Composers/Works - Romantic, 20th cent.

Question 1

Weber

Answer 1

Der Freischutz - ca. 1820

• Spoken text between musical scenes. German Opera
• Horns in multiple keys, larger instrumentation
• Clear harmonic cadences
• Repetitive motives in orchestra
• Multiple singers, chorus
• Changing of key signatures (distantly related keys)

Question 2

Liszt

Answer 2

Liszt - Transcendental Etudes - 1820s-30s
• Virtuosic technique
• Chromatic decoration
• Key/character changes define form (usually less repetition of motives)

Question 3

Berlioz

Answer 3

Harold in Italy - 1834
• Fairly clear tonal center, but less clear form
• Specific timpani mallets and tuning changes
• Multiple types of flutes, horns in multiple keys, ob/eng. horn, solo viola
• More programmatic and sectional - tempo/key changes throughout
• Still centered in one key, more brief movement between keys

Question 4

Chopin

Answer 4

Preludes - 1835-39
• Lots of chromatic passing tones to shift tonal centers.
• Looks like the home key, but has lots of chromatic notes to shift harmonies.
• Lots of mode shifting (Duo Chopinesque)
• Some virtuosity, lots of emotion

Question 5

Schumann -Dichterliebe

Answer 5

Dichterliebe - 1840
•Short songs w/piano accompaniment.
• Repetition of text, motives, and some formal repetition as well.
• Modal mixture pre-dominant chords
• Some pieces do not end in the same key of key signature (signature stays the same)
• Chords w/extensions

Question 6

Schumann - Piano quintet

Answer 6

Piano quintet in Eb - 1842
• String quartet + piano
• Lots of changing keys
• Accidentals create lots of shifting harmonies and colorful pre-pre-dominant chords

Question 7

Schumann - Piano Concerto

Answer 7

Piano concerto - 1845
• More traditional harmonies, but shifting key centers
• Chromatic mediants, chromatic pre-dominant harmonies.

Question 8

Verdi

Answer 8

La Traviata - 1853
• Interaction btw vocalists, also interaction with orchestra.
• Careful orchestration
• Very clear V-Is, but some movement between key centers that’s much different from Classical (short departures to vi, key changes, etc)
-Italian opera
-Slower harmonic rhythms, however some decorated chromaticism for effects
-Clear cadences

Question 9

Wagner

Answer 9

Tristan und Isolde - 1857-59
• Leitmotifs (chromatic thing)
• Tons of chromaticism, still functional harmony
• Compare/contrast to Debussy

Question 10

Brahms - German Requiem

Answer 10

German Requiem - 1865-68
• Key of F, but immediate accidentals and non-F functions.
•Harp in different key?
• Choir singing German text with Orchestra (larger orch.)
•

Question 11

Brahms 4

Answer 11

Brahms Symphony No. 4 - 1885
•Still a lot of tonality (V-I’s) but a handful of tonal shifts/changes. Cadences are less rhythmically clear than classical composers
• Larger instrumentation (4 hns in different keys
• New cadences to new keys all over the place.
• Main theme returns but in different keys
• Some moments of clear, four bar phrasing

Question 12

Mahler

Answer 12

Symphony 1 - 1888
• Slow and emotional
• Divisi strings parts (sometimes 3 bass/cello notes @ same time)
• Lots of small tempo/mood changes
• Repeats and some use of more traditional forms (possibly 2nd mvt. in sonata? Check this)

Question 13

Debussy - 3 nocturne

Answer 13

Nocturnes - 1892
• More chromaticism
• Intricate instrumentation and scoring
• Planing and parallel intervals
• Less focus on "tonic"
• Polyrhythms (2:3)
• Enharmonic key changes

Question 14

Debussy - prelude faun

Answer 14

Prelude to the afternoon of a faun - 1894
•Orchestral work - Intricate instrumentation (piston trumpets, 2 harps)
• Timbral color techniques - tremolos, gliss, mutes
•Chromaticism, lots of tonal changes and key sig. changes.

Question 15

Debussy - Estampes

Answer 15

Estampes - 1903
• Color tones (ˆ6)
• Lots of pedal tones with shifting dominants above
• Obscured melodies and frequent changes in character

Question 16

Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker

Answer 16

Nutcracker - 1892

• Ballet. Simple meters (dance)
• Easily recognizable melodies, clear harmonies.
• Chromatic decoration.

Question 17

Tchaik - Piano Concerto

Answer 17

Piano Concerto in Bb- 1874
• Active and robust piano part (rolled chords, 2 hand unison rhythms, cadenzas). Lots of interaction btw. piano and orchestra
• Sonata form with modifications.
• Standard Romantic orch. instrumentation
• Lots of chromatic decoration in piano
• massive chords in both hands together

Question 18

Rimsky Korsakov

Answer 18

Scheherezade - 1888

• Symphonic suite based on 1001 nights.
• Large brass and percussion sections
• Soloist moments, colorful orchestration
• Russian composer writing programmatic work about “Arabian Nights.”

Question 19

Puccini

Answer 19

La Boheme - 1893-95

• Late romantic Italian opera
• Expanded brass, timp+percussion
• Lots of meter changes, key changes, fermatas, section changes
• Evolving harmonic language
• Lots of back and forth between singers

Question 20

Ives - 3 places in New England

Answer 20

3 Places in New England - 1911-14

• polymetric, polytonal
• Intricate scoring. Each part playing in different time feel

Question 21

Ives - Unanswered Question

Answer 21

The Unanswered Question - 1930-35 (revised)
• Polyrhythmic, polytonal.
• Extreme levels of dynamic.
• Chamber group/orchestra
• Multiple tempos at once

Question 22

Holst

Answer 22

First Suite for Military Band - 1909
• 1st movement chaconne (repeated bass pattern in all parts with decorative melodies above)
• Standard wind band orchestration
• Clear harmonic language, homophonic textures. Brass fanfares, march-qualities.

Question 23

Joplin

Answer 23

The Easy Winners - 1901
• piano rag. Clear form with repeats and larger formal repetition
• Tonal, moves to relative keys in different sections

Question 24

Ellington tunes

Answer 24

Sophisticated Lady - 1933
Dont Get Around Much - 1940
• Jazz standards. 32 bar song forms.
• Clear ii-V-I’s

Question 25

Stravinsky - Rite

Answer 25

Rite of Spring - 1913
• Ballet. Clear themes, but changing often.
• Atonality, octatonic.
• polymeter, displaced accents, mixed meters.

Question 26

Symphony of Psalms

Answer 26

1930
• Neoclassical.
• Much more metric, clean cut. compared to Rite 
• Still more eerie harmonies
• Orchestra plus choir

Question 27

Bartok - strings/perc/celeste

Answer 27

1936
• Atonal.
• Use of texture, mutes, and subtlety within the ensemble

Question 28

Bartok - string quartet 4

Answer 28

1928
• Movements in arch form
• Extended techniques
• Utilizes subsets of chromatic scales (penta, heptatonic, octatonic, etc), but does not imply serialism

Question 29

Stravinsky Wind Octet

Answer 29

Wind Octet - 1923
• Mixed meter
• Note groupings over barlines
• Interlocking instrumental parts
• Non-traditional harmonies

Question 30

Hindemith

Answer 30

Symphonic Metamorphosis - 1943
• Somewhat tonal in spots
• Small Perc. section with timpani
• Repeated sections in the form
• Turando scherzo - timpani excerpt, everyone passes around melody/counter melodies

Question 31

Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire

Answer 31

Pierrot Lunaire - 1912
• Sprechstimme. Small chamber instrumentation
•Freely atonal, though utilizes some classical forms/comp. techniques

Question 32

schoenberg Op. 11, no 1

Answer 32

Op. 11, No. 1 - 1909
• Atonal piano pieces, utilize set theory
• Earliest of his atonal pieces (abandoning tonality)

Question 33

Schoenberg - Op 33a

Answer 33

Op. 33a - 1928-29
• Piano solo, 12-tone.
• Lots of dynamic changes. Atonal

Question 34

Berg - Wozzeck

Answer 34

Wozzeck - 1914-22
• Atonality used to express madness/alienation of characters onstage
• Atonal German Opera.
• A few moments/hints at tonality. Chromatic sequences
• Dense orchestra textures

Question 35

Berg Violin Concerto

Answer 35

Violin Concerto - 1935
• Combines 12-tone technique and some tonality
•Very busy sounding - like violin is playing something separate from the orchestra.
• Tone rows divided into maj/min triads

Question 36

Copland

Answer 36

Appalachian Spring - 1944
• Shaker melody as thematic material
• Quartal harmonies, colorful tonality. Clear melodic material and themes.
• Commissioned as Ballet

Question 37

Webern - 5 mvts. for string quartet

Answer 37

5 Movements - 1909
•Atonal, extended playing techniques
• Does not follow strict serialism, but utilizes tone rows.
• Possible serial dynamics (extreme range)

Question 38

Mendelssohn

Answer 38

Symphony 4 - 1833

• Large instrumentation, but not as huge as late romantic orchestration.
• Nice, even phrases. Fits into almost classical forms
• Sounds mostly classical - look for larger instrumentation