Modern Era
The Modern Era is the time period in musical development that began around the turn of the 20th century in which great changes in compositional techniques and styles took place. This era challenged and reinterpreted old styles of music, making it a time of great innovation.
Although homophonic textures were used, they were used with less importance and the most dominant texture of the Modern era was contrapuntal texture. Modern era music was unpredictable and the melodies often difficult to sing, which could be partly as a result of the ornamentation that was incorporated into the music. For example in genres such as jazz, as well as in other genres that were becoming increasingly popular throughout the Modern era, grace notes, trills and glissandi were used quite a lot. Improvisatory passages appeared in music more often and ornamentation was often used here. After 1900, the tonal system went through many changes and as a result the keys used in Modern era pieces also changed. Whereas previously the system of tonal gravity had been what had governed how pitches were organised, in the Modern era there was far less of a gravitational pull towards the central key. In the Modern era, music was experimented with quite a bit and so scales other than the traditional major and minors were used. The result of further experimentation with key was the use of polytonality in which several keys are used or once. This was taken ever further to the point where there was an