Expressionism

[bach_ko]

hi everyone... I need help again~! i'm currently taking advanced musicology class in conservatory now. I've chosen expressionism as my presentation topic. here are the topics...(and i hv came out with my own questions...) i need your opinions and views about all these before i start. thanks for that

1. Expressionism in Painting
-How does Expressionism relate to French Fauvism?
-Later, where are the main centres of German Expressionist painting?
-Which painters are associated with these centres?
-What is the 'aesthetic' of Cerman expressionism?
-What are the 'characteristics of German expressionism?
-How do aesthetic and characteristic compare tih that of Fauvism?
-Wat is Abstract Expressionism?
-Which painters are regarded as Abstract Expressionists?
-What aspects of Expressionist painting are present in Abstract Expressionism?

2. Expressionism in the music of SChoenberg
-What works by Schoenberg are usually considered to be Expressionist?
-What are some of the principal musical characterisitcs of Schoenberg's expressionist style?
-What are some of the principal technical features of that style?
-What are the features of Schoenberg's Expressionism aesthetic?
-Why did Schoenberg consider the move to Atonality to be historically inevitable and to what extend to do you think he was correct?
-How does Schoenberg's early expressionist music relate to events in the composers personal life?
-How does Schoenberg's Expressionist music relate to the psychoanalytical work of Freud?
-Do features of Schoenberg's expressionist style continue with his later serial pieces? if so how?
-Can you illustrate your answers by reference to specific pieces by SChoenberg?

3. Expressionism and Psychoanalysis
-What is Psychoanalysis and how is usually thought of as its inventor?
-What are the essential features of Psychoanalysis and how does it work?
-What are the points of contact between Psychoanalysis and Expressionist music especially SChoenberg's?
-What are the points of contact between psychoanalysis and Expressionist painting?

4. Expressionism in the music of Berg and Stravinsky
-Which of Berg's/Stravinsky's works are usually considered to be Expressionist?
-What are the musical characteristic of Berg's Stravinsky's Expressionist music?
-What are the technical features of Berg's/Stravinsky's Expressionist music?
-HOw does Berg's/Stravinsky's Expressionist music differe to that by Schoenberg?

5. Expressionism in the music of the second half of the 20th century?
-Are composers of the second half of the 20th century still writing expressionist music?
-Why should this be so since the origins of Expressionism are associated with a particular time and place in European history?
-Who are the composers and what are the pieces that can be described as Epressionist and why?
-How does these recent manifestations relate to earlier Expressionist music in terms of characterisitcs, technical means and aesthetic?

[dan101]

What a vast topic. I have always found Stravinsky's composing fascinating. I believe he experimented more towards the end of his life, in terms of expressionism.

Depending on how long you want your paper to be, you may have to pick and choose which angle you're going to tackle this thesis from. Best of luck.

[Bob]

I don't know much, or remember much, about painting.

There is the Scream painter.




Schoenberg... Pierre Lunot.  (sp?)  I think that was a first step, or maybe that's atonality?

atonality  (duh)
Absence of a melody line (I think)

Pointillism, but I'm not sure if it was Schoenberg who started that.

I think thin orchestration too.  

Related to psych?  Exploration of material that deals with the inner mind, and with atonlity it's expression that doesn't always seem pleasant.  Terror, mental breakdown, that type of thing.  


Schoenberg.  I think he was also using classical forms right?  To make his stuff longer.  His first pieces were short and then he tried to find ways to lengthen them.  Lyrics helped too I believe.

Ouch.  References.  Yeah.  Sounds like a college project.  "Cite specific sections of pieces to support your argument."  Fun, fun, fun.

I would check Rosenberg or...  something with an S name.  I can't think of it.  Piano Literature.  History of Piano Repertoire.  Use those and find the books.


Points of contact?  The emotions expressed.  Darkness.  Dealing with the inner mind.


Sounds like you've got a thesis or dissertation going there.  Lot of stuff.


I don't think Stravinksy was really expressionist, was he?

Yeah, number four and five...  You're covering a lot of area there.

I think the whole thing was just music history.  Trying new things.  Doesn't matter what time or place.  People will use the ideas because they are there.  Composers don't want to go back to what has already been done.  It's not new.  I don't consider that much of a reason, but they don't seem to want to imitate or repeat what others have done.

I think we're still in a reaction to atonlity.  Going back to tonal centers.  But then there are new techniques and ideas they developed, so those get incorporated too.


That is a huge range of topics there.  I would find the books where people have already answered these questions and use that.  

New Groves too of course.

If you're doing all this from scratch yourself, that's a huge, huge undertaking.  Lifetime of study possibly.  If it's just a presentation, I would package up some other ideas by people who have explored this stuff and learn about a few more pieces of music this way for yourself.



Schoenberg... He did a "Five Pieces for Orchestra" set too.  And his operas...  

[slobone]

Well, it's obvious that you don't want us to write your paper for you 

I'm not sure terms like Expressionism are all that helpful. There's a tendency, once you put a work of art in the proper pigeonhole, to stop thinking about it. And Abstract Expressionism has very little in common with the earlier sort.

Probably your best bet is to go with chronology and geography. The expressionists were mostly from 1900-1914 in German speaking countries, Scandinavia, and possibly Russia (is Chagall expressionist?). Similar art in France and Italy went by different names.

In music, early (pre-atonal or at least pre-serialist) compositions by Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern would probably be the closest. Possibly Scriabin also, but not Rachmaninoff or Stravinsky. In some ways the Strauss of Elektra and Salome could be called expressionist.

To me, the term is redolent of a certain self-consciously "aesthetic" attitude. It suggests somebody who wanted to be daring and modern but couldn't quite break free of the last vestiges of Romanticism. Most of the really key figures of modernism either broke away from it, like Picasso and Schoenberg, or came along later, like Bartok. Debussy, Ravel, and Janacek are coming from a different place.

Both Webern and Schoenberg set poems by Stefan George -- would he be considered an expressionist poet?