Literature

Question 1

List American composers who have made the most significant contribution to the song repertoire. List their most important songs, their style characteristics, and their influence.

Answer 1

1. Stephen Foster
   
   • traditional folk songs (small range, easily learned, lyrical, not dissonant)
   • ballads for parlor settings
     * Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
     * Beautiful Dreamer
     * Camptown Races
2. Harry Burleigh
   
   • set African American spirituals in classical forms
   • simple harmonizations for spirituals
   • influenced Dvorak’s Americanized soun
     * Deep River
     * Little Mother of Mine
     * Under a Blazing Star
3. Charles Ives
   
   • musical quotations
   • polytonality
   • opened door to experimentalism
     * General William Booth Enters Heaven
     * 114 Songs
4. Aaron Copland
   
   • declamatory rhythms
   • frequent leaps in melody
   • “american” sound
     * Old American Songs
     * Songs of Emily Dickenson
5. Samuel Barber
   
   • tonal ambiguity
   • increased dissonance and chromatic
   • pairing with accompaniment line and melody
   • lyrical
     * Hermit Songs
     * Now Have I Fed and Eaten up the Rose
     * Sure on this Shining Night

Question 2

List British composers who have made the most significant contribution to the song repertoire. List their most important songs, their style characteristics, and their influence.

Answer 2

1. John Dowland
   
   • lute songs
   • matched text with music
     * Flow My Tears
     * Come Again, sweet love doth now invite
2. Henry Purcell
   
   • natural flow of melody and rhythm
   • adds drama to the music to add to the text
     * Music for Awhile
     * If Music be the Food of Love
3. Ralph Vaughan Williams
   
   • influence of modal structure of folk songs
   • transcriptions
   • simple accompaniments
     * On Wenlock Edge
     * Four Last Songs
     * Songs of Travel
4. Benjamin Britten
   
   • active vocal lives
   • tonally experimental
     * Charm of Lullabies
     * On this Island

Question 3

List Italian composers who have made the most significant contribution to the song repertoire. List their most important songs, their style characteristics, and their influence.

Answer 3

1. Vincenzo Bellini
   
   • mini bel-canto arias
   • focused on beauty of line
     * Tre Ariette
     * Sei Ariette
2. Paolo Tosti
   
   • lyrical and flowing
   • not technical, but pretty
     * La serenata
     * Ideale
3. Luciano Berio
   
   • stretching instrument as far as it can go
     * Sequenza for Voice III
     * Folk Songs

Question 4

List French composers who have made the most significant contribution to the melodie. List their most important songs, their style characteristics, and their influence.

Answer 4

1. Hector Berlioz
   
   • instrumentally conceived
   • reciting through poetry
   • father of melodie
     * La mort d’Orphelie
     * Les Nuits d’Ete
2. Gabriel Faure
   
   • 3 sections: Italianate style, moves to more restraint, then more complex but transparent settings
     * Les berceaux
     * Nell
     * Le secret
3. Claude Debussy
   
   • open-ended tonalities and melodies (symbolism)
   • harmonic and rhythmic shifts
     * Beau Soir
     * Clair de Lune
4. Poulenc
   
   • Member of Les Six
   • sparse setting
     * Banalites
     * Le Bestiare

Question 5

List German composers who have made the most significant contribution to the Leid. List their most important songs, their style characteristics, and their influence.

Answer 5

1. Schubert
   
   • Lyrical melodies
   • harmonic shifts for effect
   • piano is part of the story too
     * Erlkoenig
     * Die Schone Mullerin
     * Gretchen am Spinnrade
2. Robert Schumann
   
   • piano intros and outros
   • more exchange with voice and piano
     * Widmung
     * Meine Rose
     * Er ists
3. Johannes Brahms
   
   • extention into lower range of piano
   • entended vocal lines
     * Von ewiger leibe
     * Dein blaues Auge
4. Hugo Wolf
   
   • total synthesis of words and text
   • imports ideas of text into the music
     * Auch kleine Dinge
     * Mausfallen-Spruchlein
5. Mahler
   
   • blurs line of song and symphony
   • uses folk tunes and orchestral colors
     * Das Knaben Wunderhorn
     * Das Lied von der Erde
     * Hans und Grete
6. Alban Berg
   
   • tone rows (12 tone music)
     * Der Wein
     * Seven early songs