Page 256 - ESSENTIAL LISTENING TO MUSIC

LiSTeN TO . . . Example 15.3 online.
Example 15.3 > new chords & w
seventh chord
w w
ninth chord
w w
eleventh chord
century, however, composers such as Arnold Schoenberg were using so much dissonance that the triad lost its adhesive force. Schoenberg famously referred to this development as “the emancipation of dissonance,” meaning that disso- nance was now liberated from the requirement that it resolve into a consonant triad. Dissonance had been sprung and could now go about terrorizing unwary listeners!
Indeed, shocked audiences at first rebelled when they heard Schoenberg’s dissonance-filled scores. Ultimately, however, Schoenberg succeeded in “rais- ing the bar” for what the ear might tolerate, thereby preparing listeners for a much higher level of dissonance in both classical and popular music. Indeed, the work of Schoenberg and like-minded composers paved the way, albeit in- directly, for the heavy dissonances of today’s progressive jazz and the dissonant “metal” styles of Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, and others.
Early-twentieth-century composers created dissonance not only by obscur- ing or distorting the triad but also by introducing new chords. One technique for creating new chords was the superimposition of more thirds above the triad it- self (Example 15.3). Thus emerged not only the seventh chord (a seventh chord spans seven letters of the scale, from A to G, for example), but also the ninth chord and the eleventh chord. The more thirds that were added on top of the basic triad, the more dissonant the sound of the chord.
LiSTeN TO . . . Example 15.4 online.
The ultimate new chord was the tone cluster, the simultaneous sounding of a number of pitches only a whole step or a half step apart. Example 15.4 shows a tone cluster created by the American Modernist Charles Ives (1874–1954). But you, too, can create this high-dissonance chord simply by striking a group of adjacent keys on the piano with your fist or forearm. Try it.
Example 15.4 > tone cluster
Chromaticism, unresolved dissonance, and new chords all weakened the force of tonality, the “cohesive gravity” that pulled and held together traditional music. As a substitute, Igor Stravinsky used long ostinatos to set a tonal founda- tion, whereas Arnold Schoenberg invented an entirely new type of musical struc- ture called twelve-tone music (see “Twelve-Tone Music” later in this chapter).
234 chapter fifteen european impressionism and modernism
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