Notes · MusicUK · A-Levels

Area of study 7: Art music since 1910

This optional area of study covers the concert music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries - the modern, experimental and minimalist art music that grew from the breakdown of common-practice tonality around 1910. AQA studies it through named composers (such as Shostakovich, Messiaen, Steve Reich and James MacMillan) whose work exemplifies these developments; because those names rotate across specification cycles, this topic teaches the techniques and languages of modern art music rather than particular set pieces.

5 sections~25 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

T·0888 / 11

Exam profile

AO3 · Analyse and appraise twentieth- and twenty-first-century art music using the elements of musicAO3 · Understand modernist techniques - atonality, serialism, new rhythms and timbres, and minimalismAO3 · Make evaluative judgements about art music since 1910 and compare it with other styles

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basic level

AS-Level expects recognition of the main departures from tonality (atonality, new rhythms and timbres) and the features of minimalism.

higher level

The full A-Level requires detailed analysis of modernist techniques and languages, and comparison with the other areas of study.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Area of study 7: Art music since 1910

The area of study: modern concert music#

FoundationAQA 7272 Area of study 7 (Art music since 1910)DfE GCE Music subject content

Movements in art music since 1910

Fig. 1Since 1910 art music has fragmented into many developments - atonality, serialism, electronic music, experimentalism and minimalism - not one style but a field of experiment.

This area of study covers the art (concert) music of the last hundred years or so - the music that grew out of the crisis and breakup of the common-practice tonal system around the turn of the twentieth century. Where earlier art music (the subject of Area of Study 1) shared a common tonal language, twentieth-century art music fragmented into many competing languages and experiments as composers sought new ways forward after the exhaustion, as they saw it, of Romantic tonality. Understanding this area means understanding those new languages and techniques. AQA studies the field through named composers spanning the century, including figures such as Shostakovich, Messiaen, Steve Reich and James MacMillan; because AQA rotates these across cycles, study the composers named in your own specification and apply the general method here.

The defining event behind this area is the loosening and abandonment of functional tonality. From around 1910, composers pushed harmony to and beyond the point where a clear home key could be heard: some wrote atonal music (with no tonal centre), some devised new systems such as serialism to organise music without traditional keys, some explored new scales, modes and harmonies, and others kept a sense of tonality but stretched, coloured or combined it in new ways. This variety is the first thing to grasp: 'art music since 1910' is not one style but a field of diverse and often radically different approaches, and analysis begins by identifying which language a piece is using.

The elements of music remain the analytical vocabulary, but composers in this period often foreground elements that were secondary before. With traditional harmony destabilised, timbre and texture (the exploration of new sounds, instrumental techniques and sonorities) became central compositional interests; rhythm was renewed with new complexities, irregularities and, later, steady pulse; and structure was reimagined, sometimes abandoning inherited forms for new principles (process, chance, block construction). So while you still describe melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, texture and structure, you must be ready for radical treatments of each and for pieces where colour and process matter more than melody and functional harmony.

Context matters in this area because the music is bound up with the upheavals of the twentieth century and with a self-conscious spirit of experiment and progress. The two world wars, political oppression and totalitarianism, rapid technological change (including the birth of electronic music), and a modernist ethos of breaking with the past and finding the new all shaped the music. Some composers wrote in reaction to political circumstances; others pursued abstract experiment; later, some reacted against modernist complexity toward simplicity (minimalism) or renewed accessibility. Relating a piece to this context - and to the particular composer's aims - enriches analysis, though you need not master a full history.

The following sections build the toolkit: the breaking of tonality and the modernist techniques that replaced it, the renewal of rhythm and the exploration of new timbres and sound-worlds, the distinct and important development of minimalism, and how to bring it together in the exam. Throughout, be ready to meet music that sounds very different from the tonal tradition, to describe it precisely and without prejudice, and to identify the specific language and technique it uses - which makes this the most stylistically adventurous area and a striking point of contrast with Area of Study 1 for the comparative essay.

Worked example

Identifying the language of a modern extract

An extract has no discernible home key, uses dissonance freely without resolving it in the traditional way, and explores unusual instrumental sounds and textures. What can you say about its language?

Test for tonality
There is no clear home key or functional cadence, and dissonance is not resolved as in tonal music - so the piece is not tonal in the common-practice sense; it is atonal or uses a non-traditional system.
Consider the harmony's organisation
You cannot yet tell by ear whether it is freely atonal or organised by a system such as serialism, but you can say it abandons functional tonality - a first, accurate observation.
Note the foregrounded elements
The exploration of unusual instrumental sounds and textures shows timbre and texture are central compositional interests, typical of much modern art music.
Frame the analysis
The extract belongs to modern art music that has left functional tonality and foregrounds sonority - so describe its treatment of pitch (atonal), timbre and texture precisely, on its own terms.

Result: The extract's language is identified by testing for and ruling out functional tonality and noting the foregrounded timbre and texture - beginning the analysis of modern art music on its own terms rather than expecting tonal features.

Typical mistakes

Expecting functional tonality and traditional form, and so being unable to describe atonal, serial, experimental or process-based music.
Treating all modern music as one style rather than identifying the specific language (atonality, serialism, minimalism, extended tonality) a piece uses.

Active revision

Take one piece by a composer in your specification and write two sentences: one identifying its musical language (tonal, atonal, serial, minimalist, etc.) and one describing which elements the composer foregrounds and how.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for music (Department for Education)

Breaking tonality: modernism#

StandardAQA 7272 Area of study 7 (modernism)DfE GCE Music subject content

Modernist techniques

Fig. 2Modern art music replaced common-practice tonality with a range of techniques - atonality, serialism, extended tonality, new rhythms and new timbres.

The central story of early twentieth-century art music is the breaking of tonality, and understanding its stages is essential. Late Romantic composers had stretched functional harmony with ever more chromaticism and distant modulation until the sense of a stable home key became weak; from around 1908-1910 some composers took the final step into atonality - music with no tonal centre at all, in which no note functions as a 'home' and all twelve chromatic pitches are, in principle, equal. Atonal music uses freely dissonant harmony that is not resolved in the traditional way, and it often sounds tense, unstable and expressionistic. Recognising the absence of a home key and of functional resolution is how you identify atonal music.

Because freely atonal music lacked the organising force of tonality, composers devised new systems to structure it, the most influential being serialism (the twelve-tone or dodecaphonic method). In serialism, the composer arranges all twelve chromatic pitches into a fixed order - a tone row or series - and builds the piece from that row and its transformations (played backwards as retrograde, upside down as inversion, and both, as well as transposed to different pitch levels). The row governs the music's pitch content, ensuring no note dominates as a tonic and giving the atonal music a rigorous underlying order. Serialism was later extended (total serialism) to organise rhythm, dynamics and other elements by similar rows. You are unlikely to identify a specific row by ear, but you can recognise the atonal, non-repetitive, all-twelve-notes-equal sound of serial music and understand the principle.

Not all modern art music is atonal or serial; many composers found other routes, and recognising these is important for accuracy. Some retained a sense of tonality but transformed it - using new scales and modes, bitonality or polytonality (two or more keys at once), added-note and quartal harmony (chords built in fourths), or a freely expanded, coloured tonality. Some drew on folk material and modes. Some, such as Shostakovich, wrote in a personal idiom that keeps a tonal centre and communicative directness while using dissonance, irony and dramatic contrast, often under political pressure. So when analysing pitch and harmony in this area, do not assume every piece is atonal: identify precisely whether it is tonal, extended-tonal, modal, polytonal, atonal or serial.

Modernism also reimagined melody, harmony and dissonance in ways that need describing on their own terms. Melodies may be angular and disjunct (full of wide, awkward leaps), fragmented, or built from small cells rather than singing lines; harmony may be built from new chord types (clusters - dense chords of adjacent notes; quartal chords; complex dissonances) used as stable sonorities rather than as tensions needing resolution; and dissonance is often emancipated - used freely and for its own colour and intensity, not as something that must resolve to consonance. Describing these features accurately - angular melody, tone clusters, unresolved dissonance, new chord constructions - rather than simply calling the music 'weird' or 'discordant', is what analysis requires.

For the exam, analyse modern pitch language by first identifying whether and how tonality is present, then describing the specific techniques. Is there a home key (tonal, extended-tonal, modal) or not (atonal, serial)? Is there an organising system (serialism)? What are the melodies like (angular, fragmented, cell-based) and the harmonies (clusters, quartal, freely dissonant)? Naming these precisely, and relating them to the composer's aims and context (expressionist intensity, systematic rigour, political circumstance, personal idiom), turns a bewildering sound-world into a precise analysis. Because this pitch language is so different from Area of Study 1's functional tonality, it is one of the sharpest available contrasts for the comparative essay.

Worked example

Describing an atonal, expressionist passage

A passage has a disjunct, leaping vocal line, dense dissonant chords that never resolve, extreme dynamic and register contrasts and no sense of key. Analyse its language.

Identify the pitch language
There is no home key and dissonance never resolves in the traditional way, so the passage is atonal - functional tonality has been abandoned.
Describe the melody
The vocal line is disjunct and leaping (wide, awkward intervals) rather than a singing, stepwise tune - an angular, expressionist melodic style.
Describe the harmony and gesture
Dense, freely dissonant chords used for their own intensity, and extreme contrasts of dynamic and register, create tension and unease - dissonance emancipated for expressive effect.
Relate to aim
These features - atonality, angular melody, unresolved dissonance, extreme contrasts - serve an expressionist aim of conveying intense, raw inner emotion, which is what such music sets out to do.

Result: The passage is analysed by identifying its atonality and describing the angular melody, emancipated dissonance and extreme contrasts precisely, relating them to an expressionist aim - modern music analysed on its own terms.

Typical mistakes

Assuming all modern art music is atonal, missing the many pieces that are extended-tonal, modal, polytonal or in a personal tonal idiom (e.g. Shostakovich).
Describing the harmony vaguely as 'weird' or 'dissonant' instead of naming the specific technique (atonality, serialism, clusters, quartal harmony).

Active revision

Take two contrasting modern pieces and, for each, identify its pitch language (tonal, atonal, serial, etc.) and describe one melodic and one harmonic feature using precise terms.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for music (Department for Education)

Rhythm, colour and new sound-worlds#

StandardAQA 7272 Area of study 7 (rhythm and timbre)DfE GCE Music subject content

With tonality destabilised, twentieth-century composers renewed the other elements, and rhythm was among the most radically transformed. Composers broke away from regular metre in many directions: irregular and additive metres (bars of five, seven or changing lengths), frequent metre changes, complex and layered rhythms, polyrhythm (different rhythms at once), and a new percussive, driving treatment of rhythm - the early twentieth century saw rhythm become a primary source of energy and structure. Later, minimalism would return to an insistent steady pulse (discussed in the next section). Describing a piece's rhythmic language - irregular, complex, layered, driving, or steadily pulsed - is often a key analytical observation in this area.

Timbre and colour became central compositional concerns, arguably the defining interest of much modern music, as composers explored new sounds and instrumental possibilities. Composers such as Messiaen developed richly coloured harmonic and orchestral sound-worlds (Messiaen spoke of chords as colours and drew on birdsong and unusual modes and rhythms); others explored extended instrumental techniques (unconventional ways of playing - bowing behind the bridge, key clicks, multiphonics, playing inside the piano), tone clusters, and unusual combinations and textures. The exploration of sonority for its own sake - treating sound-colour as a primary structural and expressive element - is a hallmark of the period, and describing the specific timbres and techniques a composer uses is essential to analysing it.

Texture, too, was reimagined. Alongside the inherited textures, modern composers used dense, complex layerings, blocks of sound, sound-mass textures (in which individual lines merge into a shifting mass of sound), pointillistic textures (isolated notes and fragments scattered across instruments and registers), and stark, spare textures. The relationship between lines and the sheer density or sparseness of the texture became a primary expressive variable. Recognising these textural strategies - a sound-mass, a pointillistic scattering, a dense block, a spare and isolated line - rather than assuming melody-and-accompaniment, is part of accurate analysis in this area.

The birth of electronic music opened an entirely new sound-world and is an important development. From the mid-twentieth century, composers worked with recorded and electronically generated sound - musique concrete (music made from manipulated recordings of real sounds), electronic music (sounds generated by synthesisers and oscillators), tape techniques, and later computer and digital synthesis. These technologies freed composers from the limitations of traditional instruments, allowing any sound to become musical material and new sounds to be created and shaped. Recognising electronic and tape-based sound-worlds, and understanding that technology hugely expanded the palette of art music, is part of the study of this area.

Composers also pursued new structural principles and, later, deliberate simplicity. Some abandoned inherited forms for construction by blocks, by process, or by chance and indeterminacy (leaving elements of the music to be decided in performance or by random procedures, as in some experimental music). Others reacted against the complexity and abstraction of high modernism toward greater simplicity, accessibility and directness (the impulse behind minimalism, and behind some later composers such as James MacMillan who combine modern techniques with communicative, sometimes spiritual or dramatic, aims). For the exam, describe rhythm, timbre, texture and any electronic or structural innovations precisely, and relate them to the composer's aims - the renewal of these elements is where much of the interest and the analysis of modern art music lies.

Worked example

Analysing colour and rhythm in a modern orchestral passage

A passage uses shimmering, richly coloured chords, unusual modes, birdsong-like woodwind figures and irregular, non-pulsed rhythms. Analyse its language.

Describe the harmony as colour
The shimmering, richly coloured chords built on unusual modes are used for their sonority - harmony treated as colour rather than as functional progression, a hallmark of composers such as Messiaen.
Describe the melodic material
The birdsong-like woodwind figures show melody drawn from unconventional sources and shaped as decorative, coloured gesture rather than as a traditional singing tune.
Describe the rhythm
The irregular, non-pulsed rhythms break from regular metre, giving the music a free, floating, non-marching quality that suits its coloured, contemplative character.
Draw the picture
The passage foregrounds timbre and colour and uses modal harmony and free rhythm - a modern language in which sound-colour, not tonal function, is the organising interest.

Result: The passage is analysed by reading its harmony as colour, its melody as coloured gesture and its rhythm as free and non-pulsed - describing a modern sound-world on its own terms of colour and sonority.

Typical mistakes

Assuming regular metre and conventional textures, and so failing to describe irregular rhythms, sound-mass or pointillistic textures.
Ignoring timbre and colour, which are often the central compositional interest of modern art music rather than an incidental feature.

Active revision

Take one modern piece and describe its rhythm, its timbre and use of instrumental colour, and its texture in three precise sentences, naming any extended techniques or electronic sounds.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for music (Department for Education)

Minimalism#

StandardAQA 7272 Area of study 7 (minimalism)DfE GCE Music subject content

The minimalist additive process

Fig. 3Minimalism builds a piece from a short repeating cell, gradually transformed by a process such as phasing or additive change, over static harmony and a steady pulse.

Minimalism is one of the most important and distinctive developments in art music since 1910, and it arose in the 1960s partly as a reaction against the complexity and abstraction of high modernism (serialism and the avant-garde). Where much modern music was dense, atonal and difficult, minimalism is built from very simple materials repeated and gradually changed, has a steady, audible pulse, and often returns to consonant, tonal or modal harmony. Its aesthetic is one of clarity, repetition, gradual process and hypnotic effect, and it made a strong impact and reached a wide audience. Composers such as Steve Reich are central to it. Recognising minimalism's simplicity, repetition and steady pulse is straightforward once you know what to listen for.

The defining technique of minimalism is repetition with gradual change - building a piece from short repeating patterns (cells or ostinati) that are slowly transformed over time. Rather than developing themes dramatically as in the classical tradition, minimalist music sets a pattern going and changes it little by little, so that the music evolves gradually and almost imperceptibly, and the listener's attention is drawn to the slow process of transformation. This 'process' approach - the music as an audible, gradually unfolding process - is the conceptual heart of minimalism, and identifying the repeating cell and how it is gradually changed is the key analytical move.

Several specific minimalist techniques are worth knowing by name. Phasing (associated with Steve Reich) sets two identical repeating patterns going together and gradually shifts one out of alignment with the other, so they move slowly out of and back into phase, creating constantly changing composite patterns from the same material. Additive process gradually lengthens (or shortens) a pattern by adding (or removing) a note or beat each repetition, so the pattern grows or contracts step by step. Other techniques include layering (gradually building up texture by adding parts), note or beat subtraction, and metamorphosis (slow transformation of a pattern). Recognising phasing, additive process and layering lets you describe precisely how a minimalist piece generates its gradual change.

The other elements in minimalism are shaped by this aesthetic of repetition and process. Harmony is typically static or slow-moving - often a small number of consonant chords, or a single mode or chord held for long stretches - so the harmonic rhythm is very slow and there is little functional progression. Rhythm is steady and pulsed, often with insistent, driving, interlocking patterns and much syncopation, and rhythm is frequently the main vehicle of the process (as in phasing). Texture is often built from interlocking repeating lines that combine into shifting composite patterns. Melody, where present, is usually made of short repeating cells rather than long tunes. Describing these features - static harmony, steady pulse, interlocking repeating patterns, cellular melody - characterises the minimalist sound.

For the exam, analyse minimalist music by identifying its materials and its process. Name the repeating cell or pattern; identify the technique by which it is gradually changed (phasing, additive process, layering, subtraction); describe the static or slow-moving harmony and the steady pulse; and describe the interlocking, repetitive texture. Then explain the effect - the hypnotic, gradually shifting, process-driven experience minimalism creates. Because minimalism's repetition, static harmony and gradual process are so different from the dramatic development, functional harmony and varied forms of the classical tradition (and indeed from earlier modernism), it offers a striking contrast for the comparative essay - and an interesting case of a modern style returning to simplicity and pulse.

Worked example

Analysing a phasing passage

Two players begin a short repeating rhythmic-melodic pattern in unison; then one very gradually speeds up so the two patterns slip out of alignment, creating shifting composite rhythms, before eventually locking back together. Analyse the technique.

Identify the material
Both players share one short repeating pattern (a cell), stated in unison - the minimal material from which the whole passage is built.
Identify the process
One player gradually shifts ahead of the other so the identical patterns move out of alignment - this is phasing, the technique associated with Steve Reich.
Describe the effect
As the patterns move out of phase, their overlapping produces constantly changing composite rhythms and textures from the same material, creating a hypnotic, gradually shifting effect.
Describe the return
Eventually the shifting player comes back into alignment and the patterns lock in unison again, completing the process - the audible, gradual process being the point of the music.

Result: The passage is analysed by naming the shared repeating cell, identifying phasing as the process, and describing how the gradual misalignment generates shifting patterns and a hypnotic effect - precise analysis of a minimalist technique.

Typical mistakes

Describing minimalist music as simply 'repetitive' without identifying the specific process (phasing, additive process, layering) that gradually transforms the material.
Expecting dramatic thematic development or functional harmonic progression, missing that minimalism's interest is in gradual process over static harmony.

Active revision

Take one minimalist piece and identify its opening repeating cell, the process by which it changes (phasing, additive, layering), its harmony and its pulse; then describe the effect of the gradual transformation.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for music (Department for Education)

Analysing art music since 1910 for the exam#

AdvancedAQA 7272 Area of study 7 (listening and analysis)DfE GCE Music subject content

Bringing the tools together, analysing art music since 1910 for the exam means identifying a piece's language and describing its techniques precisely and without prejudice. A full analysis identifies the pitch language (tonal, extended-tonal, modal, atonal, serial, or minimalist), describes the melody and harmony in the appropriate terms, describes the rhythm (regular, irregular, complex, or pulsed), the timbre and texture (including extended techniques, new sonorities and electronic sounds), and the structure or process, and relates these to the composer's aims and context. The distinctive discipline of this area is readiness to meet radically unfamiliar music and to describe it accurately in technical language rather than dismissing it as 'discordant' or 'weird'.

Because the area is studied through named composers spanning the century, stylistic awareness is part of the exam expectation. Knowing the languages and aims of the composers in your specification - one's personal, communicative tonal idiom under political pressure, another's coloured, modal, timbre-focused sound-world, another's minimalist process, another's fusion of modern technique with dramatic or spiritual aims - lets you place an extract and comment on how it exemplifies its style within the diverse field of modern music. Locating a piece in the century's developments (early modernism, serialism, electronic music, experimentalism, minimalism, later crossovers) adds valuable context.

The comparative essay is well served by this area, whose radical departures from tonality make it the sharpest contrast with Area of Study 1 and an interesting counterpart to the other areas. You might compare how art music since 1910 and the classical tradition treat harmony and tonality (atonality or minimalist stasis versus functional tonality), rhythm (irregular complexity or minimalist pulse versus classical metre), form (process or blocks versus sonata or ritornello), or the role of timbre (foregrounded colour versus fixed orchestration); or you might compare minimalism's repetition and pulse with the loops and grooves of pop. A comparison built on one such element, with specific evidence from each style, gives an essay a strong analytical spine.

Two disciplines help most in this area. First, describe without prejudice: modern music that sounds strange is still fully analysable, and the task is to name its techniques (atonality, serialism, sound-mass, extended technique, additive process) precisely, not to judge it 'unmusical'. Second, identify the specific language before analysing: because this is a field of many languages, deciding first whether a piece is tonal, atonal, serial or minimalist tells you which analytical framework to apply and prevents you from, for example, hunting for a home key that is not there. Holding to these disciplines is what examiners reward.

In summary, this area rewards a candidate who can identify a modern piece's language, describe its melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, texture and structure or process in precise technical terms, relate it to its composer and the developments of the century, and judge what it achieves - all with an open ear for music very different from the tonal tradition. Its distinctive priorities - the breaking of tonality, the foregrounding of timbre and process, and the many new techniques from serialism to minimalism - both stretch your analytical vocabulary furthest and provide the boldest contrasts for the comparative essay. Approach it with curiosity and precision, and the most challenging area becomes one of the most rewarding to appraise.

Worked example

Structuring a modern-versus-classical comparison

An essay asks you to compare the treatment of tonality and harmony in art music since 1910 and in the Western classical tradition (Area of Study 1). How do you approach it?

Choose the comparative point
Organise the essay around tonality and harmony, discussing the modern area and Area of Study 1 together rather than in turn.
State the essential contrast
Area of Study 1 uses functional tonality - a home key, directed progressions, cadences and modulation; art music since 1910 variously abandons it (atonality, serialism), keeps it static (minimalism) or transforms it (extended tonality, modes, polytonality).
Evidence both sides
Cite a specific functional progression or cadence from a classical set work and a specific atonal, serial or minimalist passage from a modern set work as concrete evidence.
Add nuance and judge
Note that both are coherent systems of organising pitch toward their own ends - functional drive and resolution for the classical tradition, new colours, rigour or process for modern music - and judge how each suits its aims and era.

Result: The comparison is built on one element (tonality and harmony) across both areas with specific evidence and a nuanced, purpose-based judgement - the thematic, evidenced structure a strong comparative essay needs, and the sharpest contrast the paper offers.

Typical mistakes

Dismissing challenging modern music as 'discordant' or 'weird' instead of naming its techniques precisely and describing it without prejudice.
Applying the wrong framework - hunting for a home key in atonal music or dramatic development in minimalist process - by not identifying the language first.

Active revision

Plan (do not fully write) a comparison of how art music since 1910 and Area of Study 1 treat harmony and tonality: state the essential contrast (atonality or minimalist stasis versus functional tonality) with one specific example from each.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Music (7271 / 7272) specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for music

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Music (7271 / 7272) specification

Area of study 7: Art music since 1910

5 sections~25 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

Area of study 7: Art music since 1910

Key points

Identifying the language of a modern extract

Key points

Describing an atonal, expressionist passage

Key points

Analysing colour and rhythm in a modern orchestral passage

Key points

Analysing a phasing passage

Key points

Structuring a modern-versus-classical comparison

Sources

Area of study 7: Art music since 1910

Key points

Identifying the language of a modern extract

Key points

Describing an atonal, expressionist passage

Key points

Analysing colour and rhythm in a modern orchestral passage

Key points

Analysing a phasing passage

Key points

Structuring a modern-versus-classical comparison

Sources