- German opera Composer

- Born in Leipzig

- Active political figure

- Music-cultural essayist

- "Tristan und Isolde"

"Tristan und Isolde"

- 1857-59

- Pushed tonality to its limits through chromaticism

- Famous "Tristan chord": modernist disintegration of tonality

• unresolved tension
• ambiguity of tonal center

- 1860-1911

- Jewish Austrian composer

- Famous for epic symphonies

• profoundly influenced by Wagner
• "Wagernian scale": length/size
• Mahler expanded this further with "Symphony of a Thousand"

- Along with Strauss, acted as bridge b/w late Romanticism and early Modernism

- Early symphonies were "programmatics" --> 4th and onward were "absolute"

- Symphony No. 1: "The Titan"

- 1888

- Movement 1:

• Expansion/suspension of time
• Where is the beat?
• Programmatic (program music)

• Pastoral
• Sounds of nature: atmospheric hum, bird calls (cuckoo motive)
• Fanfares (hunting horns)
• Precise placement of players on/off stage
• Cuckoo: first theme (falling interval connection)

- 1864-1911

- German composer

- Operas, lieder, orchestral works

- "Sprach Zarathustra"

- "Salome"

- 1896

- Firmly tonal: example of Strauss harmonic origins

- Based on philosophical novel by Frederick Nietzsche

- In many movies

- 1905

- Based on Salome by Dorian Gray

Arnold Schoenberg

- 1874-1951

- Jewish-Austrian composer

- Father of atonal composition

• One of most polemical figures of 20th century classical music

- "2nd Viennese School" with Berg and Webern

- "Emancipation of dissonance"

- "Freely atonal" period: 1908-23

• Limitations (emergent atonal tonic) leaving burden of emancipation up to the conditioned ear
• Sought a means of order to enable simpler, cleaner, musical textures

- Serialism:

• 12 tone method
• Dodecaphony: 12 pitches of the octave regarded as equal, no 1 pitch/tone/chord given emphasis as dominant
• 12 tone row: set of all 12 pitches in no particular order
• Considered atonal, but not "freely so"

- "Verklarte Nacht" ("Transfigured Night") 

- " Five Pieces for Orchestra": III. Farben

- "A Survivor from Warsaw"

- 1899

- Earliest important work; for string sextet

- Inspired by poem of same name by German poet Richard Dehmel

- Heavy influence of Wagner

- Championed by Mahler, but ill-recieved by public 

- Sampled in "Hidden Place" by Bjork

- "Summer Morning by a Lake: Chord Colors"

 - Klangfarbenmelodie: tone-color melody

- Develops composer's notion of "total chromaticism", considered atonal

• "Emancipation of dissonance"  

- 1885-1935

- Austrian composer

- Student of Schoenberg's, member of 2nd Viennese School

- "Romantic" one

- Famous for operas and violin concerto, and orchestral and chamber music

- Embedded "wisps" of tonality/romanticism

• In context of serial work (rows, expression)

- "Three Pieces for Orchestra": III. Marsch 

- "Violin Concerto" 

- 1915 

- Mahlerian Romanticism with elements of chaos, extreme orchestration

- Atonal

- 8 tones in brass

- 1935

- For violin soloist and orchestra

- Best known and most widely performed instrumental work

- Rules of serialism implemented mostly loosely

- Opening theme based on fundamental nature of solo instrument 

- 1883-1945

- Austrian composer

- Member of 2nd Viennese School

• "Strict" one: firmest stance implementing Schoenberg's techniques

- Most influential of the three w/r/t the advent of post-war "total serialism"

- Famous for sparseness/brevity of works (opposite extreme of Mahler)

- "Five Pieces of Orchestra": III. Sehr Langram und Aussert Ruhig

- Focuses on a suggestion and an atmosphere, not an emotion

- 1862-1918

- French compoaser

- Inspired by Symbolist literary movement in France

- Influenced by Wagner, but distanced self

- "Nonfunctional harmony", alternative scales, non-Western influences 

- "Prelude a lapres-midi d'un faune" (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" 

- 1911-13

- Economic use of material (every second essential)

- Atonal

- "Angular": sudden peaks/valleys

- Elements of pointilism (music as points)

- Extended techniques (ex. flutter tongue)

- 1894

- Symphonic poem for orchestra inspired by poen by Stephanie Mallarme

- Use of chromatic and whole-tone scales

- Considering turning point in history of music

• Flute of the faun 

- 1875-1937

- French composer

- Influenced by Debussy and faun

- Famous for variety of works from solo to large orchestral, including ballet

- One of greatest orchestrators in history of Western art music

- "Daphne et. Chloe": "Lever du Jour" 

- "Bolero" 

- 1912

- Ballet commisioned by Serghei Diaghilev and premiered by Ballet Russes

- Symphonie choreographique 

- Depicts a sunrise (programmatic) through lush harmonies and orchestral effects 

- 1928

- Ravel's most famous work

- Repeating snare drum rhythm from beginning to end

- Transparent structure

- Constant re-orchestration: evolution of color over time

- Early 20th century art movement of the European avant-garde 

- Reaction against horrors of WWI

- Rejected reason and logic; prized nonsense, irrationality, and intuition 

- Radical-leftist politics: anti-war, anti-bourgeios 

- Public gatherings, demonstrations

- Starting point for performance art, postmodernism, etc. 

- Laid foundation for Surrealism 

- Early 1920's artistic-cultural movement manifesto written by French writer and poet Andre Breton in 1924

- Dreams, automatic writing 

- Heavily influenced by Dadaism, Sigmund Freud, Hegel, Marx, Benjamin

- "This is not a pipe" piece

- Salvador Dali

- 1887-1968

- French artist often associated with Dadaism and Surrealism, but categorization tenuous

- Abandoned Impressionism at early age: it had nothing left to offer

- Challenged conventional thought through subversion and provocation 

• Rejected art in absence of thought
• Forced confrontation through subjective

- "Readymades" (objet trouve) 

Eric Satie 

- French composer, member of early 20th century avant-garde

- Significant influence on Ravel

- Collaborated with members of Dada and Surrealism

- Precursor to minimalism 

- "Gymnopedie No. 1"

- "Vexations" 

- 1888

- Solo piano

- Gentle wandering, unusual for classical music of the day

- Static quality, lack of development

- Precursor to ambient work

- Solo piano, 1 pg. of music

- Published posthumously 

- "...play theme 840 times" 

• Radical commitment to repetition 

- 1882-1971

- Russian composer of energetic, visceral music

- Repetition, syncopation, fragmentation

- International fame with 3 ballets commisioned by Sergei Diaghilev

- Folk music

- "L'oiseau de feu" (Firebird)

- "Le Sacre du printemps" (Rite of Spring) 

- 1910

- Ballet based on Russian folktales

- Bursts of percussive energy, ebb and flow/sudden jerks of momentum 

- 1913

- Ballet with choreography by notorious dancer Nijinsky

- Premiere caused a riot

- Would become icon of new music and codify Stravinsky's reputation as one side of modernist coin (Schoenberg as oppositional other side)

- Interest in Russian/Lithuanian music

- "Primitivism", musical fragmentation

- Bitonality

- 1841-1904

- Czech composer

- Influenced by Beethoven, Wagner, Schubert

- "Fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of a symbolic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding ways of using them"

• Focused on folk of Moravia and native Bohemia

- Left Europe to direct Conservatory of Music in NYC in 1892

- "Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo" 

- "New World Symphony"

- Influenced by folk music of African Americans and Native Americans

- 1841-1904

- One of Hungary's greatest composers 

- Ethnomusicality: study of music that emphasizes cultural, social, material, etc. instead of isolated souns component

- Driving kinetic energy and use of folk elements

- "Piano Concerto No. 2: I. Allegro, II. Adagio"

- "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta: IV. Allegra Molto"

- 1930-1931

- For piano soloist/orchestra

- Most popular/most difficult pieces

- 1st movement shows driving kinetic energy, 2nd shows orchestration

- 1936

- Instrumentation: ..includes piano

- Uses folk elements

- In famous movies

- 1947

- For narrator, men's chorus, and orchestra

- Narration depicts memories of a survivor from Warsaw ghetto during WWII

- Commisioned by the intended to pay tribute to the Holocaust victims of the German Third Reich

- 1936

- 12 tone piece for solo piano in 3 movements

- Inspired by symmetry in this work (musical palindromes)

- Disjunct expression; each tone a musical event (pointilism)

- 1935

- Berg

- Best known, most widely performed instrumental work

- Rules of serialism implemented more loosely

- Opening theme based on fundamental nature of solo instrument

- Composed in 4 parts; last of which ends with violin in extreme high register

- 1874-1954

- American composer, arguably first Experimentalist

- One of most radical composers of 20th centure, but largely ignored during his time

- Inspired by Transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau

- Patriotic (Nationalism)

- American popular/church music fused with European art music

- The Unanswered Question

- 1906

- One of first great works of American classical music, yet unpublished until 1940

- A "collage in 3 distinct layers" : each with own tempo and key

- Trumpt asks question, flutes answer

- Distinct layers -> polytonality

- 1900-1990

- Most well known American classical composer, popular during his lifetime

- Studied with Nadia Boulanger

- Famous for ballets and orchestral suites incorporating Amerian folk and jazz

- Promoted "American sound": the pastoral/the big city, American cultural heritage

- Pro Socialist/Society political learnings

- Piano Variations, Appalachian Spring

- 1930

- Aaron Copland

- For solo piano, considered "first work of genius"

- Combined influences of 2nd Viennese School with Jazz

- Used at parties to empty the room, guaranteed in 2 minutes

- 1944

- Aaronl Copland

- Ballet for chamber orchestra

- Written in collaboration with choreographer Martha Graham

- Evokes American Pastoral ideal 

- Years of collectivization, industrialization and famine

- How to placate masses? Promise of new comforts and freedoms

- Role of the artist: art as a reflection of the way things are, dissemination through art

- Artists as a population: highly individualistic, anti comformist, prone to reaction against the way things are

- Reformation of art: expression of the individual, in service of the Union, "Formalism", use of secret police 

Dmitri Shosatakovich 

- 1906- 1975

- Soviet Russian composer

- Influenced by Gustav Mahler, Sergei Prokofiev, and Igor Stravinsky

- Famous for opera Lady Macbeth, symphonies, chamber music, and film scores

- Experienced periods of both great acclaim and persecution under Stalin's regime

- Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Symphony No. 5 in D Minor

- 1936

- Dmitri Shostakovich

- Premiere cancelled half way through rehearsal process: publically withdrawn by Shostakovich

- Not premiered until 1961 (8 years after Stalin's death)

- Contains strong elements of satire (eg. military march)

- Tonal but saturated in dissonance

- More overtly progressive (modernist) than Fifth Symphony

- 1937

- Dmitri Shostakovich

- Intended to mark political rehabilitation, at least to coming up to party expectations

- 4 movement form; more tonal, thematic material more accessible than 4th Symphony

- Premiere was huge success: standing ovation for 30 min

- Triumphant finale: Stalinist victory hymn or parody of one?

- 1850 pamphlet Das Judentum in der Musik (Jewry in Music): protested Jewification of German music, proposed than Jews undergo "destruction and self-annhilation" 

- Wagner's Bayreuth: point of convergence for anti-Semites, Aryan protests, and social Darwinists

- Worshipped Wagner from early age: developed close ties to Wagner family; claimed a performance of Wagner's Rienzi inspired him to enter politics

- Nazi Regime: Reich Culture Chamber - all German artists required to register for membership, promoted Aryan artists whose work was consistent with Nazi ideology

- Reich Music Chamber: Nazification of music

- French composer

- One of most influential composers and teachers of the 20th century: taught Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, etc.

- Famous for study and inclusion of bird calls in music, Quartet for the End of time, and role in emergence of Total Serialism

- Systematic organization to combine complex rhythm with a wide range of harmony, both tonal and atonal

- Devoutly religious

- Quatuor pour la fin du temps, Quatre etudes de rythme

- 1941

- Olivier Messiaen

- A piece in 8 movements, written for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

- Inspired by text from the Book of Revelation

- Composed in a German POW camp during WWII

- 1941

- "Mode of values and intensities", for solo piano

- First piece with systematic organization of pitch, duration dynamicsm, and mode of attack (timbre)

- Not yet Total Serialism, but considered the springboard for it

- Order -> row -> serialism: 36 pitches, 24 durations, 12 attacks, 7 dynamics

- "Integral serialism" 

- An extension of Shoenberg's techniques to most/all parameters of sound 

- Messiaen "values and intensities", but with serial ordering

- Individual note: multidimensional "sculpture", expressivity in and of itself

- As a response to WWII: role of art, potential implications of decisions as artists

- French composer and conductor

- Figurehead of Total Serialism in France

- Fierce proponent of Schoenbergian legacy; severe critic of conservation in contemporary music (severe critic of anything not in line with Total Serialism)

- Enormously influential as post-war conductor of contemporary music, Head of Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)

- Le marteau sans maitre

- 1955

- Pierre Boulez

- "The Hammer without a Master": setting of Surrealist poetry by Rene Char for chamber ensemble

- Unconventional instrumentation

- One of most important works of Total Serialist movement

- Continuing revision, elusive explanation..

- French composer

- Originated musique concrete in early 1940's: form of electroacoustic music that utilizes recorded sounds as compositional resources

- Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrete (GRMC) in Paris

- Cinq etudes de bruits 

- 1948

- "Five studies of noise": earliest exmaples of musique concrete

- "Study of railways": recorded sounds of trains stitched together in a piece

- Premiered via broadcast Concert de bruits: marked a change in musical dissemination (no longer the concert hall)

-Elektronische: another form of electroacoustic music, but contrasted sharply with musique concrete, along both aesthetic and ideological lines

- Is synthesized entirely from electronically produced sounds: electronic vs. concrete ("real world" sources

- Emerged from Electronic Music Studio of WDR, Cologne in 1953

- "The New York School"

  - Painting:

    - Abstract Expressionism: Mark Rothko, Willem de    

      Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, Robert

      Rauschenberg

    - Neo-Dadaism: Jasper Johns

  - Structural Film: Tony Conrad (The Flicker 1965),

    Michael Snow, Andy Warhol (Sleep 1963, pop art)

  -> American Experimentalism: John Cage, Morton

    Feldman, Earl Brown, David Tudor, Christian Wolff

- American composer, theorist, writer and visual artist

- Teachers included Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg

- Perhaps most radical composer of 20th century: "indeterminancy", silence, performance art, unconventional treatments of instruments, electroacoustic music, graphic notation

- Influenced by Eastern philosophies, studied Zen Buddhism

- Challenged assumptions about musicianship, labor, intentionality and self, limits of what can be called music

- Sonatas and Interludes, Music for Piano

- 1946-1948

- John Cage

- 16 sonatas and 4 interludes

- Intended to express the 8 permanent emotions of the rasa Indian tradition

- For prepared piano: 45 notes prepared with screws, bolts, rubber, plastic, nuts, and an eraser; 2-3 hours of preparation

- 1952-1962

- John Cage

- 85 compositions for prepared piano

- Translate imperfections in paper into sound by means of a variety of chance procedures (eg. I Ching, dice)

- Music for Piano I: only pitches are specified

  - Durations left to performer, set time allowed for completion

- Music for Piano II: imperfections determine pitches, but durations specified

- Music for Piano III onward: number of events determined by I Ching

- American composer

- Deeply influenced by Webern: stripping down to essentials

- Deeply influential on future AE composers

- Took great interest in Persian rugs: patterns, small dye lots, (a)symmetry 

- Explored memory disorientation: expanded duration (scale), constant re-patterning, rejected monolithic narrative, "secret information" of European tradition

- Why Patterns?

"Why Patterns?"

- 1978

- For flute, percussion, and piano

- Directionality of music ambiguous

- Slowly shifting patterns (pitch, rhythm, timbre)

- Terraced dynamics

- Rhythmic (ir)regularity 

- German composer

- Arguable most influential composer of post WWII European avant-garde

- Figurehead of both the Total Serialist and Elektronische Musik movements in Germany

- Prodigiously inventive: concrete vs. elektronische; investigations into spatialization, amplification, electronic sound synthesis, etc.

- Influence extended far beyond European avant-garde

- Klavierstuck X, Gesang der Junglinge, Kontakte

- 1958-1960

- Karlheinz Stockhausen

- Piano, percussion, and tape 

- Produced in WDR Cologne's Studio for Electronic Music

- 1961

- Karlheinz Stockhausen

- "Piano Piece 10"

- Reconceptualizes the piano & its identity: percussive energy, glissando, cluster, pedal resonance

- "Gesture" replaces melody: physicality of sound, physical phenomena

- 1955-1956

- Karlheinz Stockhausen

- "Song of the Youths", for tape

- "First masterpiece of electronic music" (Bryann Simms)

- Produced in WDR Cologne's Studio for Electronic Music

- Synthesizes musique concrete and elektronische musik as complementary elements: integration of electronic sound with the human voice

- Text from a biblical story in the book of Daniel 

- Greek composer, architect-engineer

- Post-war European avant-garde

- Student of Olivier Messiaen: who encouraged Xenakis to pursue affinity for higher level math in his compositions

- Pioneer of stochastic music: implemented set theory, game theory, and Markov chains; research was influential on development of electroacoustic music

- Spatialization of sound, players' locations

- Music was capable of tremendous energy: eg. significant contributions to percussion repertoire 

- Metastasis

-1953-1954

- Iannis Xenakis

- For orchestra

- Inspired by Einstein's view of time and composer's memories of the sounds of war

- Explored sound mass as a focus of attention: 61 players, no two parts the same

- Use of stochastic processes: physics modeling applied to sound, statistical distribution of points on a plane

- Hungarian composer

- Highly innovative/individualistic

- European avant-garde, but no "membership"

- Joined Stockhausen at the Cologne Studio after fleeing Hungary during 1956 Soviet-supressed revolution

- Instrumental works inspired by sounds he heard: texture, clusters, sound mass, micropolyphony

- Attained international fame for Kubrick's use of his work in 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut

- Musica ricercata, Atmospheres

- 1953

- Gyorgy Ligeti 

- "Researched" music in pursuit of the composer's voice

- A cycle of 11 pieces for piano: macro structure

- 1st piece: motoric rhythm, energy, sycopation, heirarchy (tonic dominant)

- 2nd piece: establishing the familiar and the alien, a new kind of tonality  

- 1961

- Gyorgy Ligeti

- For orchestra

- Focuses on dense sound textures rather than melody or rhythm

- Opening: broad dynamic range of swell and decay

- Over time: individualization of parts -> micropolyphony 

- American composer

- Closely associated with John Cage, Morton Feldman, and other American Experimentalists

- Influenced members of the NY School (notably Jackson Pollock and Alexander Calder)

- Significant contributions to the development of graphic notation

- Work with open forms was great source of inspiration to Downtown NY scene in 1980's: fixed musical modules whose order is left open to choice

- December 1952

- 1952

- Earle Brown

- For open instrumentation

- Landmark piece in the history of graphic notation of music: score consists of horizontal and vertical lines with varying width distribution 

- Role of the performer: interpret visually and translate the graphical information 

- American composer

- Drew early influence from the Jazz music of Art Tatum and Earl Hines, and from the rhythms of Indian music

- Almost all musical output for player piano

- Explored the humanly impossible, with great energy and rhythmic complexity beyond that of any other composer

- Fought in Lincoln Brigade, fled to Mexico to avoid persecution for Communist Affiliations

- Composed in almost complete isolation from 1940: music achieved international fame only at end of life

- Studies #1-30

- 1948-1960

- For player piano

- Expored levels of virtuosity and rhythmic complexity impossible for humans to perform

- American composer

- Studied with Lukas Foss and Aaron Copland at Tanglewood

- Exposure to work of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor

- Along with La Monte Yong, FLuxus, etc, exemplifies post-Cage tradition of American Experimentalism

- Explores acoustic phenomena and auditory perception (science): resonance of sounds, transmission of sound through physical media, phase interference between closely tuned pitches

- I Am Sitting In a Room 

- 1969

- Alvin Lucier's most famous work

- Process vs. product

- Meta-level commentary (self-reference)

- Observing phenomenological results of itertative process: radical commitment to a single idea, "just" speech and sound of room 

- Reaction vs. chronological exclusion

- Principle concerns: 

  - Subjectivity

  - Deconstruction: of presuppositions and ideology, hierarchal values, frames of reference

  - Deconstruction -> consideration -> invitation

  - Availability, reconceptualization 

1. Lingua Franca: Baroque, Classical Periods
2. Individual identity: Romantic Period (the Self, one's country)
3. Primacy of Invention: Modernism - urgency to do something new
4. Stylistic Pluralism: Post WWI and onward
5. "Removal" of Self: Cage, Xenakis - delegating choice to chance procedures/complex algorithms
6. Polystylism/Collage/Plunderphonics: Post-Modernism - different languages explored by a single artist within a single work

- Soviet composer (German-Russian heritage)

- Strongly influenced by Dmitri Shostakovich

- Coined term "polystylism" for approach to composition: pastiche vs. quotation

- One of most influential figures in Postmodernist music

- Well known for string quartets and ballets

- Concerto Grosso #1

- 1977

- Alfred Schnittke

- For 2 violins, harpsichord, prepared piano and strings

- Instrumentation and form was not arbitrary 

- "Form of baroque music"

- Polystylist examples

- Canadian composer, media artist, dancer

- Best known for postmodernist electronic music (Plunderphonics): form of sound collage, making new music out of previously existing recordings

- Has faced repeated threats of legal action for use of other artists' works (Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Stravinsky, Michael Jackson)

- Plunderphonics (Velocity, Dab)

-1970-present

- John Oswald

- For tape/computer, etc; CD's commerically available

- Velocity (1994): pushes limits of human perception through minimal duraction of samples

- Dab (1990, by "Alien Chasm Jock"): Bad by Michael Jackson backwards; character portrait (sound collectin as creative/aesethetic decision)

- Work is set out to expose the essence/identity of a subject through alienating all non-essential forms, features, or concepts

- A reaction against complexity of Total Serialism and cultural elitism of European avant-garde (Modernism)

- A return to: repetition, clarity, immediacy, tonal harmony (influence of African and Indian classical music)

- Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams

- American composer

- Pioneer of Minimalist movement: major influence on Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams, etc

- Deeply influenced by Indian classical music, as well as John Cage, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, etc. 

- Explored tape loops, microtonality/alternative tuning systems, open instrumentation, self-organizing structure

- In C

- 1964

- Terry Riley

- For unspecified performers: "group of 35 desired"

- Repeating C: on piano or percusssion instrument

- 53 short, numbered musical phrases, all in C: may be repeated an arbitrary number of times, each musician can pick which phrase to play

- American composer

- One of foremost practitioners of American Minimalism

- First "awakening" to experimentalism came upon recieving a copy of the score to Cage's 4'33"

- Known for exploration of repetition, phasing, and gradual processes

- Come Out, Piano Phase

- 1966

- Steve Reich

- For tape: commissioned for a benefit for the retrial of the Harlem Six

- Piece derived from one clip: "...come out to show them" 

- Repetition of phrase: loss of meaning/lingual function over time

- Phasing: emergent sub-melodies/rhythms

- 1967

- Steve Reich

- For 2 pianos

- His first attempt to bring phasing technique to live performance

- Rapid 12-note figure played on both pianos: in unison, then one begins to accelerate gradually

- Music consists of results of applying phasing process to intitial 12-note melody
- This and Come Out are examples of process music 

- American composer

- Heavily influenced by Terry Riley, Steve Reich, but rejects Minimalist label

- "Composer of music with repetitive structures"

- Most famous living composer of contemporary classical music

- Widely recognized in mainstream culture: television ads (BMW); TV shows (Battlestar Gallectica); Art and Hollywood films (Candyman, The Truman Show, The Illusionist, Watchmen); video games (Grand Theft Auto)

- Broad influence on pop music culture, Hollywood film scoring

- Einstein on the Beach 

- 1975

- Philip Glass

- Directed by radical theatrical producer, Robert Wilson

- Glass' first, and longest, opera: 5 hours without intermission

- 1st of 3 operas in portrait trilogy

- No characters, plot, or narrative

- 3 main scenes: Einstein's hypotheses about theory of relativity and unified field theory