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Time Signatures in Modern Music

Soares Rodrigues, Gonçalo Alexandre LU (2023) MUUM04 20231
Malmö Academy of Music
Abstract
In the beginning of the 20th Century with the emergence of a new musical language as the Second Viennese School (Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Anton Webern) took over, suddenly music pushed forward and away from traditional harmony, rhythm and even notation. Music started to lose its traditional feel of patterns, cadences and regularity and instead embraced new complexity, as composers started to avoid time signature patterns, tonal melodies, and harmonies.
Throughout this thesis, new experimental notation methods were analysed in a way of confronting the traditional way of using bar lines and time signatures. Avant-gardists such as Witold Lutosławski formulated their own way of expressing this new, modern, and more complex... (More)
In the beginning of the 20th Century with the emergence of a new musical language as the Second Viennese School (Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Anton Webern) took over, suddenly music pushed forward and away from traditional harmony, rhythm and even notation. Music started to lose its traditional feel of patterns, cadences and regularity and instead embraced new complexity, as composers started to avoid time signature patterns, tonal melodies, and harmonies.
Throughout this thesis, new experimental notation methods were analysed in a way of confronting the traditional way of using bar lines and time signatures. Avant-gardists such as Witold Lutosławski formulated their own way of expressing this new, modern, and more complex idiomatic music. Furthermore, I describe my own thoughts, perception on my piece Butterflies for Norrköping Symphony Orchestra as well as interviews with people from different areas within the spectrum of this theme. A clear view of the genuine necessity why time signatures were traditionally used in contrast to what music has nowadays evolved. (Less)
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author
Soares Rodrigues, Gonçalo Alexandre LU
supervisor
organization
course
MUUM04 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Time signatures, Free Notation, Modern Music, Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, composition, quantitative/qualitative rhythm
language
English
additional info
Detta är den reflekterande delen som utgör 25 % av examensarbetet. Den klingande delen utgör 75 %.

This reflective part constitutes 25% of the degree project. The performance part constitutes 75%.
id
9129980
date added to LUP
2023-09-08 10:15:14
date last changed
2023-09-08 10:15:14
@misc{9129980,
  abstract     = {{In the beginning of the 20th Century with the emergence of a new musical language as the Second Viennese School (Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Anton Webern) took over, suddenly music pushed forward and away from traditional harmony, rhythm and even notation. Music started to lose its traditional feel of patterns, cadences and regularity and instead embraced new complexity, as composers started to avoid time signature patterns, tonal melodies, and harmonies. 
Throughout this thesis, new experimental notation methods were analysed in a way of confronting the traditional way of using bar lines and time signatures. Avant-gardists such as Witold Lutosławski formulated their own way of expressing this new, modern, and more complex idiomatic music. Furthermore, I describe my own thoughts, perception on my piece Butterflies for Norrköping Symphony Orchestra as well as interviews with people from different areas within the spectrum of this theme. A clear view of the genuine necessity why time signatures were traditionally used in contrast to what music has nowadays evolved.}},
  author       = {{Soares Rodrigues, Gonçalo Alexandre}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Time Signatures in Modern Music}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}