Listening to Music Quiz #6
Primitivism
-20th century aesthetic movement among European and Anglo-American artists who sought to reinvigorate their art forms by adopting traits drawn from genres, forms, expressive characteristics of "primitive" cultures -meant evoking culture of ancient history or appropriate images/ideas from contemporaneous cultures considered "uncivilized" -characterized by strong rhythmic pulse, simple/repetitive melodies, block-based musical structures
Florence Price
-African-American composer active during the first half of the 20th century -first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphony composer and have work performed by an orchestra -style combined classical training with African American genres (spirituals, blues)
William Grant Still
-African-American composer and conductor active throughout the 20th century -participant in Harlem Renaissance -applied fluency with classical and jazz to compositions -first American composer to have an opera produced by New York City Opera
Miles Davis
-American Jazz trumpeter and leading bebop composer active throughout the 20th century who experimented with other styles including hard bop and jazz-rock fusion
Amy Beach
-American composer and pianist active during the late 19th and first half of the 20th century -One of the first American women to attain widespread recognition for large-scale works
John Adams
-American composer influenced by popular minimalist composers and best known for operas (e.g. Girls of the Golden West and Doctor Atomic) which tend to focus on historical events and motivations behind actions of principal characters
Leonard Bernstein
-American composer, conductor, pianist, and music educator active during the 20th century -Drew on an eclectic range of influences, from jazz to Broadway styles to Jewish music -Theater works (e.g. Westside story) demonstrate his penchant for infusing art with social commentary, bridging popular and classical music, and connect with people
John Cage
-American experimental composer active during the 20th century who pioneered various forms of chance music in the 1950, as well as the use of prepared piano
Charlie Parker
-American jazz saxophonist active during the mid-20th century -One of the leading composers and performers of bebop
Steve Reich
-American minimalist composer who experimented with "phrase music" (iterations of same musical material are superimposed and gradually move out of sync with each other) in compositions using tape loops as well as pieces for live musicians
Ruth Crawford
-American modernist composer active during the first half of the 20th century -Individualistic style influenced by composers like Schoenberg -best-known works are polytonal and incorporate serial techniques (beyond pitch)
Charles Ives
-American modernist composer active during the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century ((insurance company employee by day, radical music composer by night) -Known for extensive use of musical quotation and creation of multi-layered sound collages (presaged electronic and post-modern composers of 20th century)
Scott Joplin
-American pianist, composer and "Professor" of ragtime active during the late 19th and early 20th century -Known for "The Entertainer" and "Maple Leaf Rag"
Caroline Shaw
-American vocalist, violinist, and composer who won a Pulitzer Prize (2013) for Partita for 8 Voices -brings together vocal techniques from diverse cultural backgrounds in this piece is typical of post-modern, contemporary music -many have called her music culturally appropriative
Second Viennese School
-Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg -20th century composers who considered themselves the logical successors to the composers of the "First Viennese School" (Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven) -Self-identification based on ego and idea that atonality and serialism = new frontier
Arnold Schoenberg
-Austrian composer active during late 19th century and early 20th century whose early compositions were strongly influenced by Wagner -early adopter of "free atonality" and later developed the 12-tone serial approach to composition that would influence the majority of modernists for the next 40-50 years
Anton Webern
-Austrian composer active during late 19th century and first half of 20th century -member of Second Viennese School (follower of Schoenberg and early adopter of 12-tone serialism) -Pieces known for brevity and dry, pointillist style
Alan Berg
-Austrian composer active during the first half of the 20th century and member of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg follower and adopter of serial techniques) -Usually considered the most lyrical and emotive of the three composers of Second Viennese School
Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, 2nd movement (1930)
-Compose: Bela Bartók -Form: sonata form, modernized -Pitch material: extended, non-functional tonality -NB: folk rhythms and modernist take on "classical" techniques (imitative polyphony and fugal textures)
Appalachian Spring Suite (1940)
-Composer: Aaron Copeland -Genre: orchestral suite, after ballet music -Pitch material: non-functional tonality -NB: barn-dance-like material and Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" reflect Copeland's reputation as an American composer and historical setting of ballet
Wozzeck, Act III, Scene III, IV (1920)
-Composer: Alan Berg -Genre: Opera -Pitch material: atonal, but based on recurring intervals that signify important dramatic relationships -NB: use of Sprechstimme
Five Orchestral Pieces, no. 4 (1910)
-Composer: Anton Webern -Genre: Orchestral miniature -NB: Demonstrates brevity; all instruments = solos despite use of large Romantic-era orchestra
Night (1910)
-Composer: Arnold Schoenberg -Larger Work: Pierrot Lunaire -Genre: song cycle -NB: opening three notes = ground bass throughout movement -NB: incorporates Schoenberg's sprechstimme vocal technique
Moonfleck (1910)
-Composer: Arnold Schoenberg -Larger Work: Pierrot Lunaire -Genre: song cycle -Pitch material: free atonality -NB: incorporates Schoenberg's Sprechstimme vocal technique -NB: use of advanced compositional techniques, including canonic and fugal textures
Partita for 8 Voices, 2nd movement (2013)
-Composer: Caroline Shaw -Form: theme and variations -NB: slow triple meters of Baroque-era Sarbandes -NB: incorporation of Tuvan throat singing and Inuit throat singing (without sufficient credit given to singers who taught Roomful of Teeth these techniques) a demonstration cultural appropriation
The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting (1900)
-Composer: Charles Ives -Larger Work: Second Orchestral Set, 2nd movement -NB: Ives' characteristic use of pluralism, musical quotation, and collage are all evident here (chaotic juxtaposition/superimposition)
The Unanswered Question (1900)
-Composer: Charles Ives NB: three distinct levels = shimmering strings, questioning solo trumpet, increasingly frustrated/augmented woodwinds --> typical of Ives' technique of superimposing multiple musical styles/languages atop one another
Out of Nowhere (1940)
-Composer: Charlie Parker and Miles Davis -Genre: Bebop -Form: NOT modified strophic or themes and variations; jazz has created independent principles -NB: Parker enjoyed delighting his audience with unexpected/humorous musical quotations
Clouds (1890)
-Composer: Claude Debussy -Larger Work: Three Nocturnes (orchestra) -Genre: impressionist symphonic poem -NB: includes parallel harmonies and use of alternative scales
Poème électronique (1950)
-Composer: Edgard Varèse -Genre: Musique concréte (concrete music) -NB: use of conventional instruments, recorded everyday sounds, and electronic effects -NB: not very melodic or rhythmic
If You Ever Been Down (1920)
-Composer: G.W. thomas -Singer: Sippie Wallace -Genre: Blues (urban blues, 12-bar blues) -Form: Strophic -NB: Louis Armstrong on trumpet
Rhapsody in Blue (1920)
-Composer: George Gershwin -Genre: effectively a one-movement jazz piano concerto -NB: a collection of loosely organized melodies (like most rhapsodies) -NB: closely related to Tin Pan Alley and jazz-inflected Broadway composition style
Lux Aeterna (1960)
-Composer: György Ligeti -Text: Eternal light (Catholic requiem mass) -NB: written for unaccompanied human voices (long, drifting notes = alien-sounding) -NB: used in 2001: A Space Odyssey
The Adoration of the Earth (1910)
-Composer: Igor Stravinsky -Larger Work: The Rite of Spring -Genre: Ballet -NB: anti-Romantic approach to ballet composition --> short melodic fragments instead of long, lyrical melodies (folk-like, which reflects ancient setting of ballet)
Batter My Heart (2000)
-Composer: John Adams -Larger Work: Doctor Atomic -Genre: operatic aria -NB: incorporates structural influence of de capo aria and frantic stasis (a minimalist texture)
4' 33 (1950)
-Composer: John Cage -Genre: Chance music, performance art -NB: about four and a half minutes of silence
Cool (1957)
-Composer: Leonard Bernstein -Larger Work: Westside Story -Genre: Musical theater -NB: juxtaposition of high trumpet with flute and vibraphone -NB: combination of vernacular influences with "highbrow" fugal techniques
Piano Concerto in G, 1st movement (1930)
-Composer: Maurice Ravel -Genre: solo concerto -Form: Modified sonata form (3 themes, minimal development) -NB: each theme has a distinctive style (first = sprightly, folk-like melody; second = bluesy; third = commercial, popular song)
Excerpt from Bitches Brew (1969)
-Composer: Miles Davis -Genre: jazz/rock fusion -NB: piece has a loose and freeform nature typical of jazz styles that developed after bebop (fierce, fast, and complex) -NB: has elements of/similarities with psychedelic rock
Prelude for Piano no. 6 (1920)
-Composer: Ruth Crawford -Genre: Piano miniature -NB: Andante mystico --> speed and atmosphere of the piece -NB: Dissonant and atonal -NB: three layers (high, bell-like ostinato; deep, rolling chords; chromatically wandering melody in center of piano)
Maple Leaf Rag (1890)
-Composer: Scott Joplin -Genre: Ragtime -Form: March-like -NB: Established a new level of sophistication for ragtime pieces, with its complex part-writing and continuous syncopation
The Battle on the Ice (1938)
-Composer: Sergei Prokofiev -Larger Work: Alexander Nevsky Cantata -NB: an example of film music, which was composed to support a visual narrative and therefore more sonically literal than typical Romantic-era programmatic music
Music for 18 Musicians (1970)
-Composer: Steve Reich -Genre: Minimalism -NB: based on a cycle of 11 chords -NB: gradual buildup of musical ideas followed by dissolution into constituent parts (example of "process music," meaning the music creation process is essential to listening experience)
Indígena (1990)
-Composer: Tania León -NB: complex and dissonant modernist textures manifest via incorporation of comparsa Carnaval band playing La Jardinera -NB: Charles Ives used similar effects nearly a century beforehand
Afro-American Symphony, 4th movement (1930)
-Composer: William Grant Still -Form: modified rondo (ABABA) -Pitch material: Blues-inflected tonality -NB: achieved a more thorough integration of blues and standard tonality than other early 20th century jazz-influenced composers
Conga Brava (1940)
-Composers: Duke Ellington & Juan Tizol -Genre: Swing -NB: only beginning and end of piece are in Afro-Cuban style of conga (middle = typical swing) -NB: structural alternation between highly orchestrated sections and solo sections (improvisation-friendly) -NB: muted brass chords and thickly scored reed choir
Tania León
-Cuban-born American composer, conductor, and music educator/arts activist -León has long been an advocate for diversity in composition and draws on both her Afro-Cuban heritage and her modernist musical training -arrived in United States as a refugee during peak of Civil Rights movement (appalled by racial inequality and multicultural intolerance)
Maurice Ravel
-French composer active during late 19th century and first half of 20th century -Blended a characteristically French style (light/luscious instrumental and rich melody) with modern influences (e.g. jazz)
Claude Debussy
-French composer active during the late 19th and early 20th century -associated with the Impressionist style of painting, but more accurately the creator of a musical analogue to the literary Symbolist movement -pushed beyond the limits of strict functional tonality by experimenting with alternative scales (whole, pentatonic, octatonic)
Avant-garde
-French term meaning "vanguard" or "advanced guard" --> artists who are self-consciously "advanced" in creative endeavors -Has become synonymous with artistic radicalism (propelled musical changed during 20th century) -Examples include Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, and György Ligeti
Edgard Varése
-French-born composer active during the 20th century and sometimes dubbed the "father of electronic music" -focused on timbre and rhythm in composition -believed social conditioning separated noise from music and experimented with raw sound -titles of compositions reflected scientific concepts
György Ligeti
-Hungarian avant-garde composer active throughout the 20th century -compositions influenced by experimentation with computer music
Béla Bartók
-Hungarian composer active during late 19th century and first half of 20th century -Important collector and categorizer of Hungarian folk music -style developed from Romantic nationalist to a ruggedly rhythmic and less overtly tonal modernist style
Louis Armstrong
-Jazz trumpeter/cornettist active during the 20th century who was instrumental in development of hot jazz out of the urban style of 1920s blues
George Gershwin
-Jewish American composer active during first half of the 20th century -initially wrote Tin Pan Alley songs and subsequently became a successful composer of musical theater -one of most widely recognized American composers (combined various genres and styles, from jazz to pop to Broadway)
Sergei Prokofiev
-Russian composer active during the first half of the 20th century -developed a distinctive form of neoclassical composition (avoid persecution radical artists faced under Stalin)
Igor Stravinsky
-Russian composer active throughout the 20th century (later a resident of the United States) -Early pieces were in a vibrant "Russianist" style while later pieces become increasingly restrained and neoclassical -eventually combined serial techniques with vivid coloration/rhythmic flair
Prepared piano
-a grand piano "prepared" by wedging different items between its strings --> create an eerie, percussive sound -technique was pioneered by John Cage, but went on to become a common practice in modern music
12-tone Serialism
-a method of composition developed by Arnold Schoenberg more strictly organized than free atonality -"tone row" or "series" (which incorporates all twelve chromatic pitches in a deliberately atonal manner) is developed and used as basis for composition -permutations of the row are permitted (retrograde, inversion, retrograde inversion)
Total Serialism
-application of serial procedures to parameters other than pitch (rhythm, dynamics, articulation) -total serialists include Oliver Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Chance music
-composition style popular during 1940s-1960s -music composition cedes partial/total control to chance -includes use of non-standard notation, chance processes during composition of fixed work, and creation of unstable works -John Cage's 4' 33 is perhaps the ultimate piece of chance music
Minimalism
-composition style popular during the 1960s-1980s in which composers used minimal musical material to focus audience's attention on finer details of music -many classic minimalist pieces have quite busy texture w/ lots of repetition --> tiny challenges = more significant -later minimalist works are sparser and move overtly minimal
Swing (style)
-dominant jazz style of the 1930s to mid 1940s, with an emphasis on larger ensembles (big bands and jazz orchestras) and highly polished arrangements that focused on the rich and complex sounds -Paul Whiteman's orchestral jazz of the 1920s can be considered a forerunner of swing, but African-American composer-arrangers such as Duke Ellington were much more innovative
Bebop
-experimental jazz of the 1940s-1960s -returned to small, soloist-based ensembles of hot jazz but pushed their penchant for freeform, virtuosic improvisations to an extreme (avant-garde style) -designed more for listening than dancing and typically involves trumpet, sax, and piano -Bebop "greats" include Charlie Parker (sax), John Coltrane (sax), Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Miles Davis (trumpet), Mary Lou Williams (piano), and Thelonious Monk (piano)
Hot jazz
-first true jazz and archetypal jazz of the 1920s -small ensembles of soloists engaged in collective improvisation on a given tune -origins in New Orleans, leading to alternatives such New Orleans-style jazz and Dixieland -furthered developed in cities with large African-American populations -Stars include Louis Armstrong (trumpet), Sidney Bechet (sax), and Jelly Roll Morton (pianist)
Musique concrète
-form of electronic composition developed in the 1940s in which "concrete" sounds were recorded and then mixed together, altered, and incorporated into (often fairly abstract) sound collages -early pieces were constructed using shellac records and record players; magnetic tape became the preferred medium from the mid to late 1950s -composers included Edgard Varèse and Pierre Schaeffer
Blues
-genre of African American popular music developed in the Deep South in the 1870s, with roots in African musical traditions and African American work songs/spirituals -there are multiple styles of the blues, but they share a distinctive pitch palette (blending major and minor elements to create poignancy) and strophic structure with a simple internal text structure (often AAB) -feature lyrics of personal hardship, especially the protagonist's struggles with poverty, mortality, and all the major causes of a broken heart
Head (jazz)
-main theme or tune that forms the basis for a jazz piece (the material around which jazz performers improvise)
Swing (technique)
-playing pairs of eighth notes unequally, in a relaxed long-short long-short rhythm -the opposite of playing rhythms "swung" is to play them "straight"
Extended techniques
-popular with 20th century composers -unconventional/non-traditional techniques of singing or playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres (e.g. treating non-percussive instrument --> striking/plucking/rubbing piano strings directly or pushing human voice to extremities via whispering, shrieking, and more)
Ragtime
-pre-jazz genre of popular music known for its jaunty syncopation and angular melodic lines -developed as a style of performance by African American pianists working in the bars and brothels of cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans -shows composers' cosmopolitan influence (use of Afro-Cuban rhythms as well as musical ideas drawn from earlier African American music/dance genres such as the cakewalk)
Atonality
-the organization of pitch materials in such a way that they do not imply a tonal center -covers lots of different styles of composition, including ways to organize pitch that create musical order while eschewing a sense of tonal "gravity"
Sprechstimme
-translates roughly to "speech-song" -A technique of vocal delivery halfway between speaking and singing that exaggerates the natural contours of speech without attaching to any specific song pitches (e.g. Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire)
Sippie Wallace
African-American singer active during the 20th century and considered one of the Queens of the Blues
Aaron Copland
American composer active throughout 20th century known for "Americanist" style of composition inspired by The West and old time/folk music
Duke Ellington
Prolific jazz pianist and composer active during the 20th century (2000 songs plus musical comedies, ballets, film scores, and more)
