Term
| What is modernism and how did it influence the visual arts, literature, and music? |
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Definition
| was a phenomenon that affected all the arts, its an attitude. the self conscious striving for nevelty at any cost, new must be as different as possible from th eold. rejected rhyme and rhythm in poetry, linear narrative in literature, music abandoned tonality and produced impressionism, expresionism, atonality, etc. artists used short brush strokes instead of a continuous line to produce a sensation or impression of an object. |
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Term
| Describe the innovative approaches of Debussy to form and harmony. How can these innovations be traced in Debussy’s “Voiles”? |
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Definition
| constructs melodic ideas from whole tone and pentatonic scales. Prelude to an Afternoon of a Faun is related to a poem, but it has an absence of style and no traditional form. structured more around masses of sound, no goal oriented structures. never abandon tonality, but use ninth and higher chords. |
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Term
| Describe at least three important recurring features of the musical compositions by Charles Ives. |
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Definition
| experimented with quartal harmonies, which for the basis of his song The Cage. takes familiar tunes and harmonizes them different in a wrong key. modern while celebrating past songs. The Unanswered Question has solo trumpet and flutes occupying an entirely different key than the strings that are in triads. trumpet implies no harmonic center. liked to challenge people listening only to what was considered beautiful |
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Term
| Describe the three periods in the creative output of Igor Stravinsky. |
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Definition
| Russian Period: began wrting with advanced chromaticism, early ballets in 19c tradition, othe rpieces marka turn to primitivism. Neoclassical Period: after WWI, changed styles and moved toward greater means and expression, featured cool detachment. Serialist Period: prompted by his assistant, began studying in 1950s, drawn to works of Webern. |
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Term
| How do the opening sections of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring portray the people of pre-historic Russia and their culture? How does this opening reflect primitivism? |
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Definition
| abandoned tradtional harmony progresiions, timbers, and aboce all rhythms. created raw, elemental relationship between human and nature. elevated the role of rhythm, both in terms of complexity and simplicity. |
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Term
| Briefly describe the musical career of Béla Bartók. |
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Definition
| conventional piano training, interested in folk music of europe. made filed recordings and took inspiration from them. music did not generate interest when moved to US. departure from established tradition of bach and brahms. added harmonies and sometimes created original tunes with folk inflections. |
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Term
| Describe the three periods in the creative output of Arnold Schoenberg. |
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Definition
| early period: advance chromaticism, explore outer limits and reaches of chromaticism, lush harmonies and thick textures. Middle period: atonal, abandoned tonality altogether and declared emancipation of the dissonance. late period: serial, developed method of 12 tone serialism, dissatisfied with lack of structure with atonal works, no note is repeated until all other 11 pitches have been stated. eventually applied in all his music. |
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Term
| What is atonality and how does revolutionize Western music? |
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Definition
| the absence of a tonal center altogether. searching for a new way of writing music hose emotional impact would be more direct. well suited for expressionism, which gave voice to the unconscious. desvribed it as an emancipation of dissonance. |
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Term
| What is expressionism and how is it reflected in Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Pierrot lunaire. |
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Definition
| movement that sought to give voice to the unconscious, to make manifest humanity's deepest and often darkest emotions. Schoenberg drawn to violent eerie imagery, set this cycle for soprano and instrumental ensemble. uses leaps of ninths, diminished and augmented octaves which undermines any tonal center. voice uses sprechstimme (speaking voice) melody is approximate pitches. |
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Term
| What was the Second Viennese School, what kind music did the composers belonging to this school write? |
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Definition
| schoenburgs students made up the 2nd school, including Berg and Webern. Berg was more popular, with atonal and 12 tone operas. Webern used some past practices and had an evolutionary view of muhs. composer is a discoverer not inventor. small output. |
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Term
| Briefly discuss neoclassicism. |
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Definition
| it is the deliberat eimitation of an earlier style within a contemporary context. return to tonal idiom, conventional forms, music not connected with a text, transparent textures, and concise expression. not invention of 20c, but had significance with its reject of modernism. new objectivity. |
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Term
| How does the third movement of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony espouse the aesthetic of neoclassicism? |
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Definition
| preserves the form and rhythms of the gavotte but transmorms melody and harmony. mvt is in D major, but harmony avoids any strong cadence in this key. finally cadences but the tonality feels out of place. following section has thematic and textural contrast, like a trio of the dance. |
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Term
| Briefly discuss the artistic movement called New Objectivity. |
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Definition
| music that is detached, unsentimental, and slightly surreal. tendency toward understatement- eyebrow raise instead of the scream like expressionism.must step outside ourselves and conisder it as an object. |
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Term
| How does Kurt Weill’s “Alabama Song” from the opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny combine traditional operatic elements with elements related to the principles of new objectivity? |
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Definition
| assumes the outward form of a traditional aria with dexlamoatory introduction. words are surreal and the text is in english, though its a german opera. this creates a sense of distance or objectivity, magnified by honky tonk foxtrot (american) accompaniment. |
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Term
| What are socialist realism and formalism? |
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Definition
| socialist realism is a readily accessible style that evokes the music of the people in an overwhelmingly optimistic tone. music with occational modal inflections, but written to appeal to soviet masses with patriotism. formalism was modernist. |
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Term
| Briefly describe the careers of Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitry Shostakovich. |
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Definition
| Prokofiev was anexcellent pianistthattoureurope and US. wronte nine sonata five concertos. returned to soviet and forced to write socialist realism. composed some film music and works for children. Shostakovich labored under soviet union and had to be extremely careful with music. never abandoned tonality, follws same characteristics at beet. wrote operas, chamber music, piano, orchestral works. |
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Term
| How do Prokofiev’s chorus “Arise, people of Russia” and Shostakovich’s third movement of the String Quartet No. 8 reflect/confound the aesthetics of socialist realism. |
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Definition
| both pieces were about the war, Prokofievs about the hopes before the war, and shosta dedicated to memory of the victims. both were perfectly acceptable as socialist realism. shostakovitch's was his suicide note. clearly connects images of him and death. |
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Term
| How does Copland’s ballet Rodeo reflect views associated with American populist art of the mid-twentieth century. |
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Definition
| based on a fiddle tune, populist and modernist. was choreographed before copland had even written it. used folk song Bonapartes Retreat and made it his own with tuning up in the beginning and conjunct and disjunct melodies. technological breakdown at 18. |
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Term
| How does the quintet “Tonight” from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story reflect the mixture of different styles and genres in mid-century Broadway musical? |
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Definition
| number revolves around anticipation. number builds gradually and becomes more contrapuntal. uses jazz orchestration, rapid alternation of duple and triple, and even sprechstimme. overall shape of the music owes much to the tradiontons of 19c opera. |
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Term
| What kinds of social issues did Benjamin Britten deal with in his works? |
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Definition
| 20c oratorio War Requiem. setting latin text forthe Requiem, added poems by a soldier who had died right before the armistice that ended WWI. tried to intensify sense of post war disorientation with separate croups, a full orchestra with chorus, a chamber ensemble, and a organ led boys choir. |
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Term
| How do Ruth Crawford and Olivier Messiaen develop the principles of serialism in the third movement of String Quartet 1931 and the first movement of the Quartet for the End of Time? |
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Definition
| Crawford displays features from Seeer's theories and her own traits, like different speeds in different parts, extreme textures, canonic writing. uses a 10 note row and employs rotatinon, overall arch of the rhythm is clearly audible. Messiaen didn't pursue serialism much, but his work influenced younger composers. more important as a concept than as application. |
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Term
| What is integral serialism and combinatoriality and how are they represented in the first four measures of the first of Milton Babbitt’s Three Compositions for Piano? |
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Definition
integral serialism is a way of extending the parameters beyond pitch to include elements such as rhythm and dynamics. combinatoriality is if a row can have one of its hexachords combine with one ofthe hexachordsof an inverted, retrograde ofthe same row wihtout producing any duplication of pitches. this is used in
babbit's piece because the hexa of P0 and hexa of R6 combine to produce all 12 pitches. uses 16th note as unit of measure and establishes a basic pattern and inverts the rhythmic stuctre. |
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Term
| Name two examples of aleatory music and describe what kind of chance operations they involve. |
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Definition
| two examples are In C by Terry Riley and Our Spring will Come by John Cage. Riley has a group of musicians play written out melodies in a specific sequence with an ongoing pulse, but each performer can move on to the next gesture as they see fit. composer determines pitches, but everything else is left up to the players. Cage's piece has 20 prepared notes and 2 unprepared pitches. uses bamboo strips weaving in and out of strings, combinations of screws an bolts, and then a single screw with two other types. score revelas everything but the sounds actually heard. |
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Term
| How do Terry Riley’s In C and Steve Reich’s Piano Phase exemplify early minimalism, and how did this artistic stream develop in the final decades of the twentieth century? |
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Definition
| Riley uses 53 brief themes played in any combination and any instruments. only constant element is an ostinato C in piano. Reich uses essential a canon at the unison but tempo is the primary compositional process. rate of tempo change is so gradual and so persistent that the listener experiences an unfolidng. these pieces take a single compositional technique and base the whole thing on it. |
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Term
| What is postmodernism and how did it affect architecture and music? |
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Definition
| embraces the past but often in an exlectic manner, whythesizing a verity of approaches in a single work. all approcahces are equally valid and composers neeither felt obliged to avoid oruse traditional forms and genres. abandoms idea of serious art. in architecture, kept the simplicity of modernism but added slight ornamentation and draws on past idioms. |
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Term
| In what ways do Thea Musgrave’s Orfeo II and Tania Léon’s A la par reflect postmodern sensibilities? |
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Definition
| Musgrave moves freely between tonal and atonal idioms. it has a strong sense of tonal center. it is reinforced rhythmically by the steady repeated pattern of 8ths, in a fasshion of baroque ground base. Leon's piece references past idioms.modernism conftongts popular music in the same work. mixes popular cuban dance rhythms with atonal harmonies. mixes cuban folk with european styles. both tonal and a tonal and reg and irreg rhythms. mix of styles. |
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Term
| How do Debussy’s “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” and Gershwin’s Piano Prelude No. 2 mix elements of “art” and popular music? |
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Definition
| uses syncopated rhythms of the cake walk, a strutting dance. adds irony by referencing the Tristan Chord, which is to be played haltingly with great emotion. Gershwin brought on crossover of blues, jazz and concert hall music to popularity. 2nd prelude is a blues lullaby with homage to chopin's prelude in a minor. |
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Term
| What are the main distinctions between the Big Band style and later types of jazz. |
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Definition
| early jazz style combined blues, ragtime and pop music and stressed improv. mainly dance music. combined large ensembles with swing. late jazz had smaller ensembles and virtuosic solos |
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