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Music > Listening Quiz #4 > Flashcards

Listening Quiz #4 Flashcards

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1
Q

Describe Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 17, i. Allegro moderato

A
  • By Clara Wieck Schumann
  • Tempo: allegro moderato
  • Sonata-form movement in G minor (tonic key)
  • Genre: piano trio
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2
Q

Describe Piano Concerto in A Minor, op. 7, i. Allegro maestoso

A
  • By Clara Wieck Schumann
  • Tempo: allegro maestoso
  • Genre: piano concerto
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3
Q

Describe Frauenliebe und –leben, i. „Seit ich ihn gesehen“

A
  • By Robert Schumann
  • Title means A Woman’s Love and Life
  • Act 1
  • 1830
  • Genre: a cycle of eight Lieder (‘cycle of art songs’)
  • Ensemble: soprano and piano
  • Form: strophic (both stanzas of the poem are set to the same repeating music)
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4
Q

Describe Frauenliebe und –leben, viii. „Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan“

A
  • By Robert Schumann
  • Title means A Woman’s Love and Life
  • Act 8
  • 1830
  • Genre: a cycle of eight Lieder (‘cycle of art songs’)
  • Ensemble: soprano and piano
  • Form: through-composed (none of the music repeats)
  • Vocal style: recitative (at least in the style of one)
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5
Q

Describe Mazurka no. 13 in A Minor, op. 17, no. 4

A
  • By Frédéric Chopin
  • Form: ternary (A-B-A’) -> typical in Chopin’s character pieces
  • Tempo: rubato
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6
Q

Who composed Nocturne (Notturno) in G Minor, H.337?

A

Fanny Hensel

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7
Q

Describe A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 21

A
  • By Felix Mendelssohn
  • AKA Ein Sommernachtstraum
  • 1826
  • Genre: overture
  • Sonata form -> exposition features at least 5 distinct themes
  • Category: program music
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8
Q

Describe Die Walküre, Act III scene 3

A
  • By Richard Wagner
  • Opera
  • Part of The Ring Cycle
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9
Q

Describe Madama butterfly, Act 2, “Un bel di, vedremo”

A
  • By Giacomo Puccini
  • 1904
  • Tragic opera (called by Puccini a Tragedia giapponese)
  • Rare example of exoticism among Puccini’s operas
  • At least 7 authentic Japanese melodies appear in the opera
  • Use of pentatonic (five-pitch) scales, various percussion instruments (cymbals and other metallic percussion instruments), and Puccini’s orchestration -> evoked a “Far Eastern ambience” (to Western ears)
  • Madama Butterfly is one of the world’s most often performed and beloved operas, especially in the US
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10
Q

What are the dates of the Romantic Period?

A

1800 - ~1900

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11
Q

What’s nationalism?

A

Desire among composers and other artists to recreate, represent, and/or celebrate their ethnic or national identity in their art

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12
Q

What’s exoticism?

A
  • Desire among composers and other artists to recreate, represent, and/or celebrate a foreign ethnic or national identity (or scene) within their artistic creations
  • Exotic works provide reductive and voyeuristic fictions based more on expectations of the audience than on real knowledge of the foreign people depicted
  • Despite post-colonial criticisms, exoticism has long been and remains compelling and popular in all genres of instrumental music and opera (and film)
  • Ex: Verdi’s opera Aïda or Madama Butterfly
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13
Q

What’s program music?

A
  • Instrumental music associated with a story, poem, idea, scene, or something extra-musical, usually with a descriptive title revealing the source of inspiration
  • The non- or extra-musical association is rarely identified by explanatory notes given to the audience as part of the concert program
  • Romantic orchestral genres like the concert overture and the symphonic poem are always programmatic and always have descriptive titles
  • Ex: Overture 1812 or Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture or Midsummer night’s dream
  • Not a genre -> it’s a broad category encompassing nearly all instrumental chamber and orchestral genres
  • Often nationalistic and/or exotic
  • Textual concepts are nearly always associated with programmatic works
  • Musical works with texts (songs, opera, etc.) are not considered program music by this definition
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14
Q

What are some examples of program music?

A
  • Overture 1812
  • Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture
  • Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture
  • Hector Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique: épisode de la vie d’un artiste (1830) -> 5-movement program symphony
  • Franz Liszt, A Faust Symphony in Three Character Pictures (1857) -> 3-movement program symphony
  • Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) -> suite of 10 character pieces (for piano)
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade (1888) -> 4-movement symphonic suite
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15
Q

What’s absolute music?

A
  • Instrumental music that isn’t intended to portray a more or less specific message or imagery, usually with a generic title (title that provides the genre) not suggestive of an extra-musical association
  • Instrumental music that is not programmatic
  • Basic musical category in Romantic thought, defined in the negative
  • Became an important aesthetic concept and source of debate with the rising importance and popularity of program music in the 19th Century
  • Not a genre but a very broad category that potentially encompasses any purely instrumental genre with a generic (i.e., genre-related) title -> most typical of instrumental works in the Classical Period
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16
Q

Give examples of absolute music in a variety of genres

A
  • Maddalena Laura Sirmen, String Quartet No. 4 in B-flat, op. 3 no. 1 (1771)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453 (1786)
  • Franz Schubert, Octet in F Major, D. 803 (1824)
  • Clara Schumann, Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 17 (1846)
  • Louise Farrenc, Nonet in E-flat, op. 38 (1849)
  • Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 3 in F Major, op. 90 (1883)
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17
Q

What’s chromatic harmony?

A
  • AKA chromaticism
  • Use of chords and pitches that don’t function normally within the diatonic tonal system of major and minor keys
  • Use of chromatic harmony creates a heightened emotional or evocative effect and loosens listeners’ aural sense of key and tonic
  • Chopin’s works exemplify the romantic approach to chromatic harmony as an expressive device
  • Wagner’s music pushed chromatic harmony to its uttermost limits
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18
Q

Describe Franz Schubert

A
  • 1797-1828
  • Born and lived in Vienna, Austria
  • Influenced by Beethoven -> wrote symphonies and other works in a similar style
  • Composed more than 600 lieder -> perhaps the most famous composer of this genre
  • Played in and composed music for salons in Vienna
  • Some of Schubert’s wealthier supporters sometimes threw Schubertiads -> salons dedicated primarily to the performance and promotion of Schubert’s music
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19
Q

What’s a song cycle?

A
  • AKA Lied cycle
  • Genre
  • Collection of Lieder (art songs) that are published together as a set and share other unifying characteristics
  • Not every collection of art songs is a cycle
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20
Q

What are the shared musical characteristics of a song cycle?

A
  • Related pattern of keys between songs
  • Reappearance of musical motives (melodies) in more than one song in the cycle
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21
Q

What are the shared extra-musical characteristics of a song cycle?

A
  • Poems by the same poet that may have been published together as cycle of poems
  • Poems that are related by subject matter or that tell a unified story
  • Poems that represent a unified perspective, a musical and/or poetic persona that is perceived to be projected by the artwork itself
  • Ex: Robert Schumann’s Frauenliebe und –leben
22
Q

What’s the cyclic principle? When is a multi-movement work a ‘cycle’?

A

When Lieder (art songs) that are published together as a set also share other unifying characteristics (musical and extra-musical characteristics)

23
Q

What are the 3 forms in art songs?

A
  • Strophic form
  • Modified strophic form
  • Through-composed form
24
Q

What’s the strophic form?

A
  • Each poetic verse (aka strophe or stanza) is set to the same, repeating music
  • Examples can be found in Christian hymns (nearly always in strophic form)
  • Ex: Robert Schumann’s “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” or Frauenliebe und –leben, no. 1, “Seit ich ihn gesehen”
25
Q

What’s the modified strophic form?

A
  • Some of the poem’s verses are set to the same music, but there are other parts of the music that differ -> often near the end of the song.
  • Ex: Clara Schumann’s “Der Mond kommt still gegangen”
26
Q

What’s the through-composed form?

A
  • Music of the song is composed all throughout the piece -> contains no repeated sections
  • No 2 stanzas are set exactly alike
  • Ex: Franz Schubert’s art song Der Erlkönig -> this form perhaps best reflects the poem’s narrative nature
  • Ex: Schumann, Frauenliebe und –leben, no. 8, “Nun hast du mir den ersten Schmerz getan”
27
Q

What’s a piano postlude?

A

Substantial portion of piano music occurring at the end of an art song after the vocalist has presented all of the text

28
Q

What’s a rubato/tempo rubato?

A
  • To vary the ‘time’ of music by slowing down or speeding up in an expressive manner
  • Often used before strong cadences or before other dissonance is resolved -> temporarily clinging to the most dissonant points of music which heightens the listener’s anticipation
  • Chopin often indicated rubato in his published music
  • Typical that performers add rubato even when it’s not marked
  • Element of correct performance practice in this music to emphasize cadences, new phrases, etc. with tempo variations
29
Q

What’s a character piece?

A
  • Genre for solo piano in the 19th century
  • One-movement miniatures for solo piano, usually brief (2 to 7 mins), with descriptive titles suggestive of mood, scene, type of song or dance, etc.
  • Model for many piano character pieces were the bel canto arias in the Italian operas of Rossini and others
  • Usually homophonic: conjunct lyrical melody and a clear accompaniment
  • Have a wide variety of fanciful titles, often suggesting an improvisatory style (ex: prelude, intermezzo, and impromptu)
  • Other titles suggest urban or nationalistic dance types, such as waltz, mazurka, and polonaise
  • Character pieces, like art songs, were a prominent genre in fashionable salons
  • Chopin composed a lot of these
30
Q

What are the different types of character pieces?

A
  • étude (‘study’ -> Chopin designed these as technical studies for his piano students and as artworks worthy of concert performance. Always technically difficult pieces, exciting to hear and play)
  • mazurka (genre of stylized Bohemian dance, urban or nationalistic dance types)
  • nocturne (“night piece” -> genre that suggests a mood or scene)
  • polonaise (genre of stylized Bohemian dance, urban or nationalistic dance types)
  • prelude (suggests an improvisatory style)
31
Q

Why was Felix Mendelssohn’s 1829 performance of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion influential?

A
  • Felix instituted a series of ‘historical concerts’ (each devoted to a grouping of composers from the more distant past)
  • In 1829 Mendelssohn had arranged and conducted a Berlin performance of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (oratorio first performed in 1727 that had never been heard outside of Leipzig)
  • Mendelssohn’s revival of this work importantly contributed to bringing Bach’s music to public and scholarly attention
  • This event illustrates the retrospective and historic focus of concert programs starting ~1830
32
Q

Describe Giuseppe Verdi

A
  • 1813-1901
  • The dominant opera composer in Italy for 50 yrs after Donizetti
    -Italian national hero during his lifetime
  • Preferred librettos based on successful plays or novels (ex: works by Shakespeare, Schiller, Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas)
  • Many of his libretti are on historical topics, but others (ex: La Traviata) are contemporary
  • His operas remain extremely popular, especially the 3 masterpieces from his middle period: Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853), Il traviata (1853)
  • Verdi’s popular opera Aïda shows the influence of grand opera
33
Q

Describe Giacomo Puccini

A
  • 1858-1924
  • Italian composer most known for his operas
  • Several of his operas have entered the standard repertory of opera companies around the world, including: La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904)
  • Largely regarded as the most important, influential, and beloved Italian composer after Giuseppe Verdi
  • The librettos of Puccini’s operas were often based on popular, contemporary novels and plays
  • Some of Puccini’s operas, like La bohème, demonstrate the late 19th-century fascination with realism -> feature realistic and contemporary characters of all social classes experiencing the joys and tragedies of Puccini’s modern world
  • The dramatic action in late 19th-century opera is not clearly segmented into recitative-aria [applause], recitative-aria [applause], as was often seen in the 18th century
  • 19th-century opera composers were concerned with the continuity of dramatic action and affect -> very few breaks in the music or action, and the recitatives and arias usually flow one into the other seamlessly
34
Q

What were the various national genres of Italian/French opera in the 19th century?

A

Genres of serious opera:
- Opera seria (Italian)
- Grand opera (French origin)

Genres of comic opera:
- Opera buffa (Italian)
- Opéra comique (French) -> uses spoken dialogue

35
Q

What’s a prima donna?

A
  • Italian
  • Singer of the principal female role in an opera or the leading female singer in an opera company
  • Male equivalent: primo uomo
36
Q

What’s the nature and subject matter of librettos in late 19th-century opera (Italian & German)?

A
  • Italian: Verdi and Puccini’s opera librettos were often based on popular and contemporary novels and plays
  • Many of Verdi’s libretti are on historical topics, but others are contemporary
  • German: Wagner’s librettos were drawn from medieval German epics and Norse/Scandinavian mythology (focused on the supernatural, glorified the German land and its people, and intended to function as allegories that resonated deep within the psyche of the German folk)
37
Q

Describe Richard Wagner

A
  • 1813-1883
  • Most important and influential figure in the history of German opera
  • Source of nationalistic fervor in his homeland
  • Strongly influenced several generations of European and American composers of opera.
  • Advocated ‘progressive innovations’ in art music (modeled from Beethoven’s revolutionary directions)
  • Wagner and his followers were called the New German School (slogan: “the music of the future”)
  • Progressive composers wrote articles and published essays defending the new programmatic music as the next evolutionary step in musical development, particularly in orchestral genres (ex: program symphony and symphonic poem)
  • Wrote and published important books in which he outlined his theories for a new genre of opera -> music drama
38
Q

What’s the Bayreuth Festival Theater?

A

Ludwig II of Bavaria (Wagner’s patron) funded the construction of the Festival Theater in Bayreuth, Germany, the innovative plan of which was designed for performances of Wagner’s music dramas

39
Q

Describe The Ring Cycle (The Ring of the Nibelung) music drama

A
  • Wagner’s most famous and important achievement is the grand cycle of 4 music dramas, The Ring of the Nibelung (aka The Ring Cycle)
  • 4 titles are: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götter-dämmerung
  • Wagner wrote the massive libretto of these 4 dramas between 1848 and 1852
  • Took more than 2 decades to compose the music for the 4 massive works
  • Characters and action in The Ring Cycle are drawn from Norse mythology
  • Libretto is also political -> ideological content concerns the destructive force of the lust for wealth and power
40
Q

What’s a concerto (solo concerto)?

A
  • Concert genre
  • Genre of large-ensemble music in multiple movements for a featured instrumental soloist with an orchestra
41
Q

What’s the concert overture?

A
  • Romantic orchestral genre
  • Always programmatic
  • One-movement work for orchestra with a descriptive title, usually based on a sonata form design -> similar to a symphony first movement (without the other 3)
  • By 1800, concert overture became a stand-alone orchestral genre distinct from association with opera or the symphony
  • However, romantic concert overtures often reference dramatic works, and symphony first movements were occasionally used to open concerts
  • Concert overtures are almost always sonata-form movements -> contain an exposition with themes in both the tonic and secondary keys, followed by a development section, and a recapitulation that follows the sonata-form principle (both main themes return in the tonic key)
42
Q

What’s a double concerto?

A

Concerto for 2 soloists plus orchestra

43
Q

What’s the French Grand Opera?

A
  • Serious opera
  • Appealed to middle-class Parisian audiences through sheer extravagance
  • Spectacle was at least as important as the music, so the following were often featured: machinery, large choruses, extravagant sets and costumes, ballets and other dances, crowd scenes with many costumes, exotic animals
  • Librettos of grand opera were often based on historic topics, larger-than-life characters, and events of large scope (war, political intrigue, etc.)
  • Usually in 4 or 5 acts
  • Verdi’s opera Aïda shows the influence of grand opera -> scene from Aïda contains no singing, but displays animals, exotic costumes, and dancing
44
Q

What’s a Lied?

A
  • AKA art song
  • Plural: lieder
  • Genre of monody (song) composed for solo voice with piano accompaniment
  • Musical setting of a high-quality poem, often a poem that’s already well known to the audience -> these poems were rarely written by the composer of the music
  • Popularity of the art song was largely due to the ubiquity of the piano in the homes of wealthier families
  • Domestic music making was common and common/generally expected that the daughters of affluent families could play the piano and/or sing
  • The piano in an art song is more than just accompaniment -> it’s crucial to the expression and musical interpretation of the poem
  • Art song = composer’s reading of a poem
45
Q

What’s the music drama?

A
  • New genre of opera
  • Created by Richard Wagner
46
Q

What’s an opera buffa?

A
  • Genre of comic opera
  • Comic Italian opera
  • Generally in 2 acts, using recitatives and arias
  • Plots usually involve contemporary situations and characters, including character servants, and other common folk
  • This genre had wider appeal for middle-class audiences than did opera seria
47
Q

What’s an opéra comique?

A
  • Genre of comic opera
  • Comic French opera
  • Only type of opera that uses spoken dialogue
48
Q

What’s an opera seria?

A
  • AKA grand opera
  • Genre of Italian opera
  • Serious Italian opera in 3 acts, using recitatives and arias
  • Plots were usually drawn from classical history or legend
  • Arias often contain long melismas and are virtuosic
  • Oldest and most serious genre of opera
  • Strongly associated with aristocratic tastes
49
Q

What’s a piano trio?

A
  • Genre of music characterized by a solo piano player accompanied by 2 instruments
  • Ex: Clara Wieck Schumann, Piano Trio in G Minor, op. 17
50
Q

What’s a sonata?

A
  • The solo sonata is a genre of chamber music in either one of 2 formats:
    1. a multi-movement genre for one piano, harp, guitar, organ, etc. alone
    2. a multi-movement genre for an instrumental soloist with piano accompaniment
  • Similar to the solo sonata from the Baroque period, only post-1750 there is no basso continuo -> the piano takes over the role of accompaniment
  • Trio sonata dies out with the baroque period, so after 1750 “sonata” always refers to one of the 2 forms of solo sonata
  • Classical models (late 18th-century form) of the sonata have 3 movements
51
Q

What’s a string quartet?

A
  • The Classical model of the string quartet is a 4-movement musical genre for 1st violin, 2nd violin, viola, & cello
  • One of the most popular types of chamber music in the late 18th century (and beyond)
  • Could range broadly in difficulty and many of Haydn’s string quartets were intended for amateur performance
  • String quartets were a genre common in social music-making
  • The 4-movement structure of the string quartet came to be very similar to that of the symphony
52
Q

What’s a symphony?

A
  • Multi-movement instrumental genre for orchestra alone
  • This genre’s predecessors are the opera overture (often called sinfonia in Italian operas) and the dance suite, both of which were baroque instrumental works for a large, mixed ensemble of instruments centered around bowed strings (an orchestra), with no featured soloist(s)
  • The classical model (the late 18th-century form) of the symphony has 4 movements

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