important composers

Question 1

robert schumann

Answer 1

• More progressive than Mendelssohn
  1. Program
  2. Inc. chromaticism
  3. Experiments w/ form
• Grounded in tradition

Question 2

felix mendelssohn

Answer 2

• Classicist/backwards-looking
  1. important in Bach revival
  2. also studied/imitated Handel, Mozart, Beethoven

Question 3

hector berlioz

Answer 3

• France-based
• Literary influences (Shakespeare/Goethe)
  1. program music → idee fixe (cyclical)
  2. breaking rules for purpose of expression
• Influenced by Beethoven

Question 4

richard wagner

Answer 4

• Innovated in almost every aspect of opera:
  Philosophy, space, staging, form, voice, and most of all music
• Musikdrama (his version of operas), gesamtkunstwerk (complete artistic control)
• Huge orchs/voices
• Influenced Puccini → continuous org., leitmotifs, arias not totally being arias (modernism)
• Tristan chord used (mocked) by Debussy

Question 5

piotr il’yich tchaikovsky

Answer 5

• Cosmopolitan style (italianate opera, french ballet, german symphonies)

Question 6

johannes brahms

Answer 6

• Looked to old to create new
• Studied renaissance and baroque music
• Consciously adopted pre-existing models in his own composition