Music of the 1900's

Music in the 1900's was influenced by upcoming modern styles. these included many operas, symphonies, and soloists. Some of the more popular operas included Madama Butterfly and Tosca by Giacomo Puccini, and The Merry Widow by Franz Lahar. Operas during the early 1900's was headed in a modern direction with many changes being made to the traditional art thast it was. Operas began to shrink in size and have one act to cut back on costs.



Just as operas were decreasing in size, so were symphonies. Being unable to afford the large string orchestras with bountiful musicians, symphonies altered their style to prepare for the modern world. With more compact sizes, as few as 25 musicians, symphonies still stayed extremely popular and were now more affordable. Some well known from the time period include Asrael by Josef Suk, and Symphony No. 2 by Elgar.



Solo artists became big during the time era with names such as Vladimir Horowitz, and Claude Debussy, solo was often the way to go. Most artists, such as Debussy himself, were also composers who wrote their own music.

Art in the 1900s

In 1907 - 1911, cubism reached its peak in popularity, mainly in France. In cubism shapes are broken up, analyzed and rearranged in an abstract form. The main initiators of the cubist movement were Picasso, and Braque, who were advised by Paul Cézanne to treat nature in geometric terms. There were 3 phases in the development of Cubism: Facet Cubism, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism. Some say Cubism helped pave the way to modern art, while this movement lasted it eventually evolved into its own separate branches and ideals.









Before Cubism, approximately 1901-1906 one of the main initiators of modern art was Fauvism. The main artists of this period were Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne. These artists helped pave the way to modern art by radicalizing it, with new ideas and completely new styles of art, far different that what was the considered "norm." This movement reached its peak mainly in Paris and while it was short lived it changed art dramatically.


The Times: Europe and America during this time was going through much change that could of possibly affected art during the decade. Feats like the Wright brothers first flight, Henry Ford's Model-T. Though it faced many difficulties as well such as the San Francisco Earthquake, the Boxer Rebellion.


Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia.org.

Videos:

Cubism Video: http://www.ehow.com/video_4755758_what-cubism.html

Fauvist Video: http://www.ehow.com/video_4755756_what-fauvism.html