For a lot of reasons, music and music-making proliferated and diversified in many, many directions, throughout the 20th century. Not just because of ideas (i.e., Modernism) and tools (so many new technologies), but the convergence of culture, technology and mass communication enabled a creative crucible that’s unprecedented in human history. Unfortunately, this makes any comprehensive musical exploration of the past 100 years daunting for many, and challenging to the tastes and expectations of most.

In this episode, we hope to distill an amazing century of musical thought and practice into a comprehensible summary, by using a consistent, unchanging frame of reference: the piano. The piano is an instrument that existed in its present form prior to the 20th century, and remains essentially unchanged from that version through today. We hope that this familiar and constant tool for musical creation and expression will help elucidate the amazing variety of ideas and inventiveness of composers from the past century, up to and including our own decade.

Tracks & excerpts:

1. Johannes Brahms - Six Pieces, Op. 118 (1893) - No. 2, Intermezzo in A Major 
2. Claude Debussy - Images, Set 1 (1905) - I. Reflets dans l'eau & III. Mouvement
3. Alban Berg - Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (1909)
4. Charles Ives - Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860" (1915) - III. The Alcotts
5. George Antheil - Jazz Sonata (1922)
6. Bela Bartók - Out of Doors (1926) - With Drums and Pipes & Musettes
7. George Gershwin - Three Preludes (1926) - Prelude 1 & Prelude 2
8. Aaron Copland - Piano Variations (1930)
9. John Cage - Metamorphosis (1938) - I. & IV.
10. Olivier Messiaen - Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus (1944) -
        II. Regard de l’étoile & XV. Le baiser de l'Enfant-Jésus
11. György Ligeti - Musica ricercata (1953) -
        I. Sostenuto - Misurato - Prestissimo & II. Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale
12. Karlheinz Stockhausen - Klavierstück IX (1961)
13. Morton Feldman - Piano Piece (1964)
14. George Crumb - Makrokosmos, Volume I (1972) - 
        No. 1, Cancer. Primeval Sounds & No. 11, Gemini. Dream Images
    
15. John Adams - China Gates (1977)
16. John Corigliano - Fantasia on an Ostinato (1985)
17. Philip Glass - Wichita Vortex Sutra (1988)
18. Thomas Adès - Darknesse Visible (1992)
19. John Adams - American Berserk (2001)
20. Unsuk Chin - Piano Etudes (2003) - No. 5, Toccata
21. Mason Bates - White Lies for Lomax (2007)
22. Missy Mazzoli - A Map of Laughter (2015)

Additional links:

• Daniil Trifonov's brilliant program from May 2018, "Decades" (and glowing review)
• Great, heavily illustrated article on the history of the piano