Listening/Score Flashcards
Schoenberg: Piano Suite, Op. 25
Serialist, First 12 tone, Solo Piano
Berg: Wozzeck
Opera in 3 acts (symmetrical), Listen for “Wozzeck”, oboe on top of score; Leitmotiv, Neoclassicist, Expressionism
Webern: Symphony Op. 21
Klarinette at top of score, Hexachordal Combinatoriality (Serialism); Never exceeds 4 voice texture; Rests create transparency and klangfarbenmelodie
Ives: In Flanders Fields
Combines American Tunes; Piano and soloist; McCrae - poet; social realism
Ives: 4th Symphony
Two Conductors; Quotations Galore (juxtaposition); Piano & large orchestra, ff to pp; choir after intro;
Copland: Piano Variations
Choppy, singular notes at a time - opening cell; Type of serialism (like octatonic);
Copland: Appalachian Spring
Social Realism; pastoral; ballet - then suite, Gebrauchsmusik; Chores: Martha Graham; poem: Hart Crane “The Dance”
Thomson: 4 Saints in 3 Acts
Gertrude Stein - helped Thomson to write; Maurice Grosser - painter friend who developed the plotless scenario; Harmonium/Accordion/Choir; Quotations (My Country)- Social Realism; all African American cast;
Barber: Knoxville Summer of 1915
Woodwinds & Solo Voice; Text: James Agee; Social Realism; Commissioned by Eleanor Steber; based on Simple Motives;
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms
Snaking eighth notes with “random” accent; BSO 50th anniversary; No Violin/Viola - piano replaces them, SATB Choir; NeoClassicism
Stravinsky: Mass
Neoclassicist, double wind quintet and choir
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps
wrote in war camp for instruments they could find: piano, cello, violin, clarinet; no feeling of meter(isorhythmic); experience the tones; Serialist; fascinated with medieval motet and Indian classical music;
Britten: War Requiem
Latin and English Poetry: Wilfred Owens; Consecration for St. Michael’s Cathedral; Choir text: requiem; Starts very softly; bells; NeoClassicism
Boulez: Le Marteau
Mvmt 3: Flute & Voice; “Schoenberg is Dead!”; Serializes everything (rhythm, dynamics, form, tone color); Non-western Instruments
Stockhausen: Gruppen
3 orchestras for 3 conductors; horseshoe shape; groups are unified by common characteristics; Serialism; sounds unassuming/orchestral at first - bells & strings;
Babbitt: Three Compositions for Piano
Total Serialist; “all combinatorial row”; “Who Cares if you Listen?”
Carter: Symphony of Three Orchestras
3 Orchestras (concertante) -difficult trumpet part; Brooklyn Bridge (UFO attack) - Hart Crane; 45 note “tonic” chord = all interval chord; Collage/Kaleidoscope
Stravinsky: Requiem Canticles
Dramatic/urging strings to begin (voices delayed entrance); Hexachordal Transposition Rotation; Serialist;
Cage: Three Dances, mvmt 1 & 3
2 Amplified Prepared Pianos; Balinese-sounding; Merce Cunningham turned it into a dance piece (Dromenon); Avant-Garde
Glass: Einstein
Voices counting (knee plays); Robert Wilson - experimental playwright; cyclic, pulsing, psychedelic; Minimalism;
Riley: A Rainbow in Curved Air
80’s soundtrack; meant as piano solo, made from tape loops, ‘lag-time accumulator”, elements of Serialism; Minimalism;
Varese - Poeme Electronique
taped sounds from 150 speakers; commissioned by Le Corbusier (fake name) for 1958 Brussels World Fair; Minimalism;
Berio: Sinfonia
New Vocalism; voice for text and as a musical inst.; deconstructed text - manipulations of syllables; for the 125th anniversary of NY Phil; Large battery; Quotations
Crumb: Ancient Voices of Children
Sop - sings into piano; boy soprano; Elizabeth Sprague Foundation commissioned; Text: Federico Garcia Lorca; musical saw, toy piano, tibetan prayer stones; New Virtuosity;
Penderecki: Threnody
52 strings (horror movie); Weird violin playing techniques;
Partch: Delusion
Newly created instruments; Gate 5 ensemble; sounds like bowls; sounds like homemade instruments;
Saaiaho: Ariel’s Hail
soprano, flute, harp;
