Musical style of the Twentieth Century.
Harmony - much more dissonant, now that we have left Common Practice
Melody - angular, disjunct, harder to discern - maybe not primary importance
Duration - rhythm is the feature that has been the most changed by 20th century music
Dynamics - volume changes are sometimes the only constant in the form!
Timbre - many new sounds are created. Most notably: traditional instruments used in non-traditional ways
Form - very often, the forms in use during the 20th century mirror those of earlier times. However, new forms are also being created.

Impressionism: French - Debussy Piano ÒClaire de LuneÓ
Whole Tone Scale, Parallel Chords,
Expressionism: German - Schoenberg no listening examples on our cd
Serialism, Tone Row, Dodecaphonic Serialism (12-tone music)
Sprechstimme - speech song (type of singing Schoenberg invented to approximate pitches)

Primitivism and Neoclassicism - Russian - Stravinsky (Rite of Spring)
Forms of earlier eras, percussive effects, rhythmic challenges

Split in music of 20th century: ART music vs. COMMERCIAL music (primary criteria is the profit factor)
Art music:
Modern and traditional
Modern:
Tonal and Atonal
Tonal: Neoclassical (traditional - Stravinsky) and Impressionism (Modern - Debussy)
Atonal:
More rational control (serialism - Schoenberg)
Less rational control (aleatoric or indeterminism - John Cage)
Traditional: Tonal / Neoclassical
Commercial music

"Art Music" - Twentieth Century 'isms
Unusual uses of traditional instruments
Henry Cowell - The Banshee - scraping the insides of the piano
Indeterminacy and aleatoric - chance music - never performed the same way twice
John Cage - Studied with Cowell - influence of Eastern music and philosophy; Invented prepared piano; 4'33"