8. The Late Twentieth Century

Modern electronic inventions continue to change and shape our lives. Music has not been immune to these changes. Computers, synthesizers, and massive sound systems have become common throughout the western world. In this unit, we will touch on some of the important trends that started in the 1940s and 1950s and continue to the present. We will also look at an important genre: movie music.

8.1 Musique Concrète

Musique concrète (French, concrete music) is a type of electro-acoustic music that uses both electronically produced sounds (like sounds produced by synthesizers) and recorded natural sounds (like sounds created by instruments or voices, and sounds from nature). Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995) was a leader in developing this technique. Unlike traditional composers, composers of musique concrète are not restricted to using rhythm, melody, harmony, instrumentation, form, and other musical elements. The video below offers an excellent narrative on musique concrète.

Below is a recording of one of Schaeffer’s musique concrète compositions, Études de bruits (1948).

8.2 Elektronische Musik

Elektronische Musik (German, electronic music) is composed by manipulating electronically-produced sounds (not recorded sounds). Like Expressionism, both musique concrète and elektronische Musik did not last long as popular techniques. Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007) was a leader in the creation of elektronische Musik. The video below provides an example of his work.

8.3 Laptop Orchestras

With the development of laptop computers, a new wave of interest has sprung up worldwide in electronic music of all types. Musicians can now easily link laptops together to form ensembles; they can also link laptops in other locations, even around the globe. Software is being developed that allows for all types of musique concrète and elektronische Musik compositions, and more combinations. The Princeton Laptop Orchestra is a leader in this area of experimental composition and performance.

8.4 Film Music

Although modern audiences may no longer visit the local symphony or opera house on a regular basis, they do visit the local movie theater. In this way, symphonic music lives on in our everyday lives in the form of music for film, as well as for television shows, commercials, and video games.

More than any other form of media in the 20th century, film has made an indelible mark on our culture. The first known public exhibition of film with accompanying sound took place in Paris in 1900, but not until the 1920s did talking pictures, or “talkies,” become commercially viable. Inevitably, part of the magic of film is due to its marriage with music. After opera, film music was the next step in the evolution of music for drama. In fact, film music follows many of the same rules established by the 19th-century opera and before, such as the use of overtures, leitmotifs, and incidental music. Many of the most famous themes in the history of film are known throughout the world in the same way that an aria from a famous opera would have been known to the mass audiences of the previous century. For example, who of us cannot sing the theme from Star Wars?

Unlike the music of forward-thinking 20th-century composers, such as Schoenberg and Webern, music for film is not designed to push musical boundaries; instead, it draws on compositional devices from across the vast history of Western music. Music for a film depicting a love story might rely on sweeping melodies reminiscent of Wagner or Tchaikovsky. A science fiction movie might draw on dense note clusters and unconventional synthesized sounds to evoke the strangeness of encountering beings from another world. A documentary might feature music that is emotionally detached, such as the 20th-century minimalistic style of Phillip Glass. It all depends on what style best complements the visuals.

Focus Composition: Themes from Star Wars by John Williams

One of the most famous melodies in cinema history is the main theme from Star Wars, composed by John Williams (b. 1932). Because Star Wars tells a story in a galaxy far, far away, its music should logically sound futuristic, but director George Lucas opted for an entirely different approach. He asked John Williams to compose something romantic in nature so as to ground the characters of this strange universe in something emotionally familiar. Williams achieved this goal by creating a musical landscape deeply rooted in the style of Wagner, especially in his use of heroic themes and leitmotifs.

We talked about leitmotifs in the chapter on 19th-century music. The music of Star Wars relies heavily on this technique, and most of its main characters or scenes have their own unique themes, which appear in different forms throughout the movies. Perhaps the most famous of these leitmotifs is the Force Theme. The video below is a compilation of the various uses of this theme throughout the trilogy.

8.5 Music for New Media

Although the movies continue to flourish in the 21st century, new technologies bring new media, and, with it, new music. One of the fastest growing examples of new media comes in the form of video games. The music of the first commercially available video games of the 1970s was rudimentary at best. Fast-forward to the 21st century, video games feature complex and original musical backdrops which complement incredibly realistic graphics and game play. These games require a cinematic style of music that can adapt to the actions of the player.

Focus Composition: Overworld Theme from The Legend of Zelda by Koji Kondo

Early video game music is not unlike the music of the Renaissance in that it was limited to polyphony between a small number of voices. The original Nintendo Entertainment System put significant restraints on composers, as it was only possible to sound three to four notes simultaneously, and a great deal of effort was put into getting as rich a sound as possible within these constraints. Listen below to the two versions of the main theme (the Overworld Theme) from The Legend of Zelda. Conceived by acclaimed video game composer Koji Kondo (b. 1961), it is one of the most famous video game themes of all time. This theme has been featured in almost all of the Zelda games. Note how the composer used imitative polyphony to create the illusion of a full texture, as well as the piece’s similarity to Ravel’s Bolero, which we heard earlier in this chapter. Kondo originally planned to use his own arrangement of Ravel’s Bolero as the main theme for the game. However, in the end he chose to write an original piece with similar characteristics instead. Both versions are built on a steady repeated percussive pattern.

The second version of the theme is a testament to the advances made in the technological capabilities of video game music. An updated arrangement of the theme from Nintendo’s 2011 release, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, features the Overworld Theme in the game’s credits sequence. If you didn’t know this music belonged to a video game, you could imagine it as a soundtrack to a blockbuster adventure movie.