Brazosport College Music Appreciation Test Review

leitmotif

"guiding motive" associated with a specific character, theme, or locale in a music drama, and first associated with the music of Richard Wagner

Franz Joseph Haydn

(1732-1809) Classical composer who spent most of his life as musical director for wealthy Esterhazy brothers; visits to England introduced him to world of public concerts rather than princely patrons;wrote The Creation and The Seasons

bel canto opera

8th century Italian singing style that emphasized the beauty and virtuosity of the voice.

cantata

A composite major church choir form from the Baroque period that involves soloist, choir, and orchestra. Cantatas have several movements and last for fifteen to thirty minutes. Cantatas are performed without staging but they utilize narration, arias, recitatives, choruses and smaller vocal ensembles.

primitivism

A musical movement that arose as a reaction against musical impressionism and which focused on the use of strong rhythmic pulse, distinct musical ideas, and a tonality based on one central tone as a unifying factor instead of a central key or chord progression.

neoclassicism

A musical movement that arose in the twentieth century as a reaction against romanticism and which sought to recapture classical ideals like symmetry, order, and restraint.

imitative polyphony

A musical texture featuring two or more equally prominent, simultaneous melodic lines, tho

virtuoso

A performer with exceptional technical skills

solo concerto

A solo concerto is a musical form which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by the orchestra. Traditionally, there are three movements in a solo concerto, consisting of fast, slow and lyrical, and fast tempos, respectively.

Spiritual

A style of music invented by Afro-American slaves. Spirituals are generally religious songs with elements of African rhythms, Biblical texts, and American accents.

minimalism

A term applied to music of the late 20th century which aim at reducing the range of compositional materials through the use of repetition and static harmony. Music that uses short melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns that are repeated again and again. These patterns often create a hypnotic effect.

Madrigalism

A term used to describe the illustrative devices used particularly in madrigals. This includes text painting, for example: changing the texture, tone, range, or volume to musically depict what the text is describing.

sprechstimme

A vocal delivery, developed by Schoenberg, intermediate between speech and song.

atonality

Absence of tonality or key

Gregorian Chant

Also called " Old Roman chant ", this is one of the earliest surviving styles of music in Western Europe attributed to Pope Gregory the Great. The surviving chants are modal with monophonic melodies with freely-flowing, unmeasured vocal lines.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

American composer Appalachian Spring Fanfare for the Common-Man Hoe-Down "Americana"

John Adams (composer)

American composer, clarinetist, and conductor of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism.

Peter Schickele (1935- )

American composer, musical educator, and parodist, best known for comedy albums featuring his music, but which he presents as being composed by the fictional P. D. Q. Bach. He also hosted a long-running weekly radio program called Schickele Mix.

Lute

An instrument popular in the Medieval and Renaissance eras. The lute is a plucked string instrument of the guitar family, it has a short, fretted neck, a rounded back, and a large body something between oval- and pear-shaped.

Recitative

An operatic number using speech-like melodies and rhythms, performing using a flexible tempo, to sparse accompaniment, most often provided by the basso continuo. Recitatives are often performed between arias and have texts that tend to be descriptive and narrating.

Mass

Catholic celebration of the Eucharist consisting of liturgical texts set to music by composers starting in the middle ages

comic opera

Comic Opera is drived from short entertaining scenes (typically with funny servants) that were played between the acts of serious opera. The comic opera, or Italian Opera Buffa, is an outgrowth of these scenes and developed as a completely independent genre.

Sacred

Compositions with religious themes that are meant to be performed for church services or religious activities.

Troubadour song

Essentially monophonic, Sometimes with improvised polyphony and instrumental accompaniment; courtly love and and chivalry

Johann Sebastian Bach

German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He is known for instrumental compositions such as the Art of Fugue, the Brandenburg Concertos, and the Goldberg Variations, and

Ludwig van Beethoven

German composer of instrumental music (especially symphonic and chamber music)

Johannes Brahms

German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

German opera composer Music drama Leitmotif Unending melody Chromaticism led to obscuring tonality (an important influence on the 20th Century) The Ring of the Nibelungen, Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger, Tristan and Isolde

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

He established the German art song (Lied) as an important genre in the 19th century. He wrote over 600 Lieder, as well as song cycles, symphonies, string quartets, sonatas, and Masses. Erlkönig [Lied] 1815

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

His musical compositions were often inspired by visual arts. He stressed elusive moods and haunting sensations and is distinctive in its delicate beauty and elegance of sound.

aria

Homophonic compositions featuring a solo singer over orchestral accompaniment. homophonic compositions featuring a solo singer over accompaniment. Arias are very melodic primarily utilized in operas, cantatas, and oratorios.

avant-garde

In the art, on the leading edge of a change in style.

Hildegard von Bingen

Known for her religious visions, she eventually became an influential religious leader, artist, poet, scientist, and musician. She would go on to found three convents and become an abbess, the chief administrator of an abbey. Writing poetry and music for her fellow nuns to use in worship was one of many of her activities, and the hymn "Ave Generosa" is just one of her many compositions.

Monody

Music for one voice with a simple accompaniment

electronic music

Music that is produced and/or treated by electronics. This form of music originated in the 1950's, and has had incredible popularity.

Homophony

Music where the melody is supported by a chordal accompaniment the move in the same rhythm. Homophony is generally the opposite of polyphony where the voices imitative and weave with each other.

quotation

Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work (self-referential), or from a different composer's work (appropriation).

Chorale

Originally the result from the German protestant church's reformation, the chorale is the hymn (tune) is a four part homophonic work that is sung by the church congregation. Chorales became the foundation for several cantatas and chorale preludes for organ.

Concertato Principle

Principle of contrasting the sonorities of different performing ensembles

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Russian Composer; Paris; Ballets; won acceptance from the public; Firebird; Petrouchka; The right of Spring; Master of rhythm

figured bass

System of musical shorthand by which composers indicated intervals above the bass line with numbers (figures) rather than with notated pitches.

music drama

Term applied to Richard Wagner's operas and other such composition that combine music, scenery, text, costume, etc., to create a whole, cohesive imaginary world.opera

consequent

The answer in a fugue, or point of imitation. A musical phrase which follows another, similar phrase. In a musical period, the antecedent and consequent are two balancing halves, somewhat like a rhymed couplet in poetic verse, with the movement of the first half completed by the second.a phrase resolving the previous phrase, an answer

Sonata-Allegro Form

The form generally used for the opening movement of the Classical sonata. It consists of an exposition, in which thematic material is presented for the first time, generally in two theme groups,the first one fast and the second slow, followed by the development, in which the thematic material presented in the exposition is developed, rearranged, transposed, and transformed, followed finally by the recapitulation, in which the thematic material is presented once again in its original form, usually followed by a short closing theme.

Motet (medieval)

The medieval motet is a polyphonic genre in which the upper voice or voices are texted (usually syllabically) and the bottom voice, the tenor, is untexted. The tenor is usually an excerpt from a solo section of chant (though a few are drawn from secular models), but the excerpt has been provided with rhythm and may be repeated or manipulated.

Counter-reformation

The preservation movement or "Counter-Reformation" against the protestant reform

polychord

The simultaneous use of two or more simple chords (such as triads), a technique used in 20th century compositions.

antecedent

The subject of a fugue or canon; the first phrase of a musical period. and consequent, A pair of musical statements that complement one another in rhythmic symmetry and harmonic balance.

ballet

The theatrical presentation of group or solo dancing of great precision to a musical accompaniment, usually with costumes and scenery and conveying a story or theme.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

This Austrian pioneered dodecaphony, or the twelve-tone system, which treated all parts of the chromatic scale equally. Schoenberg's early influences were Wagner and R. Strauss, as evident in his Transfigured Night (1900) for strings. Yet by 1912, with the "Sprechstimme" (halfway between singing and speaking) piece Pierrot lunaire, he broke from Romanticism and developed expressionist pieces free from key or tone. His students, especially Alban Berg and Anton Webern, further elaborated on his theories. Fleeing Nazi persecution in 1933, he moved from Berlin to Los Angeles, where he completed A Survivor from Warsaw. The first two acts of his unfinished opera, Moses und Aron, are still frequently performed.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

This operatic Romantic dramatist can be considered the most important Italian composer of the 19th century. Rigoletto [opera seria] (1851)

Secular

Those compositions that are not sacred; compositions that do not have any connection with religion.

George Gershwin

United States composer who incorporated jazz into classical forms and composed scores for musical comedies (1898-1937)

Scott Joplin

United States composer who was the first creator of ragtime to write down his compositions (1868-1917)

dissonance

Unpleasant or unharmonious sound

Enlightenment

a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition.

character piece

a brief instrumental work seeking to capture a single mood; a genre much favored by composers of the Romantic era

song cycle

a collection of art songs, unified by poet, narrative, musical style, or composer

Dance Suite

a collection of instrumental dances, each with its own distinctive rhythm and character

art song

a composition setting a poem to music, generally for one solo voice and piano accompaniment; in German, a Lied

Isorhythm

a compositional technique developed in the XIII century and in use up to the XV century. It involves repetitive use of rhythmic patterns

Symphonic Jazz

a concert music whose musical language is derived from European Romantic tradition, African-American jazz, and American popular music.

Motet (Renaissance)

a highly varied sacred choral musical composition. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music.

oratorio

a major work with religious or contemplative character for solo voices, chorus and orchestra. Oratorios do not utilize blocking, costumes, or scenery

requiem mass

a mass honoring the deceased, is usually sung on the day of burial,

concerto grosso

a musical composition for a small group of soloists and orchestra.

sonata

a musical composition in multiple movements for solo instrument, usually accompanied by the piano.

theme and variations

a musical form in which a theme continually returns but is varied by changing the notes of the melody, the harmony, the rhythm, or some other feature of the music

Ragtime

a musical genre developed near the turn of the twentieth century that featured syncopated rhythms. The style became nationally popular after being published as sheet music.

Madrigal

a musical piece for several solo voices set to a short poem. They originated in Italy around 1520. Most madrigals were about love.

tone poem

a piece of orchestral music, typically in one movement, on a descriptive or rhapsodic theme.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

a prolific and influential composer of the classical era who showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood

Blues

a style of music that, at the turn of the twentieth century, began to form out of African American work songs, field hollers, and spirituals.

Bebop

a style of small group jazz developed in the late 1940s, which featured fast moving harmonies, angular melodies, and highly complex rhythms

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition.

New Orleans Jazz

an early form of jazz developed in New Orleans during the turn of the twentieth century featuring syncopated rhythms, improvised solos and harmonies AKA: Dixieland

Impresario

an entertainment producer or manager

free jazz

an improvised style of jazz characterized by the absence of set chord patterns or time patterns.

George Frideric Handel

baroque composer, wrote The Messiah

serialism

composing music using a series of values assigned to musical elements such as pitch, duration, dynamics, and instrumentation.

neoromanticism

compositional style of the 20th century embodying the techniques and characteristics of the Romantic period (19th century) but incorporated into a 20th century idiom.

basso continuo

continuous realization of harmony throughout a musical piece, usually by a harpsichord and/or cello. The Basso continuo provides a framework/template for harmonic accompaniments.

Doctrine of affections

early-seventeenth-century aesthetic theory that held that different musical moods could and should be used to influence the emotions, or affections, of the listener

chromatic harmony

harmony utilizing chords built on the five chromatic notes of the scale in addition to the seven diatonic ones; produces rich harmonies

collage-style

in music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage. ... In any case, it may be achieved through the use of previous sound recordings or musical scores.

rondo

instrumental form consisting of the alternation of a refrain "A" with contrasting sections ("B," "C," "D," etc.). Rondos are often the final movements of string quartets, classical symphonies, concerti, and sonata (instrumental solos).

chanson

is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular.

Swing/Big Band Jazz

large jazz ensembles (15-20 members) popular in the 1930's and 1940's.

symphony

multi-movement composition for orchestra, often in four movements

impressionism

music composed based on the composer's impression of an object, concept, or event. This style included the use of chromaticism, whole-tone scales and chords, exotic scales, new chord progressions, and more complex rhythms

aleatoric music

music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s).

Monophonic

musical texture comprised of one melodic line; a melodic line may be sung by one person or 100 people

Polyphonic

musical texture that simultaneously features two or more relatively independent and important melodic lines

Fugue

perfected by J.S. Bach during the baroque period, fugues are a form written in an imitative contrapuntal style in multiple parts. Fugues are based upon their original tune that is called the subject. The subject is then imitated and overlapped by the other parts by the called the answer, countersubject, stretto, and episode

String quartet

performing ensemble consisting of two violinists, one violinist, and one cellist that plays compositions called string quartets, compositions generally in four movements

program symphony

program music in the form of a multi-movement composition for orchestra

expressionism

refers to art that is a result of the artist's inner or personal vision and flows from feeling.

opera seria

serious style of eighteenth-century opera made famous by Handel generally features mythology or high-born characters and plots

Cool Jazz

style of modern jazz music that arose in the United States after World War II. It is characterized by relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the fast and complex bebop style. Cool jazz often employs formal arrangements and incorporates elements of classical music.

Guillaume de Machaut

the most important composer of the 14th century, worked in Paris, wrote sacred and secular compositions.

humanism

the revival of classical letters, individualistic and critical spirit, and emphasis on secular concerns characteristic of the Renaissance

Reformation

was a succession and division from the practices of the Roman Catholic Church initiated by Martin Luther. Led to the development of Protestant churches.

Josqin des Prez

wrote "Ave Maria...virgo serena" , which is a motet; student of Ockeghem, uses canon technique, "El grillo e buon canore"