Music Humanities Quiz 2 Terminology

Cadenza

A cadenza is a passage of virtuosic display — usually by a soloist in the context of a concerto or aria. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 contains an unusually long and elaborate cadenza for harpsichord before the final ritornello.

Symphony

A musical composition in several movements (usually four) for orchestra. The first movement in nearly always in sonata form. Symphonies are described as being in a key, as in Mozart's Symphony no. 40 in G minor; this means that both the first and last movement are in the overall key of G minor. Middle movements may be in other keys; the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor is in A-flat major. There may be other links between the movements. Motifs throughout Beethoven's Fifth resemble the opening motif from the first movement and Beethoven linked third and last movements together with a transition from the former into the latter.

Motif

A short musical idea that is repeated. Motifs may be rhythmic or melodic but are generally too short to be considered a melody in their own right. The opening of Beethoven's Fifth contains a famous rhythmic motif of three short notes followed by a longer note.

Examples of Sonata Form

Beethoven, Symphony no. 5, first movement; Clara Schumann, Piano Trio in G minor, first movement

Examples of symphonys

Beethoven, Symphony no. 5; Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique

Chamber music

Chamber music is a very broad term for pieces that are composed for a small number of instruments or performers (few enough to fit into a chamber). Examples of genres of chamber music include the string quartet (two violins, one viola, one cello) and piano trio (piano, violin, cello). Lieder are also sometimes considered a genre a chamber music.

Example of Concerto Grosso

Bach, Brandenburg Concerto no. 5

Example of a fugue

Back, Fugue in G minor ("Little Fugue")

Gesamtkunstwerk

Gesamtkunstwerk is a Wagnerian term, meaning "total work of art." Wagner aspired for a synthesis of the arts in writing his operas (or, as they are sometimes known, music dramas). He sought to make opera less artificial and conventionalized through the integration of music and drama. One formal effect of this was seamless composition rather than very distinct passages of aria and recitative.

Modulation/ Key Change

It is possible to change from one key to another, i.e. to go from using one scale to another and to move the tonic from one note to another. This is called modulation or key change. Most longer pieces contain modulation to create variety and interest. The first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, for example, contains section in B minor, A major, and F-sharp minor, although it starts and ends in D major.

Examples of Opera buffa/ seria

Mozart, Don Giovanni (opera buffa); Handel, Gulio Cesare (opera seria)

Examples of Lieder

Schubert, Erlkonig

Idee Fixe

This term is particularly associated with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. The idee fixe is the melody that recurs in various guises in each movement and if associated in every case with the protagonist's beloved. In the fourth movement, for example, it occurs as a clarinet melody to represent the protagonist's last thought of his loved one before he is beheaded.

Absolute music

This term is sometimes used to denote instrumental music that is not intended to portray anything concrete. Some composers and thinkers (such a Hoffmann and Hanslick) have preferred absolute music to program music for being "purely" musical. The titles of pieces of absolute music, which include Beethoven's Symphony no. 5 and Clara Schumann's Piano Trio in G minor, are often more abstract.

Fugue

A fugue is an exploration of the polyphonic possibilities of a single melody/ theme. Fugues are highly polyphonic and features section of imitative polyphonic that alternate with non-imitative ("free" sections).

Leitmotif

A leitmotif is a short recurrent musical idea — a motif — that is associated with a character, place, or idea. Wager used many such motifs in his opera cycle, The Ring, and the technique is common in the work of many film composers. For example, in Die Walkure, there are motifs associated with the characters of Siegmund and Sieglinde, a motif associated with their love for one another, a motif associated with the sword, a motif associated with Wotan's spier, and one that represents Wotan's love for Brunnhilde.

Piano Trio

A piano trio is a work, usually in 3 or 4 movements, for piano, violin, and cello. The movements often follow a similar layout to a symphony (fast sonata form first movement, a slow middle movement, a fast finale).

Ritornello (Form)

A recurring passage of music that alternates with different contrasting sections in Baroque music is called a ritornello. In a concerto grosso (such as Bach's Brandenburg Concerto) the orchestra generally plays the ritornello which the smaller group plays contrasting musical material.

Sequence

A sequence is the restatement of a motif or melodic idea at a higher or lower pitch. If the idea is restated higher, the sequence is called ascending while a lower restatement would constitute a descending sequence. As a means of melodic generation, a sequence may feature three or four restatements of the idea in increasingly high or low registers.

Song cycle / Liederkreis

A series of individual songs intended to be performed together as a unit. These cycles often contain a unifying narrative or theme, such as the unrequited love that runs through Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe.

Coda (Sonata Form)

Any further section is referred to as a coda (the Italian word for "tail"). Codas affirm the work's key. Beethoven's codas are often very lengthy.

Examples of piano Trio

Clara Schumann, Piano Trio in G minor.

Exposition (Sonata Form)

Divided in two "groups," i.e. two sections in contrasting keys. For example, in the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony no. 5, the first group is in C minor, while the second group is in E-flat major. Towards the end of the first group there is usually a "bridge" or "transition": a passage that modulates from the first key to the second. Each group may contain more than one melody although often a strong melody or motif from each group often stands out. In Beethoven's Symphony no. 5, there is a strong contrast between the pervasive rhythmic motif of the first group and the more lyrical melody of the second. The exposition is often repeated.

Major/ Minor

Not only triads, but also scales and pieces can be classified as major and minor. The minor and major scales have different intervallic structures; the most noticeable difference is that the third note of a minor scale is a smaller distance in pitch from the first note of the scale (the tonic) than in a major scale. These scales may start on any note of the chromatic scale. Pieces based primarily on the major scale are called major, those based on the minor scale, minor. Major and minor have different affective qualities: we generally consider major to be brighter, lighter, or happier than minor.

Opera Buffa/ Seria

Opera buffa and opera seria are genres of Italian-language opera, primarily from the eighteenth century. Buffa was the comic genre while seria was the serious. Seria characters were largely heroes, gods, or aristocrats; characters in opera buffa were form a larger social spectrum, often including servants alongside their masters. Nonetheless, opera buffa characters could still be stratified musically, with comic, lower-class characters singing simpler music than their more high-born counterparts. The setting of opera seria was historical or mythical, while oprea buffa was set more set more or less contemporaneously with its composition. Opera seria was structured around alternating arias and recitatives. Ensembles (duets, trios, etc.) were more prominent in opera buffa — especially in the finales of acts. Ensembles tend to involve more action; they are less static than arias.

Program music

Program music is instrumental music that is intended to paint a picture or tell a story. The narrative may be given to the audience and/ or performers in the form of program notes. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique is a famous example; the symphony depicts a lovesick artist who takes opium and subsequently fantasizes about his own execution and diabolic orgy. The prelude to Wagner's Die Walkure depicts a storm and can thus also be considered program music. Some composers wrote programmatic pieces based on works of literature, such as Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d-um faune, based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé.

Sonata Form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure found (particularly in first movements) in sonatas, symphonies, and string quartets among other genres. The form is usually divided into three main sections: the exposition, development, and recapitulation.

Concerto Grosso

The concerto grosso is a Baroque form a concerto in which music is passed between a small group of players and larger group of players. In the Bach's fifth Brandenburg Concerto, the small group is made up of flute, violin, and harpsichord, while the large group is a string orchestra.

Development (Sonata Form)

The development is tonally unstable, i.e. it tends to travel through various keys. The development is therefore often tense and restless sounding. In this section, melodies or fragments of melodies from the exposition are manipulated and altered in various ways, such as fragmentation — the breaking down of a longer musical idea into a shorter one.

Subject (Fugue)

The melody of a fugue is known as its subject. The subject permeates the fugue and appears in various voices/ parts and in different keys throughout the fugue. Typically, the subject initially appears on its own without accompaniment before being imitated by the other parts. In some fugues, there are also sections that do not include the the subject.

Recapitulation

The music from the exposition returns. However, the second group this time appears in the first key. In Beethoven's Symphony no. 5, the second group appears in C major rather than C minor in the recapitulation; in this case, the shared tonic is more important than the difference between major and minor. The recapitulation resolves the tension of having two juxtaposed keys in the exposition. The development and recapitulation are sometimes repeated together as well.

Lied (-er)

The word "Lied" in German simply means "song"; "Lieder" is the plural form. However, the word is often used to specifically to a type of German song that developed in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These songs are generally for solo voice and piano (as in the Lieder of Schubert and Schumann), although there are orchestral Lieder (from a later period) — by Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, for example). The texts — in German — are usually from German Romantic poets, such as Heinrich Heine.

Tonic

Tonal music is hierarchical. Some pitches and chords sound more stable and others less stable. The most stable pitch is the tonic, which is also the first note of the scale around which the piece is based. If a piece is in B minor, the tonic is B. The tonic triad is also the most stable harmony; if a tonal piece does not finish on the tonic triad, it will sound incomplete.

Unendliche Melodie

Unendliche Melodie is a term associated with Wagner's compositional style: his avoidance of cadence and his formal seamlessness. Scenes in Wagner's mature operas cannot usually be divided into distinct recitatives, arias, duets, but rather flow together. Conclusive cadences often only come at the very ends of scenes, partly because of Wagner's sustained use of dissonance.

Call and Response

When one part (e.g., a voice or group of instruments) has a phrase or short melody that is then "answered" by a second phrase or short melody played after it by another part, this is referred to as "call and response." Sections of call and response are common in vocal music (e.g., ring shouts or Gaelic psalms). In their symphonies, Beethoven and Berlioz sometimes divided the orchestra into two opposing groups that play in call and response.

Tonality/ Key

While earlier music had been based on various scales (called modes), Western music from the eighteenth century through to the present has been mainly based on major and minor scales. Tonality is the system based on these scales. Tonal music is referred to as being "in a key," depending on the scale that undergirds a composition; for example, a piece in C major draws its primary pitch material from the C major scale. In total we have 24 keys; one major and one minor for each of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale.