20th century classical music

20th century classical music, the classical music of the 20th century, was extremely diverse, beginning with the late Romantic style of Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Impressionism of Claude Debussy, and ranging to such distant sound-worlds as the complete serialism of Pierre Boulez, the simple triadic harmonies of minimalist composers such as Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, the musique concrète of Pierre Schaeffer, the microtonal music adopted by Harry Partch, Alois Hába and others, and the aleatoric music of John Cage.

Romantic style

Particularly in the early part of the century, many composers wrote music which was an extension of 19th century Romantic music. Harmony, though sometimes complex, was tonal, and traditional instrumental groupings such as the orchestra and string quartet remained the most usual. Traditional forms such as the symphony and concerto remained in use. (See Romantic Music)

Related Topics:
Romantic music - Harmony - Tonal - Orchestra - String quartet - Symphony - Concerto

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Many prominent composers — among them Dmitri Kabalevsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten — made significant advances in style and technique while still employing a melodic, harmonic, structural and textural language which was related to that of the 19th century and quite accessible to the average listener.

Related Topics:
Dmitri Kabalevsky - Dmitri Shostakovich - Benjamin Britten

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Music along these lines was written throughout the 20th century, and continues to be written today. Some other twentieth-century composers of works in a more-or-less-traditional idiom include:

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• Samuel Barber
• Leonard Bernstein
• Aaron Copland
• John Corigliano
• George Gershwin
• Henryk Górecki
• Howard Hanson
• Roy Harris
• Alan Hovhaness
• Gustav Holst
• Aram Khachaturian
• Colin McPhee
• Sergei Rachmaninoff
• Jean Sibelius
• Ralph Vaughan Williams

Minimalist composers such as Philip Glass can also be said to evoke some sense of nineteenth-century melodic and harmonic language, but depart radically in structure and texture, harmony, ideas, development, counterpoint and rhythm.

Related Topics:
Minimalist - Philip Glass

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Many other 20th century composers took more experimental routes.

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