Final Flashcards
In paradisum
- Anon
- Gregorian antiphon
- syllabic
- plainchant
- monophony (all singers on 1 pitch)
- choir
- melismas
- religious, for Catholic Church
- for after the Mass for the dead
Violin Concerto in G, op. 4
- Vivaldi
1st mvmt
- begins & ends w/ ritornello form
- triple meter
- 1st and 2nd violin echo brightly
2nd mvmt
- gentle & slow
- ground bass variation form (repeating bass figure)
- real melody is in the bass
- theme → variation → theme
3rd mvmt
- starts w/solo, then ritornellos follow
Ritornello
Bass variation form
ostinato
Kyrie
- Josquin
- from Pange lingua Mass
- prayer, uses melodic fragment of pange lingua (a monophonic chant)
- BTS sing in a round
- point of imitation
- imitative polyphony → a round
Gloria
- Josquin
- from Pange lingua Mass
- chordal homophony
- changes # of parts singing as well as diff. groupings of singers
- many points of imitation
- polyphony & homophony contrasted
Christ lag in Todesbanden
- Bach
- cantata → sacred → Lutheran church service
- Martin Luther composed hymn tune
- Easter chorale
- minor mode gives sober shadow over rejoicing
- voices & string orch w/ continuo
- all stanzas except last are gapped chorales
- not all voices sing in all stanzas
Stanza 3
- accompanied by organ continuo, violin plays melody @ beg and end
- abrupt ending
- tenor = melody = gapped chorale
Stanza 4
- alto = melody = gapped chorale
- continuous music assigned to STB → singing faster, imitative polyphony to same chords
Stanza 7
- no longer gapped
- straightforward presentation of hymn
- S = melody, ATB = rich harmonies, doubled by instruments
- restful conclusion
Don Giovanni
Aria
- “vengo vengo”
- “signor, si!”
- “ho capito”
- only a guy singing
- very short phrases
- repeated cadences
- ends in angry rush by orch
Don Giovanni
Duet
- sounds cheesy lolz
- “la ci darem la mano”
Section 1
- andante
- A A’ B A’’ coda → form
- A → Don Giovanni
- A’ → Zerlina
- B → both
- A’’ → both, shared phrase by phrase
Section 2
- allegro, 6/8
- both singing
Don Giovanni
Recitative
- harpsichord-y accompaniment
- secco recitative
- sung w/just continuo accompaniment (characteristic of classical style)
- sung in speech-like, conversational rhythms
Symphony 95 in C minor
mvmt 1
Haydn
- sonata form (a bad example of sonata form, etc. recap not entirely in minor)
- minor → major
- extended recap → imaginative rewrite, treats expos material freely
- whereas Mozart’s recaps mostly mirrored the expos
Symphony 95 in C minor
mvmt 2
- variation form
- variation theme = |:a:||:b:|
- waltzy, sipping tea, proper
- haydn wrote variations w/in variations
Theme a a b b
Var 1 a1 a1’ b1 b1 cello solo, triplets
Var 2 a2 b2 b2’ minor mode, mood shift
Var 3 a3 a3’ b3 a3= just like a
cadences p → pp → ff
Symphony 95 in C minor
mvmt 3
- minuet and trio
minuet
- minor → major (in a) → minor (in a’)
- phrase a’ → long sudden rest w/ fermata
- forte
- ||:a:||:ba:||
trio
- quieter, solo cello after key change
- tempo slows, mode change from minor → major
- violins cue, then cello again
- ||:c:||:dc:||
Symphony 95 in C minor
mvmt 4
- rondo
- |:a:||:b:|
- A B A C A
- starts and stops in this piece → very Haydn-like
- A
- B → free fugue (no systematic imitative counterpoint)
- polyphony → homophony → monophony
Erlkonig
- Schubert
- poem by Goethe
- Lied (1 singer + piano accomp)
- through composed setting (music changing w/successive stanzas)
- setting up rhythm of the horse riding → triplets
Carnaval
- Schumann
- cycle of piano miniatures
- character pieces
- descriptive titles → topoi
- rubato → tempo flexes, slows down (performer controls tempo)
Nocturne in F# major
- Chopin
- concert music
- virtuosity
- chromaticism → liquid quality of melody
- rubato
- no sharp demarcations or literal returns; music seems to grow spontaneously in an improvisational way
Fantastic Symphony
- Berlioz
- program symphony
- idee fixe = obsession
- notion of having a single theme recur in all mvmts as a representation of the musician’s beloved
- ugly → dream of a witches’ sabbath
- lots of bells
- gregorian chant
- topoi
- idee fixe + program
- unusually large orchestra = tone color effects
- program, breakthrough experimentation
Rigoletto
- Verdi
- Victor Hugo
- all recitatives accompanied
- bel canto → never allowed voice to be overshadowed by orch
Aria
- stophic form
The Valkyrie
- Wagner
- Leitmotivs
- wagner packs a ot into minimal character gestures using leitmotivs
- also includes some lush Romantic harominzation of new melody
Overture-Fantasy, Romeo and Juliet
- Tchaik
- many themes (love theme, vendetta, Friar)
- lively development → suggests sonata form
- original form of vendetta → suggests sonata form recap
- descriptive program music - symphonic poems
- topoi
- orchestral sonata form
Symphony 1
Mahler
Council of Trent
said music must be monophonic; thought polyphonic compositions were secular
Da capo aria
An aria in ABA form, i.e., one in which the A section is sung da capo at the end v
Violin Concerto in D, mvt. 3
Brahms
- classical form
- definition of concerto has not changed since Vivaldi:
- 3 mvmts
- virtuosity
-
3rd mvmt ⇒ rondo, A B A’ C B A’’ cad1 cad2 coda
- Theme A = a a b’ a traditional form, quicker and quicker repetitions (seems to contradict meter ⇒ very Brahms)
- Ep B = upward scalesolo , downward scaleorch
- Ep C = ¾ time
- coda = 6/8 time, swinging march tempo
- transitions in mvmt = rapid virtuoso scales
Symphony no. 1, mvt. 3
Mahler
- march and trio form (like Classical minuet and trio)
- irony - sentimentality, nostalgia
- tension
- high art (fugue) × pop/children’s tune
- use canon or chase (strict imitation)
- hyper-Romanticism
- excessive emotionalism
- between major and minor
-
Section 1: distortions/alterations of Frere Jacques
- minor mode @slow tempo
- Section 2: distorted, fragmentary dance-music phrases alternate with fragments of funeral march
-
Section 3: “trio,” in warm major mode w/triplet harp accomp.
- melody by strings, then oboe and solo violins
- Section 4: combines 1 and 2, in a diff key, new counterpoint in trumpets
“Clouds” from Three Nocturnes
Debussy
- Impressionism?
- start = quiet chords by clarinet & bassoons
- chords aren’t definitive; they don’t lead anywhere
- motive in English horn ⇒ vague rhythm and fading conclusion
- parallel chords ⇒ very Debussy
- chords all share rich, complex structure
- pitches slip downwards, moving parallel w/o est. a clear tonality
- approx A B A’ form; very fluid
- Romanticism
- descriptive title
- ref. Nocturne
- Anti-Romanticism
- melody
- harmony
- rhythm & meter
- orchestration
- form
The Rite of Spring
Stravinsky
-
Introduction: puts bassoon in uncomfortable range (tbt to Mahler)
- dissonant polyphony
- like a static series of preliminary fanfares
-
Omens of Spring - Dance of the Adolescents: rhythmic irregularity
- very dissonant chord repeated until the end of time
- heavy accents reinforced by French horns; upset ordinary meter
- ostinato ⇒ repeating chords overlaid w/new motives
- motives repeated w/slightly diff rhythms and lengths
- music interrupts itself
- polyrhythm
- ostinato
Pierrot Lunaire
Schoenberg
- sprechstimme ⇒ Schoenberg’s invention, sound isnt fully organized into pitches; not exactly singing or speaking
- expressionism
- song cycle - singer, unusual –> ensemble
- text ⇒ Giroud, symbolist
- tension, nervousness
- insanity
- lunacy
- maximized dissonance
-
“Night”: passacaglia; dominated by 3 note chromatic ostinato
- nightmarish aspect of expressionism
-
“Moonfleck”: dense, dissonant, atonal, intense motivic insistence
- high pitched motives depict flickering moonlight
Wozzeck
Berg
- play - Büchner
- expressionist opera
- uses leitmotives, contains no arias
- master rhythm ⇒ single short rhythm, repeated over and over with slight modifications, but presented in many diff tempos
- gives sense of nightmare and fixation
- dissonant, atonal
“The Rockstrewn Hills”
Ives
- false starts
- dance fragment first in strings, then woodwinds, gets more dissonant and atonal
- passage of forceful, irregular rhythms
- @climax = homophony and irregular pounding rhythms ala Rite
- new section = fragmentary march in trombones
Music for strings, percussion, celest
Bartok
- mvmt 2 = sonata form
- Magyar folk melodies → Hungarian
- modern harmony (atonality)
- dissonance, but controlled dissonance
Appalachian Spring
Copland
- original ballet → Martha Graham Dance co
- neoclassical elements: theme & variation form
- controlled dissonance
- other traditional signifiers → program music
Neoclassicism
classic period form
control of dissonance
emphasis on imitation, sequence, classical structure
backwards & forwards-looking
a response to fascism?
Alexander Nevsky
Prokofiev
- help shape the emotional resonse to film
- episodic
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Lux aeterna
Ligeti
- dissonance, continuous, tone cluster
- virtuosity → written music, vocal productions
- acapella choir
- setting of hymn from Requiem Mass
- no liturgical function
- antiphon
- uses long music for words - like Perotin in stretching the syllables
Poeme Electronique
Varese
- history of electronic music
- music concrete - recorded sounds, processed
- newly created sounds
- designed for Phillips Pavilion
- context no longer exists
Music for 18 musicians
Reich
- minimalism
- rhythm → ostinato (recurring pattern)
- pulse
- percussion → think, mallets & bassoon
- rediscovery of tonal harmony
- repetition & slight variation
- phase shift
From the Grammar of Dreams
Saariaho
virtuosity
new vocal techniques
reminds us of madrigalism
Middle Ages - motet
El Nino
Adams
syncopation, rhythmic
Minimalism
simple melodies and harmonies repeated many times
Ligeti
sound complexes → slowly change with time, blocks of sound that has so many pitches all sense of consonance and dissonance are lost
Prokofiev
at one point, moved away from modernist extremes and towards clear tonality and use of Russian folk themes
use of scherzo as sharp satirical style
Copland
pomoted American music
drew on American folk music
Bartok
heavy commitment to folk music, more successful in integrating folk music into classical music than any other composer
