Music Appreciation Test 4

Impressionism

A French movement developed by visual artists who favored vague, blurring images intended to capture an "impression" of the subject. Impressionism in music is characterized by exotic scales, unresolved dissonances, parallel chords, rich orchestral tone color, and free rhythm.

Dr. Atomic (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Adams, Opera, Post-Minimalism, voice with orchestra

West Side Story (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Bernstein, Musical Theater, Modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, voice with orchestra

Sonata V, from Sonatas and Interludes (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Cage, Sonata, prepared piano, piano

Appalachian Spring (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Copland, Ballet, Nationalism, orchestra; choreographed by Martha Graham

Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces

Debussy, Symphonic Poem, Impressionism, Orchestra

Rhapsody in Blue (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Gershwin, concerto-ish, jazz elements into otherwise classical form, piano with orchestra

Ragtime

Late 19th century piano style created by African Americans, characterized by highly syncopated melodies; also played in ensemble arrangements. Contributed to early jazz styles.

Electric Counterpoint (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Reich, Chamber music, minimalism, Guitars and tape

Igor Stravinsky

Russian, wrote a series of ballets that launched him to fame; his musical style evolved from the post-impressionism of The Firebird and the primitivism of The Rite of Spring to the controlled Classicism of his mature style in Symphony of Psalms, and finally to the twelve-tone method of his late works (Agon). His ballets are strongly nationalistic. He dabbled in all trends/styles of the modern era

Second Viennese School

Schoenberg, Berg, Webern

The Moonfleck, from Pierrot lunaire (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Schoenberg, Song Cycle, Atonal, Sprechstimme, voice with chamber ensemble

The Rite of Spring (composers, genre, trend/style/element, performing forces)

Stravinsky, Ballet, Primitivism, Polytonality, Orchestra

Take the A train (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Strayhorn, Big-band jazz, jazz, jazz band; trademark song of the Duke Ellington Orchestra

Imperial March, from The Empire Strikes Back (composer, genre, trend/style/elements, performing forces)

Williams, Film Score, Leitmotif, orchestra

Avant-garde

a French term originally used to describe the part of an army that charged first into battle; used to describe new styles in both art and music which flourished after the war.

Billy Strayhorn

a classically trained pianist who served as an arranger and composer for the Duke Ellington Orchestra; him and Ellington collaborated for many years, each man's work complementary to the other.

Postmodernism

a movement in the arts and literature that reacts against early modernist principles through the use of classical and traditional elements. Postmodernist art embraces a pluralistic attitude toward gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity.

leitmotif

a recurring theme associated with a particular character, object, or idea.

Sprechstimme

a vocal style in which the melody is spoken at approximate pitches rather than sung on exact pitches; developed by Schoenberg.

Harlem Renaissance

an attempt by African American artists and philosophers to claim a "high culture" space for their people, in order to counteract the systematic racism and marginalization they suffered in America.

Aaron Copland

born in Brooklyn; one of America's greatest twentieth century composers; his music successfully captured the spirit of the country. His American style was rooted primarily in Appalachian and other Anglo-American folk melodies. Many credit Copland for defining for the world the American nationalistic sound.

Steve Reich

born in NYC; one of the most influential musicians of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Early on was most influenced by Stravinsky and Bach and eventually studied Ewe drumming in West Africa. Helped show how to successfully compose and perform with electronic means either in full or in part.

Minimalism

contemporary music style featuring the repetition of short melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns with little variation.

Leonard Bernstein

dedicated his life to promoting concert music to the general public. A composer, conductor, educator, pianist, and television personality born in Massachusetts.

Arnold Schoenberg

developed his atonal-Expressionist style for a number of years, before moving on to a more systematic "twelve-tone" method. Born in Vienna. credited with the emancipation of dissonance-need not be resolved.

Orchestras in 20th century

gave way to leaner, brighter sound, played by a smaller orchestra. Wind section overtook the role of strings as the heart of the orchestra; piano found its way into orchestral ensemble.

George Gershwin

grew up in Manhattan, worked for a Tin Pan Alley publisher; won international acclaim for his Rhapsody in Blue. In his music, he achieves an appealing rhythmic vitality through the use of syncopation, blue notes, and an "oom-pah" accompaniment typical of jazz piano style. Diatonic to chromatic harmonies, with sudden shifts in tonality, and melodies ranging from declamatory to highly lyrical. His life was dedicated to the proposition that jazz could be as expressive an art form as any European-derived tradition, yet he was criticized for both "whitewashing" an African American tradition and for introducing commercial music into the lofty halls of art. helped introduce jazz into the world via his classical compositions

John Williams

mastered techniques of leitmotif for ex in Jaws, Star Wars, and Superman; a native of Long Island; studied at UCLA then Julliard then worked as a jazz pianist. His film music explores the Wagnerian ideas of extended chromatic harmony and the use of leitmotifs; his writing is highly lyrical. One of film's most prominent composers, his music is iconic and has become part of American culture.

Claude Debussy

most important French composer of late 19th early 20th century; considered art to be a sensuous experience; interested in non-Western scales and instruments; regarded sonata-allegro form as outmoded; helped establish the French song (melodie) as a national art form; first to show music going in a different direction.

John Cage

most important contribution was chance/aleatoric music; wrote the set of Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano; born in Los Angeles, exhibited an early interest in non-Western scales which he learned from his mentor, Henry Cowell. sought to extend the sonic landscape of music, using traditional instruments in non-traditional ways

John Adams

perhaps the most versatile post-minimalist; he infuses the minimalist style with traits of neo-Romanticism; known for his Operas. Premier American composer of post-minimalistic techniques.

Prepared Piano

piano whose sound is altered by the insertion of various metals (metal, rubber, leather, paper) between the strings; invented by John Cage; made piano resemble sounds of a Javanese gamelan.

Twentieth century artists

self-conscious attempts to make their art "modern," not only expressing their own creative visions but suggesting progressive directions for others to follow. This led to purposeful departures from tradition, which have been labeled with a variety of "isms" that all have in common a concern with "making art new"

Atonality

total abandonment of tonality (which is centered in a key). Atonal music moves from one level of dissonance to another, without areas of relaxation.

Neoclassical composers

turned away from the symphonic poem and the Romantic attempt to bring music closer to poetry and painting. They preferred absolute to program music, and they focused attention on craftsmanship and balance, an affirmation of the Classical virtues of objectivity and control but also of twentieth-century ideals of progress through science.

20th century composers

wanted a crisp and dispassionate clarity of sound that they perceived as the path to the future, often drawing inspiration from the technological innovations of the early twentieth century. emancipated dissonance by freeing it from the obligation to resolve to consonance.