Fuck This Flashcards
Raga
simultaneous composition and performance (drone, lute-like)
Gamelan
Ensemble made up of bronze and other percussive instruments
Son
Genre that utilizes rhumba clave rhythm. Percussion claves, maracas, bongos. Developed into Cha cha, salsa, and mambo
12 bar blues
W.C. Handy. Flattened or bent notes on 3, 5, or 7. Standard formula for blues, with a harmonic progression in which the first 4 measure phrases is on tonic, next four is subdominant and ends in tonic, then next four starts on dominant and ends on tonic (1, 4, 1, 5, 1) Hound dog
Delta blues
Rural traditions, known as country. Blues. Older style. More male African American singers that moved to Chicago. Vocals: rough, rich in timbre and nuance, rhythmically flexible. Call and response of guitar and voice. Sexuality and relationships
Classic blues
Urban style influenced by popular music. First to be recorded. Race records
Electric blues/rhythm and blues
Muddy waters. Emphasis on back beats, Chicago important center of development
Rock
Coined by Alan freed (radio disc jockey) emerged in US in mid 1950’s. Blended black and white popular music tradition (driving best of r&b, milder guitar background of country music) Jimi Hendrix (skilled guitarist)
Soul
James brown godfather of soul. Leading AA tradition of popular music in the 1960’s developed funk. Soul was like gospel and country that talked about love, sex, and other secular themes
NOLA JAZZ
Counterpoint melodic lines. Improv. Leading style of jazz after WW1 which centers on group variation of a given tune, either improvised or in the style
Big band
1920’s main function to accompany larger dancing spaces. Pieces written down by arranger, solos improvised. Rhythmic unison of entire band or section. Coordinated dialogue between sections and soloist. complex chromatic harmonies and borrowed sounds from modern classical music. 4 note sonorities, chromatic harmonies of debussy. Typically big and featured a vocalist
Swing
Combo of stylish arrangements with jazz rhythms
Bebop
Style of jazz developed in New York in 1940’s. Extreme virtuosity, harmonic ingenuity, unusual dissonances, chromaticism. Complicated rhythms, focus on solo voices, improv
Modal jazz
Late 1950’s. Slowly unfolding melodies; relatively stable, modal harmonies based on modes and changes of scale or pitch collection
Avant garde/free jazz
Experimental jazz style in 60’s that blended jazz with avant garde art music. Blurred dis functions of compositions and spontaneous improv. Cecil taylor, sun ra
Fusion
Combo do jazz (sometimes avant garde), rock, and other styles. Miles Davis BITCHES BREW
Sound mass
Aimed to liberate composition from conventional elements. Sounds are essential structural components. Characterized by timber, register, rhythm, melodic gestures. Interaction may gradually transform
Prepared piano
Putting shit in the strings like screws. Resulted in delicate, complex percussive sounds that resembled drums, woodblocks, and gongs. Sure. John cage
Indeterminacy
Certain aspects of music left unspecified. Performer chooses. Created in new kinds of notation, fragments of conventional staff notes, purely graphic suggestion and unique performances
Chance
Some decisions normally made by composer left to chance
Serialism
Prominent 12 tone scale. Inspired by messiaen. Created a mode of 36 pitches each assigned their own pitch, loudness level, etc
Metric modulation
Elliot carter. Changing fundamental best to a specific ratio that is specified in the music
Non retrograde rhythms
Messiaen. Palindrome
Who cares if you listen
Milton Babbitt talks about growing disconnect between contemporary composer and audience. Audiences are not expected to understand modern music. Serial music is more efficient
Electronic music
Tape recorders. Theremin. Synthesizers. Electronic sound was created by oscillators and manipulated through electronic device and tape
Process/texture/spatial music
Varese Invention of new sounds from conventional instruments. Voices imitate electronic music.
Micropolyphony
Ligeti Many lines moving at different rates
Minimalism
Leading musical style of late 20th C. Procedures simplified and absorbed rock, African and Asian music and tonality. Romanticism
Post-minimalism
Reflects influence of minimalism. Beyond aesthetic, includes traditional methods (canon and harmonic motion, more varied material renewed expressivity)
Quotation/collage
Quotation of existing music including collage of multiple choices
Post modernism
Abandons notion that musical idioms develop continuously. Styles of all epoch and cultures equally available. Musical material employed as composer sees fit
Polystism
Aspect of post modernism. Combo of new and old styles created through quotation or stylistic allusion. Mashup
Neo-romanticism
Search for expressive tools, familiar tonal idiom of 19th C romanticism. Incorporates sound
Spectralism
Grisly, murail. Analysis of timbre. Approach to sound and composition with focus on perception, acoustics, and tone color. Timbre depicted by sound spectrum, analyzed mathematically. Spectrograph from VP
Henry Cowell
Tone clusters (chords made with first or forearm) experimentation in early pianos
Leonard Bernstein
Classical broadway. West side story in cool, modern styles of jazz alternates with cool jazz, bebop. Style mix with modernist classical musics fugue on 12 tone theme
George Gershwin
Mixed jazz with classical instrumentation
Stockhausen
36 pitch mode??? Each assigned specific duration, dynamic level, and articulation. Developed serial procedures. Electronic music. Adopted indeterminacy and quotation
Phillip glass
Late 20th C composer. Deeply influenced by rhythm organization of Indian music. Style emphasized melodiousness, consonance, simple harmonic progressions, and amplification of rock music. Had profound influence on the film music. Used electronic keyboard instruments. Einstein on beach
George rochberg
American composers went from serialism to quotation after son’s death in mid 60’s. In 70’s romantic and early modernist styles. Incorporated music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Weber
