Composer/Philosopher Profiles Flashcards
1
Q
Schoenberg
A
- Serialism and atonality
- Developing variation
- Believe he was a natural successor to Wagner
2
Q
Stravinsky
A
- Russian composer with French/American citizenship
- Rhythmic advancement and instrumental forces
- Stylistic diversity: national music (ballets), Neoclassicism, late engagement with serialism
3
Q
Debussy
A
- French Impressionist composer
- ‘Melodic tonality’: non-functional harmonies, bitonal chords, whole-tone and pentatonic scales, unprepared modulations, parallel chords, pedals
- bit of a nationalist
4
Q
Scriabin
A
- Russian Symbolist and religious nutter: ‘I am God’
- dissonant musical language that transcended tonality – but not atonal
- last 5 sonata’s written without a key signature
5
Q
Boulez
A
- French composer, analyst, conductor and rampant critic (absolutist and control freak)
- Integral serialism, controlled chance music (Piano sonata 3) and electronic transformation of live instrumental sounds
6
Q
Schaeffer
A
- Founder of GRMR in Paris
- Electronic/avant garde/’musique concrete’
- Recording and sampling with tape technology
7
Q
Ligeti
A
- Hungarian avant garde composer
- Early works include folk elements and extension of Bartokian musical language
- Later works have more complexity in rhythm and pulse
- ‘Micropolyphony’ in dense note clusters
8
Q
Xenakis
A
- Greek avant garde composer
- Mathematically modelled music composition
- Spatial elements, architecture, short foray into electronics
- Algorithmic composition (GENDY)
9
Q
Stockhausen
A
- Electronic music, group composition, process composition, Spatialization, variable form, polyvalent form, Athematic serialism (non 12-tone) punktuelle Musik
- Multiple of the above played off each other in the same composition
10
Q
Messiaen
A
- Ecclesiastical composer
- Symmetrical forms: modes of limited transposition and retrograde-able rhythms
- Birdsong, Gamelan, Hindi deci-talas, modality,
- Denies western harmonic teleology and suspension of time ‘infiniment lent’
- precursor to serialism
11
Q
Satie
A
- Moved away from post-Wagnerian impressionism towards a sparer, terser style - highly original
- unresolved chords, he sometimes dispensed with bar-lines, simple melodies (love of old church music), modal harmonies
- Furniture music
12
Q
Feldman
A
- Extremes in duration and scale - haptic timbres
- inspired by painters and dedicated many works to friends and colleagues in the NYC school
- Anti- institution ‘there will be no embarrassment in my abilities’
13
Q
Brecht
A
- Theatre practitioner and playwright
- Epic theatre and the alienation effect (anti-realism) encouraging audience to think critically
- Breaking the forth wall, lighting, minimal staging (juxtaposed with a few select realistic visual elements), narrators, announcing stage directions
14
Q
Lutyens
A
- English dodecaphonist
- Less strict adherence to 12-tones to more easily express herself
- Faced backlash from non serialist and serialists for her approach to the technique
15
Q
Cage
A
- Postmodernist composer
- Emancipation of noise: prepared piano
- Theatrical compositions
- Chance music and indeterminacy
16
Q
Webern
A
- Strict adherence to 12 tone-methods
- Atonality, anti-thematicism, brevity, extended instrumental technique/timbres,
17
Q
Berg
A
- Combined Romantic lyricism with 12-tone technique
- Pupil of Schoenberg’s
- ‘Human’ and ‘emotional’ approach (more accessible and admired)
18
Q
Hindemith
A
- Expressionist works of complex counterpoint (Bachian neoclassicism)
- Gebrauchsmusik
19
Q
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
A
- Black/Mixed race and often racialised in reviews
- Taught in Western Classical idiom
- Cantatas widely sang during his lifetime and adopted by AA choral societies (admired)
- ‘African Mahler’
20
Q
Varese
A
- French ultramodernist
- Interested in electronics (anti-‘interpretation’) and the emancipation of noise (‘organised noises’)
21
Q
Ruth Crawford Seeger
A
- American Ultra modernist
- Folk/topical issues/modernist
- Polytonality and tone clusters
- Serial methods
- Dissonant counterpoint
22
Q
Kurt Weill
A
- Composed for the stage with Brecht
- Satire/social commentary (like the Weimar cabarets)
23
Q
Babbitt
A
- American serial and electronic composer
- ‘Who cares if you listen?’
24
Q
Britten
A
- English composer
- Most well known for his operatic music that show the struggle of an outsider against a hostile society and the corruption of innocence
- wrote music for children and amateur performers
- composed with particular performers in mind
- ‘restore to the musical setting of the English Language a brilliance, freedom and vitality’ of Purcell
25
Q
Vaugh Williams
A
- English Pastoral school
- Folk tunes collector (influenced by Tudor music)
- believed in making music as available as possible to everybody; works for amateur and student performance
- Modal (Debussy/Ravel) and evocative
26
Q
Bartok
A
- Hungarian
- Collection and analytical study of folk music
- Breakdown of the diatonic system of harmony and the revival of nationalism as a source for musical inspiration
27
Q
Russolo
A
- Italian futurist
- Emancipation of noise (manifesto ‘the art of noises’)
- Created noise machines
28
Q
Henry Cowell
A
- American avant-gardist
- Early pioneer of atonality/polytonality, polyrhythm and non-western modes
- ‘New Musical Resources’ - emancipation of noise, music without philosophy
- tone clusters, extended instrumental techniques
29
Q
John Adams
A
- American minimalist reacting against serialism
- Late Romantic orch. textures
- creating larger shapes out of repeating cells
- Operas around topical events
- Emancipation of noise beyond cage using electronics
30
Q
Dvorak
A
- Czech composer
- Aspects of the folk music (Slavonic dances and songs)
- Later works move towards classical models
31
Q
Charles Ives
A
- American Modernist - ‘American original’
- Experimental music - polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones
- Fondness of musical quotation (BH5 in every mvmt of 2nd Pno Sonata)
