All

Question 1

Du Fay dates

Answer 1

1397–1474

Question 2

Janequin dates

Answer 2

c. 1485–1558

Question 3

Tallis dates

Answer 3

c. 1505–1585

Question 4

Palestrina dates

Answer 4

c. 1525–1594

Question 5

Lassus dates

Answer 5

c. 1532–1594

Question 6

Byrd dates

Answer 6

c. 1540–1623

Question 7

Giovanni Gabrieli dates

Answer 7

c. 1554–1612

Question 8

Dowland dates

Answer 8

1563–1626

Question 9

Monteverdi dates

Answer 9

1567–1643

Question 10

Frescobaldi dates

Answer 10

1583–1643

Question 11

Schütz dates

Answer 11

1585–1672

Question 12

Froberger dates

Answer 12

1616–1667

Question 13

Lully dates

Answer 13

1632–1687

Question 14

Buxtehude dates

Answer 14

c. 1639–1707

Question 15

Purcell dates

Answer 15

1659–1695

Question 16

Alessandro Scarlatti dates

Answer 16

1660–1725

Question 17

Couperin dates

Answer 17

1668–1733

Question 18

Vivaldi dates

Answer 18

1678–1741

Question 19

Telemann dates

Answer 19

1681–1767

Question 20

Rameau dates

Answer 20

1683–1764

Question 21

Pergolesi dates

Answer 21

1710–1736

Question 22

Gluck dates

Answer 22

1714–1787

Question 23

CPE Bach dates

Answer 23

1714–1788

Question 24

Stamitz dates

Answer 24

1717–1757

Question 25

Haydn dates

Answer 25

1732–1809

Question 26

Mozart dates

Answer 26

1756–1791

Question 27

Paganini dates

Answer 27

1782–1840

Question 28

Weber dates

Answer 28

1786–1826

Question 29

Rossini dates

Answer 29

1792–1868

Question 30

Donizetti dates

Answer 30

1797–1848

Question 31

Berlioz dates

Answer 31

1803–1869

Question 32

Mendelssohn dates

Answer 32

1809–1847

Question 33

Chopin dates

Answer 33

1810–1849

Question 34

Schumann dates

Answer 34

1810–1856

Question 35

Liszt dates

Answer 35

1811–1886

Question 36

Wagner dates

Answer 36

1813–1883

Question 37

Verdi dates

Answer 37

1813–1901

Question 38

Franck dates

Answer 38

1822–1890

Question 39

Smetana dates

Answer 39

1824–1884

Question 40

Bruckner dates

Answer 40

1824–1896

Question 41

Brahms dates

Answer 41

1833–1897

Question 42

Borodin dates

Answer 42

1833–1887

Question 43

Saint-Saëns dates

Answer 43

1835–1921

Question 44

Mussorgsky dates

Answer 44

1839–1881

Question 45

Tchaikovsky dates

Answer 45

1840–1893

Question 46

Dvorak dates

Answer 46

1841–1904

Question 47

Grieg dates

Answer 47

1843–1907

Question 48

Fauré dates

Answer 48

1845–1924

Question 49

Elgar dates

Answer 49

1857–1934

Question 50

Puccini dates

Answer 50

1858–1924

Question 51

Mahler dates

Answer 51

1860–1911

Question 52

Debussy dates

Answer 52

1862–1918

Question 53

Richard Strauss dates

Answer 53

1864–1949

Question 54

Sibelius dates

Answer 54

1865–1957

Question 55

Vaughan Williams dates

Answer 55

1872–1958

Question 56

Rachmaninoff dates

Answer 56

1873–1943

Question 57

Schoenberg dates

Answer 57

1874–1951

Question 58

Holst dates

Answer 58

1874–1934

Question 59

Ives dates

Answer 59

1874–1954

Question 60

Ravel dates

Answer 60

1875–1937

Question 61

Bartók dates

Answer 61

1881–1945

Question 62

Stravinsky dates

Answer 62

1882–1971

Question 63

Varèse dates

Answer 63

1883–1965

Question 64

Prokofiev dates

Answer 64

1891–1953

Question 65

Hindemith dates

Answer 65

1895–1963

Question 66

Poulenc dates

Answer 66

1899–1963

Question 67

Copland dates

Answer 67

1900–1990

Question 68

Shostakovich dates

Answer 68

1906–1975

Question 69

Messiaen dates

Answer 69

1908–1992

Question 70

Barber dates

Answer 70

1910–1981

Question 71

Cage dates

Answer 71

1912–1992

Question 72

Lutoslawski dates

Answer 72

1913–1994

Question 73

Britten dates

Answer 73

1913–1976

Question 74

Ligeti dates

Answer 74

1923–2006

Question 75

Boulez dates

Answer 75

1925–2016

Question 76

Stockhausen dates

Answer 76

1928–2007

Question 77

Rautavaara dates

Answer 77

1928–2016

Question 78

Schnittke dates

Answer 78

1934–1998

Question 79

Riley dates

Answer 79

b. 1935

Question 80

Pärt dates

Answer 80

b. 1935

Question 81

Reich dates

Answer 81

b. 1936

Question 82

Glass dates

Answer 82

b. 1937

Question 83

Adams dates

Answer 83

b. 1947

Question 84

Satie dates

Answer 84

1866–1925

Question 85

Carter dates

Answer 85

1908–2012

Question 86

Bernstein dates

Answer 86

1918–1990

Question 87

Penderecki dates

Answer 87

1933–2020

Question 88

Canticles

Answer 88

Texts from the New Testament that are sung in the same manner as psalms, with antiphons and doxology

Question 89

Propers

Answer 89

Introit, Gradual/Alleluia, Offertory, Communion

Question 90

Micrologus

Answer 90

c. 1028 treaty by Guido of Arezzo containing earliest guide to staff notation

Question 91

Components of a psalm tone

Answer 91

Intonation, reciting tone, flexus, mediant, terminatio

Question 92

Tract

Answer 92

Long, sometimes highly melismatic psalm setting that is sung in place of the Alleluia during penitential seasons such as Advent and Lent

Question 93

Jubilus

Answer 93

The melisma on the “ia” of “Alleluia,” a favorite place for substitution of even longer melismas; when the jubilus is swapped out for a longer melisma, it is called a sequentia

Question 94

Musica enchiriadis

Answer 94

Earliest surviving Frankish treatise on practical music-making, from between 860-900; contains organum

Question 95

Trope

Answer 95

Newly-composed preface to another chant (usually Mass proper antiphons were troped)

Question 96

Dies irae chant

Answer 96

A very late (maybe 13th c.) medieval liturgical song; text attributed to Thomas of Celano, a biographer of St. Francis of Assisi

Question 97

Contrafactum

Answer 97

Mixing and matching of texts and tunes, a common practice for regularly structured late Parisian (“Victorine”) sequences and many other genres as well

Question 98

Hildegard of Bingen

Answer 98

Abbess of Benedictine convent of Rupertsberg in Germany
–Totally different approach; unlike Parisian sequence which was orderly and reasoned
–She aimed for “symphony of the harmony of heavenly revelations”
–Collected poetical works by late 1150s; including sequences, antiphons, responsories,
hymns, and Kyries
–Melodies characterized by extraordinary ambitus (up to 2.5 octaves), not easily
mapped onto modal functions; avoid regular accents and rhymes; have fantastic diction and imagery
–Example: Columba aspexit = for commemoration feast of St. Maximinus, paired versicles but not so strict with syllable count; melodic parallelism that is similar but not exact (as would have been the case in most late medieval sequences); more like variations; this melody is not easy to memorize or sing automatically…combined with flamboyant imagery to produce “an immensity of feeling one associates with revelation rather than reflection”
–Hildegard is seen as being mystical, immediate
–Ordo virtutum = “The enactment of the virtues,” the largest work of Hildegard
–The Devil and 16 virtues do battle for possession of a soul
–Oldest morality play
–Content-wise, it’s forward-looking…but structurally, sung verse plays were very popular in the 12th c.

Question 99

Marian antiphons

Answer 99

Alma redemptoris mater (Advent to Feast of the Purification on February 2)
Ave Regina coelorum (Purification until Holy Week)
Regina caeli (Paschal time from Easter to Pentecost)
Salve, Regina (Pentecost to Advent)

Question 100

Codex Calixtinus

Answer 100

Aside from St. Martial manuscripts, the other main source of early-to-mid-12th c. polyphony

Question 101

Notre Dame School

Answer 101

School of polyphonic composition, supposed flowering of Western art music…but built on just a handful of accounts, a few manuscripts, and some treatises
–Musical documents include three service books in Paris from late 13th c., including lots
of polyphonic chant settings (many more than St. Martial or Codex Calixtinus)
–Plus, the music here is more generalized for liturgy, not specific to local saints
(Great Responsories for matins and lesson chants [Gradual and Alleluia])
–And there are large groups of three-voice settings and even four-voice ones
occasionally too!
–While earlier (St. Martial/Calixtinus) repertories favored note-against-note
discant or florid organum, Notre Dame compositions used both (tenor notes in organum lasted for several minutes; discant finally had precise rhythmic notation)
–Music of the Notre Dame school was as ambitious as the cathedral was itself…they
adopted the style of earlier polyphony but blew it up in terms of proportion…and also
attempted to be universal for the whole church

Question 102

Anonymus IV

Answer 102

Treatise from around 1270; written by an Englishman who studied in Paris; the name “Anonymus IV” applies to the heading of the treatise in a later collection of musicology from the 19th c.

Question 103

Anonymus IV

Answer 103

Treatise from around 1270; written by an Englishman who studied in Paris; the name “Anonymus IV” applies to the heading of the treatise in a later collection of musicology from the 19th c.

Question 104

13th c. motet

Answer 104

–Earliest form of a motet is a texted (prosulated) bit of discant
–Discant (which is melismatic) with added syllabic text grafted on a la prosula
–Notably, medieval motets were polytextual, with as many texts as there were voices over the tenor.

Question 105

13th c. motet

Answer 105

–Earliest form of a motet is a texted (prosulated) bit of discant
–Discant (which is melismatic) with added syllabic text grafted on a la prosula
–Notably, medieval motets were polytextual, with as many texts as there were voices over the tenor.

Question 106

Franco of Cologne

Answer 106

13th c. theorist who devised system of notation

Question 107

Motet at end of 13th c.

Answer 107

Strictly polyphonic; connotation of elite, intellectual, an experimental genre

Question 108

Montpellier Codex

Answer 108

Most comprehensive and lavishly appointed motet book surviving from 13th c.; more than 300 motets

Question 109

Ars Nova

Answer 109

Early 14th c. treatise by de Vitry; expanded rhythmic values available to composers; mensuration; isorhythm

Question 110

Felix virgo/Inviolata/AD TE SUSPIRAMUS

Answer 110

Lavish motet by Machaut, appeal to BVM, includes a fourth contratenor voice (in the same range as tenor), and a more formal introitus than prior motets; contratenor is “free,” not drawn from a CF or color
–Color of tenor is a 48-note phrase from Salve Regina, with a talea of 16 rhythms
(and four rests), (first half in perfect longs, second half in imperfect longs)

Question 111

Double leading-tone cadence

Answer 111

Standard in 14th and early 15th c.

Question 112

Nuper rosarum flores

Answer 112

Du Fay motet written for Pope Eugene IV; possible proportion connection with church?

Question 113

Machaut secular

Answer 113

Perhaps best known as a poet; liked formes fixes; wrote elevated courtly love songs using polyphony

Question 114

Messe de Nostre Dame

Answer 114

Earliest surviving Mass cycle by single composer; compilation of different pieces; largely contrasting styles across sections (homorhythm in Credo); motet-like use of isorhythm, luxuriant four-part setting; hocket vs. stasis; emblematic of ars subtilior

Question 115

Ars subtilior

Answer 115

Late 14th c., was the grand finale of Ars Nova which saw composers trying to one-up each other with technical virtuosity
–Has also been known as “mannered style”
–Large strophic ballade had replaced motet as supreme genre for ars subtilior

Question 116

Squarcialupi Codex

Answer 116

Major manuscript source for 14th c. madrigals; Jacopo

Question 117

English descant

Answer 117

What we would call parallel 6/3 chords

–When based on plainsong, CF was typically in middle voice

Question 118

Old Hall Manuscript

Answer 118

Earliest English source of decipherable polyphonic church music which has survived fairly intact
–147 pieces, most from the late 14th c.
–Contains mostly Mass Ordinary settings by movement category (Kyries, Glorias, etc.)

Question 119

Fauxbourdon

Answer 119

Cantus part, NOT tenor, carries the original chant

Question 120

Faburden

Answer 120

Not associated with an individual piece, but rather the English technique of harmonizing
chants at “sight” by adding voices to make parallel 6/3 chords
–Middle part has chant

Question 121

In hydraulis

Answer 121

Busnois; Compares Ockeghem to Pythagoras and Orpheus
–Three-note pes which might correspond to Ockeghem’s name
–Highlights Pythagorean intervals

Question 122

Mass in the 15th c.

Answer 122

Cyclic Mass was the main genre for composers at this time

Question 123

Caput masses

Answer 123

Concluding word of Maundy Thursday antiphon “Venit ad Petrum”
Anonymous setting of the Mass (maybe Dunstable), lots of people emulated and tried to one-up it (Ockeghem, Obrecht)

Question 124

Missa Prolationum

Answer 124

Sung in four parts, written in two; lots of double mensuration canon material (but not exclusively)

Question 125

L’Homme Armé settings

Answer 125

40+ masses, 1450s–17th c.
Josquin, Busnoys, others all have settings
Josquin’s Missa L’Homme Armé super voces musicales (CF is pitched on ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la across sections)

Question 126

Mass in the 15th c.

Answer 126

Mass took over as the prestige genre from Mass at this time

Question 127

Motet in the 15th c.

Answer 127

Isorhythmic, tenor-dominated, polytextual…became sacred, cantilena-style, Latin, Mary-focused

Question 128

Eton Choirbook

Answer 128

Latter half of 15th c. material, assembled for evensong services

Question 129

Petrucci

Answer 129

–Earliest printed publication of polyphonic music (c.1501) had textless (instrumental)
chanson arrangements

Question 130

Glareanus

Answer 130

1488–1563
Loved Josquin, described his music as ars perfecta
Dodekachordon (including Ionian, Aeolian, hypo- versions of each)

Question 131

Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae

Answer 131

Published 1505

Soggetto cavato

Question 132

Ave Maria…Virgo serena

Answer 132

Text from BVM votive antiphon, plus added preface and closing couplet
Pervasive imitation
Variety of structure (mock fauxbourdon, canon, etc.)

Question 133

16th c. church music

Answer 133

–While 15th c. musical thinkers (i.e. Tinctoris) were often sure of the unprecedented richness of their age…16th c. saw an enormous striving for an objective standard of perfection that would be timeless
–By the second half of the 16th c., many musicians believed they had achieved ars perfecta
–Without the need to improve music any further, all that they felt they could do was codify it (triadic harmony and dissonance treatment)
–Key composers are Willaert, Gombert, Clemens

Question 134

Le Istitutioni harmoniche

Answer 134

1558, Zarlino; recognition of harmony, naming the triad

Question 135

Willaert style

Answer 135

Josquin-like! Paired imitation, clear declamation, rhetorical approach to form…but also Mouton’s leisurely flow of melody with evaded cadences

Question 136

In illo tempore loquente Jesu

Answer 136

Gombert piece, seamless, luxuriant, post-Josquin; 6 voices, pervasive imitation, no CF

Question 137

Early instrumental dance music

Answer 137

Basse danse; first use of ground bass (15th c.)

Question 138

Palestrina details

Answer 138

Ties with papacy (1577: asked to revise and clean up chant)
Hugely prolific Mass composer at a time when people were writing motets more
Vast majority of his 104 masses are based on preexisting material (53 parody, 30 paraphrase, some even CF)

Question 139

Parody mass

Answer 139

Using motives of a polyphonic model rewoven into new textures

Question 140

Paraphrase mass

Answer 140

Using chant in a pervasive imitative texture

Question 141

Pope Marcellus Mass

Answer 141

From Palestrina’s second book of Masses (1567)
Emphasis on text intelligibility
Tonal stability, definition, rational control

Question 142

Byrd details

Answer 142

1549: BCP and Act of Uniformity making it illegal to celebrate Latin Mass
Mary I: made Catholicism legal again, burned Cranmer
Elizabeth I: 1558 took over, achieved compromise…but over time, it still wasn’t safe for recusants

Question 143

Ferrabosco

Answer 143

Catholic, but protected when Elizabeth brought him to England in 1562
Brought continental styles of Gombert, Clemens, etc.

Question 144

Byrd sacred Catholic works

Answer 144

Two volumes of Cantiones sacrae, 1589, 1591
1593: 4 Voice
1594: 3 Voice
1595: 5 Voice
1605, 1607, two volumes of Gradualia (no traditional melodies, highly imitative)

Question 145

Frottola

Answer 145

lightweight genre, like the old ballata or the virelai
–Frottole were originally and primarily solo songs for virtuoso singers to lute (or other
instrumental) accompaniment

Question 146

Tenorlied

Answer 146

German counterpart to frottola, a polyphonic CF setting of a popular tune

Question 147

Parisian chanson

Answer 147

abandoned formes fixes, mid-16th c., simple, homophonic style, often 4 voices, often evocative of nature
–Sermisy (c. 1490–1562) was the master
–Not really clear where this genre came from…Italian influence? Newly made up?
–Popularized alongside printing

Question 148

Petrarchan movement

Answer 148

Literary revival of 14th c. poetic genres in the 16h c.
Associated with Bembo
Emphasis on opposites, contrasting ideas

Question 149

Madrigal revival

Answer 149

Not related to early 14th c. madrigal genre
First madrigalists were oltremontani working in Italy; confluence of high old literary ideals and sophisticated imported musical techniques
Early madrigalists were Verdelot and Arcadelt
Madrigal was dominant by 1540

Question 150

Monteverdi/Artusi

Answer 150

Cruda Amarilli (5th book, 1605)
Artusi (pupil of Zarlino) attacked in 1600 treatise
Famous example is soprano on “ahi lasso,” but there were others
G.C. Monteverdi wrote on his brother’s behalf
Monteverdi wrote about seconda prattica

Question 151

Musica Transalpina

Answer 151

1588; published by Morley; 57 Italian madrigals translated into English

Question 152

Triumphs of Oriana

Answer 152

1601; 21 composers with madrigals praising Queen Elizabeth

Question 153

Lutheran chorale

Answer 153

Accessible; meant to take place of chant
Famous examples include Christ lag in Todesbanden
Ein feste Burg is unser Gott
Melody in soprano, not tenor

Question 154

Chorale prelude

Answer 154

Organ setting based on a chorale tune

Question 155

Basso continuo vs. basso seguente

Answer 155

Continuous vs. bass that “follows,” a composite of lowest notes

Question 156

G. Gabrieli innovation

Answer 156

Specified instruments for performance

Ritornello use in concertato style

Question 157

Florentine Academy

Answer 157

Founded in 1540, Girolama Mei wrote treatise espoused monophony based on ancient Greece
Giovanni de Bardi aimed to get rid of counterpoint in favor of art founded on imitation of nature
Aimed for natural language, stile rappresentativo

Question 158

Intermedii

Answer 158

Allegorical pageants with music to be performed between acts of a spoken comedy; early 16th c. but flourished later in the century

Question 159

Monodic revolution

Answer 159

~1600, but perhaps a few years earlier with Caccini and Peri
Nuove musiche – Caccini’s book of solo songs; helped to develop stile recitativo; Amarilli mia bella
Both Caccini and Peri wrote musical settings of Euridice

Question 160

Monteverdi opera

Answer 160

Important contributions early and late

1607: first favola in musica (nobles in audience, mythological theme)
1643: dramma musicale (paying public, historical theme, public music drama)

Question 161

Monteverdi bio

Answer 161

Early life in Cremona
Went to Mantua to work for Duke Gonzaga as string player
1605: Book 5, preface naming seconda prattica
1607: full response to Artusi
1610: looking for new job, found in Venice in 1613
After that, all concerted music
8th book: combattimento, lamento della ninfa

Question 162

Opera overview

Answer 162

Early favole in musica – for nobility, aimed for elegance
That shifted to virtuosity in commercial settings (castrati)
Tragedie lyrique: Lully: “courtiest court operas”
French opera around Lully was “tailored to accommodate national prejudices, court traditions, and royal prerogatives,” and wholly centralized as a propaganda machine

Question 163

Frescobaldi style

Answer 163

Toccate (formally capricious, unpredictable)
Ciaccona (fast and furious dance, syncopated triple meter)
Corrente (triple-meter dance, either quick or slow with hemiolas)
Balletto (aka allemande, broad duple)
Passacagli (variations on cadential patterns)

Frescobaldi did not expect performer to play all the passages notated in his toccatas

Question 164

Schütz works and style

Answer 164

Early studies with G. Gabrieli; book of Italian madrigals, came back to Germany to showcase Venetian style
Elector of Saxony; started job in 1615, stayed for the rest of his life, basically
1619, thick times: Psalmen Davids
Later, thin times: Geistliche Chor-Music
Figurenlehre: style of dissonance arising out of the imagery and emotional content of a text, for rhetorical purposes
1636: back from Venice, Kleine geistliche Concerte
1636: Musikalische exequien

Question 165

Tragedie lyrique

Answer 165

French court-supported opera style, aimed to combine court pageantry and dramatic gravity
Lully wrote 13 (Alceste, Armide, etc.) with Quinault
These pieces were thinly veiled metaphors for the grandeur of the court
Rameau: Castor et Pollux
French overture was introduced
Lots of dances

Question 166

Rameau style

Answer 166

Sometimes shows influence of later Italian style, but essentially the same as Lully’s, just intensified (richer harmonies, thicker textures, more heroic)

Question 167

War of the Buffoons

Answer 167

~1750s, a press debate surrounding the first performances of Italian commercial opera in Paris, ended up being really bad news for French court opera
It’s farcical, low-status characters of Italian opera vs. courtly French

Question 168

Jacobean music

Answer 168

Early 17th c. England
Masques were the prominent theatrical music, “somewhere between a costume ball and the prologue to a French court opera”
Ferrabosco, Campion, Johnson
Rise of instrumental music with viol and lute consorts
Fancies (point of imitation fantasies) and ayres (dance-style works)

Question 169

Matthew Locke

Answer 169

c. 1622–1677

Post-Jacobean (aka Stuart) inventor of semi-opera, mix of masque, recit, airs, etc.

Question 170

Semi-opera

Answer 170

English late-17th c. genre which developed out of masque

Fairy Queen is the most famous

Question 171

Purcell style and works

Answer 171

–Organist for Westminster Abbey and Chapel Royal
–Excelled in every genre: anthems, services, royal odes, instrumental chamber music,
harpsichord works, incidental music for 40+ plays
–”Brash and pungent” style: lots of improperly resolved dissonances, lots of
chromaticism, but always a strong sense of thrust toward cadences
–He was the star composer of the London stage
Dido and Aeneas (1689)
Funeral sentences
Hear my prayer

Question 172

Dido and Aeneas

Answer 172

What is the role of chorus?

Question 173

Opera seria

Answer 173

Developed in Naples around the turn of the 18th c.
Alessandro Scarlatti is major figure (114 operas); he inherited Venetian tradition and transformed it, standardized it
Da capo arias
Stylistically, gets rid of old Venetian comic and bawdy scenes…wanting to move opera from commercial back to court
Idealized cast of character types (rulers, confidants, servants), couple of characters for each, three acts
Metastasio was the archetypical librettist

The primary influences on Metastasio were Petrarch and his sixteenth-century
imitators and the moral philosophy of René Descartes (Les passions de l’âme).
Metastasio’s libretti frequently combined plot lines from antiquity (including the
Bible for oratorios) with the Cartesian notion that virtue was best embodied in
an individual’s ability to control human passion.
The typical Metastasian libretto assumed some basic musical and structural
needs such as: (1) scene changes (in the operas) associated with the entrance or
exit of a character; action depicted primarily through dialogue (recitative)
leading to a concluding aria; (2) arias with two contrasting texts using the da
capo aria form; and (3) ensembles or choruses (in nonoperatic formats) that
conclude an act (of which there are typically three in operas and two in
oratorios).

Castrati with virtuoso arias
Arias are outward to the audience, recit is internal to the stage/plot
–In the world of opera seria, the composer came last. The most important taste to meet was that of the ruler or patron, then the audience, then the singer, then the librettist, then the composer
–The idea of the composer-as-genius who tells from on high was NOT the situation here
–Also, imagine the well-lit auditorium of nobles and wealthy public eating, playing cards, going to the bathroom, generally being noisy and raucous…that was the scene
Fundamental narrative of all opere serie: “a moral tale of impure elements tamed and eradicated from the idealized body politic”
Other composers include Hasse

Question 174

Sonata da chiesa/sonata da camera

Answer 174

Church sonata–solo violin (or two violins) and continuo, usually played during mass, four main sections (SFSF)
Chamber sonata–dance suit, also four movements (prelude +3 dances)
Corelli published 4 collections of 12 trio sonatas each, alternating church, chamber in the collections
Essential for development of functional tonality (circle of fifths, far out point)

Question 175

Origin of the concerto

Answer 175

Developed out of opera seria aria and Corelli’s concerti, did away with Preludio and so were just F-S-F
Torelli and Vivaldi are early figures
Harmony-driven

Question 176

Fugue structure

Answer 176

–Fugue is “like a single extended and colossally elaborated point of imitation from the older motet or canzona”
–Subject = main theme
–Exposition = opening section of a fugue, in which the subject is introduced in each
voice
–Answer = subject played up a fifth or down a fourth
–Countersubject = “counterpoint with which [first voice] accompanies the answer”
–Double fugue = one that is written in invertible counterpoint (i.e. subject both above and
below the countersubjects)
–Episode = what happens after the exposition; a stretch of music without the subject
–Stretto = foreshortening of subject and answer so that multiple voices are sounding
them at once; common way of bringing fugues to a close

Question 177

Fortspinnung

Answer 177

“spinning out,” term coined in 1915 to describe melodic elaboration via
repetition, use of sequences, etc.; delays cadences, allows for high degree of control

Question 178

Vivaldi concerti

Answer 178

He was the main establisher of three-movement soloistic concerto
500+ concerti (230 violin, 37 bassoon)
Ritornelli that are rich with melodic ideas (internal repetitions of ritornello break it apart and recombine the different ideas)
Solo passages are like episodes in a fugue?
L’estro armonico is his earliest collection of concerti (1711)
Four Seasons is from a collection from 1725, accompanied by explanatory sonnets
–Spring begins with an affectively “happy,” folksong-like ritornello, then has four episodes:
–Singing of birds (onomatopoeia)
–Brook and breezes (mimetic depiction of water rising and falling)
–Sudden storm (tremolos mimic thunder, high scales mimic lightning)
–Birds return (chromatic ascending line as if they are checking out the weather before
singing again)

Question 179

Concert spirituel

Answer 179

Established in France in 1725, in place of performance during Lent?

Question 180

Handel bio

Answer 180

Born in Halle (lived there until 18), then Hamburg, Italy from 1706–1710, Elector of Hanover in 1710, Elector becomes King George I in 1714
Opera career in England; became English subject in 1727
In 1730s he shifted to oratorio (his own version, English instead of Latin, no narrator, lots of choruses) when he had business bad luck with opera
23 oratorios 1732–1752

Question 181

Buxtehude’s influence on Bach

Answer 181

Toccata form (combined with fugue...leading to prelude and fugue genre)
Chorale setting (small organ chorale prelude with chorale tune as CF...all the way up to a huge set of improvised or composed variations)

Question 182

Style brisé

Answer 182

Lute-based arpeggiating style which traveled to French court harpsichordists and then Bach (a la C Major Prelude)
Couperin was a proponent

Question 183

Froberger style

Answer 183

Combined French and Italian styles (as was common among Germans a la Schütz as well)
Wrote 10 French suites
Helped to establish standard dance suite format (Allemande–slow four beat, thick texture piece; Courante–slow triple-time with hemiola; Sarabande–triple meter dance like a slow minuet, accented second beat; Gigue; faster dance with point of imitation)

Question 184

Bach’s time at Cöthen

Answer 184

He was a Kapellmeister at a Calvinist court!
No real church music, and mostly instrumental works
WTC (first book), sonatas, suites, orchestral overtures

Question 185

Style galant

Answer 185

Connotations of “amusing” in a tasteful, courtly sort of way

Galanterie dances include gavotte, bourée, loure, minuet

Question 186

Rococo

Answer 186

“exquisitely embellished, decorative veneer” over highly simple bare bones structures, expressing aristocratic, courtly sentiments like galant
Couperin’s music is an example

Question 187

Brandenberg Concertos

Answer 187

–In 1721, while at Cöthen, Bach collected six different instrumental concertos from the past decade, wrote them out again, and sent them to Margrave of Brandenburg as a sort of job application
–Margrave never acknowledged receipt; he may have not been interested because the
scoring is bizarre and different for each concerto
–Orchestration of Brandenburg Concertos
–#1, in F: concertino is two horns, three oboes, bassoon, violino piccolo
–#2, in F: concertino is violin, oboe, recorder, clarino trumpet
–#3, in G: no concertino, but ripieno tutti group is nine string soloists, continuo
–#4, in G: concertino is violin and two recorders
–#5, in D: concertino is violin, transverse flute, harpsichord as soloist(!)
–Perhaps the earliest solo keyboard concerto?
–Has wholly unique moment in which harpsichord plays a cadenza (or perhaps a
capriccio, a deliberately non-stylistically-accurate excerpt
–#6, in Bb: concertino is two violas(!), two viols; no violins whatsoever

Question 188

Handel oratorio

Answer 188

Esther (1732) (pastiche revival of an early masque)
Deborah and Athalia (1733)
Saul (1739)
Israel in Egypt (1739)
Messiah (1741)

Libretti by Charles Jennens

–What was new about Handel oratorio?
–Not just opera seria on a biblical subject (which was the model for traditional Italian
oratorio)
–Acting out the story was not allowed in England, but the piece was still essentially an
opera, with the same musical structures and dramatic confrontations
–Huge choruses! And a huge orchestra! These were not features of opera seria
–Many Handel oratorios are Old Testament tales of civic heroism and national triumph
–Shrewd move on Handel’s part, as English audiences identified strongly with Old
Testament Israelites, saw the oratorios as allegories for themselves
–Handel oratorios as first great monuments of European nationalism in
music

Question 189

Erdmann Neumeister

Answer 189

–German poet and theologian who revolutionized form and style of Lutheran sacred
texts for music
–Lutheran music went from chorales to “oratorio” style (combination of chorales, bible verses, poems that emotionally reflect verses a la arias in opera seria) for Passion settings
–By around 1700, Neumeister started publishing small-scale “oratorio” texts with highly madrigalesque writing explicitly divided into recits and arias = German cantata, as he called it
–Neumeister wrote these texts in annual cycles (Bach wrote only a handful of
surviving cantatas to Neumeister texts, but most of them use Neumeister’s
format)

Question 190

Bach cantata

Answer 190

Structurally sort of like opera seria…but not emotionally; these were reflective, not dramatic, no characters, etc.

Question 191

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (BWV 61)

Answer 191

–Is actually a text by Neumeister, and probably Bach’s earliest setting of one of his texts
–Nun komm is a popular Lutheran chorale developed from Advent hymn “Veni,
redemptor gentium”
–Cantata is for first Sunday of Advent
Cantata uses just one verse of the chorale, the rest of the text is commentary
–First verse is an actual French overture, a “stately march framing a jiglike fugue” with
Lully-style scoring (five-part strings) and four-part chorus
–Format contrasts “stately advent of Christ and the joyous amazement of
mankind” represented in the text
–No choral counterpoint whatsoever! The one line of the chorale is sung in
unison by each voice part one after the other, then in four-part chordal style
–Second movement is Italian salon-style tenor recit (#2) and aria (#3) on a reflective text
–But the recit itself ends with a mezz’aria (half-aria) with a more active bass that
imitates the singer—mezz’arie were very German by 18th c.
–Third movement is the tenor aria
–”A sort of gloss on the word ‘come’ from the chorale,” a lilting gigue
–Has a ritornello, but it’s not Vivaldian with multiple distinct ideas; rather, all
derived from a single phrase
–Fourth and fifth movements are unusual (for Italian cantatas or opera) because they are
recit by one singer, aria by another
–Recit is Christ’s response to previous aria; “klopfe,” (“I knock”), includes
pizzicato!
–Following aria is soprano answering, as the voice of the soul, Christ’s knock;
just voice and continuo

Question 192

Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 4)

Answer 192

–Chorale tune adapted from Victimae paschali laudes
–A “chorale-concerto” cantata from Muhlausen, 1707
–Text of the cantata is the text of the chorale; seven verses, seven sections
–First verse (plus introduction sinfonia) are about as long as the rest of the
cantata
–Sinfonia built from materials from the chorale tune
–First chorus is old-fashioned CF in “motet style” (chorale tune in
soprano, points of imitation and Vorimitationen in accompanying voices), opens into alle breve hallelujah
–Super out of touch in any music except Lutheran at this point
–Second verse is echoing duet of chorale-based tune in soprano and alto, moving eighth note ground bass
–Verse three is an organ chorale prelude with tenor CF in the “left hand,” violins as “right hand” ritornello
–Verse four is a CF setting with tune in the alto, lots of imitations, continuo is basso seguente
–Verse five begins with chromatic descending passus duriusculus; unique in that it is in triple meter (compared with preceding movements, at least); antiphony between bass solo and strings
–Like a “parody of a passacaglia-style Venetian opera aria, vintage 1640”
–Verse six imitates French overture rhythms, possibly for solemnity of text
–Verse seven is a Cantionalsatz, or “hymnbook setting,” a straightforward Bach
chorale harmonization

Question 193

Ein’ feste Burg (BWV 80)

Answer 193

–”Undoubtedly Bach’s most splendid cantata”
–For Feast of the Reformation (October 31, 1724) in Leipzig; celebration of hanging of
95 theses and the most important feast day for German Protestants
–Bach’s cantata alternates choral movements based on chorale verses with recit/aria movements from Salomo Franck, Weimar court poet
–Movement 1 is a “chorale fantasia” unique to Bach’s larger Leipzig cantatas
–Essentially a big motet with points of imitation for each line of the chorale
–Chorale tune becomes a subject which is answered like a fugue, but starting
with the inner voices (unusual) and including the instruments playing the CF melody
–Bach specifies organ registration! Uncommon; perhaps to ensure the widest
possible ambitus
–Movement 2 is duet between soul and Jesus
(soprano has decorated version of chorale melody while bass sings a commentary in
coloratura style)
–It ends up being a sort of “cantus firmus aria” with the CF in soprano
–Movements 3 and 4 are a recit/aria pair
–Movement 5 is a setting of the third chorale verse
–Chorus as steadfast Christians singing the hymn in octaves, while instrumental
ensemble has a wild Vivaldian ritornello which portrays evil surrounding
–Movement 6 is tenor recit, 7 is alto/tenor duet
–Movement 8 is Cantionalsatz which reiterates the famous chorale tune

Question 194

Chorale fantasia (Bach)

Answer 194

Essentially a big motet with points of imitation for each line of the chorale
–Chorale tune becomes a subject which is answered like a fugue, but starting
with the inner voices (unusual) and including the instruments playing the CF melody

Question 195

B Minor Mass

Answer 195

–Catholic-seeming stile antico chorus moments vs. show, courtly, galant arias
–Bach sent the Kyrie and Gloria to Elector Friedrich August II in 1733 to see if he could
get named Hofkomponist so he could petition Leipzig for more money
–In the last years of his life, Bach returned to those movements, added a Sanctus from
1724, assembled Credo and Agnus Dei
–Performances of the piece only happened with Bach revival in 19th c. and beyond
–Gloria is in nine segments (including that the first movement combines two pieces)
–Starts with quick vivace gigue, then moves to hushed stile antico
–After this, the Gloria alternates choruses and solo arias for each of five soloists
–Laudamus te is “ingratiatingly ornate and courtly chamber style” with violin
concerto-esque ritornello and castrato-style solo vocal writing
–Gratias agimus tibi is an austere, archaic chorus, from a Leipzig cantata
–Domine Deus is a duet for soprano and tenor with solo flute, galant slurrings
and appoggiaturas
–Qui tollis peccata mundi is light chorus from a Leipzig cantata
–Qui sedes is alto solo with oboe d’amore obbligato
–Quoniam tu solus is bass and corno da caccia, two bassoons; perhaps from a
cantata with a hunting theme?
–Cum sancto spiritu is final chorus, returns to opening tempo and character,
including an oddly Handelian virtuosic choral section in the middle fugue

Question 196

St. Matthew Passion

Answer 196

–St. Matthew Passion arias are all by Picander
–This Passion is more contemplative than St. John
–Kommt ihr Töchter is a giant chorale prelude, with boys singing O Lamm Gottes

Question 197

Goldberg Variations

Answer 197

a huge cycle of 30 keyboard pieces, including intricate

canons, on a single “aria” (ostinato) bass line

Question 198

Musical Offering

Answer 198

a miscellany of canons, complicated ricercars, and a trio sonata
based on a chromatic “royal theme” from Frederick the Great

Question 199

Art of the Fugue

Answer 199

a collection of 21 “contrapuncti,” such as canons, double

and triple fugues, etc., all based on a single D-minor subject

Question 200

Domenico Scarlatti

Answer 200

Wound up living a life of luxury and freedom working for a princess in Lisbon, then Madrid
A miniaturist, writing 550+ short, freestanding harpsichord pieces which he called “sonatas” (though they were just one movement)
They’re very quirky! Hugely harmonically traveling, very virtuosic, basic shape is same but tons of variety

Question 201

Galant/Empfindsmkeit sonata

Answer 201

–“Sonata” for J.S. had meant “chamber music in the Italian style,” aka trio
sonatas; keyboard music was suites, not sonatas; most J.S. sonatas are
fugues
–For W.F., this was a three-movement form with all movements in
binary; two-part texture or free harmonic figuration; biggest difference is
the style and rhetoric
–W.F. begins with a tiny, insignificant canon as decorative approach
rather than central focus
–W.F.’s melody is “based on the dual principle of short-range contrast
and balance”
–i.e. first 4 measures illustrate the whole story, with two
measures emphasizing tonic, two measures the dominant
­ –Motive shifts in second two measures, too, then again
basically every measure!
–Melodic cells with galant associations (fast triplets next to duples;
Lombard snaps)
–Binary design of the piece remains there-and-back, I-V-I, but it takes
time, is in no hurry, and doesn’t show strong emotion as it journeys

Moving from Fortspinnung on a single “invention” or msuical idea to tons of different, fragmented ideas

Question 202

Empfindsamkeit

Answer 202

German for “sensibility,” and Empfindsamkeit means susceptibility to sensibility
–No more objective depiction of a character’s feelings, but rather priority is the
expression and transmission of one’s own feelings; a very introspective approach
Small-scale media

Question 203

CPE Bach

Answer 203

An Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments (two volumes in 1753 and 1762)
Prussian Sonatas (1740–1742) = highly mercurial, tons of dissonance and accidentals, an instrumental recit.!,

Question 204

Empfindsamkeit vs. galanterie

Answer 204

–CPE’s version is solitary, introspective; personal emotion; Empfindsamkeit
–JC’s version is sociable, outgoing; party music; galanterie

Question 205

Opera buffa

Answer 205

Displaced opera seria by late 18th c.
Metastasian opera seria had shifted from hybrid serious/comic to just serious
Instead, opera seria had intermezzos between acts which were comedic
Comic opera libretto “depended on a plot that is first hopelessly tangled, then sorted out”
–Very distinct from structure of opera seria!
–In comic opera, the tangle and the sorting were symbolized in tutti ensemble finales (in
intermezzo, these had been just duets, but in opera buffa they were much more
elaborate, even drawn out scenes without recit.)

Mozart’s first opera buffa was La finta semplice (1769)

Late 18th c. opera buffa is driven by three key points:
Introduzione, in which plot is set off
Act I finale, in which imbroglio reaches its peak
Act II finale, in which action is driven to closure

Question 206

Intermezzo

Answer 206

Intermezzo style was galant: short phrases, musically and expressively self-contained and contrasted with other phrases
Most famous intermezzo was Pergolesi’s La serva padrona

Question 207

Gluck opera

Answer 207

Attempted to reform dazzling artifice of opera seria by returning to most ancient, uncorrupted ways…so it’s incredibly stripped down “neoclassical” opera
Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste (1767)
Very small casts (no Metastasian hierarchy of couples)
No coloratura
But still uses Italian, castrati

Question 208

Mozart opera

Answer 208

Can be divided into Italian comic, Italian serious, and German vernacular comic

Early works include Mitridate, La finta semplice, Batien und Bastienne
Middle works include:
Idomeneo (1780) (opera seria, modeled on Gluck reform operas)
Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782) (mocks Turkish)
Late works include:
Marriage of Figaro (1785, with Da Ponte)
Don Giovanni (1787, with Da Ponte)
Cosi (1790, with Da Ponte) (his last opera buffa)
Very late works
Magic flute (singspiel, 1791) (huge range of styles: folk songs from Papageno, two supernatural beings, lyrical humans of Tamino and Pamina)
La Clemenza di Tito (1791)

Question 209

Famous composer/librettist pairs

Answer 209

Lully and Quinault
    –Gluck and Calzabigi
    –Mozart and da Ponte
    –Bellini and Romani
    –Verdi and Piave

Question 210

Don Giovanni

Answer 210

–Don Giovanni introduzione is preceded by the overture sinfonia (at this point, no longer a three-movement suite but a single quick movement in binary form)
–Mozart uses an andante, which is out of the ordinary and which foreshadows grim
resolution of the plot
–In the D.G. introduzione, a murder takes place before the eys of the audience
–Overall, D.G. is a farce, except for the introduzione and the final resolution
–The overture is essentially the same form as the J.C. Bach sonata allegro; one theme in the tonic which is a fanfare, two contrasting dominant themes, form-defining cadence on dominant, then motion to FOP, eventual double return; for Mozart, there is a coda which unexpectedly modulates to prepare for first vocal number of introduzione
–Introduzione
–First vocal number is a march-like ritornello by Leporello
–Then Don Giovanni enters, pursued by angry Donna Anna; they sing a tense trio that
fails to make complete closure
–Commander, Donna Anna’s father, enters in response to her screams; trio between
Commander, D.G., and Leporello
–The introduzione is under 200 measures, but it introduces four characters, shows an
attempted arrest and a murder, and has moved through many keys…the impact of the
sustained dramatic tension of this section was huge
–After introduzione, Donna Anna and her fiancé Don Ottavio vow revenge; D.G. and Leporello come across Donna Elvira, who rebuffs him; Leporello comforts her with the catalogue aria
–Next, at a peasant wedding, D.G. invites everyone to his house in an attempt to seduce the bride, Zerlina; the groom, Masetto, gets angry; Donna Elvira arrives and warns Zerlina off; Donna Anna and Don Ottavio arrive, don’t recognize D.G., but when Elvira tips them off they join forces to bring him to justice; Donna Anna sings a noble aria of vengeance and Don Ottavio sings of his devotion to her
–Two more arias before first finale: D.G.’s madcap “Champagne aria;” and Zerlina’s appeasing of Masetto
–Act I finale: begins and ends in C Major, good for trumpets and a FOP of sorts for the beginning and end of the whole opera
–Quarrel duet between Masetto and Zerlino
–Wedding party heads inside D.G.’s house, he detains Zerlina outside, she resists him
–There is “in-person,” on stage music in D.G.’s house, but it’s silenced by the sudden
appearance of Don Ottavio, Donna Anna, and Donna Elvira, wearing masks
–Leporello doesn’t recognize them; they are invited in
–Masked trio sings an inward prayer for revenge
–Everyone participates in Don’s dancing; three dances, played by three sub-orchestras
in different corners of the room (minuet, follia, allemande)
–Leporello distracts Masetto, but then follows D.G. and Zerlina when he sees that she is fearful; offstage, Zerlina lets out out a bloodcurdling scream for help
–Everyone panics; D.G. drags Leporello to the ballroom and accuses him of being Zerlina’s attacker; the masked trio, not fooled, reveal themselves to D.G., who runs

–Act II leads to D.G.’s downfall
–In first scene, he is as farcically brazen as ever, attempting to woo Elvira’s maidservant
–In second scene, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira waver in their hatred of D.G.
–In third scene, D.G. has fled to a graveyard after dallying with Leporello’s love interest
–The voice of the Commander appears from beyond the grave; D.G. discovers
Commander’s monument, D.G. asks Leporello to invite the statue to dinner; the
statue nods assent
–Next scene is a tender moment for Don Ottavio and Donna Anna
–Finale is also a party scene with stage music (wind octet which plays actual music from
1787 opera buffa repertory, including a hit tune from Le nozze di Figaro)
–The three opera excerpts help to establish tonal pattern for remainder of finale,
which is the same as the opening tonalities of the introduzione)
–Donna Elvira arrives to suddenly warn D.G. of his impending doom; he derides her
–She runs away but screams; Leporello investigates and says it’s the statue, D.G. opens the door, undeterred (at that moment, harmony matches that of D.G.’s death thrust when he killed Commander)
–Trio of three basses as statue advances, D.G. scoffs, and Leporello trembles
–Horrifying music when statue touches D.G.; brand new for opera buffa!
–To end, the remaining characters are assembled onstage as would be traditional for buffa; Anna, Elvira, Ottavio, Zerlina, Masetto, who all interrogate Leporello about D.G.’s fate; Ottavio and Anna make plans to marry, Elvira announces she’s going to a convent; Zerlina and Masetto agree to patch things up, Leporello look for a better master
–Mozart’s genius at combining voices of characters in finales was influential; “the history of opera during the 19th c. could be described as the genre’s gradual transformation into one great big continuous ‘finale,’ lasting from curtain to curtain”

Question 211

Symphony as a genre

Answer 211

Early on (early 17th c.) it meant a piece that mixed vocal and instrumental forces over a basso continuo
By turn of 18th., it was the opening of an Italian opera
By turn of 19th, there were more than 16,000 catalogued symphonies as we now think of them
Mannheim: largest, most famous orchestra by 1770s
Stamitz was famous leader, wrote about 70 symphonies
J.C. and CPE Bach wrote symphonies
Haydn wrote so many symphoneis that were widely emulated and he completed the movement OUT OF ARISTOCRATIC SALON AND INTO PUBLIC SPHERE

Haydn early symphonies are in three movements (fast symphonic binary, slow, dancelike finale, using double return of sonata form)

Question 212

Haydn bio

Answer 212

St. Stephen’s in Vienna
Freelancer in Vienna, worked for Porpora
Eventually found work with Count von Morzin in 1759 as Kapellmeister
1761: Esterhazy (Nikolaus ruled from 1762)
1772: Farewell symphony (no. 45)
First movement is sturm und drang, not festive fanfare
First movement also alters sonata form, with contrasting theme after double bar and in submediant

1780s: late Haydn instrumental style
Russian quartets, Op. 33 (1782), including “joke” quartet

1790: Anton took over Esterhazy, disbanded orchestra
Salomon brought Haydn to London for subscription concert (two trips: 1791, 1794)
Haydn London symphonies are for paying audiences and are dramatically expanded (slow introductions in fanfare style, bigger minuet movements, trio more contrasted, more instruments)
Symphony No. 94, Surprise – second movement has surprise
Symphony No. 104, London (from second trip), intense thematic unity, basically a monothematic movement

Question 213

Mozart symphonies

Answer 213

Unlike Haydn, they don’t stray too far from the opera/garden party function
No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 and No. 41 in C, K. 551, Jupiter were written after D.G. premiered in 1788
–Jupiter Symphony, K. 551
–The density of the grandiose fugal finale and the resultant sensory overload were seen
as being sublime

Question 214

Mozart concertos

Answer 214

The most vital and important portion of his instrumental output?
27 piano cocnertos, 6 violin concertos
His early concertos combine older ritornello form from concerto grosso with idiosyncratic, highly contrasted thematic dramaturgy of the contemporary symphony
His concertos are associated with DOUBLE EXPOSITION (opening orchestral ritornello and first solo episode contain the same thematic material, though solo episode is the one to bring to the dominant)
Mozart’s piano concertos mostly come from 1780s when he was a freelancer

Question 215

Mozart dissonance quartet

Answer 215

Last of his Haydn set, K. 465
Unique among his quartets because of slow intro
Dissonance is a cross-relation between Ab and A
May have inspired opening of Creation?

Question 216

Beethoven bio

Answer 216

Groomed early for church career
1792: he studied in Vienna with Haydn
Early 1790s: starts making a name for himself as a pianist
1800: he was dominant; famous self-organized benefit concert including Haydn, Mozart works and a Beethoven piano concerto, an improvisation, Septet for Winds and Strings, op. 20, and First Symphony
1802: Heiligenstadt Testament = a letter Beethoven wrote to his brothers in which he
explained that composing was his chief consolation; mixture of despondency and
resolution; a hugely important document to the Beethoven myth
–1808: Beethoven’s last appearance as concerto soloist; December 22 of that year,
famous concert with premieres of 5th and 6th symphonies, Fourth Piano Concerto,
Choral Fantasy
–1814: Last appearance in public as a pianist with the “Archduke” Trio, op. 97

Question 217

Beethoven middle period

Answer 217

After Heiligenstadt of 1802
Eroica (1803) -- unprecedented scale, heroicism, no stable point of departure in the first theme, development moves to a minor, then to E, then huge E/F dissonance...then a new them in e minor!
Other works from this period:
Leonore (revised as Fidelio)
Razumovsky quartets, op. 59
Waldstein sonata, op. 53
Appassionata sonata, op. 57
Emperor concerto, op. 73
ENded around 1812 when Beethoven lapsed into a depression and wrote his immortal beloved letter

Question 218

Beethoven late period

Answer 218

Missa Solemnis
9th
String quartet!
Grosse Fuge (originally from op. 130 quartet in Bb)
Op. 130 5th movement, adagio molto espressivo, sotto voce: CAVATINA, with first violin “Beklemmt”
Op. 132 in a minor slow movement: Heiliger Dankgesang
exultant dance in D major, lots of counterpoint, freely canonic imitation, CF textures

Question 219

Beethoven and C Minor

Answer 219

Coriolan overture (1807) -- begins with unison Cs and slashing chords, stuck in c minor...seems like it will achieve C Major in the recap, but it's squashed
5th Symphony first movement in c minor, second movement Ab major but hints at C Major (pointing ahead), finale was the first movement of a symphony to include trombones, contrabassoon, piccolo...eventually finds C Major?

Question 220

French (19th c.) opéra comique

Answer 220

operas with spoken dialogues and happy endings, often with a story of an unjust abduction or imprisonment and a liberation, usually as the result of sacrifice by a virtuous common person

AKA rescue operas

Question 221

Rossini bio

Answer 221

Inherited Mozartean operatic legacy and was seen as Beethoven’s rival
At age 18 won a contract with a Venetian theater
38 operas for houses all over Italy by age 36
Barber of Seville was early (1816)
First international successes were Tancredi (opera seria), L’Italiana in Algeri
1815: Appointed director of all opera theaters in Naples
From 1822: Worked mainly abroad in Paris where he had a hand in grand opera (Guillaume Tell, 1829)
Retired in 1829
Péchés de vieillesse (1857–1868)
Stabat mater (1831–1841)
Petite messe solennelle

Question 222

Rossini style

Answer 222

Rossini overture:
Bigger than Mozart’s, including a slow intro, moves from tonic to dominant, full primary and secondary themes, always has a codetta to confirm arrival of dominant
Rossini crescendo: tonic/dominant seesaw
–Overture to Barber of Seville (similar to virtually all Rossini overtures)
–Tripartite slow introduction
–Bithematic exposition (second theme is always a woodwind solo)
–Headlong, noisy orchestrated dash of a transition
–Crescendo-coda to end exposition
–Truncated recap

–Rossini ensembles
–For Mozart, and also Paisiello, and Rossini, the comic ensemble finale was where
composers experimented with ways to suffuse fully composed music with dramatic,
frenetic action
–Opera buffa began to find ways to include ensembles in other parts of the opera too
–Rossini loaded his operas with more ensemble pieces, and more tumultuous ones,
than ever before

Question 223

Scena ed aria

Answer 223

For Rossini, it was two sections:
Cantabile (lyrical effusion)
Cabaletta (brilliant conclusion, usually a short stanza strophically repeated with an orchestral ritornello in between, plus a coda)
Cabalettas often were based on Polonaise (strutting processional dance in triple meter) or Ecossaise (contradanse)

Question 224

Early 19th century opera trends

Answer 224

–Serious opera also adopted comic use of ensembles—first in finales, but also in intros and elsewhere
–With the goal of reconciling dramatic and musical values into a single continuity
–By 1830s, “trouser” roles had basically gone away as well; composers still found ways to include female duets but they were no longer love duets
–The best representation of the new serious opera happened with Rossini’s successors: Bellini (1801–1835) and Donizetti (1797–1848)
–Rossini king in 1820s
–Bellini in 1830s
–Donizetti 1835–1845
–Cantabile-cabaletta format was continually expanded
–Opera seria used to be about exit arias to precede and motivate exits/applause; now operas are about entrances, ways to bring characters to the stage to build dramatic tension

Question 225

Bellini operas

Answer 225

La sonnambula (1831)
Norma (1831) – Casta diva is the famous aria
I puritani (1835)
8/10 operas written with Romani (together they created bel canto)

Question 226

Donizetti operas

Answer 226

66 total, multiple genres
Comic: L’elisir d’amore (1832), La fille du régiment (1840), Don Pasquale (1843)
Lucia di Lammermoor (1835)

Question 227

Nocturne

Answer 227

in the 18th c., it had meant social, party music…in the
19th c. it was all about solitude and inwardness
Field was an early proponent–modulation to flat submediant
Glinka and Chopin followed after Field

Question 228

An die ferne geliebte

Answer 228

(1816)
–A set of six Lieder linked by composed transitions, ending with a thematic
recollection of the first song
–A Liederkreis, or “circle of songs,” or song cycle
–The earliest to survive in active rep
–These songs are still volkstümlich, stanza-like…but they have more personal
sentiment

Question 229

Schubert Lieder

Answer 229

630 or so
Gretchen am Spinnrade (1814)
Erlkönig (1815)
Die schöne Müllerin (1823)
–In Schubert Lieder, harmonic adventure, formal experimentation, psychological nuance, and keyboard virtuosity are all up for grabs...but vocal floridity is not

Question 230

Schubert non-vocal music

Answer 230

Trout Quintet (1819)
Unfinished symphony (1822) -- B minor, first theme full cadence in tonic! The whole point was usually to elide that cadence into a modulatory bridge...here we have a fully stable second theme, too, in the submediant instead of the mediant
Wanderer Fantasy (1822)
Death and the Maiden quartet (1824)
C major string quintet (1828)
Moments musicaux (6 pieces, all vaguely ternary, not conceived as a unit; tonicizes flat submediant, established Neapolitan as stable on its own)

Question 231

Schubert non-vocal music

Answer 231

Trout Quintet (1819)
Unfinished symphony (1822) -- B minor, first theme full cadence in tonic! The whole point was usually to elide that cadence into a modulatory bridge...here we have a fully stable second theme, too, in the submediant instead of the mediant
Wanderer Fantasy (1822)
Death and the Maiden quartet (1824)
C major string quintet (1828)
Moments musicaux (6 pieces, all vaguely ternary, not conceived as a unit; tonicizes flat submediant, established Neapolitan as stable on its own)

Question 232

Paulus (1832–1836)

Answer 232

–Incorporates chorales as well; Wachet auf
–Story of the apostle Paul; somewhat autobiographical story for Mendelssohn?
–Overture is a prelude and fugue for a “festival” orchestra based on chorale
–Also includes Wir glauben all’, which was the chorale tune to which Luther’s
Nicene creed translation was sung
Bachian in style (Elijah is Handelian…no chorales)

Question 233

Mendelssohn octet in Eb (1825)

Answer 233

One of his earliest works and a triumph

Mastery of counterpoint (quotes And he shall reign in fugal finale)

Question 234

“Volk” in opera

Answer 234

–As “das Volk” became a romantic ideal, peasants became more important in opera; specifically in singspiels
–Prior to this time, comic opera for us has generally meant opera buffa, which was sung-through and in Italian…but in some places (not Italy) there was room for comic plays to add simple songs
–Only a character “simple” enough to sing a simple song could do so credibly in a play,
so this shift coincided with lots more rural settings, with peasant protagonists
–In England, the magic play or Zauberspiel used music to differentiate supernatural
characters from others
–Singspiel + Zauberspiel came together in Germany to create Zauberopera, or
“magic opera,” “fairy-tale opera,” etc., a short-lived fad which produced Die
Zauberflöte
–Die Zauberflöte was where Mozart encountered the volkstümlich style (among others)
–Papageno is the folk peasant character, the traditional sidekick role…but he also is
magical, half-man, half-bird, and has a romantic mystique
–Through his Act II finale with Papagena, in which the two characters effectively
demonstrate the creation of language (and humanity) with “pa pa pa pa,” etc.
–When whole casts were assembled from peasant class, it transformed opera into a “romantic mirror of a specified nation”
–”The idealization of the peasantry in romantic opera was actually the idealization of a nation’s mythic origins, not the peasants as they actually were, or the conditions in which they actually lived”

Question 235

Der Freischütz (1821)

Answer 235

Important for its inclusion of a nationalistic bent
And for its horror-story, supernatural aspect
Overture was a precis of the drama to follow (became standard)

Question 236

Grand opera

Answer 236

–New Paris opera house in 1821, with gas lighting (1849: electricity!), advanced stage machinery, concurrent emphasis on huge spectacle
-Five acts, like tragic plays
–Meyerbeer
–Included ballet, recit instead of spoken dialogue
–Whole final act was ensemble finale
–Foreshadowed later trends of united media and numberless continuity

Question 237

Russia in early 19th c.

Answer 237

Russian composers tended to study with italian teachers; music was imported to court
–Glinka was one of the first Russian opera composers to be deemed “essential,” he attempted a Russian national music

Question 238

Liszt bio

Answer 238

Born on border of Austria and Hungary, saw Paganini at 19 and was inspired
Transcendental Etudes (1838, rev. 1851)
1838–1848: major conceert tour in which he gave the first-ever full-length solo recitals with the first-ever artist manager
THEMATIC TRANSFORMATION

Question 239

Development of concerto in 19th c.

Answer 239

Soloist takes more control; sometimes takes the lead (i.e. Beethoven Emperor concerto)
Cadenza moves from preceding final tutti to forming a transition from first to second movements
Eventually, synthesizing of solo and tutti in a single thematic exposition

Question 240

Schumann as critic

Answer 240

Against the "Philistines"
Davidsbündler
Florestan = innerliches ich
Eusebius = gentler, more moderate
Meister Raro = Clara's father

Question 241

Schumann song year

Answer 241

1840
Five cycles, 140 Lieder
He also married Clara in this year
Dichterliebe, Op. 48
Heine, 16 songs in the collect (im Wunderschönen; Ich grolle nicht; Die alten bösen Lieder)

Question 242

Schumann chamber music year

Answer 242

1842
Three string quartets
Piano quintet
Piano quartet

Question 243

Schumann symphony year

Answer 243

1841

Symphonies 1 and 4

Question 244

Symphonie fantastique

Answer 244

1830
Harriet Smithson
Came with a program book
idée fixe (5 5----1 5 5------ ^3 3432217)
Reveries-Passions
A ball
Scene in the country (Swiss cow call)
March to the scaffold
Dream of a witches' sabbath (Dies irae)

Question 245

Chopin prelude

Answer 245

He didn’t invent it, but he did establish it as a freestanding, improvisatory genre that prefaced…nothing
He wrote 24 in paired keys like Bach, but following circle of 5ths not ascending half step order

Question 246

Mazurka

Answer 246

Strongly accented triple meter, felt in three
Strongest accents on beats two or three
Dotted rhythm on first beat
Tonic or tonic/fifth pedals

Question 247

Mighty Five

Answer 247

Leader was Balakirev (1837–1910)
Avowedly nationalist group, also a group of nontrained outsiders
Cui
Borodin
Mussorgsky
R-K

Question 248

Tchaikovsky overall

Answer 248

Unlike Mighty Five, was conservatory-trained

Romeo and Juliet (1869) (concert overture in rough sonata form)

Question 249

New German School

Answer 249

Liszt, Berlioz, Wagner, Cornelius
Symphonic poems! Program music
Associated with Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift
Nascent nationalism, though non-Germans were welcome
Liszt and Wagner formed an alliance; Lohengrin was premiered at Weimar where Liszt was

Question 250

Symphonic poems

Answer 250

Liszt (sort of) created; single-movement orchestra works outfitted with titles and (sometimes) prefaces to
explain the “poetic” content within
Liszt’s were unique in poetic content (philosophical), “content creates its own form”
One of the earliest was his “Mountain Symphony” (1847), which uses an octatonic scale

Precedents include symphonie fantastique, concert overtures like Coriolan, Mendelssohn’s

Question 251

Symphonic poems

Answer 251

Liszt (sort of) created; single-movement orchestra works outfitted with titles and (sometimes) prefaces to
explain the “poetic” content within
Liszt’s were unique in poetic content (philosophical), “content creates its own form”
One of the earliest was his “Mountain Symphony” (1847), which uses an octatonic scale

Precedents include symphonie fantastique, concert overtures like Coriolan, Mendelssohn’s

Question 252

Má vlast

Answer 252

“My fatherland”
Smetana’s masterpiece (?) (1872–9)
Cycle of 6 symphonic poems, written separately
3 are about nature or places; one is early slavi myth; two are about Jan Hus
–Má vlast never actually quotes a Czech folk song, but it is of a “marked popular character” with exoticism appeal for foreign audiences

Question 253

Wagner operas

Answer 253

Der fliegende Holländer (1843)
Tannhäuser (1849?)
Lohengrin (1850)
Siegfrieds Tod --> eventually was reworked to be about Wotan, not Siegfried; 1848–1874 as the gestation of the Ring Cycle
Tristan und Isolde (1859)
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1867)
Parsifal (1882)

He envisioned: no “numbers,” but tiny musical particles in tons of combinations
Action unfolds slowly
A building up of context, “past in music” that could be immediately recalled through motifs

Question 254

Die Kunst und die Revolution

Answer 254

Wagner, written in 1849 in Paris

First hints at Gesamtkunstwerk

Question 255

Tristan chord

Answer 255

F, B, D#, G# (resolving to A)
–Is the opening really in A Minor? Why not C Major? In Wagner, keys do not assert
themselves but rather loom
–The Tristan chord clearly (but only in retrospect) is a pre-dominant in A Minor
–In fact, it’s a French sixth in A minor, resolving normally to the dominant (but
also with a long-held, accented appoggiatura on G# which makes it seem
half-diminished)

Question 256

Tristan chord

Answer 256

F, B, D#, G# (resolving to A)
–Is the opening really in A Minor? Why not C Major? In Wagner, keys do not assert
themselves but rather loom
–The Tristan chord clearly (but only in retrospect) is a pre-dominant in A Minor
–In fact, it’s a French sixth in A minor, resolving normally to the dominant (but
also with a long-held, accented appoggiatura on G# which makes it seem
half-diminished)

Question 257

Verdi operas

Answer 257

First 17 years as contract composer (19 of his 28 operas, none of which had permanent success)
Aimed to fuse existing dramatic genres into single, tragicomic idiom
Nabucco (1842) – Va pensiero (A A’ B A”)
Earliest success with Ernani (1844)
Macbeth (1847)
Rigoletto (1851) – Le roi s’amuse was the model; R. is court jester; La donna e mobile
Il trovatore (1853)
La traviata (1853)
Later, after his “retirement”, he wrote:
Les vepres siciliennes
Don Carlos
La forza del destino
Aida (1771)
Otello (1884)
Falstaff

Question 258

Verdi Requiem

Answer 258

Composed for Manzoni, figure of Risorgimento

Question 259

Verdi v. Wagner

Answer 259

–Verdi is fundamentally human in his focus; Wagner fundamentally supernatural
–Verdi was inspired by the comic tradition, in which humans are responsible for their own fates; Wagner was inspired by the dramatic, the “reformist” operas of Metastasio and Gluck, which aimed to enforce purity of dramatic categories and in which humans were playthings of the gods
–So Wagner’s last opera was Parsifal, explicitly religious and a drama, with actual rituals
enacted onstage
–While Verdi’s was Falstaff, a comedy

Question 260

Boris Godunov

Answer 260

Mussorgsky
1825 Pushkin play which was censored until 1866
Coronation scene is famous (Boris gives speech amid a choral procession to a Russian folk song)
Melodic recitative (recitative imitating the way Russians might actually recite poetry)

Question 261

Eugene Onegin

Answer 261

Pushkin story

Contemporary Russian society; not much happens plotwise

Question 262

Opera lyrique

Answer 262

Arose in opposition to huge grand opera
Identified with Parisian Theatre Lyrique
Gounod (Faust, Romeo et Juliette), Massenet, Bizet
–The genre is a hybrid, containing accompanied recit from grand opera but without
the bloated musical forms, which instead were cut to comic-opera size

Question 263

Operetta

Answer 263

Human-sized! (as opposed to grand opera and German Wagner stuff)
Farcical, atiric comic opera poking fun at opera itself
Offenbach
He wrote 98 one-act operetta
Orphee aux enfers (1858)
Johann Strauss II, the waltz king, was the Viennese operetta guy
Die Fledermaus (1874)
Gilbert and Sullivan
“surface reformism with underlying conformism” to the society and features they mock, with continued success owing to the status quo of success in Victorian England and beyond
–Patter song = usually sung by pompous baritone; a parody of opera buffa technique going back to Pergolesi

Question 264

Verismo

Answer 264

Italian opera of late 19th and early 20th c.
Eliminates (in theory) traditional virtuosity
Aims for truth…ish
Reduction in scale, lowering of tone, simplification of technique compared to what preceded it
Mascagni (Cavalleria rusticana)
Leoncavallo (I Pagliacci)
Puccini (La boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly all written within a few years of 1900; Turandot, 1926)

Question 265

Brahms’ First Symphony

Answer 265

First attempt in 1854, after Schumann called on him to write a symphony (two movements of this went to the first piano concerto)

1862: first movement completed
1874: finale completed (includes an Alphorn and a chorale theme, both of which are made up)

Question 266

Bruckner symphonies

Answer 266

9 of them
He moved to write symphonies after hearing Wagner (he liked the style, not the drama, theories, or plots)
He likes to use instrumental sections as antiphonal choirs

Question 267

Dvorak output

Answer 267

10 operas
14 string quartets
5 piano trios
9 symphonies a la Wagner
New World is #9 (1893)
Symphonic poems
Concert overtures
Slavonic rhapsodies

Question 268

Boston School

Answer 268

Paine, Chadwick, Parker, Foote, Beach

Question 269

Société Nationale de Musique

Answer 269

–Founded in 1871 by Saint-Saëns
–A concert-sponsoring association promoting the work of living French composers,
aiming to promote unique essence or spirit of France
–If anything, actually led to Germanization of French music
–Franck was a key figure early on

Question 270

Tchaikovsky 6th Symphony

Answer 270

Pathetique
Subtitle mostly because of last movement
Puts the slow movement last! Ends with huge diminuendo
T. died a week after its premiere

Question 271

Enigma Variations

Answer 271

Elgar’s op. 36
–Idea probably came from Dvorak or Chaikovsky, both of whom had similar
pieces
–Important to note that there were basically no precedents (aside from
Brahms’ Haydn Variations) for this type of piece
–The theme of Elgar’s piece is often compared to opening of Brahms’ Fourth
Symphony
–Elgar’s variations are “virtuosically orchestrated and vividly contrasted, covering
an exceptionally…diverse range of moods”
–Secret program = variations represent friends, identified only by initials, with final variation as Elgar himself…but also, Elgar alluded in writings to a secret theme that is never played

Question 272

RVW

Answer 272

–RVW’s earliest successes were Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1910) and A
London Symphony (1913)
–Together, they show his two distinct sources of inspiration: Tudor polyphony and
a newly “British” sound with lots of parallel triads as well as “street sounds”
–The symphony especially is highly “modal” or pentatonic

Question 273

Grieg bio

Answer 273

–Piano prodigy who studied at Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied with a Schumann
friend…and Grieg picked up the Schumann German romantic style
–Grieg’s breakthrough was Piano Concerto in A Minor (1868) with famous descending
flourish at opening
–The concerto and a set of symphonic dances is Grieg’s only multi-movement
work for orchestra!
–Grieg was a miniaturist who focused on songs and character pieces for piano

Question 274

Sibelius output

Answer 274

10 symphonic poems

7 symphonies

Question 275

Weltanschauungsmusik

Answer 275

“music expressive of a world outlook,” a name for music of Germany in this maximized time of late 19th/early 20th

Question 276

Mahler symphonies

Answer 276

10 finished (#9 is an orchestral song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde)
–Mahler’s conducting was incredibly influential
–Textual fidelity: he got rid of unwritten performance conventions
–Reinstated customary cuts…and reworked some orchestrations
#2 Resurrection (1888–1894)
–Excellent example of symphonic maximalism
–Mahler wavered about whether there was a program or not (he went from more to less
detailed about it over time…moving toward absolute music)
–Biggest orchestra ever called for to date
–Offstage brass band made “theatrical impression” even before vocalists enter
–Very opening calls to mind references to several Beethoven symphonies: string
tremolo, presence of singers on stage, unison motto in low strings like the 5th, funeral
march from Eroica…

Question 277

Development of second theme in symphonies

Answer 277

–”The history of the 19th c. symphony, or at least one of its major strains might well be told in terms of the progressive growth of the second theme to the point of virtual elephantiasis”
–Haydn’s second themes were brief touchdowns on the dominant
–By Bruckner it was a virtual “lyrisches Intermezzo” retreat into a Schubertian trance
–Even by the end of the 18th c. with Mozart, though, a second strain developed, with the
second theme as a “fully self-sufficient, potentially detachable composition in its own
right, preceded and followed by silence, with its own internal structure…and its own fully
articulated conclusion” as the eventual reality in symphonies by Chaikovsky
–For Mahler, the second theme comes back to haunt the rest of the movement
–Mahler specifies a pause of at least five minutes between Todtenfeier and second
movement!
–Mahler’s second themes tend to be vividly pastoral, even bucolic, including pedal tones, horn fifths, even cowbells later on

Question 278

Tone poem origin

Answer 278

As a term, christened by Richard Strauss (he wrote 10)

Question 279

Erwartung

Answer 279

Schoenberg’s Op. 2, No. 1 (1899)
–Utilizes a “color-chord,” an unclassifiable, mildly dissonant, but still triadic
harmony with a bunch of chromatic neighbors to the tonic
–Musical effect is similar to Tristan…but now music is no longer shameful about
sex

Question 280

Richard Strauss operas

Answer 280

–Salome (1905)
–One-act verbatim setting of Wilde’s play
–Sexual perversity of the play motivated the musical innovations
–”Chord progressions seem altogether arbitrary”
–Really built on “semitonal expansion/contraction,” including examples of
chiasmus, or large-scale chromatic criss-crossing between two voices

–”Dance of the Seven Veils” is Salome’s dance at the end of the opera
–Maximally distorted
–Symmetrical division of the octave (E, G, Bb, C#) forms roots of important chords

–Elektra (1908)
–Lots of harmonic mixtures
–Strauss’ maximalist extreme
–Der Rosenkavalier (1911)
–Shifted gears! A romantic comedy set in 18th c. Vienna
–By the time Strauss died at 85, he was perhaps the most conservative major composer in Europe…this is telling, because stylistic conservatism at that point COULD be a stance

Question 281

French Impressionism

Answer 281

–Like German modernism it was self-conscious, but also reflective, ironic, accelerated rate of innovation, though
–Aimed to remove the “sweaty, warty human” aspects in favor of an elegant object of
pleasure
Fights pretension with frivolity (Satie)
French composers get rid of half steps
Trois gymnopedies
Debussy: “There is no theory, you have only to listen, pleasure is the law”
–Calculated effects of spontaneity
–Fascination with subtle gradations in color and texture
–Nebulous, highly suggestive musical surface
–Greater interest in sensuousness than strongly declared emotion
–Static quality (Debussy)
–Absence of people or personalities among Debussy’s musical subjects

Question 282

Debussy instrumental works

Answer 282

Preludes (1910)
12 pieces, modeled after CHopin
Descriptive subtitles at the END
Voiles

Nuages (first of the orchestral Nocturnes)
–Everything is suggestion, analogy, impression
–Overall musical shape is simple and conventional: ABA
–Cadences are basically non-existent, everything floats
–B is a priority pitch, but not because of functional harmony…because of its registral and
timbral predominance

Question 283

Symbolism

Answer 283

–Symbolism = literary school older than impressionism, tied with Baudelaire
–Synesthesia and the occult knowledge that it imparts
–To see symbols in all things is to lend them a hidden meaning
–So symbolism partially revived the “magical” world view…so it had an obsession with
medieval or pseudo-medieval subjects and settings
–Symbolism seemed to promise a way via art of seeing past the appearances of the
phenomenal world to the spiritual one
–Things shouldn’t be too explicitly clear…you’ve got to leave some shadows in place
Symbolist works include Debussy Prelude a l’apres

Question 284

Ballet history

Answer 284

–History extending back to ballet de cour, “courtly entertainments in which poetry, music, stage decor, and dance were all combined in a single dramatic action”
–Began in 1580s, contemporaneously with intermedi tradition which led to opera
–French court was always the epicenter of ballet
–Ballet had a place in Lully’s tragedie lyrique, but eventually its status as ornament/diversion rather than action
–This pushed ballet from impersonal, aristocratic court dancing → emphasis on
individual characters and their emotional reactions
Became “wordless opera”
Eventually moved to Russian aristocracy when French aristocracy waned (though still a French art ith French artists until Tchaikovsky)

Question 285

Tchaikovsky ballets

Answer 285

Swan Lake (his first, 1875)
Sleeping Beauty (1889)
Nutcracker (1892)

Question 286

Diaghilev

Answer 286

1872–1929
–Greatest impresario of all time?
–He single-handedly sparked a resurgence of ballet
–Operated under a theory of ballet that saw it as something akin to absolute music…free
from the fixed meaning of words used in operas
–Words are utilitarian, according to this theory…get rid of them!
Export campaigns to France starting in 1906
(including Boris Godunov in 1908, later ballet after, Stravinsky)

Question 287

Stravinsky ballets

Answer 287

Firebird (1910) – aimed to maximize Russianness for French audience; folkloric music for humans, fantastic or fairy-like music for mythological characters; use of octatonic

Petrushka (1911) – four scenes, first and last are fairground and revelers, inner two show love triangle
–Human element (the crowd in the outer tableaux) have diatonic folklore material; nonhuman secret puppet world have chromatic octatonic-ish material
–Piano concert piece became the Russian dance in the first tableaux (familiar material)
–The puppet music is “expressive” (or human) to an extreme degree…and in contrast with “human” portrayal music
–The second tableaux uses an octatonic collection as stable point of reference or key
–Petrushka chord = superimposition of C major and F# major triads

Rite of Spring (1913)
–Takes Petrushka to another level…the whole dance is permeated with the dissonances
that were special effects in Petrushka: polychords consisting of superimposed triads
–Maximal dissonance to depict brutality and inhumanity of the primitive religion
–Lots of Russian folksongs were confined in ambitus to a minor tetrachord; you can build
a series of overlapping minor tetrachords with the octatonic scale
–So Stravinsky combined folk “reality” of these old songs with radical new
technique (octatonic-based harmonization)
–Key set of pitches is 0 6 11
–Source of most of the piece is neonationalist folk material
–Two most maximalist sections of Rite of Spring of Dance of the Earth (ends first tableau) and Sacrificial Dance (ends second tableau)
–Sacrificial Dance has both extreme dissonance and extreme dislocation of meter
–Earlier, at “Glorification of the Chosen One,” a fixed melody is repeated 20 times, but with different groupings and different numbers of beats in between repetitions
–Fixed ostinato (of four eighth notes) against “variable downbeat” pattern with groups of
more or less…but they’re brought together by sharing an equalized note value less than the duration of the tactus
–Use of musical “cells” which repeat over and over

Question 288

Scriabin style and works

Answer 288

Associated with the piano prelude and with orchestral music
Preludes modeled after Chopin (op. 11), got increasingly mystical over time–last set is 4 of op. 74
Scriabin likes the tritone link (use of Neapolitan to V with N in root position)
“Maximalized religious ecstasy”
Theosophy – He “consciously modified his style so as to enable his music to serve the spiritualistic
purposes his religious and philosophical beliefs demanded”
10 piano sonatas that got smaller over time
5 symphonies: last two are tone poems
#3, Le divin poeme
#4, Le poeme de l’extase – his most famous work

Question 289

Messiaen style and works

Answer 289

THe closest stylistic and spiritual heir to Scriabin?
Working church musician…unusual in 20th c.
He sought to embody the mysteries of faith in a rational and transmissable
discourse
Birdsong
Turangalila-symphonie (10 movements, title from Sanskrit, cyclic concpetion of time) (1946-8)

Question 290

Modes of limited transposition

Answer 290

Messiaen systematized it
Invariance, aka the property of certain pitch configurations of replicating themselves when transposed by certain intervals
Whole tone is most limited (aside from chromatic), then octatonic (modes 1 and 2, respectively)
Mode 3 is WT scale, every other interval broken up into two half steps
There are 7 in total

Question 291

Nonretrogradable rhythms

Answer 291

Messiaen
Rhythmic palindromes
The midpoint was called the “free value” or the “central common value”
Goal of using these patterns for Messiaen was representation of divine eternal harmony of the universe

Question 292

Quoatuor pour la fin du temps

Answer 292

1940–41
Violin, clarinet, cello, piano
Isorhythms in piano part, artificial harmonics, modes of L.T. and non-ret. rhythms
Last movement is a “thunderous monody for all four instruments in unison”

Question 293

Ives style and philosophy

Answer 293

–Ives aimed for music providing a rush of sentiment and enthusiasm, and he used
stylistic extremes that relied on instinct more than conventional schooling
Ives studied with Parker, who studied with Rheinberger
–Ives graduated Yale in 1898, wanted to work in sacred music and got a job at NYC’s Central Presbyterian Church (1900–1902)
–The Celestial Country (1902) dates from this time; aiming for Parker’s career, modeled
after Hora novissima
–Ives felt he had fallen short, so he resigned his post at Central Presbyterian shortly after premiere of Celestial Country, gave up a career in music
–Ives saw popular music not as commercial but as populist and loved to make allusions to it
–We tend to think of him as an allusionist of American music…and he was, but definitely
not exclusively

Question 294

Ives non-choral works

Answer 294

Three Places in New England (orchestral, incuding Putnam’s Camp, with collage of patriotic songs)
Concord Sonata
Universe Symphony (1911–6) – aimed to “paint the creation,” but never finished
Unanswered Question (strings as silence of the druids, trumpet posing perennial question of existence, woodwinds as fightingin answrers)

Question 295

Verklärte Nacht

Answer 295

1899, Schoenberg’s op. 4
Tone poem for string sextet
Not particularly musically adventurous, but scandalous because the Wiener Tonkünstlerverein rejected it for a compositional error that didn’t

Question 296

Gurrelieder

Answer 296

1901 (orchestration 1911)
Cantata for 5 soloists, speaker, three male choruses, double SATB, huge orch
Based on Nordic mythology
Schoenberg later rejected it as “too extroverted,” not expressionist enough

Question 297

Musical expressionism

Answer 297

Schoenberg

“Aiming for a direct expression of the self” a la Beethoven’s Innigkeit

Question 298

Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet, Op. 10 (1907–1908)

Answer 298

–Sometimes seen as his first expressionist piece
–Schoenberg adds a soprano solo to the final movements of the quartet; poetry by
Stefan George, an avant-garde poet
–Final movement is setting of the poem Entrückung (transport, rapture,
swept-awayness)
–”I feel the air of another planet”
Final movement uses the Eschbeg set (Eb, C, B, Bb, E, G, Schoenberg’s name motif)

Question 299

Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19

Answer 299

–Tiny, aphoristic piano pieces purged of all “tonal reference”
–Contextual relationships arise from working with a group of notes having a distinctive
intervallic profile

Question 300

Grundgestalt

Answer 300

what unifies a composition of Schoenberg’s; not a theme exactly, but a
“basic shape” or motivic complex that serves as a source for everything that happens

Question 301

opera Erwartung (1909)

Answer 301

Schoenberg’s most extreme expressionist piece
–25-minute monodrama with a single character
–Depicts a “prolonged foreboding of psychic horror”
–Not first performed until 1924
–Libretto is disjointed, ungrammatical
–The plot is simple: unnamed woman stands on the edge of a forest, anxiously looking
for her lover; she eventually finds his corpse, and we’re unclear about whether she has
murdered him
–Four scenes with little orchestral interludes between, distinguished by lighting effects

Question 302

Developing variation

Answer 302

A Brahms technique (?)
the building up of larger musical entities from the
endlessly varied repetition of smaller ones

Question 303

Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

Answer 303

Bartok, 1936
FOur movements, sort of a traditional symphony (SFSF, fast movements neo-nationalist/folkloric)
3rd movement is outdoors “night music”

Question 304

Bartok string quartets

Answer 304

6 of them, composed between 1908-39
Symmetry (harmony and form)
Bridge form = sections or movements are palindromic

Question 305

Stravinsky style periods

Answer 305

Les noces (1923) was the last "Russian" piece
Starting with Octet in 1923, he was neo-classical
After Schoenberg's death in 1951 (?) he went serial

Question 306

Pierrot lunaire (1912)

Answer 306

Pierrot is a commedia dell’arte character

Melodramatic recitation…Sprechstimme

Question 307

Prokofiev works

Answer 307

Classical Symphony (1917) "in the style of Haydn"
Love for Three Oranges (1919)

Question 308

Wozzeck

Answer 308

1919-22
–”The most serious and significant opera to emerge from the postwar decade”
–Atonal and challenging, but an immediate hit
–Berg set a collection of scenes from the play basically verbatim
–The opera trades brazenly in the kind of shocking violence made popular by verismo
–The opera uses humanizing (though atonal) music in contrast with horrific subject
matter
–Unlike Wagner, who wrote in whole acts, Berg here leans into discrete musical forms
and genres, many of them obsolete or otherwise foreign to opera

Question 309

Neue Sachlichkeit

Answer 309

“New actuality” or “new thinginess”
Coined in 1923
Associated with Zeitoper (Krenek, Weill, Hindemith)
Major Zeitopern were Krenek’s Jonny spielt auf; Hindemith’s Neues vom Tage; Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper (music should “interrupt the action at the right moments to encourage an attitude toward the action for the viewer”)

Question 310

Beethoven 1

Answer 310

Composed 1795–1800

Dedicated to van Swieten

Question 311

Beethoven 3

Answer 311

Composed 1802–1804

Finale is variations

Question 312

Sonata form

Answer 312

Exposition: one or two themes or theme groups, often in contrasting styles and opposing keys, connected by a modulating transitions (second subject usually in relative major for a minor first subject)
Development begins in modulated key, eventually retransitions back to recap

Haydn used monothematic expositions (maybe Farewell?)
Third subject groups
First subject recap in wrong key
Second subject recap in non-tonic key
Extneded coda which is developmental (i.e. Beethoven 3)

Question 313

Beethoven 5

Answer 313

Composed between 1804-8
Mvt 1: C minor first key, Eb major second key, standard sonata basically
Mvt 2: Ab, lyrical, double variation (first theme is dotted eighth, sixteenth)
Mvt 3: Scherzo/trio; main theme is heroic version of four-note motif, starts on same pitches (G), when the main theme comes back at the end, it’s piano
Mvt 4: Begins immediately, transition in from #3; starts in C major, variant of sonata form in which dominant cadence at end of development leads to main horn theme from mvt 3

Question 314

Shostakovich String Quartet 8

Answer 314

1960
Written shortly after S. had to join Communist party
DSCH motif throughout (also appears in symphonies 10 and 15, cello concerto 1, etc.)

Question 315

Kinderszenen

Answer 315

Schumann Op. 15
1838
Träumerei is famous; also “Blind Man’s Bluff,” a child fallin sleep, ends with “Der Dichter spricht”

Question 316

Brahms’ choral music by opus

Answer 316

Op. 12 Ave Maria
OP. 17 Vier Gesänge (1860)
Op. 29 Two motets (Es ist das Heil; Schaffe in mir, Gott)
Op. 30 Geistliches Lied
Op. 31 (quartets; 1859/63), including Wechsellied zm Tanze and Der Gang zum Liebchen
Op. 52 Liebeslieder-Walzer (1869)
Op. 65 Neue Liebeslieder
Op. 74 Two motets (Warum ist das Licht; O Heiland)
Op. 92 Vier Quartets (1884), including O schöne Nacht, Warum?
Op. 103 Zigeunerlieder (1887-8)
Op. 104 5 Songs (1886-8)
OP. 109 Fest- und Gedenksprüche
Op. 110 3 Motets (Ich aber bin elend; Ach, arme Welt; Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein)
Op. 112 6 Quartets (1888/91) including Sehnsucht, Nächtens

Question 317

Ligeti choral works

Answer 317

Nacht und Morgen (Nacht begins with murky, super-dense TTBB, build from there in complexity; Morgen is more traditional, imitative…builds to big cluster with rooster crowing)
Nonsense Madrigals
Requiem (1963-5) – four movements (Introitus, Kyrie, Dies irae, Lacrimosa)
Lux aeterna

Question 318

Lutoslawski

Answer 318

1913-1994
Four symphonies, orchestral song cycles, a string quartet, etc.
Style: rich atmospheric textures, layering harmonies from small groups of intervals, aleatoric processes

Question 319

Lutoslawski

Answer 319

1913-1994
Four symphonies, orchestral song cycles, a string quartet, etc.
Style: rich atmospheric textures, layering harmonies from small groups of intervals, aleatoric processes

Question 320

Musicalische Exequien

Answer 320

1635/6
Written for Count von Reuss
Three sections:
I Concert in Form einer teutschen Begräbnis-Messe
II Motet Herr, wenn ich nur Dich habe
III Canticum B. Simeonis Herr, nun lässest du deinen Diener (5-part chorus sings Canticle of Simeon)

Question 321

Parts of Requiem Mozart wrote

Answer 321

Introitus and Kyrie (all)
Sequence and Offertorium (vocal parts, basso continuo; except Lacrymosa, just the first 8 measures)
Not completed:
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Communio

Question 322

Verdi Requiem

Answer 322

1, Requiem: (a minor, hushed opening, strings; turns to A Major at “lux;” old-style a cappella fugato in F Major at “te decet;” back to the opening material//then soloists at Kyrie

1868: Rossini’s death
1874: Manzoni

#2, Sequence:
A) Dies irae, g minor
B) Tuba mirum
C) Mors stupebit (bass solo)
D) Liber scriptus (mezzo solo)
....Ingemisco is tenor
(Soprano gets the Libera me)
...

A) Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae (starts with cello asc. arpeggio, then soloists)
B) Hostias (also soloists)

#4, Sanctus:
Double chorus fugue (lively ascending F maj. arpeggio)

#5, Agnus Dei:
Opens with a cappella duet (lots of octaves) between sop and mezzo soloists

#7, Libera me:
Starts with soprano reciting opening line...chorus then comes in a short while later senza mizura; dies irae music eventually returns

Question 323

Verdi Requiem

Answer 323

1, Requiem: (a minor, hushed opening, strings; turns to A Major at “lux;” old-style a cappella fugato in F Major at “te decet;” back to the opening material//then soloists at Kyrie

1868: Rossini’s death
1874: Manzoni

#2, Sequence:
A) Dies irae, g minor
B) Tuba mirum
C) Mors stupebit (bass solo)
D) Liber scriptus (mezzo solo)
....Ingemisco is tenor
(Soprano gets the Libera me)
...

A) Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae (starts with cello asc. arpeggio, then soloists)
B) Hostias (also soloists)

#4, Sanctus:
Double chorus fugue (lively ascending F maj. arpeggio)

#5, Agnus Dei:
Opens with a cappella duet (lots of octaves) between sop and mezzo soloists

#7, Libera me:
Starts with soprano reciting opening line...chorus then comes in a short while later senza mizura; dies irae music eventually returns

Question 324

Symphony of Psalms

Answer 324

1930, commissioned by Koussevitzky for 50th anniversary of BSO
Mvt. 1 – Psalm 38 (Exaudio orationem meam, “hear my prayer’)
Mvt. 2 – opens with double fugue in instruments, Psalm 39 (Expectans expectavi, “with expectation I have waited for the Lord”)
Mvt. 3 – alternates slow and fast sections, Psalm 150 (Alleluia, laudate Dominum, “praise ye the Lord”)

Question 325

RVW Dona Nobis Pacem

Answer 325

2, Beat, beat

1936
Texts from Mass, Whitman, a political speech…

#1, Agnus Dei
Soprano soloist and chorus

Question 326

Parade

Answer 326

1917
Satie, scenario by Cocteau, Picasso did sets and costumes
NO DRAMA between characters…it was a non-response to WWI
Surrealist – surround extravagant dream-imagery with music that was insistently normal and commonplace

Question 327

Difference between surrealism and expressionism

Answer 327

–Schoenberg’s music is deliberately subjective and strange

–Poulenc’s is deliberately objective and commonplace

Question 328

Copland style

Answer 328

Early on jazz/pop idioms with modernist American style…he gave up jazz pretty quickly
“Anglo-folklorism” of three ballets:
Billy the Kidd (pre-existign cowboy songs)
Rodeo (1942)
Appalachian Spring (1944)

Question 329

Gershwin bio/style

Answer 329

Tin Pan Alley

Rhapsody in Blue (1924)

Question 330

Schoenberg and 12-tone

Answer 330

He “discovered” it in 1923
But from about 1921 on almost all of his works use a 12-tone series
First piece using it throughout was Suite for Piano, Op. 25
His 12-tone pieces often use traditional forms (waltzes, gigues, dance music)…a contradiction with the heavy content?

Question 331

Developing variation

Answer 331

Schoenberg idea
“seeking out abstract invariance relationships…create concrete musical relationships in which some aspect of a musical configuration changes while some other aspect remains the same”

Question 332

Hexachordal combinatoriality

Answer 332

–”A row is combinatorial if from its various row-forms corresponding samples can be
drawn that, when combined, produce invariant relationships that can be exploited as
‘basic shapes’”

Question 333

Berg Lyric Suite

Answer 333

1926
His second major 12-tone piece after the Chamber Concerto
Hidden link to De profundis text?

Question 334

Berg Violin Concerto

Answer 334

1935
“Es ist genug” chorale – ascending whole steps
Written for Mahler’s widow’s daughter who died at age 18
Row is an alternating pattern of major and minor thirds

Question 335

Webern vs. Berg

Answer 335

–If Berg used tone row composition to achieve humanistic, expressive aims, Webern went to extremes of structural rigor
–Webern wrote 12 serial pieces
–Webern’s works are pointillistic, kaleidoscopically fragmented in texture
–Often pitches and registers are linked in his works

Question 336

Respighi style/works

Answer 336

Best-known Italian composer during fascist period, and he was promoted by govt
Symphonic music (pictorial programmatic suites for orchestra)
Fountains of Rome (1916)
Pines of Rome (1924)
Roman festivals (1928)
Plus others

Question 337

Carmina burana

Answer 337

1936
–Songs of fatalism (Fortuna imperatrix)
–Nature songs (Primo vere)
–Carousing songs (In taberna)
–Songs of love (Cour d’Amours)
–Diatonic melodies in a vaguely antique (modal or leading-toneless) style; vigorous
ostinatos
–A streamlined “populist” adaptation of Stravinsky’s neoprimitivist manner
–Piece was premiered in 1937; authorities were a bit uncomfortable at the sexual
innuendoes, but its instant popularity won it official approval
–Came to represent Nazi youth culture

Question 338

Socialist realism

Answer 338

“A creative method based on the truthful, historically concrete artistic reflection of reality in its revolutionary development”
Art must be Good and Important and Moral…communitarian, didactic, comprehensible to all, rooted in folklore

Soviet regime was most oppressive to general population, plus it co-opted the arts for state propaganda
There wasn’t much of an avant-garde before Soviet times anyway; patronage and education system didn’t move that way

Question 339

Formalism

Answer 339

…to describe morphemic semantics of instrumental music: musical
morphemes as minimal bearers of meaning to be combined into understandable
meanings
”An esthetic conception proceeding from an affirmation of the self-sufficiency of form
in art, and its independence from ideological or pictorial content”
–It really meant elite modernism

Question 340

Shostakovich and Soviet regime

Answer 340

Famous at 19 with First Symphony (it's sarcastic, neoclassical)
The Nose (1928), even more sarcastic
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsense District (1932)...title character was supposed to be glorification of Russian woman, and the opera was super socialistic realistic
But Stalin had the Historic Document printed after seeing it...bad because of libretto, sexual music
Fifth Symphony (1937) brought S. back in favor (no satire or sarcasm...but a forced rejoicing?)

Question 341

Darmstadt

Answer 341

U.S. financed; aimed to propagate American cultural and political values to help Germany become Democratic; bring together musicians from formerly fascist areas
1946: first courses
Important figures by the 1950s: Boulez, Stockhausen, Maderna…total serialism

Question 342

Soviet music 1948

Answer 342

Communist decree “Resolution on Music” which preferred vocal over instrumental, program over absolute, lack of modernistic techniques, lots of folklore

Question 343

Schoenberg est mort

Answer 343

Boulez wrote a manifesto at age 27 (1952)
“Any musician who has not experienced…the necessity of the dodecaphonic language is USELESS”
Webern, not Schoenberg, was the model

Question 344

Total serialism

Answer 344

Exemplified by Boulez and 1950s Darmstadt
“Structures” for two pianos (Boulez, 1951)
Orders pitch and rhythm independently, like isorhythm
Others included Berio, Krenek, Stockhausen (Kreuzspiel, 1951)

Question 345

Ligeti works I don’t know

Answer 345

Apparitions (first major work, maximalizes Bartok, golden ratio)
Artikulation (1958), electronic music, phonetic units atomized

Question 346

Cage bio/works/style

Answer 346

Mostly self-taught
Not just emancipating dissonance, but emancipating noise
1940s: prepared piano pieces (Sonatas and Interludes, 1946-8, binary structures)
Later 1940s: vaguely orientalist approach, indeterminacy
1950: I Ching
4’33” (1952)
Alas eclipticalis (1962)

Question 347

Stochastic music

Answer 347

Associated with Xenakis
“music that would create an intelligible shape out of
a multitude of seemingly random musical events”
–Events are planned in the large but unpredictable in the small
Example is Metastasis (1955), separate glissandos for 44 different string parts

Question 348

Fluxus

Answer 348

Loose performance association known for “happenings” in New York in early 1960s
La Monte Young
Provoke hostile response froma udience

Question 349

Morton Feldman pieces

Answer 349

–Earliest pieces are in three categories
–Projections (five in total, 1950–1951)
–Rough graphic outline given, performers interpret from there
–Extensions (four, 1951–1953)
–Use of traditionally notated ostinati as background for unpredictable
events
–Intersections (four, 1951–1953)
–Like projections, but multiple players playing at once
–Starting in 1954, Feldman abruptly abandoned graphic notation and these gesture
pieces
–Use of so-called “free-rhythm notation,” which just means a relative uniformity of action
within a limited latitude of variation
–Later on, his pieces became incredibly long, the music “hovering in the rare space
between what you can ignore and what you can understand,” effectively ignores the
audience

Question 350

Stravinsky serialist pieces

Answer 350

Rake’s Progress (1947-51) may have pushed him toward it
Neoclassical in some ways (harpsichord recit, strophic songs, da capo arias…it was NOT popularbecause it was too pretty and retrospective

Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day (1951-2) – ricercar for tenor and five instruments – first serial piece
Cantata (1951-2) – part of it is serial
Canticum Sacrum (1955) – cantata for St. Mark’s in Venice
First of his pieces to use full 12-tone rows, but most of it is still tonally centered
Threni (1958)
Requiem Canticles (1966) – two different series in alternation

Question 351

Babbitt theory

Answer 351

Set theory…gave vocabulary to pitch class, aggregate, idea that every 12-tone row is an individual ordering of an unchanging aggregate set
His serialism in the late 1940s actually predated Darmstadt total serialism
Big believer in objective, scientific truth of music, NOT pleasure
WHO CARES IF YOU LISTEN – from a 1957 talk at Tanglewood…idea that composer should voluntarily withdraw from public world to one of private performance and electronic media

Question 352

Varese

Answer 352

Early! Avant-garde when there was pretty much no avant-garde
In NY from 1915
1920s and 1930s: joining up neoprimitivism and futurism
Hyperprism (1923) and Integrales (1925) – small wind bands, big percussion…siren tones of curving pitch
Silent period from 1934-54
But then, as tape recorder became more popular, Varese came roaring back

Question 353

Musiq concrete

Answer 353

1950s(?) technique among futurists who wanted to encompass the whole universe of life-sounds in music
Paris Radio was the hub
In sort of opposition with electronic music group who wanted to synthesize sounds
Berio’s Thema (1958) is big for musique concrete (his wife reading)
Varese’s Deserts, Poeme electronique (huge installation at BRussels World’s Fair)

Question 354

Micropolyphony

Answer 354

Ligeti

Famous example is Atmospheres (huge orchestral tone cluster that approximates white noise)

Question 355

St. Luke Passion (Penderecki)

Answer 355

1963-6

Question 356

Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima

Answer 356

1961

Question 357

Carter

Answer 357

Abstractly titled instrumental music, esp. string quartet
Underlying unity through extreme surface diversity
Atomistic, theme-less, montage of rhythmimc patterns
Highly formalist! Form is tantamount to content
Tempo modulation is his innovation (it’s like mensuration)

Question 358

Britten operas

Answer 358

Peter Grimes (1945)
Billy Budd (1951)
Turn of the Screw (1954) (chamber opera
Midsummer Night's Dream (1960)
One-act church operas -- Curlew River, Prodigal Son

Question 359

War Requiem

Answer 359

1962
–Commissioned for dedication of rebuilt Coventry Cathedral
–Premiered in the cathedral as part of its consecration ceremony
–Ironic juxtaposition is central to the piece
–Latin words sung by soprano soloist and choruses with the large orchestra and
organ
–Wilfred Owen text sung by tenor and baritone soloists
–Original performance was Pears, Fischer-Dieskau, Galina Vishnevskaya

Question 360

Berio Sinfonia

Answer 360

1968
“Bemused, somewhat patronizing tribute to rock”
NY Phil commission for 125th anniversary
Swingle Singers + text on creation myths
Hocket, voice exchanges, multiple textts, lots of allusion
Second movemrnt – rows of vowels that eventually come together to represent words “O Martin Luther King”

Question 361

Minimalism

Answer 361

Terry Riley – first to make it to mainstream
Use of looping
In C (1964) – 53 numbered modules, held together by constant audible 8th note pulse in percussive instrument or something similar

Andriessen (De Staat, 1972-6) is minimalist but dissonant

Question 362

Reich

Answer 362

Subtactile rhythmic pulse
It’s Gonna Rain (1965) – an early piece
PHASING
Pendulum music (1968)
Piano Phase (1967) – two pianos, single-measure diatonic or pentatonic modules which are phased
Clapping Music (1972)
Music for 18 Musicians (1974-6) – synthesizes all of his prior techniques
Different Trains – a post-minimalist work (1988)
Big sample-based piece
Live Kronos vs. two prerecorded Kronoses, plus sampled voices

Question 363

Glass

Answer 363

Reich used phase and progressive canons…Glass used additive structures
Einstein on the Beach (1976)

Question 364

Adams operas

Answer 364

Nixon in China (1987) – first collaboration with Sellars
–Music is postminimalist, with freely grouped and regrouped subtactile pulses and
arpeggios, conventional harmonic idiom, naturalistic vocal declamation, a neat
“numbers” format replete with entertaining choral and dance sequences, and references
to popular music
–”Cheers, cheers” chorus
Death of Klinghoffer (1990)
El Nino (2000)
–El Niño is also of distinctly multicultural content
–Texts from new Testament, Apocrypha, old English Wakefield Mystery Plays, a
Hildegard hymn, Latin American contemporary poetry, etc.

Question 365

St. Matthew Context

Answer 365

1727
Double chorus/orch
Libretto by Picander
Matthew chapters 26-7
Four performances in Thomaskirche (1727, 29, 36, 42)
Orch 1 – SAT solos, SATB, two traversos, oboes, d’amore, lute, strings, continuo
Orch 2 – SATB chorus, vln 1 and 2, viola, amba, cello, two traversos, two oboes, b.c.
Revised in 1736 (this is the common one today)
Chorales – standard settings, interpolations, in arias, CF in large polyphonic movements
Jesus’ halo except in Eli Eli lama sabathani
Story only ges through crucifixion, no resurrection
Chorus 1 is disciples
Turba choruses in spezzati, sometimes both together, sometimes one at a time
Da capo arias

Question 366

Lamentations of Jeremiah

Answer 366

Poetic laments of destruction of Jerusalem
Voice of God is not present
5 poems, 22 verses for 1, 2, and 4, corresponding to Hebrew letters
Tallis has a setting of first two lessons (1560s)
ATTBB
Contemporary settings by Ginastera, Stravinsky (Threni), Krenek, Bernstein (Jeremiah Symphony)

Question 367

Vesperae solennes de confessore

Answer 367

1780
Written for Salzburg Cathedral (his last before he went to Vienna)
6 mvts, Gloia patri at end of each
Five is the soprano solo Ladate Dominum

Question 368

Symphony of Psalms

Answer 368

1930
50th anniversary BSO, Koussevitzy
Neoclassical
Orch. for heavy WW (5 flutes), strings, perc., SATB
No clarinets, violins, violas
Mvt. 1 -- Psalm 38, exaudi orationem meam
E Phrygian/octatonic
"Psalms chord"
Mvt. 2 -- Double fugue, c minor (C, Eb, Bn, D)
Psalm 39, expectans expectavi
Mvt. 3 -- Psalm 150
Alternates slow/fast sections
C minor/major?

Question 369

St. John Passion Part 1

Answer 369

Begins w Jesus’ betrayal by Judas at the Garden
2 scenes (Kidron valley, Kaiaphas’ palace)
Ends with Peter’s third denial and realization

Opening # -- chorus, rolling 16ths, pulsing fixed bass, dissonant suspension in oboe duet, "Herr, unser Herrscher
#2 -- Chorus interjects "Jesum, Jesum, Jesum von Nazareth"
#7 -- Alto, two oboes, "Von den strikken" (untie me from knots of sin)
#9 -- Sop, transverse flute, "Ich folge dir" (Simon Peter following Jesus)
#10 -- Peter's first denial
#11 -- Chorus comments on Jesus having been struck
#12 -- Peter's second denial
#13 -- Ach, mein Sinn (Tenor, Peter's regret)
#14 -- Chorale commenting on Peter

Question 370

Ligeti Requiem

Answer 370

1963-5
Large orchestra and double chorus, S + MS solos
Four movements
1) Introit, begins with bass, gradually moves upward in range
2) Classic micropolyphony
3) Center of work, only one without chord clusters, hysterical, hyperdramatic, unrestrained
#4 – more like opening texture

Question 371

Elegischer Gesang

Answer 371

1814 (published 1826)
String quartet and SATB quartet
“Sanft, wie de lebtedt, hast du vollendet” (“Gently, as you lived, have you died”
Dedicated to friend and patron Baron of Osterberg whose wife had died

Question 372

Choral Fantasy

Answer 372

1808
Written as conclusion for benefit Akademie concert
C minor piano cto opening, moves to C Major
Text about universal fraternity, meeting of the arts
Links to Beethoven 9
Theme and variations, essentially

Question 373

LPV

Answer 373

Lassus, Palestrina, Victoria
Dominant late in 16th c.
Used parody, L+P wrote tons of masses
L more cosmopolitan, more secular music
V no secular music

Question 374

Faure Requiem structure

Answer 374

1887
No commission, written for pleasure
1885/7 deaths of father and mother
First version: 5 movements, no vlns, organ with string doubles
Second version: adds offertory and libera me (both B solo), adds horns and trumpet, violin solo
1900: third version, full orch, maybe not done by Faure but he sanctioned

Mvt 1 -- slow intro, Requiem
Mvt 2 -- O domine (baritone Hostias)
Mvt 3 -- Sanctus, big Hosanna (T/B, brass)
Mvt 4 -- Pie Jesu, S solo, Bb major
5) Agnus Dei
6) Libera me, 6/4 dies irae with horns
7) In paradisum

Question 375

Randall Thompson pieces

Answer 375

Boston-based
diatonic, contrapuntal, heavily notated
27 works
Frostiana (1957)
Alleluia (1940)
Last Words of David
2 oratorios
1 Requiem
Peaceable Kingdom (1936)
Testament of Freedom (1943)

Question 376

Missa in tempore belli

Answer 376

1796
Paukenmesse
C major
Written at Eisenstadt, Austria was going into war post French revolution
First of the nameday masses for Princess Maria
Unsettled music in Benedictus, timpani at opening and in Agnus Dei

Question 377

Cantata Profana

Answer 377

1930
T/B soloists, mixed choir, orch
Texts from old Rumanian folk songs -- Christmas songs?
9 sons only know how to hunt, cross magic bridge and become stags, father almost kills, then realizes and begs them to come home, they say they can't come home
3 continuous movements:
1) Hunt and transformation
2) Father searches for and finds sons
3) Recaps narrative

Question 378

Dream of Gerontius

Answer 378

1900
Cardinal Newman
Man on deathbed, judgmetn, purgatory
Written for Birmingham music festival, famously bad premiere
Roman Catholic

Gerontius -- tenor
Angel -- mezzo
Priest/Angel of the Agony -- bar/bass
Two big sections
Demon chorus "Low born clods of brute earth"
Moment of judgement

Question 379

Josquin style

Answer 379

Extremely wide and varied technique
MASSES
Favored secular CF
Put borrowed material in DIFFERENT VOICES, not just T
Planned mass to reach apex in Agnus Dei (complete statements of quoted material, multiple voices of original score quoted, increase in vocal texture)
Tenor with more rhythmic freedom in CF

MOTETS
Use of ostinato!
Mensural games
Acrostics
Replaces CF with new syntax based on imitation

Question 380

Monteverdi Vespers Part II

Answer 380

Typical Vespers service includes:
Versicle/response (Deus in adjutorium/Domine adjuvandum me)
Five psalms with antiphons:
Dixit dominus
Laudate pueri
Laetatus sum
Nisi Dominus
Lauda Jerusalem
Marian hymn (Ave maris stella)
Magificat

Monteverdi added a second Mag, 5 (antiphon substitutes?) non-liturgical pieces, instrumental sonata

The 5 sacri concenti (5 new pieces) are more progressive (i.e. Duo seraphim)
Choral movements blend conservative (CF) and progressive (idiomatic vocal/instrumental writing, continuo, ritornelli)

Question 381

Monteverdi Vespers Part 1

Answer 381

1610
Several psalm settings (69, 110, 113, 122, 127, 147), sacred motets, hymn, Mag
M. was working at Mantua, printed in Venice (maybe audition piece)
7 soloists, up to 10-part choir

1) Deus in adjutorium
Antiphonal, largely d Major, references to opening of L'Orfeo
2) Dixit Dominus
Six-voice choir
3) Nigra sum -- tenor
4) Laudate pueri -- 8 voice choir + bc
etc.

Question 382

Renaissance secular genres

Answer 382

Chanson – formes fixes
Ballade – AAB
Virelai – AbbaA
Rondeau – ABaAabAB

Sermisy – Tant que vivrai
Program chansons – Janequin
Vers mesuree – long/short syllabification linked to poetry and rhythm – Le Jeune, revoici venir

Lied – CF-like melody, decorative, free counterpoint surrounds
Old-fashioned
Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen

Frottola – Mantuan, solo song w lute
Developed into madrigal

Madrigal – serious texts (opposed to frottola), Petrarch focus
Verdelot and Arcadelt were early

Question 383

Five Mystical Songs

Answer 383

1906-11
Poems of the 17th c. mystic George Herbert
Premiered at Three Choirs
Bass soloist + piano or piano + string quartet or TTBB a cappella or orch. + SATB chorus
1) Easter (“Rise heart; thy Lord is risen”)
2) I Got Me Flowers (wordless chorus in last verse)
3) Love Bade me Welcome (“O sacrum convivum chant in chorus)
4) The Call
5) Antiphon – “Let all the world in every corner sing”

Question 384

Der Geist hilft

Answer 384

1729
Funeral of Ernesti, rector of Thomasschul
Double choir, three movements
1) “Der geist hilft” from choir to choir, fugato at “Sondern der Geist selbst”
2) Der aber die Herzen (two choirs together)
3) Chorale “Du heilige Brunst”

Question 385

Figure humaine

Answer 385

1943
Paul Éluard text
Liberté
Double mixed choir, 12 total parts

Question 386

Le roi David

Answer 386

1921
Oratorio/dramatic psalm
David’s life as shepherd, in battle, rise to power, lust for another wife, son’s death, disobedience to God, and death
27 sections
1921 version – small ensemble of 16
1923 – standard orch, chorus, SAT + boy sop. solos, narrator, actress

Question 387

Creation

Answer 387

1797-8
Book of Genesis
Linely-Salomon-Haydn+ van Swieten
Three sections:
1) Chaos, Days 1-4
2) Days 5-6
3) First hours of Adam and Eve

Each day has recit/solo pairs and ends with corus
Awake the Harp
The heavens are telling (end part I)
Achieved is the glorious work

Question 388

Dixit Dominus

Answer 388

1707 – Handel in Italy
Text is Psalm 110

Movements include opening dixit
Tecum principum (mvt 3) soprano solo triplets
Juravit dominus – grave
Tu es sacerdos…secundum ordinem Melchisedech
Judicabit – staccato
De torrente in via – SS duet, TB choir
Gloria patri – Under Pressure bassline

Question 389

Friede auf Erden

Answer 389

1907, Op. 13
2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings, choir…but preferably a cappella
Premiered 1911
Text by Swiss writer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

Question 390

Ockeghem Requie

Answer 390

Earliest surviving polyphonic requiem (1461?)
Chigi Codex
Paraphrase of chant in each movement, unusual for him
Graduale is Si ambulem text
Tractus is Sicut cervus

Question 391

Belshazzar’s Feast

Answer 391

1931, Leeds Festival
Text from Bible (Daniel and Psalm 137)
Jews are in exile; Babylonian King Belshazzar uses sacred vessels to praise heathen gods, hand appears and writes on the wall, he is killed, kingdom collapses, Jews regain freedom
10 continuous sections
Rhythmic, dense orchestration, jazzy, tonal
“Praise Ye” goes through all heathen gods

Question 392

Howells Requiem

Answer 392

1932-33, not published until 1980
May have been written for son’s death…probably not
Gloucester Cathedral
Walford Davies “A Short Requiem”

1) Salvator Mundi “O savior of the world”
2) Psalm 23
3) Requiem aeternam I
4) Psalm 121
5) Requiem aeternam II
6) I heard a voice form heaven

Question 393

Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline

Answer 393

1737
Funeral at Westminster Abbey
Material from this showed up in Israel in Egypt, M. used opning chorus for Requiem
Text from Lamentations and Job
SATB solo and chorus, strings, two oboes, continuo
"The ways of Zion do mourn"
"How are te mighty fallen"
"She delivered the poor that cried"
"Thir bodies are buried in peace"
"They shall receive a glorious kingdom"

Question 394

Lamento della ninfa

Answer 394

Book 8, 1638, though maybe written earlier
3-part text (shepherds, nymph, shepherds)
Lamento bass

Question 395

Monteverdi Book 5

Answer 395

1605
Dedicated to Duke Gonzaga of Mantua
Introduction
Cruda Amarilli
Last few pieces include b.c.!

Question 396

Lobgesang

Answer 396

1840
Symphony-cantata on words of the Holy Bible
2 sop, 1 tenor soloist
Celebrated 400tha nniversary of printing?

Question 397

Dvorak Stabat Mater

Answer 397

1877
Written in response to death of D.’s daughter
His first religious work
10 parts, connections between 1 and 10
Extended sonata form, long orch intro, reepated with chorus
Begins with octave F#s, chromatic descending lines

Question 398

Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott, BWV 80

Answer 398

1723, later version from 1735?
Written for Reformation Day (10/31)
Frank text
"Be steadfast against adversaries"
Oboes, strings, bc
1) Chorale fantasia in D Major
2) Aria and chorale, oboe sop have hymn stanza
3) secco bass recit with arioso ending
4) Komm in mein Herzenshaus -- sop aria, continuo ritornello
5) Central chorale (3rd stanza), unison voices, 6/8
6) Tenor recit
7) A/T duet
8) Closing chorale

Question 399

Singet dem Herrn

Answer 399

1727
Bb major, double chorus motet
Psalm 149 + Lutheran hymn + Psalm 150 for mvts 1, 2, 3
1) Singet (choir 1 has moving lines)
Fugue arpeggio at Die Kinder Zion sein fröhlich
2) Wie sich ein Vater erbarmet (chorale in Choir 2)
3) Lobet den Herrn, then Alles fugue

Question 400

Bach motets

Answer 400

6 authenticated, maybe others too (“Ich lasse dich nicht”)
Fürchte dich nicht from Weimar, others from Leipzig (1723-7)
Many written for funerals
Pedagogical purposes

Singet dem Herrn
Fürchte
Der Geist hilft
Lobet den Herrn
Komm, Jesu, komm
Jesu meine Freude

Question 401

Ives Psalm 90

Answer 401

1923-4
17 verses
Lord, though hast been our dwelling places
Chorus, organ, bells, C pedal for God in organ
Chant, stacked fourths, mirror movement

Question 402

Ceremony of Carols

Answer 402

1942
11 movements, text by Gerald Bullett in middle English
1+11 are procession on Hodie
2 -- Wolcum Yole!
3 -- There is no rose
4a -- That yonge child
4b -- Balulalow
5) As Dew in Aprille, gentle, soothing
6) This little babe
7) Interlude for harp
8) In Freezing Winter Night (round)
9) Spring Carol (sop/sop duet)
10) Deo Gracias -- Adam lay ibounden
11) processional again

Question 403

Brahms Warum ist das Licht gegeben

Answer 403

1877
Job, Lamentations of Jeremiah, James
Themes of patiene/acceptane in face of death
Missa canonica
1) Warum (three-part structure, “warum” chords begin each
2) Lasset uns unser Herz, F major, triple, six parts
3) Siehe, wir preisen selig, slow gentle, six voices
4) Mit Fried und Freud – chorale

Question 404

Haydn Late Masses Overview

Answer 404

1796 -- Missa in tempore belli
1796 -- Heiligmesse
1798 -- Missa in angustiis (Nelson)
1799 -- Theresienmesse
1801 -- Creation Mass
1802 -- Harmoniemesse

Question 405

Israel in Egypt

Answer 405

1739
Jennens libretto?
Takes music from Funeral Anthem (the ways of Zion), plus Dixit Dominus and other pieces
“They loathed to drink of the river” – high D, low Eb, high Eb, low F#, low G – fugue
“Their land brought forth frogs” – humorous alto aria
“He sent a thick darkness” – opens with major seventh chord on Db!

Question 406

Song for Athene

Answer 406

1993
Combines Orthodox funeral service text with text from Hamlet
Written for a young woman who died–English and acting teacher
Bass drone, “alleluia” in major and minor
Other text in mirror intervals
Sung at Diana’s funeral

Question 407

Reincarnations

Answer 407

Op. 16
1939-40
Text by James Stephens after older Gaelic poems
Mary Hynes – She is the sky of the sun, she is the dart of love
Anthony O’Daly – “anthony” ostinato in bass
Coolin’

Question 408

Barber choral music

Answer 408

Reincarnations (1939-40)
Sure on this shining night (1940)
Agnus Dei
To be sung on the water (1968) -- "beautiful, my delight"
A stopwatch and an ordinance map

Question 409

Ravel Trois Chansons

Answer 409

1914?
Nicolette
Trois osieauxs
Ronde

Question 410

Debussy Trois Chansons

Answer 410

Dieu! qu’il la fait bon regarder!
Quand j’ay ouy le tabourin
Yver, vous n’estes qu’un vilain