AOS4 Flashcards
Give 2 characteristics of Serialism:
- Atonal
- Disjunct
- Extremes of dynamics and pitch
- Sparse textures
Give 2 characteristics of Minimalism:
- Layering patterns, use of technology
- Repetitive
- Tonal
Give 2 Characteristics of Impressionism:
- Dreamy and mystical sounding
- Experimenting with texture and playing techniques
- Ambiguous tonality
- Dissonance and extended chords used
- Whole tone scale used
Give 2 characteristics of expressionism:
- Angular and spiky melodies
- Atonality and dissonance
- Extreme dynamics
- Constantly changing textures
Name 3 general features of Minimalist music:
- Use of cells that are repeated with slight changes
- Often no clear melody
- Can often sound complex
- Diatonic and static harmony
- Use of Drones
- Broken chords used to form cells
Name 3 minimalist techniques:
- Augmentation
- Diminution
- Addition/Additive melody
- Phase shift
- Subtraction
- Melodic
transformation/Metamorphosis - Rhythmic displacement
- Polyrhythms
What is meant by Augmentation?
Notes values are doubled in length or widening intervals
What is diminution?
Note values are halved or intervals and reduced
What is phase shift?
Identical loops played at the same time but at different speeds
What is Addition/Additive melody?
Adding one at two notes at a time to build up a motif
What is melodic transformation?
Gradually changing from one motif to another by making small changing
What is rhythmic displacement?
Composer will move the rhythm along by a few beats or accent one beat to change emphasis
Give 2 features of the music of Malcolm Arnold:
- Made use of folk characteristics
- Wrote concertos for atypical instrument
- Dissonance often features
- Wrote for wind bands and brass bands
Give 2 characteristics of the music of Benjamin Britten:
- Tonal
- Programmatic in nature
- Showcases instrument techniques
Give 2 characteristics of the music of Peter Maxwell Davies:
- Experimented with serialism and expressionism
- Dissonant contrapuntal textures
- Scottish influences
Give 2 characteristic of the music of John Tavener:
- Tonal, though some dissonance is featured
- Sparse textures
- Electronic sounds in his music
- Use of modes and serialist techniques
Give 2 key characteristics of the Orchestral Music of Aaron Copland:
- Jazz and blues influences
- Tonal
- Strong rhythmic quality
- Syncopation
- Made us of solo instruments
- Homophonic texture
Give 2 characteristics of the music of Kodaly:
- Influenced by Debussy’s impressionist style
- Use of pentatonic scale
- Syncopation
Give 2 characteristics of the music of Bartok:
- Atonal, experimented with tonality
- Change of metre and unusual metres
- Experiments with timbre and instrumental techniques
Characteristics of Hungarian Music:
• Chromatic harmony
• Dissonance
• Hungarian minor scale: raise the 4th
to create a tritone
• Rapid changes of time signature and
metre
• Unusual time signatures
• Melodies based on Hungarian folk
tunes
• Melodies based around the
pentatonic scale
• Extreme dynamics
• Syncopated and dotted rhythms
• Tonal ambiguity
• Uneven phrases
• Unusual instrumental techniques
Characteristics of minimalism
• Contains excerpts of folk songs (nationalism)
• Usually does have a tonal centre, but is normally unclear
• Rich harmonies
• Expressive
• Expressionism -> extension of
Romanticism
• Angular, spiky melodies
• Dissonance and atonality
• Serialism used (Maxwell-Davies)
• Unusual timbres used
