THE TONAL SYSTEM FALLS AWAY IN WESTERN MUSIC- By the end of the 19th century, composers were getting bored with chromaticism and looking for other ways to to construct music. Fundamental root movements, such as the circle of fifths progression, begin to loose importance.

EXPANDED SCALES- Having covered pentatonic (5 note), hexatonic (6 note) and septatonic (7 notes) scales, we will soon learn more about the octatonic (8 note) scale. This scale alternates half steps and whole steps to arrive at an 8 note scale. There are 3 octatonic: 1 starts on C and begins with a half step. 2 starts on C and begins with a whole step. 3 begins on C# and begins with a half step. We will also talk about microtonal scales.

EXPANDED HARMONIES- Western tonal harmony is very much based on tertian hamonies (stacked in 3rds). In the 20th century, composers begin to experiment with quartal harmonies (stacked in 4ths) and quintal harmonies (stacked in 5ths). Some even exerimented with mixed 3rds (involving a major AND a minor 3rd) and eventually cluster chords (huge textures with no defined tonal center).

20TH CENTURY MELODIC ORGANIZATION- Here we begin a discussion on 12 tone music, which gives rise to serialism. Voice leading conventions loose thier importance as do tonal centers.

20TH CENTURY HARMONIC ORGANIZATION - Again, the idea of a "key" is no longer being honored as strictly as in previous centuries. The idea of polytonality (playing two or more chords at once) begins to take hold.

DEVELOPMENTS IN RHYTHM- Not only do we begin to see more complex time signatures, but also mixed time signature, mixed tempos and polyrhythms. These rhythmic variations were happening in other countries, such as India and Africa, for centuries prior. However, it wasn't until the 20th century that they made thier way into Western music.

FORM AND ANALYSIS- We've covered many forms up until the 20th Century (sonata, rondo, binary, etc). 20th Century composers begin to use other types of forms (for example, the patterns within the golden mean and paledrome patterns) as a model to construct music.

SERIALISM- In classical serialism, all 12 notes are used in what is called a row or a series. All 12 notes must be used before the pattern repeats or before a new pattern is established. New patterns can be retrogrades, inversions, transpositions and so on. We still use letter names in classical serialism. After 1945 (post World War II) intergal serialism (notes based on numbers 0-12) began to become more common. C would always be "0". C# would always be "1", and so on.

MINIMALISM- Minimalism moves in the opposite direction compared to some of the complex techniques. It involves using minimal musical material to create an entire piece of music. This often involves repeating musical patterns to the extent that small changes seem big.

INCIDENTALISM- While other composers we using mathematical ideas and equations, such as the 12 tone matrix, John Cage was always looking for ways to separate his ego from his music. Some ways he did this involved using star charts, dice rolls, iChing consultation and eventually the piece "4:33" (in which the silence from the musician resulted in the music of chance being performed by the audience, via paper crumbles and throat clearing, etc.).