Music Exam IV- Late Romantic + 20/21 Century

symphonic poem

1 long movement programmatic orchestral work (Romeo + Juliet)

the prince who changed into a cat (beijing opera)

1 of most famous beijing operas, empress banned from beijing, son is stolen from cradle + replaced by cat, percussion then string with wooden clapper then aria by prime minister, only 3 strings- high pitched 2 string fiddle with bow jinghu, lower pitch fiddle erhu, + plucked lute yueqin, same melody, heterophonic texture

Debussy

1862-1918, Paris Conservatory at age 10, 1884 won Prix de Rome for composition, composed mostly programmatic music like symphonic poems + programmatic piano character pieces, border area between late 19th century + early 20th century styles, investigated new sensuous tone colors, rich harmonies, new ways to express emotion

Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

1913, 1 of 3 great ballets for ballet russes in Paris, Percussive orchestra, irregular accents in "The Augurs of Spring", polymeter (more than 1 time signature at a time), ostinato figures that occur in layers + are played over long spans of time, unusual timbres such as high bassoon in opening of work, polychords (more than 1 chord at a time, creating dissonance), music, dancing + scenery all served aesthetic goals of primitivism + estrangement, choreography by famous Nijinsky

Wozzeck, Berg

1st conceived during WW1, wagnerian, depends on continuity by orchestra, has leitmotivs, no arias, scene ii murder, wozzeck soldier stabs marie, gut bursting crescendos, black out + light snap on, distorted song, goes mad drowns himself, immediate success

Still Afro-American Symphony

1st symphony black composer to be played by major orchestra, fairly conventional romantic orchestra, tenor banjo, 4 mvt conventional tempo + form, fast 1st sonata, 2nd slow melodic, 3rd quick dance like. Clear sense of key + tonic, jazz + blues flavor, syncopation, blues jazz melodies + harmonies, 4th mvt mix euro + african, traditional rondo but black hymn

Debussy "Clouds" from 3 Nocturnes

1st/3, pure nature picture, least nocturnal. Clarinet + bassoon series of chords, chords=clouds moving across sky, ABA',

polymer

2 sequences played using different meters with same tempo

polychord

2 triads sounding simultaneously or 2/7th chords

The Valkyrie, Wagner

2nd opera in Ring, story in story, Siegmund + Sieglinde, 2 of Wotan kids, attraction to each other, Siegmund is killed by Hunding, Sieglinde escapes + has kid, storm motive, cello violin, free formed declamation of words, returning love motive, greed ring, epic music drama, stage festival play

sonata

3 sections- exposition, development, recapitulation

Ives Second Orchestral Set "The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting"

4 symphonies, false starts, dance fragment in strings then woodwinds, camp-revival meeting he knew as boy, demand piano

octatonic scale

8 note scale used by Stravinsky + others, fits 8 pitches into octave by alternating whole + half steps

rondo form

ABACA, ABACAB, ABACBA, ABACABA

atonal

Absence of tonality or key

Copland

America's leading composer at one point, 20 variations for piano, many kinds but then music grew more traditional, nationalist agenda, made music his own, one of most beloved figures of modern American music

pentatonic scale

Bb, C, D, F, G, 5 note scale playable on black piano keys, imported from folk song + Asian music

Mahler

Bohemia, director/conductor of Vienna Court Opera, Metropolitan Opera of NY, NY Philharmonic orchestra, 9 symphonies + 1 unfinished

Coleridge-Taylor

British composer, inspired African American musicians in DC, toured with them, conducted many US city compositions, conductor of Handel Society England

Wagner

Dresden director of opera house, Switzerland, libretto + music of cycle 4 music dramas, Bayreuth in Bavaria theatre, King Ludwig patron

Brahms

R+C Schumann protege, hailed as Beethoven's 10th, Vienna, composed in classical genres + forms, string quartets + other chamber music

russian sound

Russian sound- rhythm of 2 quick notes followed + often preceded by longer note, prevalent intervals of 2nd + 4th, changing meters, use of special scales such as Pentatonic + whole tone scales

schoenberg

Viennese composer, writing even more complex melodies that made little sense to contemporary listeners

music drama

Wagner name for distinctive type of opera, shares honors with poetry drama + philosophy

2nd viennese school

Webern + Berg, students of Schoenberg, serialism, different qualities

ives

Yale, developed unique mystical notions about music, visionary projects no other composer of time considered

whole tone scale

all whole steps, divide octave into 6 equal parts

Copland Appalachian Spring

ballet, clear static, then celebration, then slow, wind, dies down to pray, then 3-6 tempo up, choreographed to set of variations simple gifts, hymn returns

bel canto

beautiful singing

Verdi

composed many operas in Italy, Paris, London, dominated Italian opera, parliament member, national day of mourning when died, non-stop action intense

Rigoletto, Verdi

daring subject, strong situations + violent emotions, immediate success, scandalous, demanded changes in it, Mantua rigoletto is hunchbacked court jester of duke, split, revenge, hires assassin to duke, tragic death of daughter, in 3 acts

Adams Doctor Atomic

days leading up to test explosion of atomic bomb in NM, mediation on weapon, oppenheimer, Trinity, AAB, ritornello violent opening, emotion in arias

Reich Music for 18 Musicians

early classic of minimalist style, 4 singers (syllables), cellist, violinist, 2 clarinet, large percussion group 4 pianos, 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones, + vibraphone, dry + brittle, directed by resonant vibraphone, 12 sections 4 min each

synthesizer

electronic apparatus that generates sound for electronic music

Varese Poeme electronique

example of musique concrete recorded from real, entirely electronic only tape, 1 of masterpieces of genre, part of multimedia experience, world fair, music from every corner, humming, singing, bells, train noises, irregular rhythm

expressionism

exploiting extreme states, hysteria, nightmare, insanity

sprechstimme

extreme example of avant-garde composers search for new expressive means, speech song

Ives the Unanswered Question

famous, utterly quiet serene + solemn, opposite of ^, hunt for invisible answer, flute + other humans (wood) become louder, fighting answers mock question, trumpet intone + states each time

Coleridge-taylor deep river

for piano solo from 24 negro melodies, Jubilee song, moving melody, spiritual, lords camp ground, low range melody slow tempo, popular U.S., transcription violin + piano earliest recording of spiritual

leitmotiv

guiding/leading motive in Wagner opera, associated w/ person thing idea or symbol in drama that guides listener through story

coleridge-taylor humoresque for string quartet from 5 Fantasiestucke

humoresque = "a bit of whimsy", fantasiestucke=fantasy pieces, contrasting sections ABA like 2 dances of class minuet + trio movement, A section binary form, B section similar form w/ opening melody return, A section frenetic tempo + triple meter, ff accelerating conclusion contrast B

Mahler symphony no. 1 3rd movement, funeral march + trio

huntsman funeral, animals in forest accompanied dead to grave, hares escort troop, Bohemian musicians marched, playing cats, toads, crows, etc., stags, deer, foxes + other 4 legged + feathered animals, ironically merry, mysteriously brooding mood, symphonic poem in 1 movement grew to 5 movement symphony + revised into 4, kaleidoscopic effect, funeral march also personal lament, trio taken lost love song

realism

important to European lit, camera, end of 19th

avant garde

in the most advanced style, means vanguard, has been long embraced by radical artists to denote forefront of activity

Leon Indigena

indigenous / woman, 13 players- 5 string, 4 woodwind, 2 brass, piano + percussion, Caribbean Carnival celebration, comparsas, trumpet wins out

Bartok Music For Strings, Percussion + Celesta

informal symphony in usual 4 substantial movements, small orchestra, piano, harp, celesta, xylophone, timpani, + other percussion, 2nd mvt allegro, syncopated notes stravinsky

emancipation of dissonance

intervals or chords that sound relatively tense + unstable

minimalism

late 20th century style involving many repetitions of simple musical fragments, long slowly changing blocks of musical time

primitivism, les fauves

les fauves (wild beasts), Matisse dance, in music: rhythm elevated to a new level of importance, abandonment of traditional harmony + major/minor tonality

Mussorgsky/ravel pictures at an exhibition

memorial exhibit of friend Hart-mann painter who died, og written for piano solo, promenade 1, changes mood, recalls russian folk song, quintuple meter, promenade 2 quieter, great gate of kiev last/longest #, climactic, crash cymbals clang bells chant Russian priests

Cage 4'33"

most celebrated work, any # players can perform, silently on stage for 4 min 33 sec, statement making about sound by means of music, little bits of random audience noise, sounds outside

Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire

most famous + influential 20h century song cycle, minor symbolist poet, eternal sad clown, moonstruck lunar, frustrations, hallucinations, pranks, adventure, 5 instrumentalists, 3 players switch between 2: flute + piccolo, clarinet + bass clarinet, violin + viola, cello + piano, 8 night, world gone mad

Beijing opera

most famous Chinese musical drama, jingle, theatre of capital, small orchestra has drums gongs cymbals few wind instruments + bowed + plucked instruments shows wide range of vocal styles

musique concrete

music composed with natural sounds recorded electronically

impressionism

musical- scales outside of tonal system: chromatic, whole tone, pentatonic, + octatonic, rhythm: often no strong downbeat, so music floats with no strong pulse, form: often ternary, often blurred because of fleeting melodies that have no obvious goal

post modern

new music refers to styles older than modernism, trends in visual arts + architecture, pick + choose from styles, nonclassical traditions

bartok

pianist, educator, musicologist, hungarian composer, wrote barbarous piano piece called allegro barbaro, folk music commitment, most successful than any other composer at integrating folk music into classical

electronic music

recording equipment reproducing sounds of any sort, generate sounds from scratch, technological breakthrough during WW2

ritornello

recurring theme repeats between different sections

Tchaikovsky's Romeo + Juliet

revealed continuing development of Romantic ideals after 1850, musical nationalism + exoticism, free form adopting some sonata + rondo form, love between but vendetta family, andante intro, low clarinets/bassoons, climax over drama drumroll, then allegro short vigorous rhythmic motives, cymbal crashes, sonata-form recap, coda slow, Romeo love then take poison

Brahms violin concerto movement 3

rondo form ABACBA, double stops, "A" theme recalls gypsy fiddling, for close friend Joseph Joachim lead violinist + composer, 1st movement double exposition sonata form, last movement rondo, third movement allegro giocoso "jolly", double stops, aaba', 2nd rondo episode C shift meter

still

science at Ohio then New England Conservatory, arranged music for dance bands, musicals, recordings, + radio shows, remembered for composer of concert music, opera, + ballet. black

nationalism (Russian)

seeking identity among folk arts of common people, expression different from cultural norms of dominant group, opera in language of people, stories about people, quotes folk song or writing music sounding like it could be incorporating folk song traditions drawn to program music

polyrhythm

simultaneous presentation of distinct or conflicting rhythmic patterns, especially in African music

exoticism

tendency of 1 nation to present mystery, uncontrolled sensuality + differing ethnicities of another nation, strong in music, literature + arts

Bizet's Carmen

too scandalous for operatic stage, leading work in repertory of opera, inspired screen adaptations, about story in Spain with fiery sexually irresistible Roma Gypsy, Carmen alone- descending chromatic melody in minor mode, chorus with charmen- descending chromatic melody repeated in major mode, refrain carmen- alternating with chorus, new melody, major mode

gesamtkunstwerk

total work of art, Wagner music drama concept, powerful

chance music

type of contemporary music in which certain elements such as order of notes or their pitches are not specified by composer, but are left to chance

polytonality

use of more than 1 key simultaneously

thematic transformation

variation like procedure applied to short themes in various sections of Romantic symphonic poems + other works

russian kucha (5)

victor stash Russian critic named 5 Russian composers as 'mighty handful', Mussorgsky + Rimsky Korsakov. not included was Tchaikovsky

double stop

violin technique, chords produced by bowing 2 strings simultaneously, hard to do but makes brilliant effect

eclecticism

watchword of concert music composition, diverse music genres

Ligeti Lux Aeterna

written for 16 solo singers + chorus, all 12 pitches chrom, expands slowly adds mix of pitches, most famous work, words from Requiem Mass

Shaw Partita for 8 Voices

youngest musician ever to win Pulitzer age 30, dance suite idea + variation form, 4 mvt baroque names- allemande, sarabande triple meter, courante, passacaglia, theme for 4 female voice held chords, eerie end