Chapter 16: Piano Music, Chamber Music, Song

Question 1

When did the phenomenon of solo piano recital before a paying public begin to emerge?

Answer 1

The end of the 1830s.

Question 2

Why were Beethoven’s piano sonatas repeatedly criticized?

Answer 2

For their technical difficulty.

Question 3

What does cavatina mean in Italian opera?

Answer 3

Designates any introductory aria sung by a main character.

Question 4

What does cavatina mean in Germany?

Answer 4

Simple arias of an introspective quality, free of virtuosic display.

Question 5

When did the genre of song for solo voice and piano emerge?

Answer 5

The first half of the 19th century.

Question 6

What is a reason for song for solo voice and piano being so popular during this time?

Answer 6

The music was less demanding.

Question 7

What is another name for the genre of song for solo voice and piano?

Answer 7

Lied (german)

Question 8

What were some factors that led to Lied to its prominence?

Answer 8

• The rise of German poetry
• The growing availability of the pian
• The idealization of domesticity and the family

Question 9

Who were some playwrights/poets who changed the attitude on the german language?

Answer 9

• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
• Fredrich Klopstock (1724-1803)
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)
• Frederrich Schiller (1759-1805)

Question 10

Which writer was considered Shakespeare of the German language?

Answer 10

Goethe

Question 11

What were the advances in the piano in the early 19th century?

Answer 11

• Reduced manufactered costs so more affordable to middle-class families
• Varied shades of dynamics, wide register, and resonant tone
• Ideal to accompany voice

Question 12

How was deomesticity and family idealized?

Answer 12

• Perfect context for songs with solo voice and piano could be performed and heard.
• 1815-1848 in Europe was more stable
• Family became a new center of attention
• Seen as a miniature society in its own right
• Switched from grandiose to intimate increasing the appeal for music like Lied

Question 13

Describe the genre of song

Answer 13

• Only 2 musicians in an intimate room
• Slight inflections of harmony, dynamics, and register
• Calls for heightened sensitivity from composers, performers, and listeners.
• Reflects belief that simplicity can be profound

Question 14

What are the three categories of form that songs fall into?

Answer 14

• strophic
• modified strophic
• through composed

Question 15

Describe strophic form.

Answer 15

• the simplest of the three forms
• each verse (strophe) of a poem is set to the same music

Question 16

Describe modified strophic form.

Answer 16

• music varies from strophe to strophe–
• melodic embellishment/alteration of texture or harmony but remains the same otherwise.
• like variation on a theme

Question 17

Describe through-composed

Answer 17

• no recognizable pattern of repetition and often no repetition at all.

Question 18

What is the song cycle?

Answer 18

A collection of songs ordered in such a way as to convey at least the outline of a story or idea.

Question 19

Who was Stephen Foster?

Answer 19

A 19th century American songwriter. (1826-1864)

• the first American composer to be able to support himself with just music sales.
• Contributed to the minstrel song.
• Wrote many parlor songs.

Question 20

What is a minstrel song?

Answer 20

• Made to represent African American slave life.
• Typically performed by white performers in blackface.
• Ensemble included: tambourine, castanets “bones”, banjo, and fiddle.

Question 21

What are parlor songs?

Answer 21

• Named because performed in parlor setting.
• Texts are strophic and sentimental
• Simplicity and melodic straightforwardness similar to German lied
• Emphais on naturalness and directness.

Question 22

What is the french word for song?

Answer 22

Mélodie

Question 23

Which composers cultivated mélodie?

Answer 23

Berlioz, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Ernest Chausson, and Gabriel Fauré

Question 24

Who were some important Russian composers of song?

Answer 24

Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, and Modeste Mussorgsky

Question 25

What are characteristics of Russian song?

Answer 25

• folklike elements
• Russian chromatic and modal inflections

Question 26

What is the character piece?

Answer 26

• A new genre associated almost exclusively with the piano.
• Instrumental counterpart to the song.
• Seeks to portray and explore the mood or character of a particular person, idea, situation, or emotion.
• Brief, sectional, fairly simple.
• Many follow ABA, AAB, or ABB pattern.
• Operates on the border between programmatic and absolute music.

Question 27

What is tempo rubato?

Answer 27

(“robbed time”) a performance tradition that involved subtle accelerations and decelerations in tempo and at times complete independence of the hands, with the “singing” hand moving in a freer rhythm against the steady beat of the accompaniment.

Question 28

Describe Etude

Answer 28

• french word for study
• became a public genre to be formed and heard outside the practice studio
• Technically challenging and show off virtuosity