20th Century / Romantic Period Flashcards
Giacometti Puccini (romantic)
- came from long line of musicians
- product of italic school of Milan
- exoticism
- used Verisimo (means “true to life”)
- based stories on real, true life stories about average person
- Manon Lescaut, Tosca, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly
Giuseppe Verdi (romantic)
- Italian nationalist
- elected to Italian parliament
- most popular and performed of all opera composers
- married the daughter of the wealthy patron who paid him to compose
- wife and 2 kids die but father-in-law convinced him to keep writing
- every story takes place in Italy
- wrote Rigoletto, Trovatore, La Traviata, Aida, Otello, Oberto, Nabucco
- Nabucco got the public to notice him
Richard Wagner (Romantic)
- born in Leipzig to a theatrical family
- German nationalist
- never mastered an instrument
- taught himself to read/write by studying Beethoven
- attended Leipzig University
- had followers called “wagnerites”
- referred to operas as “Musical Dramas”
- wrote an opera cycle (The Ring) where you had to watch 4 operas to get whole story
- built own opera house
- came up with Leitmotif
- Tristan and Isolde, The Ring of Nibelung, Tanhauser
Impressionism
- very expressive
- following the romantic period
Neoclassical
- when a composer in the 1900’s writes music that sounds like the 1700’s (the classical period)
- they write like Bach or Mozart
- but they have new instruments and new types of music
- Stravinky’s “Rite of Spring”
Expressionism
- intense
- very close to not being in a key
- right on the edge, subjective
Atonal Music
- wanted to confuse your ear
- there was a lack of a tonal center or a key
- lots of terms to know
Bitonality
When a piece of music is in 2 different keys at the same time
Polytonality
When music is in 3 or more dif keys at the same time
Poly chords
When 3 or more different chords are played at the same time
-only used in Certain places in a song. Not all the way through.
Quarter tone
A chord where every note is 4 notes apart rather than the normal 3 notes apart
Tone clusters
A cluster of tines that are each 1/2 step apart
Tone color melody
A melody created by a group of notes
Whole tone scale
A scale where there is a whole step between each note
- no half steps ever!
- only 7 notes in the scale
Polyrhythms
3 or more different rhythms going at the same time
Pentatonic scale
A scale with only 5 notes
-back to medieval music
Jazz Cities (7)
- New Orleans
- Memphis
- St. Louis
- Kansas City
- Chicago
- New York City
- Los Angeles
Blues
- type of jazz
- probably oldest form of jazz
- mainly in minor keys
- based on sad story
- performed by singers, fully instrumental, or both
- sometimes words in a song had a double meaning. When it did, one meaning was sexual
Ragtime
- type of jazz
- flashy, fast, technical, difficult, jazz style
- originally for piano
- it imitated classical piano pieces
Dixieland
-type of jazz
-strictly for instruments
-broken into two groups
Front row plays melody ….. Back row plays background parts
-front row instruments
-trumpet, trombone, clarinet, Saxophone
-back row instruments
-piano, banjo/guitar, tuba/string bass, drum set
-prefers tuba for bass instrument
Big Band
- type of jazz
- more people in this group than dixieland
- had 4 or 5 of each instrument
- music is finally getting written down
- musicians learn to read and write music
- prefers string bass for bass instrument
Cool
- type of jazz
- plays the melody twice and then goes to a lot of solo playing with just some background music
- a bit of atonal
Twelve Tone System
- created by Schoenberg
- used 12 notes for a scale (normal ones have 8)
- used half notes
- you can’t play one note again until you play the other 11 notes
- tone row
- the row of notes that’s played in that order throughout the whole piece
- you write a whole piece of music following this tone row
Retrograde
When you play the tone row backwards
Inversion
You invert the original tone row
-i.e. If you go up then down in original then in inversion you go down then up
Retrograde Inversion
You’d play the line backwards and upside down
Jazz
- Americas first musical art form
- created by the slaves. It was how the slaves would communicate. M
- New Orleans was where it really took off bc it was so diverse
- jazz integrates a bunch of different cultures (French, African, Caribbean, etc.)
American Public School System
- Kodaly said to get kids to SING to enjoy and appreciate music
- Suzuki said to get kids to play INSTRUMENTS to appreciate music
- Orff said to give students RHYTHM to get them to enjoy music
- Dolcroze said to give students EVERYTHING to appreciate music. Also, dancing.
- dancing gives coordination and coordination helps with playing music
Igor Stravinsky
- 20th century composer
- Jewish who lived in Russia
- moved to Switzerland, France, and finally America bc of Bolshevik Revolution and WWll
- wrote neoclassical (tonal) music
- had conflicts with Schoenberg who was atonal
- specialized in Russian ballets
- ballets : the firebird, rite of springs, pulcinella, petrushka
- other : the soldiers tale, the rakes progress
Arnold Schoenberg
- 20th century composer
- born in Vienna
- self taught and taught at Prussian Academy in Berlin
- came up with 12 tone system
- came up with Sprechstimme. It’s like speak singing.
- moved to America and taught at UCLA
- atonal
- A survivor from Warsaw, Pierrot Lunaire, transfigured night, songs of gurne, chamber symphony
George Gershwin
- 20th century composer
- born in manhattan
- taught himself to read music and play piano
- got a job at Tin Pan Alley where all the publishing companies were
- got to write music for Broadway and became very popular
- incorporated jazz into some of his classical forms
- Piano Concerto : Rhapsody in Blue
- Musicals : La, La, Lucille, Lady be Good, Funny Face, Of thee I sing
- Opera : porgy and ness
- wrote “an American in Paris” which would later be singing in the rain
Aaron Copland
- 20th century composer
- born in Brooklyn
- classically trained and studied in France. Fell in love with ballet
- incorporated jazz into his music
- ballets : Billy the kid, Rodeo, Appalachian Spring. Based in America
- other : a Lincoln portrait, music for the theatre, piano variations, connotations for orchestra
