Chapter 16: Piano Music, Chamber Music, Song Flashcards
When did the phenomenon of solo piano recital before a paying public begin to emerge?
The end of the 1830s.
Why were Beethoven’s piano sonatas repeatedly criticized?
For their technical difficulty.
What does cavatina mean in Italian opera?
Designates any introductory aria sung by a main character.
What does cavatina mean in Germany?
Simple arias of an introspective quality, free of virtuosic display.
When did the genre of song for solo voice and piano emerge?
The first half of the 19th century.
What is a reason for song for solo voice and piano being so popular during this time?
The music was less demanding.
What is another name for the genre of song for solo voice and piano?
Lied (german)
What were some factors that led to Lied to its prominence?
- The rise of German poetry
- The growing availability of the pian
- The idealization of domesticity and the family
Who were some playwrights/poets who changed the attitude on the german language?
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
- Fredrich Klopstock (1724-1803)
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)
- Frederrich Schiller (1759-1805)
Which writer was considered Shakespeare of the German language?
Goethe
What were the advances in the piano in the early 19th century?
- Reduced manufactered costs so more affordable to middle-class families
- Varied shades of dynamics, wide register, and resonant tone
- Ideal to accompany voice
How was deomesticity and family idealized?
- 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
Describe the genre of song
- 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
What are the three categories of form that songs fall into?
- strophic
- modified strophic
- through composed
Describe strophic form.
- the simplest of the three forms
- each verse (strophe) of a poem is set to the same music
Describe modified strophic form.
- music varies from strophe to strophe–
- melodic embellishment/alteration of texture or harmony but remains the same otherwise.
- like variation on a theme
Describe through-composed
- no recognizable pattern of repetition and often no repetition at all.
What is the song cycle?
A collection of songs ordered in such a way as to convey at least the outline of a story or idea.
Who was Stephen Foster?
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.
What is a minstrel song?
- Made to represent African American slave life.
- Typically performed by white performers in blackface.
- Ensemble included: tambourine, castanets “bones”, banjo, and fiddle.
What are parlor songs?
- Named because performed in parlor setting.
- Texts are strophic and sentimental
- Simplicity and melodic straightforwardness similar to German lied
- Emphais on naturalness and directness.
What is the french word for song?
Mélodie
Which composers cultivated mélodie?
Berlioz, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, Ernest Chausson, and Gabriel Fauré
Who were some important Russian composers of song?
Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, and Modeste Mussorgsky
What are characteristics of Russian song?
- folklike elements
- Russian chromatic and modal inflections
What is the character piece?
- 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.
What is tempo rubato?
(“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.
Describe Etude
- french word for study
- became a public genre to be formed and heard outside the practice studio
- Technically challenging and show off virtuosity
