Praxis II Music Content and Instruction (5114) Study Guide

Cantus Firmus

"Fixed melody", usually of very long notes, often based on a fragment of Gregorian chant that served as the structural basis for a polyphonic composition, particularly in the Renaissance

La Monte Young (b. 1958)

- First minimalist composer/musical reductionist - Worked with Cade, Stockhausen, Tudor Riley - Part of the Fluxus music movement -> 1960s; explored conceptual scores ("event scores") - In doing human processes (ex. moving a piano across the room), you may find something musically interesting - He constructed Dreamhouse - Standing waves and static drone structures

Troubadours and Trouvères

12th and 13th century poets and musicians of the aristocracy. First secular music to be notated (only pitches, not rhythm).

Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)

A Russian composer, one of the members of The Five. He is known for his orchestration. He frequently shows fairy tale and folk subjects in his works. His works were nationalistic, and was actually a member of the Imperial Russian Navy. Some works he wrote: Flight of the Bumblebee and Scheherazade.

Chromaticism

A musical style employing all or many of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale much of the time; a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale.

Monophony

A musical texture involving only a single line of music with no accompaniment.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

A nineteenth-century Italian composer, a master of Italian grand opera. among his best-known operas are Aida, Otello, Rigoletto, and La Traviata.

Leitmotif

A recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation. The leitmotif must be clearly recognizable by its melody, harmonic progression, or rhythm. Developed by Wagner.

Mass

A sacred choral composition consisting of five sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei

Latin Jazz

A style of jazz which originated in the late 1940s when musicians merged the rhythms and instruments of Afro-Latin music with American jazz music. The two prominent sub-genres of Latin jazz are Afro-Cuban jazz and Afro-Brazilian jazz.

Program Symphony

A symphony with the usual three, four, or five movements in which the individual movements together tell a tale or depict a succession of specific events or scenes.

Opera Seria

A term for the serious, heroic opera of the Baroque period in Italy.

The Invention of Valved Horns

Allowed players to play chromatically throughout their entire range.

John Adams (b. 1947)

American composer and conductor whose works were among the most performed of contemporary classical music. Works: "Nixon in China," "Short Ride in a Fast Machine," "The Death of Klinghoffer," "On the Transmigration of Souls"

Philip Glass (b. 1937)

American composer of innovative instrumental, vocal, and operatic music. Works: "Einstein on the Beach"

Steve Reich (b. 1936)

American composer who was one of the leading exponents of Minimalism, a style based on repetitions and combinations of simple motifs and harmonies. Works: "Different Trains" "Music for 18 Musicians" "WTC 9/11: For Three String Quartets and Pre-recorded Voices" "Double Sextet" "Come Out" "It's Gonna Rain"

George Crumb (b. 1929)

American composer who writes for electrified string quartet and other combinations of altered instruments.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Austrian Classical musician Child prodigy Viennese composer Range Haydn's Praise Patron situation Operas (Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, and the Magic Flute) 41 Symphonies including #40 (Galvor) and #41 (Jupiter) Concerti Chamber and solo music Requiem Mass - mass for the dead (requiem = remember) "Amadeus" - not given name

Anton Webern (1883-1945)

Austrian composer of the 12-tone Viennese school. He is known especially for his passacaglia for orchestra, his chamber music, and various songs (Lieder).

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Austrian composer. 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

Alban Berg (1885-1935)

Austrian composer. He was also among Schoenberg's most famous pupils and is known for his lyrical approach to atonality and serialism. Wozzeck [expressionist opera] 1925.

Lead Belly (1888-1949)

Blues musician, folk, discovered by Alan Lomax in jail (murder), recorded in 1960's and 70's, the "authentic" folk musician "midnight special" about trains.

Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474)

Burgundian composer. Missa l'homme arme combines secular cantus firmus with sacred genre.

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)

Composer at the end of the Renaissance (died approx. 1600). Renowned for the purity and smoothness of his music. Spent most of his career in Rome. The Golden Age of Polyphony ends with him.

Roy Harris (b. 1972)

Composer, teacher, and a prominent representative of nationalism in American music who came to be regarded as the musical spokesman for the American landscape. Works: "Folksong Symphony"

Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)

Czech composer who is considered the 'father' of nationalistic Czech music. As young participated in political revolts against the Austrian government in his native Prague Composed the Moldau

Organum

Earliest kind of polyphonic music, which developed from the custom of adding voices above a plainchant; they first ran parallel to it at the interval of a fifth or fourth and later moved more freely.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Early/mid-classical period Austrian composer. Age 8; choir boy in Vienna until voice changed. Worked in Vienna until hired by Esterhazy family. 30 years as a skilled servant-became famous. Moved to Vienna rich and honored.

Neoclassical Movement

End of the 19th century romantic music reached the height of expressive emotionalism. Neoclassicism was a trend of the 20th century that emerged as a reaction to the emotionalism of the late romantic era and abandonment of tonality. They returned to the order, restraint, clarity, and formal balance of the classical music.

Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. He was appointed Master of the King's Musick in 1924. Although he is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. He has been described as the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Known for: Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, The Dream of Gerontius.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over nearly fifty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. He is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. Among the most familiar of his other concert works are Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and The Lark Ascending (1914).

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

English composer. His works were played frequently in the early years of the 20th century, but it was not until the international success of The Planets in the years immediately after the First World War that he became a well-known figure. A shy man, he did not welcome this fame, and preferred to be left in peace to compose and teach. Best know for: The Planets

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

Finland, only Finnish composer of note, Works: Finlandia, Valse Triste, The Swan of Tuonela

Gregorian Chant

Free flowing melodies with no distinct meter, melismatic, and largely monophonic. Takes its name from Pope Gregory the Great.

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

French composer and conductor who wrote 1st text book on orchestration...a romantic. Works: "Symphonie fantastique," "Hungarian March"

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)

French composer who, along with his German colleague Karlheinz Stockhausen, advocated "Total Serialism" in the post World-War II 1950s and 1960s. Total serialism would apply Schoenberg's concept of the tone row to ALL musical parameters; rhythm, timbre, form, dynamics, etc.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)

French organist and composer who provided leadership for young composers studying in Darmstadt, Germany. His work integrated Schoenberg's theories of atonality and twelve-tone technique to new levels of complexity.

Antônio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994)

From Brazil, the legendary composer of bossa nova songs.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

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

Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)

Germany, 18-19th Century, cousin of Mozart, founder of German Romantic Opera, Works: Obern, Euryanthe, Die Freischutzu

João Gilberto (1931-2019)

Guitarist/singer credited with creating Bossa Nova, Girl from Ipanema.

Mario Bauzá (1911-1993)

Havana-born composer, arranger, clarinetist, and trumpeter often called the "Father of Latin Jazz."

Charles Ives (1874-1954)

He learned experimentation from his father George, a local Connecticut businessman and bandleader. Ives studied music at Yale but found insurance sales more lucrative; his firm of Ives and Myrick was the largest in New York during the 1910s. Privately, Ives composed great modern works, including the Second Piano (Concord) Sonata (with movements named after Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, and Thoreau); and Three Places in New England (1914). His Third Symphony won Ives a Pulitzer Prize in 1947, while his song "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" was based on a Vachel Lindsay poem. Poor health ended both his insurance and music careers by 1930.

Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

He wrote seven symphonies, of which the First (Classical, 1917) is the most notable. While in Chicago, he premiered the opera The Love for Three Oranges, based on Italian commedia dell'arte. Prokofiev moved to Paris in 1922, where he composed works for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, including The Prodigal Son. In 1936 he returned to the USSR, where he completed the popular children's work Peter and the Wolf and the score for the film Alexander Nevsky. When Stalin denounced Prokofiev as "decadent," the composer was forced to write obsequious tributes to the premier. Prokofiev survived Stalin, but only by a few hours (both died on March 5).

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

His Basque mother gave him an affinity for Spanish themes, as evident in Rapsodie espagnole and his most popular piece, Bolero (1928). Ravel produced Pavane for a Dead Princess while a student of Gabriel Fauré, but was frustrated when the French Conservatory overlooked him for the Prix de Rome four times. He completed the ballet Daphnis et Chloe (1912) for Diaghilev, which was followed by Mother Goose and La Valse, and also re-orchestrated Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. His health declined after a 1932 taxi accident; unsuccessful brain surgery ended his life.

Classic Greek Tragedy

Includes plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle. The hero often has a goal but encounters limits through human frailty, the gods, nature, and suffering. The characters of a tragedy must show essential qualities or morals that remain consistent throughout the plot. Thought is often displayed to drive the plot line and reveal key plot elements. Diction must be clear and serve the lines of the tragedy as one of the most important elements of tragedy. Melody is subservient to words and should only be used to accessorize the plot. Spectacle refers to the setting of the drama, and like melody should be used as an accessory.

Afro-Cuban Jazz

Incorporated Cuban rhythms such as the mambo and the habanera with elements of bebop. Afro-Cuban bass lines featured distinctive syncopated rhythms labeled as either a 2-3 clave or 3-2 clave.

Afro-Brazilian Jazz

Incorporated rhythms of the samba with the music of Europe and America. A new style of samba known as Bossa nova featured a laid-back singing style, increased textural complexity, and a distinctive rhythmic pattern knows as the Bossa nova clave.

Impressionist Movement

Influenced by the synonymous movement in visual arts by painters such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, in which subtle brushstrokes obscured any sharp lines to give a general impression of a scene without precise details. Claude Debussy developed a musical equivalent in which sound defied strict harmonic rules and soft instrumental colors focused on constant movement without distinct sectional boards, giving the audience a similar effect as in the Impressionist art of a general experience rather than one that draws attention to specific details.

Opera Buffa

Italian comic opera, sung throughout.

Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993)

Jazz trumpeter that helped to develop bebop.

W. C. Handy (1873-1958)

Known as the "Father of the Blues" during the Jazz Age - Alabama native.

Minimalist Movement

Late 1960's. reaction to the traditional goal-oriented, narrative, and representational music of the previous centuries. often features compositional techniques that emphasize the process of music rather than motion towards a goal. sought to create music that uses minimal amount of notes, minimal instruments, and minimal focal points.

Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)

Leading 20th-century Czech composer, whose late operas fused modernist and nationalist aspects

Heterophony

Multiple performers playing simultaneous variations of the same line of music.

Absolute Music

Music composed purely as music, and not intended to represent or illustrate something else.

Blues

Music of the blues originated through African work songs that were brought over to the United States in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The rise of the blues occurred approximately around the time of the emancipation of slaves in the U.S. By the mid-twentieth century, blues had a standard 12-bar harmonic progression: I-I-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-IV-I-I. The blues also utilizes the blues scale that features a lowered third and a dominant seventh, called the "blue notes." The blues usually centers on a melancholy emotion, with instrumental and vocal techniques such as moans, growls, and cries to express that emotion.

Programmatic Music

Music that tells a story or describes a picture or a scene.

Secular Music

Nonreligious music; when there is text, it is usually in the vernacular (the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region). Included music for dance and entertainment, such as that of the troubadours and trouvères.

Homophony

Occurs when one melodic voice is prominent over the accompanying lines or voices.

Charley Patton (ca. 1881-1934)

One of the earliest known pioneers of the Mississippi Delta blues style. The son of sharecroppers; a charismatic figure whose performance techniques included rapping on the body of his guitar and throwing it into the air. His powerful rasping voice, strong danceable rhythms, and broad range of styles made him ideal for Saturday night dances and all-day picnics.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

One of the principal German composers of the first half of the 20th century and a leading musical theorist. He sought to revitalize tonality—the traditional harmonic system that was being challenged by many other composers—and also pioneered in the writing of Gebrauchsmusik, or "utility music," compositions for everyday occasions. He regarded the composer as a craftsman (turning out music to meet social needs) rather than as an artist (composing to satisfy his own soul). As a teacher of composition he probably exerted an influence on most of the composers of the generation that followed him.

Symphonic Poem

One-movement orchestral form that develops a poetic idea, suggests a scene, or creates a mood, generally associated with the Romantic era. Also tone poem.

Bossa Nova Movement

Originated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the late 1950s and combined elements of the popular Brazilian samba with elements of American jazz. Bossa nova is characterized by a laid-back singing style, complex harmonies, and a distinctive rhythmic pattern known as the Bossa nova clave. The music of Bossa nova often features acoustic guitar as a principal instrument and also includes bass, drums, voice, and piano. The Bossa nova rhythm, often notated in duple meter, starts with a downbeat but is otherwise syncopated to give a swaying feeling rather than a strong, measured pulse.

Nationalism

Patriotism expressed through music; influence of folk song and dance, myths and legends, landscapes, historical events.

Enrique Granados (1867-1916)

Pianist and composer, a leader of the movement toward nationalism in late 19th-century Spanish music.

Motet

Polyphonic choral work set to a sacred Latin text other than that of the mass (Medieval); one of the two main forms of sacred Renaissance music.

Hauptstimme

Principle melody, voice, head.

Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)

Prominent composer and authority on Hungarian folk music. He was also important as an educator not only of composers but also of teachers, and, through his students, he contributed heavily to the spread of music education in Hungary. He was a chorister in his youth at Nagyszombat, Austria-Hungary (now Trnava, Slovakia), where he wrote his first compositions. In 1902 he studied composition in Budapest. He toured his country in his first quest for folk-song sources in the year before his graduation from Budapest University with a thesis (1906) on the structure of Hungarian folk song. After studying for a short time in Paris with the composer-organist Charles Widor, he became teacher of theory and composition at the Budapest Academy of Music (1907-41).

Sacred Music

Religious or spiritual music, for church or devotional use. Included Gregorian chant and masses.

Josquin des Prez (1450-1521)

Renaissance period Flemish composer of liturgical music, most known for the writing of masses and motets.

Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)

Russian composer in the 19-20th Century. He led "The Five", Works: Islamey, Tamarai

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)

Russian composer in the 19th Century. He composed "Ruslan and Ludmila" and "A Life for the Czar".

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Russian composer in the 19th Century. Was in "The Five", Works he composed: Boris Gudonov Khovanschina, Sorochintsi Fair, Night on Bald Mountain, Pictures at an Exhibition

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)

Russian composer in the 19th century who specialized in Nationalistic works celebrating the heritage of the Russians and related tribes of Central Asia. "The Five", chemist, Works: In the Steppes of Central Asia, Prince Igor (containing Polovtsian Dances)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Russian composer. Studied under Rimsky-Korsakov and completed two grand ballets for Diaghilev, The Firebird and Petrushka. His Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring (1913), however, is what inaugurated music's Modern era. A pagan story featuring polytonal music, The Rite of Spring shocked the audience so much that riots ensued, leading a stunned Stravinsky to pursue rational, "neoclassical" music, such as his Symphony of Psalms. In 1940 he moved to Hollywood, where he composed his one full-length opera, The Rake's Progress, with libretto by W.H. Auden. Late in life, he adopted the serialist, twelve-tone style of Webern, producing the abstract ballet Agon (1957).

Character Pieces

Short, descriptive piano compositions that were meant to express an atmosphere, mood, or scene and were an important part of the piano music of the 19th century.

Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)

Spanish composer and virtuoso pianist, a leader of the Spanish nationalist school of musicians.

12-Tone System

The 12 chromatic pitches are ordered into a series that becomes the basic structure for a composition. All 12 pitches of the chromatic are treated as equal. This rejects the conventions of traditional tonality.

Counterpoint

The art of combining in a single texture two or more melodic lines.

"Mess de Notre Dame" by Guillaume de Machaut

The first mass written by a known composer.

Blind Lemon Jefferson (1897-1929)

The first recording star of the country blues. Born blind, he was living the typical life of a traveling street musician by the age of fourteen. His first records were released in 1926. His East Texas style features a nasal vocal timbre and sparse guitar accompaniments.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)

The leading Czech (Bohemian) composer of the Romantic era; known for his symphonies, chamber works, operas, and songs. Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World") [symphony] 1893

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)

The leading German composer of the late 20th-century avant garde. Known for his electronic music, electro-acoustic music, serial compositions, chamber and orchestral works.

Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)

The most distinguished Spanish composer of the early 20th century. In his music he achieved a fusion of poetry, asceticism, and ardour that represents the spirit of Spain at its purest.

Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377)

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

Folk Music

The music of the common people of a society or geographic area.

Polyphony

The style of simultaneously combining a number of parts, each forming an individual melody and harmonizing with each other.

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.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

This German post-Romantic composer/conductor stretched Wagnerian Romanticism to greater extremes, and he also ventured into the realm of early expressionism in works such as Salome (1903). He is known for his intense operas and his symphonic poems. Also Sprach Zarathustra [symphonic poem] 1896

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

This German-born composer was the most revolutionary musician of the Classical and early Romantic eras. He excelled especially at the symphony, sonata, and string quartet, and brought music to powerful new heights of expression and socio-political influence--despite spending most of his career in complete deafness. Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" [symphony] 1803-1804

Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)

This Princeton University professor of mathematics and music composition was associated with the compositional principles of total serialism. Philomel [electro-acoustic music] 1964

Gabriel Fauré (1858-1924)

This late-Romantic French composer, organist and teacher brought French art song ("mélodie) and chamber music to the highest levels of sophistication. His musical style had a strong influence on many 20th-century composers. La bonne chanson [song cycle of French mélodie] (1892-94)

Non-Imitative Polyphony

Two or more melodies being played or sung simultaneously at different times, with melodies being different.

Grundthemen

Wagner's word for leitmotiv; in many cases they are associated with characters, objects, places or ideas in the text or on stage.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Was one of a litany of American composers who studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, for whom Copland wrote the solo keyboard part in his Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (1924; revised as Symphony No. 1 in 1928). "El Salón México" (1936) was the first of his highly successful "Populist" works based on folk or folk-like themes, which also included his three major ballets: Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944). His opera The Tender Land (1954) included the chorus "The Promise of Living." Copland utilized modified serial techniques in his later works; he composed very little in his last 25 years.

Terry Riley (b. 1935)

Wrote the influential piece In C. This piece influenced other composers which in turn influenced the dance and techno music we hear today.

Béla Bartók (1881-1945)

~Showed unusual talents as pianist and composer at early age ~Music was avocation of his father who was principal of an agricultural school in Hungary ~After Bartok's mom died, worked as piano teacher promoting Bartok's career ~Prolific composer and fine pianist as was his second wife ~Directed Budapest Academy of Music Mikrokosmos done more than any other work to introduce modernism to musicins ~Undertook large investigation of Hungarian folk music ~Published folk song and folk dance Nationalist composer of 20th century ~Strongly opposed Nazis ~Broke ties w/ German publishers ~Liberal views caused him a good deal of trouble from right wingers in Hungary ~Came to America after outbreak of WWII ~Not well known and little interest ~Last years were a struggle to complete Third Piano concerto and Viola concerto ~superb pianoist ~Imp piano teacher ~pioneer in pedagogical methods ~ethnomusicologist- study music as history -composer - major works: six string quartets -3 piano concerto -violin concertos -two rhapsodies for piano and violin -sonata -various suits -Mirkrokosmos: pedagogical collection

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)

• Scandinavian composer • Leipzig Conservatory • Influenced by Mendelssohn and R. Schumann • Returned to Norway to promote Scandinavian music • Wrote symphonies but preferred small scale works, including songs • Wrote many piano works • Collaborated with playwright Henrik Ibsen to write music for Ibsen's play Peer Gynt

Big Bill Broonzy (1903-1958)

➢ Born in 1893 Scott, Mississippi ➢ 1st recorded in 1927 ➢ Had hundreds of titles ➢ Contributed to the growth of the Chicago Blues sound ➢ Major blues ambassador via worldwide touring especially in Europe