISM
INDETERMINISM	TEXTURALISM	MINIMALISM
ELECTRONICISM	NEO-ROMANTICISM	ECLECTICISM

EXPRESSIONISM: an appeal to the emotions

	Roualt gives us more than just a portrait of a king; it is easy to imagine something dark and disturbing going on in his mind.
Georges Roualt: The Old King	(1916)

Background

Expressionism, also known as non-serial atonality, is the historical continuation of the Common Practice Period. Unlike Neo-classicism, which was a return to the past, Expressionism followed a virtually unbroken line. Arnold Schoenberg, the Expressionist champion, began composing in the 19th century in the Romantic tradition. He soon expanded and developed his musical materials, particularly in the areas of dissonance and chromaticism. He avoided a sense of a single tonal center, he delayed the resolution of dissonance until there was no resolution, and freed chromatic pitches of their need to resolve. His melodies shrank to simple motives, then ultimately to just intervals. His textures changed suddenly, and often.

Expressionism is most frequently associated with the word ATONAL (which means "without a tonal center"). Strictly speaking, this is inaccurate, since ALL pitches are in Expressionism are of equal importance. Schoenberg preferred the word PANTONAL (meaning "all pitches tonally equal").

One of the most curious changes that occurs is that melodies and harmonies tend to be constructed alike. There is little, if any, distinction between vertical and horizontal structures; in the Common Practice Period, melodies had a predominance of stepwise motions but harmonies were constructed in 3rds. Expressionism tends to use the same principles in structuring both.

Expressionism developed in the 1920's into Serialism, and many Expressionistic elements continue to be used today.

Composers associated with Expressionism

• Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
• Anton Webern (1883-1945)
• Alban Berg (1885-1931)

Musical elements

A. Tonality

1. Expressionistic music does not isolate a single pitch as tonic. Although it is somewhat inevitable that some pitches become more important than others, the basic precept is that all pitches are equal.
2. Generally, clear phrases and cadences are either absent or extremely difficult to isolate.

B. Vocabulary

1. All 12 pitch classes found in Western music may be used, in any order.
2. Melodies tend to be short and erratic.
3. Pitch is generally less important than intervals. Intervals tend to group together into CELLS, or SETS.
   1. Sets are analyzed for the total interval content. Please note that there is no real distinction made between melody, harmony, and counterpoint.
      
   2. The interval content is arranged inside brackets [#m2, #M2, #m3, #M3, #P4, #TT], and is called the INTERVAL VECTOR.
      
   3. Intervals are not calculated beyond tritones; larger intervals are simply inversions of the smaller and are considered to be the same interval class. Likewise, the Gb-B in the second example above was calculated as a P4, rather than an A3; always calculate to the most simple interval.
4. Melodies tend to move quickly from one register to another, creating large leaps and greater interest (POINTILLISM).
   

C. Texture

1. In Expressionistic music there is virtually no distinction made between melody and counterpoint, as seen above. Texture moves freely between simple melodic line and complex contrapuntal textures.
2. Texture can be achieved through timbre (tone color) and dynamics as well as pitches.
   1. Timbre (which includes the color of instruments and the color of articulations, textures, and densities) tend to be subtle, varied, and notated very specifically.
   2. These consistent changes of instrumental color, articulations, textures, and densities can create a sense of musical inertia, equal to (and even possibly exceeding) the importance of pitch and rhythm. This is called KLANGFARBEN (literally, in German, "sound-color").
   3. Dynamics tend to be varied and notated very specifically.
   4. Dynamics tend to change suddenly rather than to following traditional crescendos and decrescendos.

D. Sonority

1. In Expressionistic music there is virtually no distinction made between melody and harmony, as seen above. There is no separate procedure for creating sonorities as compared to creating melody.
2. Dissonance is completely emancipated, having no requirement to resolve to consonance.

E. Time Organization

1. Rhythms are generally subtle and irregular (those which demonstrate great variety and do not occur in repeated patterns). Please note: no matter how irregular rhythms become, they are always notated to show where the main beats are located. This frequently requires many ties.
2. Meters tend to change frequently, or become irrelevant.

Analysis projects

• Arnold Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstucke op 11: no 1 [MA #440]
• Arnold Schoenberg: Klavierstucke op 19: no 2 [MA #441]
• Anton Webern: Song op 3 (1909): no 1 [ATM #11]

Suggested listening

• Arnold Schoenberg: Five Pieces for Orchestra op 16 (1910) [ATM #4]
• Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire op 21 no 1 "Mondestrunken" (1912) [MA #442]
• Anton Webern: Five Movements for String Quartet op 5 no 4 "Sehr langsam" [MA #443]
• Anton Webern: Bagatelles for String Quartet op 9 (1913) [ATM #11]
• Alban Berg: Altenberg Lieder op 4 (1912) [ATM #14]

Composition project

Write an Expressionistic piece for piano, one page or less, which is a complete musical thought. Include the following:

1. Interval vector [011010] with proper enharmonic spellings
2. Klangfarben (frequent coloristic changes)
3. Pointillism (numerous register changes)
4. Highly irregular rhythms (notated with beats showing by proper beaming)
5. Changing meters
6. Tempo-mood-dynamics-articulations

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