Exam 2 Flashcards
Romaticism
Term applied to music of the nineteenth century. Romantic music had looser and more extended forms, greater experimentation with harmony and texture, richly expressive and memorable melodies, improved musical instruments, an interest in music nationalism, and a view of music as a moral force, in which there was a link between the artists’ inner lives and the world around them.
Lied, Lieder
Art song with German words, whether monophonic, polyphonic, or for voice with accompaniment; used especially for songs for voice and piano in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Song Cycle
A group of art songs performed in succession that tells or suggests a story.
Strophic Form
Of a poem, consisting of two or more stanzas that are equivalent in form and can each be sung to the same melody; of a vocal work, consisting of a strophic poem set to the same music for each stanza.
Through-Composed Form
Composed throughout, as when each stanza or other unit of a poem is set to new music rather than in a strophic manner to a single melody.
Modified Strophic Form
Variant of strophic form in which the music for the first stanza is varied for later stanzas, or in which there is a change of key, rhythm, character or material.
Program music
Instrumental music that tells a story or follows a narrative or other sequence of events, often spelled out in an accompanying text called a program
Idée fixe
Term coined by Hector Berlioz for a melody that is used throughout a piece represent a person, thing, or idea, transforming it to suit the mood and situation.
Cyclic form
A group of related works, comprising movements of a single larger entity. An example of this is the song cycle of the nineteenth century.
Nocturne
Type of short piano piece popular during the romantic period, marked by highly embellished melody, sonorous accompaniment, and contemplative mood.
Etude
An instrumental piece designed to develop a particular skill or performing technique. Certain ninettenth-century etudes that contained significant artistic content and were played in concert were called concert etudes.
Octatonic scale
A scale that alternates whole and half steps
Developing variation
Term coined by Arnold Schoenberg for the process of deriving new themes, accompaniments, and
chaconne
Baroque genre derived from the chacona consisting of variations over a basso continuo.
Passacaglia
Baroque genre of variations over a repeated bass line or harmonic progression in triple meter.
opera seria
Eighteenth-century genre of Italian opera, on a serious subject but normally with a happy ending, usually without comic characters and scenes.
opera buffa
Eighteenth-century genre of Italian comic opera, sung throughout
bel canto
Elegant Italian vocal style of the early nineteenth century marked by lyrical, embellished, and florid melodies that show off the beauty, agility, and fluency of the singer’s voice.
cantabile
- Songful, lyrical, in a songlike style. 2. In the operatic scene structure developed by Rossini in the early nineteenth century, the first section of an aria or ensemble, somewhat slow and expressing a relatively calm mood.
Cabaletto
In the operatic scene structure of the nineteenth century, the last part of an aria or ensemble, which was lively and brilliant and expressed active feelings, such as joy or despair.
tempo di mezzo
In the early nineteenth century, the middle section of an aria or ensemble, usually an interruption or a transition, that falls between the cantabile and the cabaletta.
tempo di attacca
The first fast movement, following the recitative, in a nineteenth-century operatic aria or duet. It usually contains dialogue and action and leads to a more lyrical and static second movement or section.
reminiscence motives
In an opera, a motive, theme, or melody that recurs in a later scene, in order to recall the events and feelings with which it was first associated.
French grand opera
A serious form of opera popular during the romantic era that was sung throughout and included ballets, choruses, and spectacular staging.
Ballet
In sixteenth and seventeenth-century France, an entertainment in which both professionals and guests dance; later, a stage work danced by professionals.
Music Drama
Nineteenth-century genre created by Richard Wagner in which drama and music become so interdependent as to express a kind of absolute oneness.
Gesamtkunstwerk
Term coined by Richard Wagner for dramatic work in which poetry, scenic design, staging, action, and music are integrated into one artistic expression.
Leitmotif
In an opera or music drama, a motive, theme, or musical idea associated with a person, thing, mood, or idea, which returns in original or altered form throughout.
Exoticism
Nineteenth-century trend in which composers sought to evoke the perceived glamour and strangeness of distant lands and foreign cultures.
Nationalism
trend in music in which composers were eager to embrace elements in their music that claimed a national identity
Tone Poem
Symphonic poem, or a similar work for a medium other than orchestra.
Revolutions of 1848
Political upheaval all over the European continent, very few successfully
Role of Music Publishing
Amateurism influences style: Simpler; less counterpoint, more tuneful; evocative titles; chord progressions both familiar and dramatic.
Dies irae
Part of Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique fifth movement, it is a chant sequence from the Mass for the Dead that Is used as a symbol of death, the macabre. Berlioz.
Romantic orchestration
Began with Berlioz and his huge ensembles he wrote for. He wrote the first work for over 100 performers.
Pentatonic scale
Five adjacent notes on the circle of fifths, the black keys on a piano. Liszt.
Third-related harmonies/key
Liszt experimented with these keys. They are keys contained in the piece that are related by a third instead of the more typical dominant-tonic relationship.
Paris
Paris became the center of opera in the ninetennth century
Cavatina
The first aria you hear from a character in an opera
Patter songs
very rhythmic and sticks around one or two notes. Found in the cantabile from Rossina’s area. Comic opera pattern.
Rossini crescendo
Gradually getting louder as a single phrase is repeated.
viva Verdi
Although he was not a “nationalist” composer, his name became a patriotic rally cry and some of his music was viewed that way.
Endless melody
Wagnerian arioso-like style of singing which allowed for musical continuity throughout an entire dramatic section. No more arias vs. recitative.
Role of Folklore in opera
Simple folk-like melodies were a new twist to music. Weber.
Chromatic harmony
A type of harmony that propels the music until the end of a scene or act. Wagner
Realism
The idea that the musical drama and operas should reflect real life. Sometimes to the extremes of having real elephants on stage. Equivalent to an epic film today.
