History Of Arts & Culture

Question 1

Who was josquin?

Answer 1

• French composer (15-16c)
• considered first master of high renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music
• most famous European composer of his time

Question 2

Who was guillaume de marche?

Answer 2

• central figure in late medieval ars nova music and poetry (French 14c)
• mass: Messe de nostre dame
• secular music: subject almost always courtly love

Question 3

Important details of baroque era in music?

Answer 3

• 1600-1750
• started w invention of opera that focused on feelings of single character (vs polyphonic choral and madrigal music preceding)
• def: overly ostentatious/flamboyant
• Bach is defining composer (his death closes the era)
• contemporaneous and reflective of age of reason/science/enlightenment

Question 4

Plainchant’s role in musical history?

Answer 4

• starting point of vocal music in west
• origins: daily services in monasteries and nunneries
• monophonic/single melodic line

Question 5

What are the characteristics of pitch?

Answer 5

Frequency (vibrations/sec) and timbre (subtle overtones unique to instrument)

Question 6

How did Protestant reformation affect musical development?

Answer 6

• Lutheran choral music syllabic (one pitch per syllable) and sharply articulated, not melisma as German is mostly consonants vs Italian’s vowels
• instrumental music gained importance and expressiveness

Question 7

Important facts about symphony

Answer 7

• traditionally 4 parts: sonata=intellectual/challenging=head, minuet=lyric/slow=heart, minuet in trio=dance-like=hips, rondo=playful/fast
• invented late 18c out of baroque opera

Question 8

History of opera

Answer 8

• Italians in 1600 (de Medici) as revival of Greek tragedy (eg oldest surviving Eurydice, then Orpheo)
• Venetian: quickly went commercial/mass market (close to 50 opera houses in the city!) and became cheaply titillating and artistically uninteresting w dynamic m/innovative staging and focus on simple arias and mostly eliminating chorus and recitative
• seria: centered around Vienna (metastasio) focused on rigor of literary veracity but overly forumaliac of recitative loading gun that is fired by aria … singers gained undue power and made demands that undermined artistic integrity
• buffa (clowns/comic): 1740s revolution outgrowth of comedia del’arte w social criticism of elites as fools and working people was savvy; flexible/natural in structure (Rousseau’s heavy influence/support in Paris) lively/catchy music, small cast … la serva madeona (maid as master) in 1733 marks transition from baroque to classical eras
• -

Question 9

Relevance of Haydn

Answer 9

Symphonic genius, first composer to become canonized (his work dominated performances in novelty seeking London market after he moved there from Hungarian Castle)

Question 10

Classical era

Answer 10

Started mid 18c (death of js Bach 1750, serva padrona 1733)