History of Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries 3106-HMXXiXXI
The lecture covers the main trends and phenomena in 20th-century and contemporary music, presented in a chronological-systematic format. It outlines characteristic movements such as modernism, avant-garde, neoclassicism, and various manifestations of postmodernism. It also addresses individual styles, transitions in different stages of specific composers' works, and transformations in approaches to the tonal system.
The exercises complement the lecture content by addressing issues characteristic of 20th-century and contemporary music in a problem-based approach. Each topic discussed is illustrated by a detailed presentation of selected works by three different composers. Students are tasked with preparing introductions to these works and creating playlists featuring the music of the composers discussed in class.
Type of course
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Acquisition and systematization of knowledge related to the history of 20th-century and contemporary music; students broaden their understanding of various historical phenomena and manifestations of sound, while gaining familiarity with relevant terminology.
Assessment criteria
Lecture: A final exam assessing the level and systematization of acquired knowledge.
Exercises: The grade for the exercises is composed of three elements:
Attendance – a mandatory requirement (up to 2 absences allowed).
Presentations (introductions to the listening of selected works) – 60%.
Playlist – 40%.
A positive grade in the exercises is required to take the final exam.
The final course grade is a weighted average of the grade from the exercises (40%) and the exam (60%).
Practical placement
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Bibliography
- Elliott Antokoletz, Twentieth-Century Music, Inowrocław (Pozkal Publishing) 2009.
- Christoph Cox, Daniel Warner (eds.), The Culture of Sound: Texts on Modern Music, Warsaw ("Słowo, obraz, terytoria" Publishing) 2010.
- Maciej Gołąb, Dodecaphony: Studies on the Theory and Composition of the First Half of the 20th Century, Bydgoszcz 1987; Musical Modernism in the 20th Century: Between Continuation, Innovation, and Change in the Phonosystem, Wrocław (University of Wrocław Publishing) 2011.
- Maria Piotrowska, Neoclassicism in 20th-Century Music, Warsaw (Catholic Academy of Theology) 1982.
- Bryan R. Simms, Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure, Belmont, CA (Schirmer; Thomson Learning) 1996.
- Zbigniew Skowron, The Theory and Aesthetics of Musical Avant-Garde, Warsaw (University of Warsaw Press) 1989.
- Zbigniew Skowron, New American Music, Kraków (Musica Iagellonica) 1995.
- Alicja Jarzębska, The Debate on the Beauty of Music: Introduction to the Musical Culture of the 20th and 21st Century, Kraków 2018.
- Marcin Trzęsiok, The Debate on the Legacy of the 20th Century, in: idem, The Music of Experience, Kraków 2022, pp. 191–216.
- Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, trans. Aleksander Laskowski, Warsaw 2011.
- Bogusław Schaeffer, 20th-Century Music: Creators and Problems, Kraków 1975.
- Tomasz Baranowski, The Aesthetics of Expressionism in 20th-Century Music, Białystok 2006.
- Luigi Rognoni, The Viennese School of Music: Expressionism and Dodecaphony, trans. Henryk Krzeczkowski, Kraków 1978.
- Maciej Gołąb, Musical Modernism in the 20th Century: Between Continuation, Innovation, and Change in the Phonosystem, Wrocław 2011.
- Justyna Humięcka-Jakubowska, Intuition or Scientism: Stockhausen, Ligeti, Nono, Berio, Xenakis, Grisey, Poznań 2013.
- Makis Solomos, From Music to Sound: The Emergence of Sound in 20th and 21st Century Music, Routledge, Thames 2023.
- Richard Taruskin, Music in the Early Twentieth Century, Oxford 2010.
- Richard Taruskin, Music in the Late Twentieth Century, Oxford 2010.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: