Listening Quiz #5

LG 53: Appalachian Spring, 7

Composer: Aaron Copland Date: 1945 Genre: Ballet Suite Medium: Symphonic orchestra Form: theme (based on Shaker hymn Simple Gifts) and five variations Structure of Theme: A-A'-B-A" Rhythm: Duple meter with tune appearing in augmentation Orchestration: Shifting, transparent timbres that feature various solo instruments Meter: Duple

LG 44: Pierrot lunaire, Part III, No. 18 (Der Mondfleck AKA The Moonfleck)

Composer: Arnold Schoenberg Date: 1912 Genre: Song Cycle; (series of 21 connected songs) on texts by a Symbolist poet. Medium: Solo female voice and chamber ensemble (five instrumentalists, some doubling on two instruments (violin/viola, cello, flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, piano)) Style: "Light, ironical, satirical" (Schoenberg's words), expressionistic Form: Poetic form: Rondeau (a refrain is repeated three times: At the beginning, in the middle, and at the end) Text: Twenty-one poems, all in rondeau form, by Belgian poet Albert Giraud. Schoenberg chose these 21 from the original group of 50 poems. Texture: contrapuntal or polyphonic Melody: Speech-like melody (Sprechstimme) Harmony: dissonant and unstable

LG 52: Country Band March

Composer: Charles Ives Date: 1903 Genre: March arranged for band Medium: Large wind ensemble with woodwinds, brass, and percussion Form: A-B-A-B'-A' Harmony: Harsh dissonance polytonal (simultaneous use of two or more keys) Rhythm: Mostly duple with syncopation and triplets Texture: Polyphonic Notes: Several musical quotations (London Bridge, Yankee Doodle, My Old Kentucky Home, Sousa March Semper Fidelis)

LG 57: Caballito Negro (Little Black Horse)

Composer: George Crumb Date: 1965 Genre: Song, from Madrigals, Book II Medium: Small Chamber Ensemble including soprano voice, piccolo, percussion (marimba, glockenspiel, antique cymbals) Form: Ternary (A-B-A') Melody: Highly disjunct Meter: No firm sense of meter Text: Refrains from poems by Federico Garcîa Lorca Style: Extended techniques, including glissandos, flutter tonguing, and whispering Harmony: Atonal

LG 45: The Rite of Spring, Part I, excerpts

Composer: Igor Stravinsky Date: 1913 Genre: Ballet (often performed as a concert piece for orchestra) Basis: Scenes of pagan Russia, to a scenario by Nikolai Roerich and Igor Stravinsky. This excerpt includes three scenes from Part I: Introduction, Dance of the Youths and Maidens, and Game of Abduction. Choreography: Vaslav Nijinksy Subject: an imagined fertility ritual set in prehistorical Russia, during which an adolescent girl is chosen for sacrifice and must dance herself to death Notes: Primitivism (a deliberate representation of the elemental, crude, and uncultured, and cast aside the sophistication and stylishness of modern life and trained artistry); Folk-like Tunes; break away from major-minor system; unpredictable accents (abandoned the regular metric pulse) and polyrhythms; constantly changing instrumental colors (timbres); riot at premiere; NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD (TURNED AWAY FROM PRIMITVISM) Meter: constantly changing Harmony: use of harshly dissonant, stacked chords (polychords) -------------------------------------------------------------- Three Scenes Breakdown introduction: slow tempo plays a folklike tune by bassoon; trills by clarinet, accompanied by pizzicato strings (four-note motive) Dance of Youths and Maidens: strings: a series of dense, dissonant chords punctuated by the French horns in unpredictable metric patterns alternation of different motives and dissonant chords expanding texture, loud dynamics build to climax Game of Abduction: fast tempo; unpredictable accents; dissonant, crashing chords; dense texture; shifting meter; constantly changing timbres

LG 56: Sonata V, from Sonatas and Interludes

Composer: John Cage Date: 1946-48 (first performed 1949) Medium: prepared piano, in which various materials (nails, bolts, screws, rubber, wood, leather) are inserted between the piano strings. Melody: Small melodic range Form: Binary, each part repeated (A-A-B-B) Rhythm: Regular and varied rhythmic movement

LG 58: West Side Story, Act I: The Dance at the Gym, Mambo

Composer: Leonard Bernstein Date: 1957 Genre: Musical Theater Medium: Orchestra, with Latin rhythm section (including bongo drums and cowbells) Melody: Heavily Syncopated Rhythm: Afro-Cuban rhythms--fast-paced and syncopated Texture: Dense and polyphonic Characters: Maria, a Puerto Rican girl, sister of Bernardo; Tony, member of the Jets; Anita, Puerto Rican girlfriend of Bernardo; Riff, leader of the Jets; Bernardo, leader of the Sharks Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Book: Arthur Laurents

LG 58: West Side Story, Act I: Tonight Ensemble

Composer: Leonard Bernstein Date: 1957 Genre: Musical Theater Medium: Orchestra, with men's chorus (as gangs), Maria (soprano), Tony (tenor) Melody: Speechlike exchanges and lyrical duet melodies; soaring lines in duet Rhythm: Accented, rhythmic dialogue and ominous three-note ostinato Texture: Complex and polyphonic with simultaneous lines Form: 32-bar song form (A-A'-B-A'') (8 bars per section) Characters: Maria, a Puerto Rican girl, sister of Bernardo; Tony, member of the Jets; Anita, Puerto Rican girlfriend of Bernardo; the Riff, leader of the Jets; Bernardo, leader of the Sharks Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim Book: Arthur Laurents

LG 59: Electric Counterpoint, III

Composer: Steve Reich Date: 1987 Genre: Chamber work for guitar and tape Medium: Live guitarist playing with 12 prerecorded tracks (2 bass guitars and 10 guitars) Form: Undivided Structure, Through-composed, Continuous Melody: Short melodic ideas repeated as an ostinato Harmony: Diatonic, mostly static with some subtle shifts; predominant chords are C major, B minor, E minor Rhythm-meter: 3/2 meter, 12 "pulse-units" also presented as 6/4 and 12/8; regular rhythms with varying patterns and accents in syncopation Texture: Highly polyphonic, with canons Expression: An almost trancelike effect from the gradual addition and combination of regular patterns; striking moments created by subtle changes Three Movements: Fast-Slow-Fast (last movement: 1 live, 7 guitars and 2 bass guitars) C

LG 50: Suite for Violin and Piano, III

Composer: William Grant Still (Part of Harlem Renaissance) Date: 1943 Genre: Instrumental Suite Form: Sectional Harmony: Modal with blues chords Rhythm: Syncopated duple meter Texture: Mostly homophonic Basis: The impish humor of Augusta Savage's sculpture Gamin—a street urchin Melody: bluesy syncopated melody (lowered third and seventh); decorated with trills and glissandos Accompaniment: stride piano (a Jazz piano style) Meter: Duple Meter Texture: homophonic