Final exam - Terms

Question 1

12-tone technique

Answer 1

Method by Shoenberg, where the 12 tones of the scale are ordered and manipulated

Question 2

Gesamtkunstwerk

Answer 2

term coined by Wagner, “total work of art”

Question 3

music drama

Answer 3

Wagners name for his distinctive opera

Question 4

salon

Answer 4

small room in each home where ideas/music were swapped, more intimate

Question 5

Avant-garde

Answer 5

“vanguard” most advanced style, movement at beginning of modern period

Question 6

Heiligenstadt Testament

Answer 6

Beethovens turning point

Question 7

Neoclassicism

Answer 7

20th century involving a return to the old style and form

Question 8

Serialism

Answer 8

composing with a twelve-tone series, fixed notes used throughout the piece

Question 9

Brahms vs. Wagner

Answer 9

Brahms for neoclassicism, use old forms, Wagner uses program music, innovations

Question 10

hemiola

Answer 10

passages that sound like they are going into another time signature

Question 11

octatonic scale

Answer 11

scale that alternates whole and half steps

Question 12

whole-tone scale

Answer 12

octave in 6, whole steps

Question 13

song cycle

Answer 13

group of pieces associated with a common theme

Question 14

chance music

Answer 14

contemporary music that the order of notes are not specified

Question 15

Impressionism

Answer 15

art movement to paint the light they saw, not the object itself

Question 16

Ostinato

Answer 16

repeated rhythm or idea throughout a piece

Question 17

Sprechstimme

Answer 17

voice part not organized into all pitches, almost spoken

Question 18

character piece

Answer 18

portrays a mood or character with a generic name

Question 19

Leitmotiv

Answer 19

a motive that represents an idea or person, returns with that person or idea (Star Wars)

Question 20

Polychord

Answer 20

two or more chords on top of each other

Question 21

Synaesthesia

Answer 21

belief that art stimulates all the senses

Question 22

concert overture

Answer 22

a summary of the themes to be presented later in the concert

Question 23

Lieder

Answer 23

an “art song” composers’ interpretation of a poem, singular is “lied”

Question 24

Primitivism

Answer 24

expresses a simplistic, primitive view

Question 25

Symbolist movement

Answer 25

Authors that wrote with ambiguous vague descriptions

Question 26

Exoticism

Answer 26

the idea of portraying another culture that is not your own, frequently inaccurate

Question 27

Minimalism

Answer 27

bare minimum

Question 28

program music

Answer 28

Music associated with a poem or story, or one-word ex. “nocturne”

Question 29

verismo

Answer 29

subject of the way things is, not pretty, and gritty, like modern day tv dramas

Question 30

Expressionism

Answer 30

used shapes, strong colors to depict inner turbulence, almost violent

Question 31

Modernism

Answer 31

the new movement to move towards innovation and changes

Question 32

Ring Cycle

Answer 32

Wagner’s great drama festival, use of leitmotivs,

Question 33

Risorgimento

Answer 33

movement to unify Italy