MUS 1800 (CSUSB)

Program

"What else is our life but a series of preludes to that unknown Hymn, the first and solemn note of which is intoned by Death?—Love is the glowing dawn of all existence; but what is the fate where the first delights of happiness are not interrupted by some storm, the mortal blast of which dissipates its fine illusions, the fatal lightning of which consumes its altar; and where is the cruelly wounded soul which, on issuing from one of these tempests, does not endeavour to rest his recollection in the calm serenity of life in the fields? Nevertheless man hardly gives himself up for long to the enjoyment of the beneficent stillness which at first he has shared in Nature's bosom, and when the trumpet sounds the alarm, he hastens, to the dangerous post, whatever the war may be, which calls him to its ranks, in order at last to recover in the combat full consciousness of himself and entire possession of his energy."

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

*Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Tchaikovsky's most popular compositions include music for the ballets Swan Lake (1877), The Sleeping Beauty (1889), and The Nutcracker (1892). He is also famous for the Romeo and Juliet overture (1870) and celebrated for Symphony No. 6 in B Minor (Pathétique) (1893).

Sergei Rachmaninoff 1873-1943

*Sergei Rachmaninoff: His compositions include, among others, four piano concerti, three symphonies, two piano sonatas, three operas, a choral symphony (The Bells, based on the poem by Edgar Allan Poe), the All-Night Vigil for unaccompanied choir (often known as Rachmaninov's Vespers), the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 24 Preludes

Memorable melodies

*The "Love Theme" from Tchaikovsky's programmatic piece Romeo and Juliet. *Opening of "Adagio Cantabile", the second movement from Beethoven's Sonata for Piano in C minor, No. 8, op. 13 (the "Sonata Pathétique") *English horn solo from Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E minor (the "New World Symphony"), second movement. *Opening of Claude Debussy's piano character piece "Clair de Lune". *JS Bach's "Prelude in C major" from The Well-Tempered Clavier. *A theme from the middle of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. *"Quando m'en vo' ", an aria from Puccini's opera La bohéme. *

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

-Hungarian composer -handsome magnetic virtuoso, an incredible showman. He performed superhuman feats at the piano, overwhelming the European public. A Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, and organist of the Romantic era. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time.

Chord

A chord, in music, is any harmonic set of pitches/frequencies consisting of multiple notes (also called "pitches") that are heard as if sounding simultaneously.

fugue: subject, exposition, episode

A fugue is a contrapuntal composition whose form features sections called expositions and episodes. A fugue exposition is a section that contains at least one full statement of the subject of the fugue. The fugue subject is the primary melodic idea and is stated by each voice in turn in the first exposition.

Major

A major scale is a scale in which the third scale degree (the mediant) is a major third above the tonic note. In a minor scale, the third degree is a minor third above the tonic.

Minor Scale

A minor scale in music theory is any scale that has at least three scale degrees: the tonic, the minor third above the tonic, and the perfect fifth above the tonic. ... Usually, when people talk about minor scales, they mean natural minor, harmonic minor, or melodic minor scales, which are the most common in Western music.

Motive (Motif)

A repeated rhythmic or melodic idea, usually short and very distinctive. Motive, in music, a leading phrase or figure that is reproduced and varied through the course of a composition or movement. See melody.

ritornello, ritornello form

A ritornello is a recurring passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus.

rondo

ABACA. An instrumental form with a refrain that keeps coming back. Unlike the verses of a song, the music in a rondo changes between each repetition of the refrain.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

American composer Appalachian Spring Fanfare for the Common-Man Hoe-Down "Americana" Lincoln Portrait and Fanfare for the Common Man His pieces Lincoln Portrait and Fanfare for the Common Man became patriotic standards. Also important was the Third Symphony. Composed in a two-year period from 1944 to 1946, it became Copland's best-known symphony. Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Composers"

minuet and trio

An A-B-A form (A = minuet; B = trio) in a moderate triple meter; often the third movement of the Classical multimovement cycle.

John Cage (1912-1992)

An American student of Arnold Schoenberg, Cage took avant-garde to a new level, and may be considered a Dada composer because he believed in aleatory, or "chance" music. His Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951) used twelve radios tuned to different stations; the composition depended on what was on the radio at that time. The following year's 4'33" required a pianist to sit at the piano for that length of time and then close it; audience noise and silence created the "music." Cage also invented the "prepared piano," where he attached screws, wood, rubber bands, and other items to piano strings in order to create a percussion sound.

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)

Antonin Dvorak: Antonín Dvořák was the first Bohemian composer to achieve worldwide recognition. He was noted for turning folk material into 19th-century Romantic music. Though he may not have invented a "modern" music, many nonetheless envied the ease with which he excelled in this domain, heavily influenced by German music and in particular the works of Schubert, Wagner, and Brahms. From his nine symphonies only five were published during his lifetime.

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

Austrian composer; leader of the 2nd Viennese school: Invented serialism same as 12 tone system; wrote Pierrot Lunaire Landmark piece of music moonstruck Pierrot. Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg was an Austrian-born composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. His music in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century was of profound importance, for he developed the highly celebrated twelve-tone technique. He was also known to be the master of developing variation construction principle.

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Born into a family of musicians and composers, Puccini became the leading Italian opera composer of his generation. His most popular works are among the most frequently performed and best-loved operas in the entire repertoire and include La bohème, Tosca and Madam Butterfly (Madama Butterfly).

Cadence

Cadence, in music, the ending of a phrase, perceived as a rhythmic or melodic articulation or a harmonic change or all of these; in a larger sense, a cadence may be a demarcation of a half-phrase, of a section of music, or of an entire movement. Cadence. Harmony. Perfect cadence. Plagal cadence.

key (tonality)

Central note, scale, and chord within a piece, in relationship to which all other tones in the composition are heard. The concept of tonality refers to music that works around a tonic. The term 'key' refers to the particular set of notes (the scale) on which any piece or section of music is based. But since the terms are so closely related, they are sometimes interchangeable.

Edgard Varese (1883-1965)

Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse was a French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm. He coined the term "organized sound" in reference to his own musical aesthetic. Varèse's works include Hyperprism for wind instruments and percussion (1923); Ionisation for percussion, piano, and two sirens (1931); and Density 21.5 for unaccompanied flute (1936). His Déserts (1954) employs tape-recorded sound.

Harmony

For the purpose of definitions, the important fact is the notes sounding at the same time. ... In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches (tones, notes), or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them.

Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909)

Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea was a Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the Romantic period. He is known for such pieces as Recuerdos de la Alhambra. He is often called "the father of classical guitar" and is considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

French Impressionistic music composer; won the Prix de Rome (award given by the French government) Prelude to the afternoon of a Faun; LaMer His major works include Clair de lune ("Moonlight," in Suite bergamasque, 1890-1905), Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (1894; Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), the opera Pelléas et Mélisande (1902), and La Mer Claude Debussy was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Frequency

Frequency is the speed of the vibration, and this determines the pitch of the sound. It is only useful or meaningful for musical sounds, where there is a strongly regular waveform. Frequency is measured as the number of wave cycles that occur in one second. The unit of frequency measurement is Hertz (Hz for short).

Types of Music (Western)

Genres of music including orchestral, electronic, percussion, vocal and found sound

12-bar blues

I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, IV, I, I. The twelve-bar blues is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the I, IV, and V chords of a key.

Movement, Multi-Movement

In music composition, a movement is a musical piece that can be performed on its own but is part of a larger composition. ... Complete musical works contain several movements, with three or four movements being the most common number of movements in a classical piece. From the Baroque age onward, a common feature of Western music is the multi-movement work, which consists of multiple self-contained works (each referred to as a "movement"). Movements typically vary in character (notably tempo), thus providing contrast throughout the work.

Coda

In music, a coda is a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence. It may be as simple as a few measures, or as complex as an entire section.

Sequence

In music, a sequence is the restatement of a motif or longer melodic (or harmonic) passage at a higher or lower pitch in the same voice. It is one of the most common and simple methods of elaborating a melody in eighteenth and nineteenth century classical music (Classical period and Romantic music).

Form

In music, form refers to the structure of a musical composition or performance. ... Musical form unfolds over time through the expansion and development of these ideas.

Introduction

In music, the introduction is a passage or section which opens a movement or a separate piece, preceding the theme or lyrics. In popular music, this is often known as the song intro or just the intro. The introduction establishes melodic, harmonic or rhythmic material related to the main body of a piece.

Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his contemporaries and younger composers. He is best known for his piano works based on Spanish folk music idioms.

Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)

Italian virtuoso violinist 24 Caprices 24th Caprice Italian composer and principal violin virtuoso of the 19th century. A popular idol, he inspired the Romantic mystique of the virtuoso and revolutionized violin technique. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. On to the list of Romantic Period composers you need to know: Niccolò Paganini (1782 - 1840), as a composer, is most famous for his 24 Caprices, which are more technical tours de force than Romantic compositions.

Joan Tower (b. 1938- )

Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by The New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world. Tower studied piano as a child, attended Bennington College, and completed her music studies at Columbia University. In 1969 she formed the Da Capo Chamber Players, for which she played piano and wrote many pieces; she left the group in 1984.

Modulation

Modulation, in music, the change from one key to another; also, the process by which this change is brought about. Modulation is a fundamental resource for variety in tonal music, particularly in larger forms. In western music, it is the shift from one key to another.

absolute music

Music that has no literary, dramatic, or pictorial program

Theme

Noun. 1. musical theme - (music) melodic subject of a musical composition; "the theme is announced in the first measures"; "the accompanist picked up the idea and elaborated it" melodic theme, theme, idea.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

Operas on mythological themes; continuous music (lots of instrumental); leitmotif; der Ring des nibelungen; built his own theater in Bayreuth Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works.

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Polish composer "Poet of the Piano" Moved to Paris George Sand (girlfriend, pen name) Fantasies-Impromptu Polonaises Two Piano Concerti Etudes, including the "Revolutionary" and "Winter Wind" Frédéric Chopin is famous for his expressive piano playing and the innovative works he composed for that instrument. (ROMANTIC)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Russian Composer; Paris; Ballets; won acceptance from the public; Firebird; Petrouchka; The right of Spring; Master of rhythm He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. Stravinsky is most famous for his three ballets, "The Firebird," "Petrushka" and "The Rite of Spring" (the latter causing huge controversy).

Scale

Scale, in music, any graduated sequence of notes, tones, or intervals dividing what is called an octave. n music theory, a scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale.

sonata (sonata-allegro) form: exposition, development, recapitulation

Sonata form is a musical structure consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century. In sonata form the exposition corresponds to the first part of binary form, the development and recapitulation to the second. The exposition moves from the original key to a new key; the development passes through several keys and the recapitulation returns to the original key. Sonata form, also known as sonata-allegro form, is an organizational structure based on contrasting musical ideas. It consists of three main sections - exposition, development, and recapitulation - and sometimes includes an optional coda at the end. In the exposition, the main melodic ideas, or themes, are introduced.

strophic form

Song structure in which the same music is repeated with every stanza (strophe) of the poem. Also called verse repeating form, chorus form, AAA song form, or one-part song form - is a song structure in which all verses or stanzas of the text are sung to the same music. The opposite of strophic form, with new music written for every stanza, is called through-composed.

Steve Reich (b. 1936- )

Stephen Michael Reich is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. The American composer Steve Reich (born 1936) was the creator of "phase" and "pulse" music. A leading composer of minimalism in the 1960s and 1970s, Reich continued to expand his compositional resources to achieve striking expressiveness in his vocal pieces in the 1980s. He is 84 years old

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

This mid-20th century composer was the chief representative of musical nationalism in Brazil. Bachianas Brasilieras No. 7 [orchestral suite] 1942 Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. This gave Villa-Lobos the opportunity to keenly observe the musical instruments. And soon he was able to play guitar, cello and clarinet.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

This operatic Romantic dramatist can be considered the most important Italian composer of the 19th century. Rigoletto [opera seria] (1851). An excerpt from "Bella figlia dell'amore" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, 1851; sung here by tenor Enrico Caruso, probably recorded Jan. 25, 1917. In the meantime he had composed three operas that remain his best known and best loved: Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853; The Troubadour), and La traviata (1853).

Tonic

Tonic, also called keynote, in music, the first note (degree) of any diatonic (e.g., major or minor) scale. It is the most important degree of the scale, serving as the focus for both melody and harmony.

George and Ira Gershwin

Wrote hundreds of Songs in Tin Pan Alley such as "I got Rhythm" and "Embraceable You" Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershowitz, December 6, 1896 - August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs in the English language of the 20th century. George Gershwin is important for his great talent as a melodist in both popular and classical genres and for his chamber and orchestral works that ingeniously blend the forms and techniques of classical music with elements of popular song and jazz.

character piece

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

verse-chorus

a form in which verses are sung alternating with a repetitive chorus or refrain

Concerto

a musical composition for a solo instrument or instruments accompanied by an orchestra, especially one conceived on a relatively large scale.

binary form

a musical form consisting of two units (A and B) constructed to balance and complement each other

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. a standard form of musical composition consisting of a simple usually harmonized melody presented first in its original unadorned form then repeated several or many times with varied treatment so based on the theme that at least some semblance of its general melodic or harmonic form is evident.

Phrase

a musical sentence, often four measures long. Musical phrasing is the way a musician shapes a sequence of notes in a passage of music to allow expression, much like when speaking English a phrase may be written identically but may be spoken differently, and is named for the interpretation of small units of time known as phrases (half of a period).

Melody

a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying. Melody, in music, the aesthetic product of a given succession of pitches in musical time, implying rhythmically ordered movement from pitch to pitch. Melody in Western music by the late 19th century was considered to be the surface of a group of harmonies.

call and response

a song style in which a singer or musician leads with a call and a group responds, In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually written in different parts of the music, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or in response to the first

32-bar popular song form

a standard song form, usually divided into shorter sections, such as AABA or AAB. Commonly used in popular music from the early 20th century and so is the basis of many jazz "standards"

chord progression

a succession of chords moving forward in a purposeful fashion. A chord progression is the order chords are played, one after another, in a song or a piece of music. The chords you use, and the order you play them in make up the harmony of a song. Like most of music, chords and their progressions come in patterns. ... But a song can work with even a single chord.

ternary form

a three-part musical form in which the third section is a repeat of the first; hence ABA

Pitch

a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency. Pitch, in music, position of a single sound in the complete range of sound. Sounds are higher or lower in pitch according to the frequency of vibration of the sound waves producing them.

Arpeggio

broken chord in which the individual pitches are sounded one after another instead of simultaneously. An arpeggio is a group of notes played one after the other, up or down in pitch. The player plays the notes of a particular chord individually rather than together. The chord may, for example, be a simple chord with the 1st, (major or minor) 3rd, and 5th scale degrees (this is called a "tonic triad").

program (programmatic) music

instrumental music that describes a story, scene, idea, or event

dissonance , (dissonant )

lack of music harmony; lack of agreement between ideas. a. Most modern music is characterized by dissonance, which many listeners find hard to enjoy. A combination of two (or more) tones of different frequencies that results in a musically displeasing sound.

suite (dance suite)

multimovement work made up of a series of contrasting dance movements, generally all in the same key

consonance (consonant)

pitches, when combined, blend. A combination of two (or more) tones of different frequencies that results in a musically pleasing sound.

through-composed form

vocal form in which there is new music for each stanza of a poem. In music theory of musical form, through-composed music is relatively continuous, non-sectional, or non-repetitive music. A song is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each stanza of the lyrics. This is in contrast to strophic form, in which each stanza is set to the same music.

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

was a prolific composer and conductor who gave numerous televised "Young People's Concerts" during his eleven-year tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic (1958-1969). His concert works include his Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah" (1942), and a jazz clarinet concerto premiered by Benny Goodman: "Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs" (1949). Bernstein is best known for his works for the stage, which include the musical West Side Story (1957), the ballet Fancy Free (1944), and the operetta Candide (1956; revised 1989). He also composed the score for the 1954 film On the Waterfront.