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A well known example is the fanfare at the beginning of Igor Stravinsky's ballet, Petrushka. The first clarinet plays a melody in C major, while the second clarinet plays the same melody in F sharp major:
Although this example consists of just two melodic lines, some examples of bitonality contrast fully harmonised sections of music in different keys. Examples of this rather more dissonant kind of bitonality can be found in the work of Charles Ives, whose use of the technique in later additions (1909-1910) to his Variations on "America" (1891) is one of the first in classical music. Earlier examples, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Ein musikalischer Spass, tend to use the technique for comic effect.
Debussy's works often employ nascent polytonality (Reti, 1958). Bitonality was used quite often by members of the French group, Les SixLes Six is a name, superior to The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against Wagnerism and Impressionism. The members of Les Six were: Georges Auric (1899, and especially by Darius MilhaudDarius Milhaud ( September 4, 1892 June 22, 1974) was a French- Jewish composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. Milhaud was born in Aix-en-Provence and studied in Paris under Charles Wido, who perhaps used it more than any other composer. Many composers today who are interested in using tonality are also interested in bitonality, such as Philip GlassAnnie Leibovitz. Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer. His music is frequently described as minimalist. Biography Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland and studied the flute as a child at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He then in his Symphony No. 2.
Although the word bitonality is most often used when talking about relatively modern classical music (written in the last one hundred years or so), it is quite a common technique in folk musicFolk music in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. Folk music arose, and best survives, in societies not yet affected by mass communication and the commercialization of culture. It normally was shared and performed by the entire, especially in eastern Europe.
Milton BabbittMilton Byron Babbitt (born May 10, 1916) is an American composer. He is particularly noted for his pioneering serial and electronic music. Babbitt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but his family moved to Jackson, Mississippi at an early age. He stu, Paul HindemithPaul Hindemith ( November 16, 1895 December 28, 1963) was a German classical composer, violist, teacher, theorist and conductor. Biography Born in Hanau, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child, but his parents objected to his musical ambitions, and he, and other theorists have "questioned and even dismissed as a viable auditory possibility," polytonality. Hindemith called polytonality a, "self-contradictory expression which, if it is to possess any meaning at all, can be used only to designated a certain degree of expansion of the individual elements of a well-defined harmonic or voice-leadingIn music, voice leading is the continuity between pitches or notes played successively in time. For example, when moving from a root position C triad or chord played C-E-G to an F traid in second inversion, played C-F-A, you might say that the middle " vo unit." (Beach 1983)See also: List of pieces which use polytonalityLudwig van Beethoven (Reti, 1958) :: Eroica Symphony, in the horns and strings four measures before the recapitulatoin in the first movement (Reti, 1958) :: Piano Sonata, op. 81a Les Adieux , near the end of the first movement (Reti, 1958) :: Piano Sonata.