Innovative Processes in 20th-Century Music: from the Avant-Garde to the Digitization of Music

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63931/ijchr.v7iSI1.136

Keywords:

Cultural Discourse, Digitalization, Media, Music Education, Musician Training

Abstract

The musical art of the twentieth century is characterized by the rapid evolution of styles, genres, and expressive means, inspired by the development of technology, including in the field of sound recording and electronic musical instruments. The purpose of this paper is to provide a generalized overview of the innovations that appeared in music during the twentieth century and determined its stylistic diversity. The research methodology is based on an empirical approach that includes the analysis of musicological literature and the analysis of scores by composers from different countries who worked in different musical genres and made the greatest contribution to the introduction of the latest compositional techniques. It has been found that innovations in the music of the twentieth century affect the timbral palette and peculiarities of the pitch organization of the musical fabric. The renewal of timbral diversity is primarily associated with the development of electronic sound synthesis, which opens opportunities for generating sounds inaccessible to acoustic musical instruments. By the end of the twentieth century, special synthetic sounds became the basis of electronic dance music, such as techno and house. Innovative methods of pitch organization refer to composers' searches aimed at expanding or introducing alternatives to the classical tonal system. Such alternatives include modality, serial technique, and microintervals. These updates concern not only the author's material, but also the methods of composer's work with folk music - the combination of folk melodies with innovative harmonic and timbral solutions became the basis of neo-folklorism.

Author Biographies

  • Oksana Komarovska, Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

    Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine

  • Oleg Kolubayev, Educational-Scientific Institute of Art, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

    Educational-Scientific Institute of Art, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine

  • Tetiana Ivaniukha, Zaporizhzhia National University, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine

    Zaporizhzhia National University, Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine

  • Iryna Antonyuk, Lviv National Academy of Music named after M. Lysenkov, Lviv, Ukraine

    Lviv National Academy of Music named after M. Lysenkov, Lviv, Ukraine

  • Andrii Yeromenko, Institute of Culture and Arts, Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko, Sumy, Ukraine

    Institute of Culture and Arts, Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko, Sumy, Ukraine

References

[1] Antokoletz, E. (2014). A History of Twentieth-Century Music in a Theoretic-Analytical Context. Routledge.

[2] Benward, B., & Saker, M. (2003). Music in Theory and Practice. (7th edition). McGraw-Hill College.

[3] Bezborodko, O. A. (2018). The interaction of compositional and performing means of expressiveness in the Second Sonata-Ballade by Boris Lyatoshinsky. Scientific Herald of Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, 122, 110–124. https://doi.org/10.31318/2522-4190.2018.122.141857

[4] Bondarenko, A. (2021). Electronic Music in Ukraine in the last third of 20th – the beginning of 21st century. [PhD dissertation]. Kyiv: KNUKiM.

[5] Broiako, N. (2020). E. Stankovych’s “Symnoi drimbi zvyki” in the aspect of embodiment of the neofolkloristic tendencies. Music Art and Culturе, 1(30), 19–24. https://doi.org/10.31723/2524-0447-2020-30-1-3

[6] Corbelli, A. (2024). Beyond the Algorithm. Ethical and aesthetic challenges of AI in Music. Itinera. https://doi.org/10.54103/2039-9251/27842

[7] de Leeuw, T. (2005). Music of the Twentieth Century: A Study of Its Elements and Structure. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9789048505425

[8] Derevianchenko, O. (2005). Neofolklorism in musical art: statics and dynamics of development in the first half of 20th century. PhD dissertation. Kyiv: Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine.

[9] Fan, Y. (2024). The practical guidance of music aesthetics in musical art practice. Journal of Education and Educational Research, 11(3), 22–25. https://doi.org/10.54097/mxk9w068

[10] Fineberg, J. (Ed.). (2000). Spectral Music: History and Techniques. Amsterdam: Overseas Publishers Association.

[11] Griffiths, P. (2001). Serialism. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. (Vol. 23, pp. 116–123). Second edition. Edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.25459

[12] Haas, G. (2007). Mikrotonalität und spektrale Musik seit 1980. In: J. Hiekel (Ed.), Orientierungen: Wege im Pluralismus der Gegenwartsmusik. (pp. 123–129). Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt 47. Mainz: Schott Musik International.

[13] Hargreaves, D., Marshall, N., & North, A. (2003). Music education in the twenty-first century: a psychological perspective. British Journal of Music Education, 20(2), 147–163. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051703005357

[14] Iddon, M. (2023). The Cambridge Companion to Serialism. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108592116

[15] Jayanthi, J., & Upendran, V. (2025). Raga Recognition of Indian Classical Music using Meerkat Optimization Based MFCC and Fine Tuned BILSTM-XGBOOST. Circuits, Systems, and Signal Processing. (pp. 1–29). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-025-02999-w

[16] Kalinowski, K., Kozłowska, A., Malesza, M., Danel, D. P. (2021). Evolutionary origins of music. Classical and recent hypotheses. Anthropological Review, 84(2), 213–231. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/anre-2021-0011

[17] Kohoutek, C. (1965). Modern compositional trends in music. Praha: State Music Publishing House.

[18] Kurth, E. (1920). Foundations of Linear Counterpoint. Bern: Max Drechsel Verlag.

[19] Kushch, Y. V. (2013). Electromusical Instruments as an Evolutionary Factor of Musical Culture in the 20th – Early 21st Century. PhD dissertation. Kyiv.

[20] Lerch, A. (2018). The Relation Between Music Technology and Music Industry. In: Bader, R. (Eds.), Springer Handbook of Systematic Musicology. Springer Handbooks. (pp. 899–909). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55004-5_44

[21] Lindstedt, I. (2010). Sonoristics in the works of Polish composers of the 20th century. University of Warsaw Publishing House. https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323510024

[22] Lulja, E. (2019). Harmonic function and modality in classic heavy metal. Metal Music Studies, 5(3), 355–378. https://doi.org/10.1386/mms.5.3.355_1

[23] Maclagan, S. J. (2009). A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist. Lanham, MS, and Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, Inc.

[24] Marchun, О. (2024). Folk revival as a means of expressing identity and promoting folk motives. Modern Engineering and Innovative Technologies, 4(32-04), 92–99. https://doi.org/10.30890/2567-5273.2024-32-00-094

[25] Mark, M. L. (1999). Music Education since mid-century: The role of the music educators national conference. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 33(3), 79–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/3333703

[26] Marynin, A. Ye. (2024). Transformation of Digital Technologies in the Music Industry at the End of the 20th – Early 21st Century. Bulletin of National Academy of Managerial Staff in Culture and Music, 2, 311–315. https://doi.org/10.32461/2226-3209.2.2024.308417

[27] Messiaein, O. (1944). The Technique of My Musical Language. Paris. https://monoskop.org/images/5/50/Messiaen_Olivier_The_Technique_of_My_Musical_Language.pdf

[28] Meyer-Eppler, W. (1957). Statistic and Psychologic Problems of Sound. In: Die Reihe 1 (Electronic Music), pp. 55–61. https://www.scribd.com/document/834230296/Meyer-Eppler-W-1958-Statistic-and-Psychologic-Problems-of-Sound-Die-Reihe-1-Electronic-Music

[29] Moore, S. E., Asare, N. A., & Kubiti, S. K. (2025). Ndwom: A Multimodal Music Information Retrieval Dataset for Akan Musical Videos. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5876078/v1

[30] Naidu, P., Rao, B. J., Revathi, K., Gayathri, M. G., & Jayasri, G. S. (2025). Classification of music genres using multimodal deep learning technique. In: E3S Web of Conferences, 616, 02012. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202561602012

[31] Nyakayo, O. A. (2025). The intersection of science and art: Collaborative approaches. Newport International Journal of Engineering and Physical Sciences, 5(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.59298/NIJEP/2025/511600

[32] Rae, B. Ch. (1999). The Music of Lutosławski. (3rd ed.). London: Omnibus Press.

[33] Reshetnik, D. (2020). Timbre in Music: Problems of concept definition. Young Scientist, 11, 76–79. https://doi.org/10.32839/2304-5809/2020-11-87-17

[34] Sampada, K. S., Deepa, S., & Prasanna Kumar, M. (2025). Algorithmic Orchestration: Deep Learning Techniques in Music Generation. PowerTech Journal, 49(1), 802–813. https://doi.org/10.52783/pst.1623

[35] Schoenberg, A. (1975). Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg. Edited by Leonard Stein, translated by Leo Black. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

[36] Skoptsova, O., & Palyha, S. (2025). Folk choral (song) art development strategy in all of modern Ukraine. Bulletin of KNUKiM. Series in Arts, 46, 133–137. https://doi.org/10.31866/2410-1176.46.2022.258626

[37] Stambaugh, J. (1964). Music as a temporal form. The Journal of Philosophy, 61(9), 265–280. https://doi.org/10.2307/2022918

[38] Stockhausen, K. (1964). Texts 2: Essays on musical practice 1952–1962. Schnebel, Dieter (Ed.). Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg.

[39] Susanni, P., & Antokoletz, E. (2012). Music and twentieth-century tonality: Harmonic progression based on modality and the interval cycles. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203119297

[40] Wu, R., & Pan, Y. (2025). Providing music selection and matching suggestions for dance creations using music information retrieval and artificial intelligence techniques. Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14727978251318807

[41] Yang, Y. (2024). Analysis of different types of digital audio workstations. Highlights in Science, Engineering and Technology, 85, 563–569. https://doi.org/10.54097/6vvy8z41

[42] Zlotnik, O. (2018). The intertextual system “composer–folklore”. Kyiv Musicology, 57, 243–253. https://doi.org/10.33643/kmus.2018.57.21

Downloads

Published

2025-07-19

How to Cite

Innovative Processes in 20th-Century Music: from the Avant-Garde to the Digitization of Music. (2025). International Journal on Culture, History, and Religion, 7(SI1), 85-99. https://doi.org/10.63931/ijchr.v7iSI1.136

Similar Articles

61-70 of 207

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.