& œœœb œœœ# N œœœbb œœœ#n: Pantriadicism Polytonality

music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

Neoclassicism

globe theatre london, england

“water lilies and japanese bridge” claude monet, ca 1898 oil on canvas

“woman with a parasol - madame monet and her son” claude monet, 1875 oil on canvas

like impressionism, neoclassicism is a movement that occurred in a lot of different disciplines.

in architecture, for example, neoclassicism involved a return to the forms and ideals of classical greece.

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in the early twentieth century, composers were also hearkening to the past. after the intensity and emotion of the romantic period, they were looking to the order and restraint of ancient greece, or more recently, the classical era.

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neoclassicism in music took on a lot of different forms, varying from country to country and even from composer to composer. However, there are a few compositional techniques that were pretty unique to music of the time!

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as it happens, the techniques below can be grouped to show the favored styles of the two most well-known neoclassicists: Paul hindemith and igor stravinsky!

pantriadicism

hindem ith

f?: i

III...ish? bVII maybe

combining chords which are dissonant to one another... or playing in multiple keys simultaneously!

# & # ‰ œ œ œ ˙˙˙ > ? b b ‰ œ œ >˙˙˙ bb œ˙

um no

avoid tritone chords... too much baggage.

t w en el d l to to g wo et r h k er

˙ & ˙˙

œ & b œœœ n # œœ b b œœœ # œœ n œ

Gq quartal chord

˙˙quartal harmony b b ˙˙ Eb Q

quintal chord

chords built using perfect fourths or perfect fifths. (as opposed to tertial harmony, where chords are built using major and minor thirds.)

twentieth-century counterpoint

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ack — no! back, palestrina!

:VS:

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A FLAT MAJOR ER TWO TRIADS ENT

ONE TRIAD LEAVES 20 TUESDAY OCTOBER

DANBURY FAIRGROUNDS

!!!!!!!!!!!!

kap

m!

ow!

boo

iigor stravinsky Le Sacre du printemps [the rite of spring] 1913

m!

zing

bla

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use of intense, unpredictable accents, evocative of unbridled primal energy. it can include complex meters and even polymeters: conflicting meters played simultaneously!

pandiatonicism

unlike the counterpoint of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, neoclassicists used dissonance freely, focusing more on melodic lines and rhythmic independence. wait WHAT? Rampant dissona

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the more dissonant... the better!

!!! !!!OR !!!AJ !!!M

rhythmic primitivism pow

stravin s

k wor r e d to ten togeth l wel

the use of major and minor triads, juxtaposed to deliberately avoid any sense of traditional harmonic function.

polytonality

k wor r d to he ten toget l wel

combining diatonic major melodies in multiple lines with no consideration of harmony.

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