Exam Prep Life Essays

Question 1

Arnold Schoenberg Biography - Youth

Answer 1

1874 Vienna Austriafather shoe maker, died young
left school worked at bank 5 years
self-taught musiccello, chamber with friends
amateur orchestra Alexander Zemlinskyquest of religion, OrthoJew to Christianity to Judaism
asthma, poor health

Question 2

Arnold Schoenberg Years

Answer 2

1874-1951

Question 3

Arnold schoenberg Biography - Middle Years

Answer 3

1901 married Zemlinsky’s sister Mathildeto Berlin-conductor cabaret, moved a lot
Teacher Stern Conservatory Berlin supported by Strauss1903 Vienna private students - Webern
studied art - expressionism1908 abandoned tonality The Book of the Hanging Gardens
published treatise on harmonyserviced in WWI - depressed slowed output
1917 Vienna years of silence, worked on 12tone
1923 first 12tone compositions, wife died
1926 Berlin instructor composition Prussian Academy Arts

Question 4

Arnold schoenberg Biography - Final Years

Answer 4

1933 rise of Nazi - left Germany; summer France then to Boston
1934 LA - lectured at USC and UCLA
retired 70
1951 died in LA

Question 5

Arnold Schoenberg - Style period years

Answer 5

Post romantic until 1908
Expressionist 1908-1917
Years of Silence 1917-1923
Serialist 1923-1933
American 1933-1951

Question 6

Arnold Schoenberg - Style general

Answer 6

atonality champion
radically new 12 tone technique
generally contracpuntal texture, chamber
revolutionary, lots of opposition

Question 7

Arnold Schoenberg - Style Post Romantic

Answer 7

1908Wagner, Mahler, Strauss
programmchromatic, lush orchestra
Verklarte Nacht (transfigured Night)

Question 8

Arnold Schoenberg - Style Expressionist

Answer 8

1908-1917
rejections of tonality
disjunct melody wide range
Klangfarbenmelodie
Sprechstimme
polyphonic procedures masked dissonance
Pierrot lunaire

Question 9

Arnold Schoenberg - Style Serialist

Answer 9

1923-1933
12 tone
Classical form sonata, rondo, vari, suite
Variations for Orchestra op31

Question 10

Arnold Schoenberg - Style American

Answer 10

1933-1951
greater style diversity, returns to tonal
more liberal 12 tone
more religious themes
Survivor From Warsaw

Question 11

Arnold Schoenberg - Titles

Answer 11

opera: Erwartung one character, Moses und Aronvocal: oratorio Gurrelieder and Die Jakobsleiter, Kol Nidre, cantata A survivor of warsaw
song cycle: Brettl Lieder, Das Buch der Hangenden, Pierrot lunaireorchestra: tone poem Pelleas und Melisande
symph: 1,2, 5pcs for orchestra, variators for orchconcertos: cello, viol, piano
chamber: string sextet Verklarte Nacht
piano: Three Piano Pcs, Six Little Pieces

Question 12

Robert Schumann years

Answer 12

1810-1856

Question 13

Schumann Bibliography - early years

Answer 13

1810 Zwickau, Germany
father author - Robert loved literature
at 18 sought our poet Heinrich Heine
1829 law school, preferred piano and composition
1830 piano lessons w/ Freidrich Wieck in Leipzig, live-in, met Clara his daughter (9)
theory, counterpoint - Heinrich Dorn Leipzig operainjured his hand, stopped playing

Question 14

Schumann Bibliography - established years

Answer 14

1830-1844
op1: Abegg Variations solo piano, 10 years piano music
heard Chopin 1831 op2; pen name Eusebius, Florestan
cofounded Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik (new journal) with teacher
met and admired Menelssohn 1835
loved Clara, father opposed
1840 doctorate UoJena, year of song 150 songs
married on Clara’s 21st bday, petitioned courts
1843 professor Leipzig conservatory 7 children; Robert mental instability tension
Clara advocate for his music

Question 15

Schumann Bibliography - final years

Answer 15

1844-1856
Robert/Clara toured Russia, Baltic, Scandinavian regions
family moved to Dresden, Robert’s mentally off
1850 political unrest, move again to Dusseldorf
1853 met Brahms(20) - wrote article boosted fame
1854 attempt suicide bridge, final years in asylum, Clara not allowed to visit
1856 July 29 died

Question 16

Robert Schumann Style

Answer 16

Bach counterpoint, Beethoven structural innovation
admired contemporaries Schubert, Chopin, Berlioz
romantic; heighted emotions, pathos, programmic elements descriptive titles
formal structure experiments form by context
thematicc transformation
syncopation, hemiola, cross rhythms, chromaticism
literary interest Jean Paul papillons, ETA Hoffmann
not virtuosity alone

Question 17

Robert Schumann Titles

Answer 17

Lieder: cycle Dichterliebe, Frauenliebe und Leben, Liederkreis; poets Hein, Goethe, Nikolaus LenauPiano collections; Abegg var, Papillons, Carnaval, Scense from childhood, Kreisleriana, symphonic etudes
concertos: piano, cello, violinorchestra: 4 symph. 1 Spring, 3 Rhenish, overtures, indicentals
chamber; 3 violin sonata, 3 piano trios, 3 SQ, piano Q piano Quin, several duos1
oper Genoveva, several choral works

Question 18

Richard Wagner Years

Answer 18

1813-1883

Question 19

Richard Wagner Biography - Youth Years

Answer 19

1813 - born Leipzig Germany
1/9 siblings, father died at his birth
stepfather Ludwig Geyer-actor painter
studied at St. Thomas (same as Bach teacher)
mostly self-taught, Leipzig University Christian Theodor Weinlig teacher
Beethoven Symp 9 and Fidelio inspiration

Question 20

Richard Wagner Biography - Early Career

Answer 20

1833 - first profess chorus master theater Wurzburgmusic direcotr traveling theater - experience but debt
1834 - first opera Die Feen never performed
1836 - married singer Wilhelmine Minna Planer, but had affairs
conducting in Riga Latvia
1839 - escaping debt, London-Paris writing operas living by music arrangment and journalist - article in Schumann’s Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik
1842 - grand opera Rienzi success Dresden Hoftheater

Question 21

Richard Wagner Biography - Dresden

Answer 21

1843-1849
conductor court of Saxony Dresden; orchestra and opera, compose special court occasions
Operas: Der fliegende Flying Dutchman, Tannhauser dramatic departure from traditionstarted Der Ring des Nibelungen

Question 22

Richard Wagner Biography - Years of Exile

Answer 22

1849-1863
forced to flee b/c of political activism (to Zurich with the help of Liszt)
Switzerland shift to literary focus; essays Art and Revolution, Artwork of the Future, Opera and Drama

Question 23

Richard Wagner Biography - Munich, Bayreuth, Final Years

Answer 23

1864-1883
romantically involved Liszt’s daughter Cosima who was married, had 3 children before getting divorced
1865 - to Munich at request of young King Ludwig II of Bavaria
Tristan and Isolde premiered there
1870 - married Cosimapermanent festival dream becoming reality 1872 - first cornerstone laid for festival theater Bayreuth
1876 - first festival; premiere Der Ring (Saint-Saens and Tchaikovsky present)
Parisfal composed 1882 to help indebted theater
1883 - died in Venice, boy returned to Bayreuth

Question 24

Richard Wagner Style

Answer 24

Music of the Future, Gesamtkunstwerk
inspiration from Norse mythology, Celtic legends, medieval epic poems, symbolic wrote his own librettos(before the music)
influenced by Ancient greek drama; long scenes one character with anotherinfluenced by Beethoven weaving vocal orchestramore through-composed opera structureless symmetric phrases endless melody
sophisticated chromatic harmony Tristan chord
expanded orchestra 100+ Wagnerian tuba

Question 25

Richard Wagner titles

Answer 25

opera/music drama: Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot (the ban on love), Rienzi, Der fliegende hollander, Tannhauser, Lohengrin, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Der Ring des Nibelungen-Das Rheingod, Die Walkure, Seigfried, Gotterdammerung, and Parisfalorchestra; Faust overture, Siegfried Idyll sympoem
songs, Wesendonck Lieder
litterary; Art of Revolution, Artwork of the Future, Opera and Drama.