Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920

A clear and stimulating guide to the origins of modern music.

In the decades from 1900 to 1920, traditonal tonality gave way to new forms of musical expression and was reinterpreted. In tracing the atonal revolution, Jim Samson reveals the various paths taken by Schoenberg and his followers, describing their very different stylistic development.

CONTENIDO:

Preface to the first edition
Preface to the 1993 edition

Part One. Tonality: its expansion and reinterpretation
1. The nineteenth-century background
-Tonal expansion in the nineteenth century
-Sources of new methods
-The later music of Liszt
2. The significance of Busoni
-Towards atonality
-Neo-tonality
3. New tonal languages
-Debussy
-Bartók and Stravinsky

Part Two. Paths to atonality
4. "A pull wthin the art"
-The first decade
-The second decade
5. Skryabin
-The early music
-The evolution of a method
6. Schoenberg
-The First String Quartet, op. 7 and First Chamber Symphony, op. 9
-The Second String Quartet, op. 10
7. Berg and Webern
-Berg's early songs and Piano Sonata, op. 1
-Berg's Four Songs, op. 2
-A note on Weber's tonal music
8. Szymanowski
-The early music
-"Impressionist" works
9. Cross-currents

Part Three: Early atonality
10. Concept and terminology
11. Atonality and tradition
-Residual tonal elements
-Traditional forms and constructive methods
-Traditional prhaseology
12. "Free" atonality
-Form and genre
-Pitch content
-Rhythm
-Other parameters
13. Rappel 'a l'ordre
-Neo-tonality: a theme in Szymanowski
-The "mystic chord": a theme in Skryabin
-Towards the twelve-note method: a theme in Schoenberg, Berg and Webern

Notes on the text
Appedix: a chronology of works discussed
Bibliographical note
Index