Contemporary Period

Front 1

characteristics

Back 1

major and minor tonalities avoided, quartal hamrony, bitonality, polytonality, atonality, irregular and changing meters, polyphonic texture, neo-classical writing, serial or twelve tone music

Front 2

irrgular and changing meters

Back 2

composers often use uncommon time signatures such as 5/4 or 7/4, or change the time signature during the course of the music (complex meter0

Front 3

neo-classic writing

Back 3

composers often write sonatas, sonatinas, or other forms which were common during the classical period

Front 4

serial or 12 tone music

Back 4

a style of writing in which the 12 tones of the chromatic scale are arranged in a fixed style, or series. the entire piece will then be based on the intervals of the series

Front 5

prime

Back 5

the orginal series usually pesented first in the composition

Front 6

inversion

Back 6

created by inverting all the intervals of the prime (for example P4 up becomes P4 down)

Front 7

retrograde

Back 7

created by reversing the prime

Front 8

retrograde inversion

Back 8

created by inverting the intervals of the retrograde

Front 9

name some composers

Back 9

aaron copland, charles ives, george gershwin